On Wednesday I wrote about a Kingfisher Sweep of all six species in Costa Rica but that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to kingfishers. Worldwide there are 117 species and all but six of them are native to Asia, Africa and Australia.
The kingfisher family (Alcedinidae) is in the order Coraciiformes along with bee-eaters, todies, motmots, rollers and ground-rollers, all of whom share this behavior: They beat their prey against a hard surface to kill or stun it, to break it up a bit and, in the case of bee-eaters, to remove stingers.
Watch three members of the kingfisher family beating up their dinner.
The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), pictured at top, is native to Eurasia and the north edge of Africa. Though his head, neck and beak make him look large, he is only slightly larger than a house sparrow.
Another clip from the River Kelvin in Glasgow. This was an epic struggle between Kingfisher and, I think, an eel elver. Lasted several minutes; we think he won but he flew off to the other side of the river to finish the job. Starts full speed, then goes slow-mo, no sound. #birdspic.twitter.com/G9Zhc0WncP
The pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) is about the size of a blue jay. He lives in Africa and Asia.
Pied kingfisher, male (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
This pied kingfisher was whacking a fish at St. Lucia park, KwaZulu-Natal [South Africa]. I left the entire video uncut to demonstrate how long it was at this. It flew off after a few minutes and kept hitting the fish against another rock.
The laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae), twice the size of our belted kingfisher, is one of 5 kookaburra species found in Australia and Indonesia. Watch him subdue a beetle.
Crows are legion in Pittsburgh right now but ravens are increasingly common. They present an identification challenge so you have to look closely at flying black birds. Here in Pittsburgh they are usually crows but you might see two ravens. Yesterday I saw a pair outside my window.
Many people think ravens are just “large crows” but this is not a helpful comparison because the two species are rarely close to each other. Don’t look at size at all! Compare Tails and Voice.
Tails: My diagram below shows the difference. Ravens’ tails are long diamond shapes. Crows are rounded.
Raven and crow tail shapes (diagram by Kate St. John)
Look at the tails. Who’s in the photo at top? Who’s in the photo below?
17 crows in flight (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Voice: Both species announce themselves and they definitely sound different. If you hear “Brock Brock” it’s a raven, “Caw Caw” is an American crow. Bonus in Pittsburgh: “Uh oh” is a Fish Crow.
This audio clip from Xeno Canto has both species: a raven in the foreground (Brock! Brock!) and crows cawing in the background.
Keep in mind that you do not have to identify every bird you see! If Tails and Voice don’t give you a definitive answer, you can just let the bird be “unknown” or “corvid species.” It’s OK.
Has there ever been a software update on your computer or cellphone that you really hate?
Aaarrg! My phone nagged me to reboot after auto-update, and now I hate how it works!
The update broke my favorite app!!!
Why did they hide the one feature I use every day? Where did they put it?
The old app I love doesn’t work anymore after system update. Now what?
I know I’m supposed to run updates but they always break something.
These reactions are quite normal and they have a name: Baby Duck Syndrome.
In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to “imprint” on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system. The result is that “users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems”.[24] The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user’s experience, and it has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems or user interfaces.
We often imprint on our first software just like baby ducks imprint on the first moving thing they see. This is probably how we humans are wired for survival. When we learn a tool that works we don’t want to give it up.
Imprinting isn’t dumb and it isn’t dumb to imprint. This video explains why.
There’s a group of tropical birds in the Western Hemisphere whose lives are so closely intertwined with ants that their names include the word “ant” —> Antbird, antshrike, antvireo, antthrush, antpitta, ant-tanager, antwren. These birds don’t eat ants. Instead they follow army ant swarms to eat small prey the ants scare out of hiding. Ant-named birds are not the only ones who do this.
About 462 species of birds opportunistically feed near army ant swarms. Within this group, 16-29 species require army ants for their livelihood and don’t hunt without them. These obligate army ant followers would die of starvation if there were no army ants. The ocellated antbird (Phaenostictus mcleannani), shown at top, is one of them.
The most reliable way to see antbirds is to find foraging army ants but first you have to know something about the ants.
Army ants form nomadic colonies of 10,000 to 10 million ants. Since they have no fixed home they gather in a bivouac, a defensive interconnected “ball” with the queen, eggs and larvae in the middle surrounded by workers and soldiers.
… then they fan out over the forest floor and plants.
Because army ants have extremely poor vision they use their sense of smell to detect each other and sense of touch to detect their prey. As they fan out they touch everything with their antennae. If something moves it’s prey and they immediately surround, attack and dismember it. Word to the Wise: If you are out ahead of an army ant swarm and it catches up to you, Don’t Move!
Watch ant swarms, birds and researchers at work in this video from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. It begins with two blue morpho butterflies winking in the forest. And then the ants and birds show up! (The video lasts 10 minutes. If you don’t have that much time the first 3-5 minutes will show you a lot.)
Starlings … Poof! … Pittsburgh, 30 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
7 February 2026
Since returning home late last a week, I’ve seen a lot of old snow.
In a walk on 30 January a flock of starlings burst off a tree near the Shakespeare statue at Carnegie Music Hall. Shakespeare had old snow in his lap.
The sidewalks were easy to navigate but the crosswalks were blocked by icy piles of plowed snow.
London plane trees in snow, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 30 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Old snow on the roofs and a pink sunset.
Old snow on the roof at sunset, 30 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Last week I saw Bobcat Skid-Steer Loaders all over the city moving snow to out of the way places. This pile on Flagstaff Hill probably came from Frew Street. By the end of the week the crosswalks were clear.
Pile of snow moved from street to Flagstaff Hill, 2 Feb 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
But we were worried that yesterday’s predicted snow would bury us again. The National Weather Service said it would be a “fast moving clipper.”
The snow squalls hit last night around 10pm. A whiteout at 10:15pm. Light snow and better visibility just four minutes later.
Snow squall, 6 Feb 10:15pm
4 minutes later
And this morning, less than an inch of new snow in the city.
Crows swirling above and landing on the old County Jail, Downtown Pittsburgh, 13 January 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
18 January 2026
If you’ve noticed that Pittsburgh’s winter crows are no longer roosting at the Univ. of Pittsburgh in Oakland you might be wondering where they went. Though it’s hard to hide more than 18,000 crows and impossible not to notice the gooey mess they leave behind, it took a while to find out. So where are they?
Crow Patrol member Carol Steytler saw the crows bypass Oakland in early January so she spent several evenings tracking them down.
On 13 January she hit the jackpot! The crows were Downtown, swirling and roosting at the old County Jail.
Thousands of crows overhead, Downtown Pittsburgh (photo by Carol Steytler)
Crows swirling above the old County Jail, Pittsburgh, 13 January 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
on the roof
In trees near the old jail, Pittsburgh, 13 Jan 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
uh oh. They left a mess, Pittsburgh, 13 Jan 2026 (photo by Carol Steytler)
Carol captured video of their activity on the night of the 17th. Snow swirled with the crows as they settled in at the jail and nearby buildings and trees.
videos by Carol Steytler, Downtown Pittsburgh 17 January 2026
Wild turkeys displaying in an Allegheny County backyard in 2023 (photo by Kathy Saunders)
13 January 2026
Because wild turkeys are hunted in Pennsylvania their population is well studied by the PA Game Commission. Over the years, studies revealed that the population peaked statewide about 25 years ago then declined for a long time and now stabilized at the lower level. To parse out why, PGC added GPS tracking to their annual wild turkey surveys in four Wildlife Management Units starting in 2022. This makes the annual Winter Turkey Sighting Survey a lot more interesting for us in western PA
During the Winter Pennsylvania Wild Turkey Sighting Survey, 31 December through 15 March 2026, PGC asks the public to help find turkey flocks to trap and release on site for their ongoing turkey studies.
Of particular interest to us in southwestern Pennsylvania is this: The Game Commission will attach GPS transmitters to a sample of turkeys in WMUs 2D, 3D, 4D and 5C (circled below), approximately 150 hens and 100 males in total.
WMU 2D is in our region. For detailed boundaries see PGCs ArcGIS map.
The study started with 199 tracked hens of which 193 nested (6 probably died). About 69% of the 2024 nests failed (no eggs; no hatched). From the successful nests 113 poults survived at least four weeks.
It’s clear from this table that — even in a small statewide sample — our turkey population cannot sustain itself in just one breeding season. Turkey hens must participate in multiple breeding seasons to keep the population stable.
Black-capped chickadee coming in for a landing, 2025, Cape Cod, MA (photo by Bob Kroeger)
11 January 2026
We could watch backyard birds all day, but when they land it happens so fast we don’t see the steps from head-first flight to feet-first landing. How do they do it?
In March 2025 Bob Kroeger captured stop-action stills of birds approaching his Cape Cod feeder. All the birds use similar steps on the way to landing. Black-capped chickadees are very fast. Larger birds take a little more time.
Here are Bob’s three shots of a female northern flicker coming in to land.
Change body angle to upright position with feet out front.
Use wings to put on the brakes.
Feet first, ready to grab! At this point birds stop looking at the perch.
Yesterday Cornell Lab of Ornithology posted super slow motion video of this very thing. Filmed in Massachusetts, watch these birds as they land: black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, blue jay, mourning dove, northern cardinal.
