When I visit eBird’s website they always display a beautiful photo from Macaulay Library. Yesterday afternoon they presented the photo below of a gorgeous, meticulously detailed bird. Gould’s Shortwing (Heteroxenicus stellatus).
Notice the fine scallops on its breast and the tiny stars on its flanks. Its scientific species name, stellatus, means “starry” or “covered with stars.”
It is very unlikely I’ll ever see this bird because …
Gould’s Shortwing is found in the Himalayas (mainly Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan), Yunnan and northern parts of Myanmar and Vietnam. It breeds in the eastern Himalayas in rocky areas above the tree-line and winters at lower altitude in wooded valleys.
Albion Falls in fog, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
However at ground level there were beautiful water droplets on all the plants. Many of them “weeds” but all looked gorgeous. Top to bottom:
Perennial sow thistle
White sweet clover
Common salsify
Gray dogwood berry stems shrouded in cobwebs
Tartarian honeysuckle berries
White sweet clover in fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Common salsify in fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Gray dogwood, mostly eaten berry bunch shrouded in cobwebs and fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Tartarian honeysuckle berries in fog, Albion Falls, Hamilton, Ontario, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Back in Pittsburgh I see deer every day now in my neighborhood. These two are munching a garden on Neville Avenue — a 6-point buck in velvet with a doe. They are a persistent couple.
Muching a garden: 6-point buck in velvet with doe, 10 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
In my neighborhood on 1 July I encountered a deer very close to the sidewalk who didn’t care that I stared at her.
She was eating a large Japanese spindle hedge (Euonymus japonicus)*, a plant that is toxic to humans and pets but not toxic to deer. She must be eating it day after day because the long hedge is damaged and see-through.
Japanese spindle hedge browsed by deer, 1 July 2026 (photo my Kate St. John)
Terribly hot weather. Even the sunset looked hot.
Heatwave sunset, 2 July 2026, 8:41pm (photo by Kate St. John)
So we’re on a mini-vacation in Hamilton, Ontario where it is not as hot. “Why Hamilton?” asked the Canadian immigration officer at the Peace Bridge. Well, we didn’t want to drive all the way to Toronto. Fair enough.
Hamilton (H on the map below) is on the way to Toronto (T) and more than an hour+ from the Peace Bridge in Buffalo (B). As we learned, there is a lot of stop and go traffic on the expressway.
Hamilton is at the westward tip of Lake Ontario and is bisected by the Niagara Escarpment, a 650-mile cliff that arcs from New York state to Ontario, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is not a fault line but the result of unequal erosion with hard rock on the cliff top and eroding limestone on the cliff face. Both the Genesee River in Rochester, NY and Niagara Falls cascade over the Niagara Escarpment.
Both the lake and the escarpment are visible from our hotel windows.
Lake Ontario seen from Hamilton, Ontario, 4 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)A portion of the Niagara Escarpment as seen from Hamilton, Ontario, 4 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
But not visible today. We were going to see the escarpment but it’s foggy.
Fog in Hamilton, Ontario, northeast wind, 5 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
(*) p.s. It’s possible that I’ve misidentified the hedge the deer was eating. Cultivated Euonymus japonicus and E.Fortunei are very similar.
Black-necked stilts (Himantopus mexicanus) are delicate-looking shorebirds that, according to official range maps, are absent in eastern North America other than the Atlantic coast. However, they are so raucous that it’s hard not to notice them at Howard Marsh in Curtice, Ohio.
Black-necked stilts at Howard Marsh, Ohio, 6 May 2026 (photo by Charity Kheshgi) (Lesser yellowlegs in the background)
The stilts first showed up in northwestern Ohio in 2004 and have returned annually for more than 20 years. Since they were already in the area, they immediately found Howard Marsh Metropark as soon as it was completed in 2018.
Their official range map says they aren’t here, but eBird sightings for the past 10 years say otherwise.
Hooded warbler in southwestern Pennsylvania (photo by Steve Gosser)
5 May 2026
Today we’re on our way to Magee Marsh, Ohio where we’ll be birding early before The Biggest Week in American Birding begins 8-17 May 2026. It truly is the “Biggest Week” as it draws 80,000 to 90,000 visitors to the area each year.
The colors on this eBird Hotspot map show why it’s such a popular birding place. The redder the color, the more species seen. The hottest spot of all (center of the map) is Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ottawa County where 305 species have been recorded. Magee Marsh Boardwalk is close behind with 276 species.
Hooded warblers occur in northwestern Ohio (see my faint orange circle on the map below) but are more readily seen in western Pennsylvania (darker purple). They are rare at the Boardwalk because they prefer thick shrubby areas in forest understory, not open marsh habitat with sparse woodlots.
Some formerly rare birds are now more common. Prior to 2010 American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) were very rare flyover birds. Now they are present every year.
Their official range map (left) still has them absent east of the Mississippi but observations and breeding records show some in northwestern Ohio. American white pelicans now breed on Turning Point Island in Sandusky Bay and many stop over on their way to their breeding grounds in Canada (righthand map).
The forecast for northwestern Ohio calls for chilly cloudy weather and rain while we’re there. I might need this video “warbler fix” by the time I’m done. (I also posted this video last year.)
Though there are about 118 species of kingfishers worldwide, most of them are native to Africa and Asia. There are only six kingfisher species in the western hemisphere and we saw all of them on a single day at Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica, 23 January 2026. Here’s who’s in the Kingfisher Sweep.
Largest of the six, ringed kingfishers range from southern Texas to South America. They are solitary except during the breeding season when they nest in holes in river banks like their close relatives the belted kingfisher. Size: male 254–330g, female 274–325g.
Second largest on the list and familiar throughout North America, the belted kingfisher winters as far south the Caribbean coast of South America. He’s the sixth species, but only in winter. Size: 140-170 g
Third largest on the list, the Amazon kingfisher is “a resident of lakeshores and large-slow flowing rivers from northern Mexico south to central Argentina,” according to Birds of the World. Size: male 98–121 g, female 125–140 g
American pygmy kingfishers are tiny! Except for their huge beaks they are half the size of a house sparrow. Size: male 10–16g, female 12–16g (House sparrow is 27-29g)
To give you an idea of his size, here’s my cellphone photo of one perched on a small branch above the water. Can’t find him? Click on the image to see a circle around him.
American pygmy kingfisher perched on a small branch over water, 23 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Not large, but fourth largest on the list, “the green-and-rufous kingfisher is found around streams and rivers, from southeast Nicaragua south through the rest of Central America and across much of the northern two-thirds of South America, south as far as eastern Paraguay.” — Birds of the WorldSize: male 40–60g, female 53–62g
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.)
Prothonotary warbler at Magee Marsh, 2014 (phoot by Chuck Tague)
8 February 2026, Pittsburgh
When this morning dawned at -6°F (-21.1°C) it was hard to imagine spring but I really want to. What better way to “Think Spring” than to talk about warblers?
Last month on the Road Scholar birding trip to Costa Rica we saw 15 species of warblers, the majority of which (8) were northern migrants spending the winter in Costa Rica. The rest (7 species) are residents of Central and South America and many of them are related to North American breeding warblers.
North American migrant warblers seen in Costa Rica, January 2026
In just 2-3 months — in late April and early May — warblers currently in Costa Rica will start arriving in Pittsburgh. Six of the species we saw look the same year round so they were at their best. The most numerous warbler on our trip, the Tennessee warbler, as well as the bay-breasted warbler were still in non-breeding plumage. They didn’t look as snazzy.
See the list and links below the slideshow.
Northern waterthrush (Wikimedia)
Golden-winged warbler, Carondelet Park, 2020 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Black and white warbler (photo by Lauri Shaffer)
Prothonotary Warbler (Wikimedia)
Tennessee warbler (Wikimedia)
Bay-breasted warbler (photo by Robin Argawal, Flickr CC license)
Northern yellow warbler (photo by Steve Gosser)
Chestnut-sided warbler, August (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
The other seven species on our checklists are residents of Central and South America. Just one reaches into North America as far as Mexico. See the list below the slideshow.
Best warbler on the trip? Prothonotary! We often saw them when touring the mangrove and wetland forests by boat. They were a bright flash of yellow as they flew across the river in front of us.
p.s. Speaking of low temperatures, Pittsburgh will have an amazing warm-up starting tomorrow, Monday 9 Feb 2026, at 7:00am. The low at 7:00am Monday will be -6°F. The high at 2:00pm on Tuesday will be 44°F. That’s a 50 degree temperature swing in just 31 hours. It will feel like Spring!
Understory birds in Costa Rica’s rainforest are often streaked, spotted and striped for camouflage while they move in dim and dappled light near the forest floor. Out of all those streaky birds I have seven favorites from my trip to Costa Rica last month. Six are forest skulkers, the seventh, shown at top, is not an understory bird at all so I don’t know why he’s striped. NOTE: These photos are not to scale; almost all of them are from Wikimedia Commons.
The best way to see a fasciated tiger-heron is to check the edge of a rushing stream. We found two fishing in the Sarapiquí River at Selva Verde Lodge. Obviously the stripes do not camouflage them in this setting. Maybe those stripes are for a different reason.
This species posed nicely for us. He also posed for his Wikimedia Commons photo below.
The Fasciated Antshrike forages, mostly for large insects, in the midstory of tropical lowland forest. He’s found in vine tangles and dense mid-story canopy.
I saw this Life Bird during the Sky Walk at Arenal while there was a pause in the pouring rain. He was on my Wish List.
The streak-crowned antvireo ranges from Honduras through Nicaragua to Costa Rica, living in the understory and mid-story of lowland and foothill evergreen forest. He forages for insects and is often in mixed species flocks (paraphrased from Birds of the World).
Frequent–though not obligate–followers of mixed-species foraging flocks that track insect-flushing swarms of army ants across the forest floor.
The Spotted Antbird’s scientific name means a “spotted watcher of the woodland.” In Panama’s Darien province the species is locally known as ‘corregidor‘ (mayor) for its apparent behavior of directing the activities of other birds found with it, presumably at army ant swarms.
What a skulker! This bird is said to be common but it is very hard to see.
Generally common. Found in a wide variety of wooded habitats, including second growth and plantations, where it forages, apparently for insects in low tangles and other dense vegetation.
The Stripe-breasted Wren has two distinct singing ‘styles’, which are sufficiently at variance to sound as if they were made by completely different types of birds. The first is a series of whistles on the same pitch, somewhat like the calls of a small owl, which song, usually given at dawn, is typically given by a single bird. The second is a series of up to ten bubbling whistles, which is far more typical of the Troglodytidae, and is given in a duet.
When this wren turns his back on you, you can’t see him. If he hadn’t shown his chest I would never have known he has stripes. No photos from the trip; all I have are happy memories. These photos are from Wikimedia Commons.
American barn owl at the supermarket in Las Iguanas, Costa Rica, 26 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
4 February 2026
While in Costa Rica with Road Scholar on 26 January: On our way to Arenal we needed some snacks and bottled drinks so we combined a visit to the grocery store with a stop for barn owls. Yes, there were barn owls at the grocery store.
Inside the building it was a typical supermarket with a wide selection of food.
Road Scholars checking out at the grocery store, 26 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
However, there was a ledge close to the roof peak and on that ledge was a pair of American barn owls (Tyto furcata).
Barn owls perched up high at the grocery store, 26 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
I digiscoped the front-facing owl (at top) but the second owl was harder to see. Gary Levinson-Palmer captured these photos.
Barn owls at the supermarket, Costa Rica, 26 Jan 2026 (photo by Gary Levinson-Palmer)
Because there was sunlight behind them, I believe the owls come into a gap between the roof peak-section and the main roof. These gaps are needed for ventilation and heat reduction. Here’s an (exaggerated) example from Wikimedia Commons (not in Costa Rica).
