By John Hughes Have you ever been walking in a riparian area and heard what sounded like a cat mewing in the thick understory? Every time this happens to my wife and me, we turn and look at each other, smile like kids, and say “catbird.” The Gray Catbird is one of many birds whose…
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Gamble’s Quail
Northern Shrike
By Lewis Young The Northern Shrike is a solitary “masked hunter” that may be found in the northern U.S., including the Flathead Valley, during the winter. Its scientific name is Lanius excubitor and means “butcher watchman.” It is a pale gray bird with lightly barred under-parts and black wings, tail, and mask. The black wings…
Read MoreVaux’s Swift
By Lisa Bate The Vaux’s Swift (Chaetura vauxi) is the smallest swift in North America, just slightly smaller than its eastern counterpart, the Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica). Best described as a “flying cigar,” this species is easily recognized by its small, cigar-shaped body with long, pointed wings, and short stubby tail. Typically, they can be…
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Northern Pintail
By Ben Long All wild ducks are beautiful but for my money, the most beautiful is the Northern Pintail. They have a combination of aerial grace, striking plumage, heft and old-fashioned class. They are ducks with elan. There are some 35 species of ducks in North America, many of which find their way to the…
Read MoreEurasian Collared Dove
By Ben Young And the winner for the North American “Bird of the Decade” award is . . . the Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto). That was my determination at the turn of the decade, and I’d make a case for it three years later. Likely no other bird species on record has stormed the North…
Read MoreDusky Grouse
By Ben Long The official name of Montana’s “Blue Grouse” is now the “Dusky Grouse.” But I always think of them as Kamikaze Grouse. Here’s why. My family was driving a mountain road one May when we spied a male Dusky Grouse doing its spring mating dance along the barrow pit. The handsome fellow’s tail…
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Sora
By Gail Cleveland Even though I have been watching birds for more than 25 years, I can bring to mind most instances when I have seen the more elusive members of the family Rallidae (coots, rails, crakes and gallinules). I remember seeing my first Virginia Rail in a marshy area in the lower Flathead Valley….
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Hooded Merganser
By Gael Bissell Have you ever heard a deep rolling frog-like call “pahwawaa… pahwawaa,” or hoarse, raven-like repeated croaks or gacks coming from water birds? These are the rare and odd sounds of the breeding male and female Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), a common yet shy woodland duck of North America. In Georgia, folks call…
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