Culture

Food Editor Sam Sifton on the Joy of Birds and the Perfect Birding Sandwich
October 02, 2020 — The New York Times cooking scribe has renewed a childhood passion—and struggled with bird-feeder befuddlement—at home during the pandemic.
Inside Germany’s Giant, Hungry, Flightless-Bird Problem
September 26, 2020 — Greater Rheas, native to South America, are thriving in northern Europe—and coming into conflict with farmers whose crops they eat.
Why Nature Writer Helen Macdonald Says We Need to Embrace the Apocalypse
September 21, 2020 — In "Vesper Flights," a timely collection of essays, the bestselling author remains in awe of the natural world, and finds hope amid catastrophe.
Not Sure What NBA Team to Cheer For? Here's our Birder's Guide to the Playoffs.
September 18, 2020 — It's the postseason. It's fall migration. What a time to be alive.
The University of Illinois Might Make a Kingfisher Its New Mascot. It should!
September 18, 2020 — Spencer Hulsey, a former U of I student, began the campaign last year. This Monday the school's Senate will vote on the proposal.
John Luther Adams in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 1999. Dennis Keeley
How an Acclaimed Composer Found His Musical Voice Through Birdsong
September 16, 2020 — Decades after a songbird's whirling melody set him on a new artistic path, John Luther Adams is more determined than ever to help us hear the planet's power and wild beauty—and fight to protect it.
‘It’s a Bird’ Is a New Comic Written by Central Park Birder Christian Cooper
September 14, 2020 — The story, which is loosely inspired by Cooper's racist encounter in the park, is the first in the digital "Represent!" series from DC Comics.
Finding a Constant in Nature During the Uncertainty of a Pandemic
August 25, 2020 — Birds, the Trinity River Audubon Center, and nature provide stability for me when everything else feels so changeable.
Remembering Toni Morrison, the Bird Whisperer
August 05, 2020 — A year after Morrison’s passing, a journalist and birder reflects on how her time with the cherished author changed her relationship with birds—and with herself.
Searching for Elusive Blakiston's Fish Owls in the Ancient Forests of Primorye
August 04, 2020 — Jonathan Slaght ventures into far-east Russia to locate the enormous raptors in this excerpt from his new book 'Owls of the Eastern Ice.'