After its discovery in 1897, the teardrop white-eye (Rukia ruki) was long believed to inhabit a microscopic range. Within the Western Pacific, endemic to Micronesia. Within Micronesia to the Caroline Islands. Within the Carolines, to Chuuk Atoll. Within Chuuk, only the Faichuk island group. And within that group, it was known only from the island of Tol, from the summit of its tallest mountain: Winipot.

Dominating the upper canopy of Mount Winipot is the endemic Chuuk poison tree (Semecarpus kraemeri). It produces a highly toxic sap that causes severe allergic contact dermatitis and painful blistering in humans. Historically, this toxic tree shielded Winipot’s native forests from fire and axe — offering sanctuary to the teardrop white-eye.

Unlike most of its white-eye cousins in the Zosterops genus — which are small, yellowish, and difficult to tell apart — the teardrop white-eye is noticeably larger, has sombre olive-brown plumage, and features bright orange legs. Beneath its eyes, it has distinct white feather crescents that look like permanent teardrops.

In the 1980s, surveys estimated that 382 teardrop white-eyes lived on Tol. They also found tiny, restricted populations of the species across a few neighbouring islands. But “restricted” is the key word here: 93 on Polle, 32 on Paata, and just 19 on Onei. Those same surveys estimated that the white-eye’s total known range was only about one square kilometre, or less than a third the size of Central Park. 

More recent surveys on neighbouring islands have either turned up empty or been impossible to undertake due to local opposition and other difficulties. We cannot say whether the teardrop white-eye exists anywhere outside of Tol today. 

There is some hope, however, for the species. A recent birding expedition, undertaken in June 2026, saw at least seven white-eyes creeping along vines and branches in the old-growth forest below Mount Winipot. 

Read the teardrop white-eye’s full story here!

The first 4 photos are from today. The last 2 are from 14/8/26. I had originally assumed that he was just molting into his adult plumage, but my understanding is that this generally would be done by now and there'd definitely at least be noticeable change.

He lives in an aviary in a local zoo. I'm almost certain it's the same individual, and the only other cardinal there is his mate.

Any idea what would cause this?

Hopefully the images capture this well. I noticed a mourning dove at the feeder with this growth on the beak. Initially thought it was dried fruit stuck to its beak but it was eating the feed with no change in the shape. Is this bad news or a deformation?

Hi everyone,

I reached out to the moderators before posting, and I appreciate them allowing me to share this with the community.

I created the Bird Watcher’s Journal because I wanted bird enthusiasts to have a practical and enjoyable way to preserve their observations—not simply check a bird off a list, but remember where they saw it, when they saw it, what it looked like, and what made that encounter special.

I also hope the journal finds its way into families with avid birdwatchers, as well as those who are just beginning to discover birdwatching—something parents, grandparents, children, and loved ones can enjoy and perhaps share precious moments together.

The journal includes dedicated space for recording bird sightings, geographic location, date and observation details, along with room for notes and a dotted-grid area where you can sketch the bird you observed. I’ve tried to make the interior clean, readable, and easy to use outdoors or while at home.

I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from people who know and love birds. If this journal can make birdwatching a little more enjoyable while also contributing toward something good, then I feel it has accomplished what I intended.

There is also a charitable purpose behind this project. I intend to dedicate 15% of my earnings from my books to helping neglected and disadvantaged children, with the percentage increasing as book sales grow. This mission is personally important to me, and I hope that as JD Books grows, I’ll be able to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children who need support.

The link is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRDHSBKN 

Thank you for allowing me to share this journal with you.

— Jacob
JD Books

African Red-Billed Spurfowl may look like a plump, ground-hugging chicken, but it is a surprisingly bold survivor of dry savannas and scrubby woodlands. With a bright red bill and herringbone sweater, they forage obsessively like their domesticated doppelgangers, scratching through leaf litter and soil for insects, seeds, bulbs, anything the bush floor offers.

Spurfowl males carry the nominative spurs, sharp backward-pointing claws, weapons used in territorial combat. When two males meet at a disputed boundary the encounter escalates with a speed and intensity, startling in a bird most people would barely notice. These fights are serious, sustained, and occasionally injurious, not unlike those of their fowl cousins.

The female lays up to ten eggs in a shallow scrape hidden among grass or bushes, then incubates them alone for about three weeks. When chicks hatch, they are able to walk and feed themselves within hours. The mother stays close, brooding them at night and guiding them to food, while the male may linger nearby and occasionally help with protection.

Spurfowl are fiercely terrestrial and possess a stubborn refusal to fly. If a cheetah or a safari vehicle approaches, they won’t take to the sky. Instead, they drop their heads and sprint through the thorny brush, quickly out of sight. African Red-Billed Spurfowl may seem diminutive, but you can bet on their survival.

Birdman of Africa gamersdad.substack.com Photo by Andrew Steinmann ©2026

No AI content, all human generated text and images

Hello!

Wondering if anyone can tell me what this wing flapping/chirping behaviour means?

Before I was putting peanuts out in a feeder for them, I’d just toss a few handfuls in the yard. If there were no peanuts in the yard, sometimes they’d come perch and do this behaviour almost as if asking for food?

Since having the feeder I’m noticing them doing it a lot more when other jays are around feeding at the same time.

Edit: Punctuation

Earlier today I heard a hawk so I pulled up the Merlin app to see what it was cause I have no idea what hawks live around here (Illinois), and it said it was a red-tailed hawk. But when I listened through the examples of different calls, what I was hearing sounded exactly like the app’s example for a display call (a few chirps and then a classic call), and there were two hawks when I looked up. They were kind of circling around, it was hard to see exactly what they were doing cause there was trees in the way. But why would they be doing what sounds like courting in the fall? Is there another purpose for that call?

Right now, if you search anything related to the purple martin, you will see one fun fact repeated. "The purple martin is North Americas largest swallow". You may see slight variations, "the largest swallow that breeds in North American" "the largest swallow in the US and Canada".

In its first paragraph Wikipedia says "It is the largest swallow in North America."

Encyclopedia Britannia says "The purple martin (Progne subis) is the largest North American swallow." On its page about swallows in general. In its purple martin page it says "It is the largest of the American swallows, measuring about 20 cm (8 inches) in length"

Purple Martin conservation association describes them as the "largest member of the swallow family in North America"

EBird says "Large, dark swallow. Distinctive north of Mexico, where it is the largest swallow" clearly implying that elsewhere, it is not the largest swallow

The Audubon society describes it as "our" (meaning America's) largest swallow. Similarly large species in their taxa, such as the raven are simply described as "the" largest, not "our" largest.

All this would reasonably lead a person (me) to believe that in North America, the purple Martin is the largest swallow, but elsewhere, there must be a larger swallow, right? So I did some additional research and found that this isn't the case, the purple martin is the largest swallow in the world. So what exactly is going on?

Why is this fact repeated so frequently and why don't we just say it's the largest swallow??? Is there some bigger secret swallow they are not telling us about? Did this big swallow go extinct? Did some other larger species used to be considered swallows before a taxa shift, and the fact never updated? As far as I can tell the second largest swallow, the mosque swallow, barely has a size overlap with the purple martin so it's not like we can't tell which is bigger.

I am aware my interest in swallows is probably excessive (and autistic) so no need to tell me that.

(not the actual pic, those are for my future report so preferably I don’t post them before that. At this point I also don’t write which country I'm in)

I have a problem with one of my gulls I took in during baby season. She was roughly 3 weeks old so long before fledging time. She turned out to be a great black backed gull and this is where the fun begins - this particular species had never bred in our country. Never ever, not even a single pair. The most simple explanation is that I mistook a normal herring gull but no - this bird is clearly different and inconsistent with juvenile herring gulls, looked different as a chick compared to others and has a voice way lower than the rest from the beginning. Also, once I saw a parent nearby trying to find her - a huge dark mantled gull calling and checking corners doesn’t appear without a reason in the middle of June.

I know how a good practice in these cases looks like - to notify the ornithologists asap, let them take measurements and band the bird at the release site, and then make a report to the national rarity committee. But in our case there would be nothing like that. My bird had a wing injury and turned out non releasable. So for now she just lives under my care and I haven't informed anyone yet. However - releasable or not she still hatched in my city, and probably I shouldn't be the only person knowing that.

​I have the formal submission form ready and I know the procedure but I’m quite hesitant for a few reasons and would love to hear your thoughts. Especially from those who work with similar things or have experience with reporting rarities.

First - honestly I’m just a bit nervous about submitting such a huge record as an independent rehabber rather than a traditional field ornithologist. After all my job is to help pigeons and herring gulls, not to change national list of breeding birds... how to overcome that?

Second - timing. I have a full photo documentation from the earliest stage, proving my bird hatched here. But maybe it's smarter to wait for her until she grows her first black mantle feathers? Despite great black backs being the largest gulls, my gull is not that large. Meatier, chunkier, with larger bill and patterns in line with great black backs, even her skull is different with smaller eyes far apart each other - but she's not huge. So in case of anyone having some doubts, her final color would be a giveaway.

Third - what happens if a subject of report is not a bird just seen in the field and photographed, but is a permanent resident living in a sanctuary and physically available? Do rarity committees just evaluate photos and written evidence or want to go further? Do they ever ask about a visit or something? Or maybe expect something else than just photos like feathers or blood for dna testing?

Would love to hear how similar cases are usually handled or if anyone has been in a similar spot. The whole situation is just surreal to me so I'm not sure what to do in such a case. I'd be glad if anyone would help me!

See also: The study as it was published in PLOS Biology

Ok so this is a lot to explain. I was intensly researching the Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon, and in trying to track down all of the previous scientific names for it, I discovered this weird thing.

So. The first image is of Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeons. These are the species I believe went undiscovered because someone misidentified them. The second photo is of Pinon's Imperial Pigeon. This is the species I believe the Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon was misidentified for.

Pinon's Imperial Pigeon (PIP) was first described by Gaimard in 1823. At the time it was described as Columba pinon.

In 1826, our misidentifier, René Primevère Lesson, noticed some pigeons on New Ireland (3rd to 5th slide) that he identified as Columba pinon, the PIP. The translation isn't perfect but you can see what he's trying to say (the original language was French).

In the final slide, you see John Gould's Birds of New Guinea, where all the descriptions of the Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon are listed. And there, at the very top, you see Lesson's description, with a written link to the exact page in which he was talking about the "Pinon's Pigeon" that was actually a Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon. And in parentheses, you see "nec Quoy et Gaim", which, as far as I can tell, means something to the effect of "not Quoy and Gaimard," meaning that Lesson's pigeon was not the PIP described in 1823 by Quoy and Gaimard.

This obviously isn't the first time historical figures have made a misidentification, and it's definitely been noted by some people before since it's written plainly in Birds of New Guinea, but it's still funny and definitely not well-known.

I'll give the links to everything so you guys can verify if you wish:

The Birds of New Guinea page:

https://archive.org/details/birdsnewguineaa5goul/page/n260/mode/1up

Lesson's original account of the pigeon:

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/119030#page/356/mode/1up

Hello r/Ornithology, I am an engineering student currently collecting market research for my engineering capstone. The end goal of this project is to developing a new anti-squirrel birdfeeder to humanely control the issue of squirrel raids on bird feeders. This survey would help collect information on how the birding community feels about the true scale of the issue, current solutions, and what a new product should include to best combat the issue. The answers you provide will be anonymous, relating to bird feeders and your own experience with squirrel interference, and goes toward my school project, not a business or corporation. There are 10 questions and don't worry about giving long answers unless you desire to do so; I appreciate any input offered to me. This is in no way an attempt to promote myself, any business or corporation, or any account on reddit.

To avoid including an external link, my ten questions are as follows:

1. In what ways have squirrels interfered with your bird feeders?
2. How often do squirrels visit your feeders? Or if they used to but don't anymore often did squirrels visit them?
3. From a scale 1 to 10, how big of a problem are squirrels for your feeders?
4. What kind of bird feeder(s) do you currently use? (EX: Tube feeder, platform feeder, suet cake feeder, hopper feeder, etc...)
5. If your answer to the last question was not an anti-squirrel feeder, have you invested in anti-squirrel feeders/technology?
6. If you use or used a squirrel proof or anti-squirrel feeder, which one(s) did you use and did it work?
7. How often do you fill your bird feeders?
8. Please rank from best to worst (based on which you would consider purchasing most) these three current designs focuses in the squirrel proof bird feeder market: Caged feeder, weight activated feeder, baffle feeder
9. When considering a new squirrel proof bird feeder prototype, is there anything specific you would want the design to include?
10. What would you be reasonably willing to spend on a prototype which humanely controls this issue of squirrels stealing birdseed?

Poking around through Cambodian birds, I was struck to find this map showing that Gray-headed Parakeet has only been seen in four locales globally in the last 30 days. Have a look for yourself on eBird. The species is listed as Near Threatened but I still find this a bit alarming to see.

It is true that well-heeled Western birders will be travelling to the region more around Christmas/New Years, so hopefully the numbers will tick up then...and it's also true that Chinese birders (and tourists more generally) have been avoiding the region due to concerns over human trafficking...but still, there are lots of e.g. Thai and Indian birders who use eBird, so I dunno.

So perhaps it's just a fluke of seasonal birdwatching patterns but, still, it's sad to see so few red dots in a sea of blue.

Taken at Yellowstone national Park if that helps

Hey all,
For the past few years we’ve had parents of newly hatched magpies come for a little feed at times (cat biscuits, off cut of meat from dinner, meely worms & some sneaky cheese from time to time). We’ve had the usual mum & dad come down take a snack and they take back to the nest, this year is different.
Some of the magpies are still coming in for a feed, we’ve now have a juvenile magpie coming a couple times a day, butcher bird occasionally, 2 kookaburras (one started because he slammed into our pool fence- not once but he’s up to his 3rd time not the sharpest tool he’s called whack fuck) his mate is a bit on the derrrr side too, a couple of dumb & dumbers…. This morning a brush turkey chick flew in, I do like to think of myself as a “Snow White” kinda guy but this is weird.
My thoughts are, as we’ve only had just over 10mm of rain since August there’s not much food about. Is this the case?

This is AI right? 🫪