Susan Scott

Subscribe to our newsletter 10 Things We Want to Share About Why Birds Are Dinosaurs 1. The creatures pecking in our yards, flying through our parks, and perching in our trees are descendants of the only dinosaurs that survived a mass extinction event 66 million years ago. 2. The event was a six-mile-wide asteroid that

10 Things We Want to Share About The ʻAlae Keʻokeʻo aka ʻAlae Kea Subscribe to our newsletter 1. Coots look like awkward fliers, but over eons these waterbirds have flown from their place of origin in the tropical Americas to continents and islands around the world where they evolved into separate species.   2. Ten coot

Subscribe to our newsletter Bird Droppings: 10 Things We Want to Share About Pueo, Hawaiian Short-eared Owl 1. Pueo is a subspecies of the Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus), one of the most widespread owls in the world, native to North America, Eurasia, and various islands. 2. Hawaiʻi’s pueo is one of 10 other Short-eared Owl subspecies, each endemic

Subscribe to our newsletter Bird Droppings: 10 Things We Want to Share About Java Sparrows 1. They aren’t sparrows. The Java Sparrow is a finch in same finch family (Estrildidae) as waxbills and munias. Other names for this species is Java Finch and Java Ricebird. 2. The scientific name, Padda oryzivora, comes from the bird’s fondness for eating rice in

Subscribe to our newsletter Bird Droppings: 10 Things We Want to Share About the Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) 1. Mynas are native to India, the Middle East, and the Himalaya region. About 11 myna species exist, all members of the starling family (Sturnidae.) 2. The Common Myna was introduced to Hawaiʻi in 1866 to eat cutworms and armyworms, moth

Read the full newsletter 10 Things We Want to Share About Hawaiʻi’s Frigatebirds 1. Frigatebirds are unmistakable in flight due to their bent, pointed wings and deeply forked tails that work like scissors during elaborate flight maneuvers. 2. You can tell a lot about frigatebirds soaring overhead by their color: Males are all black (they inflate their red

Read the full newsletter 1. The tiny, chirping birds we hear but can barely see in grass are 4-inch-long Common Waxbills. (The bird pictured at the top of this email flew into my house through an open door. We caught and released it unharmed.) 2. Common Waxbills are native to, and widespread throughout, Africa south of the Sahara

Subscribe to our newsletter 10 Things We Want to Share About the Christmas Bird Count 1. This yearly National Audubon Society event consists of volunteers in 20 countries counting every bird (species and number) they see or hear in one day. 2. Volunteers count birds within fixed 15-mile circles. See Hawaiʻs’s circles here. 3. To join part of a