Rick Wright

BirdNote® Western Hummingbirds, East Written by Rick Wright This is BirdNote. Not that long ago, the only hummingbird someone living in the eastern United States and Canada could hope to see was the familiar little Ruby-throated Himmingbird. [Ruby-throated hummingbird chips and wing noises] But things have changed. Over the past couple of decades, more and more western and tropical hummingbird species have been discovered far out of what used to be considered their “normal” range.

BirdNote® Waxwing Nightlight Written by Rick Wright This is BirdNote. For the better part of two thousand years, the waxwing was credited with an amazing power. [Richard Wagner, Siegfried-Idylle][Bohemian Waxwing calls and “song,” ML 170762, 04:26 and following] It was believed in all earnestness that these gentle, crested fruit-eaters glowed in the dark. Pliny reported that their feathers were said to “shine like flames” in the dark forests of central Europe.

BirdNote® A Renaming Committee of One Written by J. Drew Lanham This is BirdNote. I’m J. Drew Lanham, an ornithologist, naturalist and writer. As we consider redacting the names of people from birds, it’s important to remember birds are flesh, feather and bone monuments of life, hope and higher aspiration. So it does matter. But I’m just one Black, bird-loving ornithologist, so what can I do? This is what. I’m taking the lark by the horns and forming my own committee of one.