Intellectual Snobbery Is for the Birds

How Birdkeepers and Bullfinch Sperm Taught an Ornithologist Something New About Evolution

Birdkeepers are almost universally scorned by anyone else interested in birds. Biologists and birdwatchers alike are generally opposed to the idea of birds being kept in captivity. But during a lifetime of admiring and studying birds, birdkeepers have helped me push the field forward and taught me something along the way: Sometimes seemingly irreconcilable worlds can collide, with wonderful results.

Some estimates suggest that during the 19th century, every second household in Britain raised “cage birds.” In an era before radio, TV, or social media, the creatures provided company, entertainment, and …

Hey California, the Peafowl Isn’t Your Scape-Bird | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Hey California, the Peafowl Isn’t Your Scape-Bird

These ‘Foreign Invaders’ Have as Much a Claim on the State as Anyone

Why don’t you just fly my pride and me to Martha’s Vineyard?

Because we peafowl are tired of being California’s leading scapegoat—I mean, scape-bird.

You Californians like to pretend you’re more humane …

12-15-21 | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Out of the Sky

Tianjiao Guo is an illustrator based in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Shanghai, she moved to California at the age of 17. A graduate of the School of Visual …

Birds of a Feather Drive Together | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Birds of a Feather Drive Together

Vivienne Strauss has been a full-time artist since 2008. While she is not formally trained as an artist, she has a background in philosophy and is an avid reader, cinephile, …

How Hawai‘i Forces Us to Redefine the Meaning of ‘Native’

An Environmental Historian Argues That Being Indigenous Is More Alchemy Than Fact

I was born in the Territory of Hawai‘i, three weeks before statehood. As a kid I played in its dirt, ran around in the rain (my hometown of Hilo is …

When Birders With Binoculars Trump Supercomputers

If You Want to Know Which Species Are Going Extinct, Don’t Use an Algorithm. Count Ducks at Christmas.

It was just after dawn on January 3 and a freezing wind blew around my binoculars and into my face as I stood scanning a steely Atlantic bay. Suddenly, where …