Backyard Birds Revealed is a 5-part video series that reveals details about familiar birds that visit feeders and landscaping near you. In each 5 minute episode, filmmakers Tim Laman and Russell Laman challenge themselves to get slow-motion and wide-angle videos, and narrate the details and discoveries uncovered in their interesting videos. See Tim and Russell set up their equipment to film chickadees, jays, woodpeckers, wrens, nuthatches, and more while you learn about some of the adaptations that birds use to survive and thrive in our yards and beyond.
Nearly 9,000 birders accepted last year's eBird Checklist-a-Day Challenge to produce an average of 1 birding checklist per day throughout 2025 – that's a minimum of 365 checklists submitted to eBird. In December 2024, in advance of the new year, eBird challenged birders from across North America and around the world to submit an average of one complete checklist a day throughout the year. While it's really all about birding and contributing to eBird information, as part of the incentive, the challenge sponsor Zeiss presented a Terra ED 8x42 Binocular to 3 of the participating birders.
Taxonomists just completed creating the most updated version of the "Bird Family Tree" that includes all recognized 11,167 bird species! You can refer to the new illustrated Phylogeny Explorer to see the connections between different birds you encounter and others that interest you. Understanding bird systematics and the connections between different birds and bird families is an interesting part of becoming a better birder, and now Birds of the World provides a way for users to trace any bird's lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button online.
While some Forida beach communities are still rebuilding from the big storms of the 2024 hurricane season, people and birds were spared major impacts during the 2025 season. Beach-nesting birds actually benefited from a combination of previous storm effects and experienced a banner nesting season in 2025. Multiple hurricanes and large storms during 2024 rearranged some coastal habitat, and the storm surge and winds removed vegetation that left large expanses of bare sand that proved to be perfect for nesting areas for many sandpipers, plovers, terns, skimmers, and other birds.
Sunshine in South Dakota! Or so I was led to believe, ha. I was really excited about making another birding trip south to the Pierre area to repeat my monthly SoDak Winter Raptor Survey, and it appeared that last Friday would be my best bet. By the time I reached Pierre, which is about half-way through my survey route, I hadn't seen a raptor and it was cloudy and dreary – outdoors and to an extent, in my mind. It was a first to see no birds aside from Ring-necked Pheasants by the time I reached Pierre, but the best raptor sightings are usually south of Pierre, and the sun might peak through the clouds soon.
The new Sightron SV 8x42 ED Binoculars offer a wide field of view of 477 feet at 1,000 yards, achieved by Sightron by utilizing a field flattener to ensure excellent image quality from center to edge. Phase-correction coating on the prism delivers a bright, high-contrast field of view. Special low-dispersion (ED) objective lenses provide clear, sharp, high-resolution images free from chromatic aberration. Sightron SV Binocular lenses are fully multi-layer coated on all lens surfaces to ensure the high light transmission of 90 percent along with accurate color reproduction.
Always a leader in outdoor wear, L.L. Bean offers a broad variety of clothing for women, men, and children. Their popular Airlight Vest warms when it's cool and breathes when it's warm, and it is available for women and men. This lightweight full-zip vest stays dry and comfortable during outdoor activities and adds a touch of warmth when you need it without being bulky. Available in 5 colors, the Airlight Vest is a perfect transitional layer to wear on the trail or on the town, and L.L. Bean designed it to wear as a layer with a thin, low-profile baffle construction that increases thermal efficiency that helps regulate your temperature and trap warmth.
Available at Duncraft, the White Farmhouse Squirrel-Resistant Feeder is a big hopper feeder that holds up to 13 pounds of seeds and provides plenty of room for a variety of birds to feed at one time. You can watch birds feed from both sides of this attractive white farmhouse feeder, that has a line of windows on each side so you can easily monitor seed levels. If a squirrel reaches the perching bar, the adjustable weight-sensitive perches instantly shut down access to seeds. Simply open the galvanized metal roof to fill seeds from the top, and the locking roof shuts firmly in place.
While viewing 2 distant Short-eared Owls winging on low hunting flights separated by nearly a quarter-mile, I noticed they suddenly lifted above the horizon and began acting as though they were beginning a pairing flight. Circling together, ever higher, in a manner that lasted much longer and took them much higher, they kept more in sync with one another than I’ve witnessed before. As they gained altitude, I realized there was a third bird that at first glance I expected might be another owl, but quickly realized it was a Rough-legged Hawk, a dark morph Rough-leg, a “black hawk.” The hawk flew south of my position as the owls continued to circle ever-higher as they drifted after the hawk, and that’s when I realized the owls’ circling flight appeared to be aimed at pushing the Rough-leg away from the area where they were hunting.
After losing sight of the circling Short-eared Owls when they flew in front of the bright afternoon sun, their calls revealed they repositioned directly overhead, permitting me to photograph the flight of one of the owls as the sun only provided backlighting (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/2000 shutter speed, 800 ISO.)
That’s when I lost sight of all 3 of the soaring birds as they flew directly between me and the sun’s blinding light. I couldn’t look into the sun, but suddenly I heard the owls calling overhead! I looked up to see the pair of owls soaring high directly above me, making an occasional single-note raspy call. I obviously began taking photos, and don’t recall ever having a chance to photograph Short-eared Owls flying overhead. Now they only showed their underside, which gave them quite a dramatic white look against the deep blue sky. It was quite a thrill to see and photograph the owls as the sun mostly provided backlighting, which accented their long wings and broad wingspan. As I followed the closer owl through my camera lens, it was especially thrilling to see it look down at my position – WoW, what a look!
Expecting the backlight to create a shadowed underside of the owl, I was clearly surprised to see how beautifully the camera’s light meter compensated for the indirect lighting. As I followed the Short-ear through my camera lens I was thrilled to see the owl look down at me – WoW! (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/1600 shutter speed, 800 ISO.)
I continued to follow that owl’s flight through my camera lens, taking a series of photos that ultimately provided most of the photographs that illustrate this article. I took a quick glance to the southeast and saw the dark Rough-legged Hawk soaring but drifting farther east, showing its full underside too. The owls were silent now, and the trio of grassland birds – or is it tundra birds – flew even higher and farther to the east. I watched as long as I could, but the black hawk flew out of sight, and I was doubly surprised at how high the owls soared as they turned back to the northwest.
Back on track after looking my way, the owl showed a series of wing positions as it began to transition into a vertical banking flight. As it passed by, in this photo you can see the direction of the sunlight is from above and behind the owl (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/2000 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
I’m convinced the idea was for the owls to stay above the hawk, in a position where they could dive at him using gravity to gain speed quickly if they dived. Just the potential of the owls circling that high likely pushed the hawk out of the immediate area without a more intent interaction. I would bet that the owls’ calls also added a level of intimidation, and after all, it was 2 against 1, so the owls had the upper hand from the beginning. To be sure, it was an interesting observation and interaction that definitely added to the photo opportunity that was created around me.
As the potential of the photography opportunity presented by the trio of birds improved, I hopped out of the car to follow the action as the hawk and owls soared south of my mobile blind – an action I try not to do. Birds and other wildlife tend to react in stronger ways to the presence of a person, while most animals are much less concerned about a stationary vehicle. Another concern was that the birds flew directly between me and the sun, which eliminated any chance of photographing them. By the time they were circling directly overhead, they still weren’t in a good position with regard to the sunlight – or so it seemed - but I wouldn’t pass up the chance to try some photos with the owls circling right above me.
As the impressive owl banked vertically overhead, its fully extended wings revealed just how wide a Short-eared Owl’s wingspan can be. This image is a little less bright than the others as the owl was banking at a slightly different angle from the sunlight (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/2000 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
With the level of backlighting I was seeing through my camera lens, I expected the underside of the owls would register darker than what my eyes were seeing – shaded with the sunlight coming from above and behind the owls. But somehow, perhaps by the camera’s light meter judgement, the owls coloration was very true to what my blue eyes were seeing, and the photos turned out to be a little brighter than what I was seeing. Even in the photo that I took when the owl looked down at me, its face appears to be reflecting some direct sunlight. Usually my Short-eared Owl photos show an abundance of brown, primarily because they fly low and their dorsal plumage is brown. But these white underside photographs really give the appearance of a white owl – a beautiful white owl surrounded by a uniform blue sky – a cold, clear blue sky.
After leaving the area, partly to let the owls settle in and partly to see if I could reconnect with the black hawk, I never saw the owls at the 7-mile prairie again that afternoon, even though I checked the area 3 more times. But I did find a pair of owls 2 miles to the east – on the far side of the expansive prairie area. This is a location I checked the previous Saturday, and while I found Short-eared Owls there the previous winter, there they were last Thursday afternoon. The owls hunted and perched independently, but they also perched and hunted together at times, which led me to wonder if these were the same 2 owls. And were they a pair? Or were they becoming a pair? It was all very interesting to think about the possibilities.
Photographed later in the afternoon at the eastern edge of the 7-mile prairie, this Short-eared Owl provided a different look and a different color pattern as it perched with the sunlight streaming from the left (500mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/1600 shutter speed, 800 ISO).
After the brief but exciting observations and photo ops in the area 5 to 8 miles south of my office, I couldn’t help but imagine that the entire area could have a scattering of eagles, hawks, and owls. But during the course of the afternoon, I surveyed an extended area and didn’t see any other birds along the way with the exception of 3 groups of Ring-necked Pheasants numbering 3, 6, and 14. As it turned out, the birding action took place within a matter of minutes, punctuated by a few moments of photo excitement that produced some memorable images and an unforgettable experience – but what more can we hope for on a sunny Thursday afternoon? Enjoy your birding activities and Good Luck!
