Check out the trailer for our 75th episode of OutBirding. For this episode, we’re back to the birthplace of Steve and Iris (the stars of episode 58, "Black Vulture Bungalow"): Austin, Texas, a city of not two, but three tails: The Cat, the Squirrel, and the Fox. Bret Whitney and neighbor Candace Ely give us the play-by-play of a squirrelly transfer of goods destined to sustain a family of foxes living under a friend’s backyard porch.  Talk about “Keeping Austin Weird”!

Watch the episode trailer for a first look at our new episode, Mississippi Kites nesting in Austin.

Y’all, the city of Austin, Texas has been among the fastest-growing in the US for years, and now an avian newcomer to this well-wooded urban environment seems to have joined the ranks: the Mississippi Kite. Over just the past few years, summertime sightings of the kites have become increasing frequent, and the first nest was found in 2018.  In July of 2021, OutBirding’s Bret Whitney was home–instead of deep in the Brazilian Amazon–and he was able to document the action at Austin’s second confirmed Mississippi Kite nest. The two energetic youngsters were in quite different stages of development, and we’ll also see some behaviors that have apparently not been chronicled before.  Check it out!

Our 58th episode of OutBirding has hit the internet - check out this trailer for a first look at the show.

Have you ever seen a vulture nest?  Despite these birds being quite common and widespread, chances are your answer is “No,” because vulture nest sites tend to be secluded and mostly inaccessible to people. So, when OutBirding team member Bret Whitney heard about a Black Vulture nest in the attic of an abandoned house in Austin, Texas, he planned to make the most of the rare opportunity.  The result is Black Vulture Bungalow, this week’s episode of OutBirding with Field Guides.  Join Bret as he introduces us to an entertaining and remarkably accommodating family of Black Vultures, and also some of his fine neighbors, as the young birds, Steve and Iris, fledge from their nest cavity into the big, wide world.

Our short trailer offers a first look at the new episode from OutBirding with Field Guides. Please subscribe for the full episode and our complete video library.

On March 30th, 2021, a wonderful new natural history book from Knopf began hitting bookstores everywhere - Jonathan Meiburg’s A Most REMARKABLE Creature, the Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey.  It’s everything caracaras, and so much more, as Jonathan and Bret Whitney take us on a journey through 65 million years and tens of thousands of miles of South American landscapes.  We learn a great deal about this odd group of New World raptors, most closely related to falcons, as we accompany Jonathan from the remote outer islands of the Falklands group, where he studied Striated Caracaras, through the Andean altiplano and Amazonia to the ancient Guianan Shield.  Many colorful personalities populate his pages, from such early caracara contemplators as...