BirdNote

On the summer solstice, birds nesting near Juneau, Alaska take advantage of almost 18 1/2 hours between sunrise and sunset. This day in south Texas is considerably shorter, so the Altamira Oriole has only 14 hours to sing. Seattle's Song Sparrows see 16 hours of daylight; Sacramento's only 15.

In June, 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes ordered the burning of Montezuma's renowned aviaries in the Aztec capital. The aviaries contained many of the birds native to Mexico, including perhaps a Brown-backed Solitaire, like this one.

Brown Jays, like this juvenile, make nesting a family affair. The entire flock takes care of a single nest, which holds four eggs laid by one female in the flock. Each bird brings food to the young.

For 30 years, Robert Otto (pictured here) has been putting up nest boxes for bluebirds near his home in northern Michigan.

Each year, the plaintive song of the Eastern Wood-Pewee carries through the forests of eastern North America. For the past 25 years, the number of Wood-Pewees has fallen. But providing economic incentives for private landowners to save forests can help.

In a garden near the McKenzie River in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, a downpour pummels the landscape. Imagine this Rufous Hummingbird out and about, extracting nectar, searching for gnats and aphids. No doubt, she’s feeding nestlings that await her return.

During spring migration, hummingbirds like this Ruby-throat rely on the nectar of flowering plants. But flowers blooming earlier because of warming temperatures could affect them severely.

Mark Borden of Whidbey Island has invited Violet-green and Tree Swallows to nest in his fence. Why? Originally, it was to control the insects on his horse farm. He once watched as a horse fly flew across the pasture. In came a Tree Swallow, and phwapp! It grabbed that fly!

A Bald Eagle that was feeding on the ground suddenly rises up. With two powerful strokes, its massive wings carry it high into a tree, where it lands and looks down. Nature is impersonal, but we feel a connection, don't we? How can we not draw strength from wild creatures we admire?

Strictly birds of the Americas, hummingbirds don't exist in the Old World. John James Audubon, the French naturalist who spent his adult life studying and painting the birds of North America, saw only this Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a bird of eastern North America.

Williamson's Sapsuckers nest in western mountain forests. The radically different plumages of the male and female so confounded 19th-century naturalists that, for nearly a decade, the birds were thought to be of different species.

Springtime in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southeastern California. Cacti and wildflowers glisten with raindrops, and birds begin to sing. A House Finch, a Bewick's Wren, a Cactus Wren, a Mourning Dove, and this Costa's Hummingbird all add their sounds.

Photographer and naturalist Paul Bannick tells of a time in the forests of North Carolina, when he heard Northern Flicker parents urging their chicks to fledge. "There was a young, timid, brown head sticking out of that cavity.

The Peregrine Falcon is the fastest bird on earth. But its speed couldn't help it avoid the dangers of the pesticide DDT. By the 1970s, the species had declined as much as 80-90% across the US. Since the ban of DDT – and with the help of the Endangered Species Act – well, theyyyy're baaaack!

With its beautiful colors, the Lazuli Bunting might just have inspired Navajo artists. In summer, these beautiful singers inhabit the brushy canyons east of the Cascades. And where the Lazuli Bunting sings, you'll often hear the music of Vesper Sparrows and Western Meadowlarks.