About my blogs

Welcome to Words of Birds, a blog collection exploring various fascinating aspects of the world of birding and beyond! 

 

The first blog series, The Chittery Chat, explores our shared animacy with birds as living beings who interact with other animals (both within their own species and across different species). As anyone who has taken a walk in spring knows, birds can be loud and chattery and they can sing beautiful songs. Most birds communicate by making various sounds, just like we do. This blog dives into the world of bird communication, or the ‘words’ of birds. Bird communication will be compared to what we know about human communication, largely learned through the field of Linguistics (since this is my background!). What can the study of human language tell us about bird vocalizations and communication? Can it tell us anything at all? Are there similarities and if so what are they?​​​​​​​

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In the second blog series, Birds of Boise (and beyond), you will join me as I explore the vocalizations of various birds in my locality. I live in Boise and spend much of my time visiting and observing the birds in our different ecosystems: in a riparian environment, in the sagebrush steppe of our foothills, and in more urban settings, such as in our backyards and throughout the city. While the focus will largely be on the birds of Boise, I will also feature birds I may encounter on any travels - as there is much more to explore throughout the state of Idaho and even beyond!