Join Boulder County Audubon for presentations by two fantastic birders and educators from here in Boulder County, Hannah Floyd (left) and Ted Floyd (right).
In-Person Gathering - BCAS welcomes everyone back to in-person programs! Doors open at 7 PM for socializing and the program begins at 7:15. For in-person programs, we will follow CDC, State of Colorado, and Boulder County Public Health guidance on the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as policies of the Church that hosts our programs.
At this time, all persons who enter the UU Church building are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. To keep our community healthy, we also ask that everyone who attends in person wear a high-quality mask over your mouth and nose; stay home if you have symptoms, a known exposure to COVID-19, or a positive test result; and confirm a negative result on a rapid antigen test prior to attending, if you have recently tested positive or had symptoms.
Online Gathering - The meeting room will open at 7:10, the program starts at 7:15. Questions for the speaker will be taken from the chat feature of the Zoom session.
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Celebrating the Greatest Bird in the World, the American Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus
Wandering Albatrosses and Peregrine Falcons and Resplendent Quetzals are awesome birds, but Ted Floyd’s favorite of them all is the American Bushtit, an entirely drab micro-birdlet that happens to be the smallest U.S. bird other than a hummingbird. Male and female plumages are identical, and adults are indistinguishable from juveniles; at all stages of the bird’s life, it’s plain gray all over. Why, if it weren’t for the bird’s toothpick of a tail—typically worn and ratty—there wouldn’t be any bird at all! And the calls of bushtits are so feeble and high-pitched that many of us can’t even hear them. Yet bushtits are extraordinary, the most wondrous bird in Boulder County, indeed in all the world. In this encomium to the exalted pixie of Boulder County scrublands and residential neighborhoods, Ted takes us behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the marvels and majesties of the world’s greatest bird.
Bushtits vary subtly by age and sex. Left to right/top to bottom: adult female, juvenile, and adult male. Photos by Ted Floyd.
Ted Floyd is longtime Editor of Birding magazine, the award-winning flagship publication of the American Birding Association. He has written five bird books, including the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America (HarperCollins, 2008) and How to Know the Birds (National Geographic, 2019), and three more are on the way. Ted is also the author of more than 200 popular articles, technical papers, and book chapters on birds and nature. He is especially interested in analyzing bird vocalizations, in interpreting birds and nature for children and beginners, and in applying new media and emerging technologies toward the appreciation of nature. A graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1990) and Penn State University (Ph.D., 1995), Ted has taught biology, math, and statistics to everyone from second graders to advanced graduate students. He and his family live in Lafayette, Colorado.
Birding and iNat-ing at Hog Island
Hannah Floyd was selected as one of the recipients of the 2022 Boulder County Audubon Society’s Hog Island scholarship. In June of 2022, she traveled to Hog Island, Maine, for five days of fantastic birding and “iNat-ing.” During camp, she met other young birders from across the country and learned a lot about seabird research and general natural history from the knowledgeable camp leaders and the other teens.
During Hannah’s talk, she will recount her adventures with various birds like Atlantic Puffins and Black Guillemots through photos and stories. Birds are just the beginning of the delights of the natural world for Hannah, and so she will also share the myriad lichens, dragonflies, parasitic plants, and more from Hog Island.
Species photographed at Hog Island. Left to right/top to bottom: Atlantic Puffin, Common Tern, Pigeon Guillemot. Photos by Hannah Floyd.
Hannah Floyd (she/her) is a high school senior from Lafayette, Colorado. She is interested in most aspects of nature study, especially marine science and polar climate science. Hannah has given presentations and led bird walks and workshops across the country for The Nature Conservancy, Swarovski Optik, and many different bird festivals. She has also been published in the American Birding Association’s Birding magazine several times. In her free time, Hannah plays the oboe and likes to read.