August 2019

Publications
Watching Backyard Birds

Current Issue: August 2019

The August issue of WBB is destined to be a keepsake! Co-founder of Bird Watcher’s Digest, the company that publishes this magazine, Elsa Thompson passed away unexpectedly on May 25, 2019. The WBB staff honors its matriarch in this issue. The aptly named gray catbird is a regular summer visitor to many backyards in the eastern two-thirds of the United States and southern Canada—though many a birder has been fooled into looking for a feline after hearing a catbird’s soft mew. Birdsquatch, our hairiest columnist, answers reader questions about how to attract more hummingbirds and how to thwart an aggressive hummingbird bully. Find all this and more in the August 2019 issue!

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Issue Features

Species Profile: Gray Catbird: Some Bird Names Are Just Perfect by Eirik A.T. Blom

Slipping Away by Diane Porter

Watcher at the Window: Late Summer Brings Many Bird-Watching Delights by Julie Zickefoose

Robin and Cardinal Caught Co-nesting by Karl and Steve Maslowski

My Backyard: Window TV Features Bird Family Dramas by Barb Gorges

Ask Birdsquatch

Short Stories from Al by Al Batt

Life in Death by Diane Porter

The aptly named gray catbird is a regular summer visitor to many backyards in the eastern two-thirds of the United States and southern Canada—though many a birder has been fooled into looking for a feline after hearing a catbird’s soft mew. Photo by A. Reago and C. McClarren / Wikimedia.

Departments

Note from WBB: In Memory of Elsa Thompson

Bird Bites: DIY ‘Umbrella’ for Your Bird Feeders

Elsa Thompson, co-founder of BWD and WBB (left) and her son BWD/WBB editor Bill Thompson, III (right). Elsa Thompson passed away unexpectedly on May 25, 2019.