Alisa Opar

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When Nora Auston moved to a new house in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago, she’d long been thinking about building a catio. Her family had revoked roaming privileges for Bertie, “our grouchy old lady cat,” after three strikes: Bertie had harassed a neighbor’s elderly dog, and she needed professional rescue when she got stuck 50 feet up in a redwood. And then there were the dozens of dead birds Bertie brought home. “That cat was a total pain in the butt outside,” says Auston, who has never allow…

Pooling research from numerous international partners, Audubon’s Migratory Bird Initiative promises to paint the fullest picture yet of the awe-inspiring phenomenon.

A photographer spent years on rushing streams in the Rocky Mountains documenting the remarkable American Dipper.

When Amanda Gallinat went looking for an avian-themed Spotify playlist, she came up empty. So the biologist made her own. Gallinat studies ecological and evolutionary drivers of species assembly—where plants and animals live now, why, and where are they likely to be in the future. During a long stretch of computer-based work, she found herself missing the connection to birds she’d previously had as a graduate student, when she spent countless hours outside observing interactions between birds…

We’re in need of distraction. In this time of isolation and self-quarantine, movie theaters, museums, bars, and restaurants are closed, and we’re binged-out on TV shows. We can’t do what we’d normally be doing in our spare time—wandering around outside unfettered, searching for migratory birds streaming through our cities, soaking up the splendors of spring. So we turned to several of our favorite authors to recommend books that will help us get that fix. If you’re craving to get outside but can…

At 17 years old, the Vancouver native already has more than a decade of experience photographing birds. His winning shots show it.

Since 1906 presidents of both parties have used the Antiquities Act to safeguard hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands as national monuments. Yet some Republicans have bitterly opposed certain designations in the last two decades, and the 2016 GOP platform called for amending the legislation to reduce the president’s authority to create monuments. Today President Trump will sign an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to review national monument designations made by…

In the late fall in Montana, the early evening quiet is often pierced by a cacophony of honking from Snow Geese flying high overhead. Hundreds of thousands of the magnificent birds stop at lakes in the state to rest and refuel on their annual trek from breeding grounds in the far north to their overwintering sites in the south. Last week as many as 10,000 geese, likely forced to land amid a snowstorm, settled on the toxic waters of the Berkeley Pit in Butte. Officials are still tallying the dea…

What to pack, whether you’re hiking through a boreal forest or photographing avian species from a boat.

Pack these items to ensure that you’re ready for whatever you encounter in the field.

Tortoise biologist Tim Shields is trying to keep an endangered species from being eaten by ravens—without harming a feather in the process.

After more than a decade of work, the collaborative approach to protecting the bird pays off.

In Canada’s remote Wood Buffalo National Park, the endangered whooper continues its comeback—one (soggy) nest at a time.

At the world’s remotest nesting colony, the Crazy Ant Strike Team beats back its seabird-killing enemy with spray guns, poison... and cat food.

Two years after getting prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the energy giant takes aim at the law itself.

As the sun dips in the Texas sky, the soft whooshing from Bracken Cave grows louder and louder. Finally, countless numbers of Mexican free-tailed bats appear, swirling in a vortex as they climb out of the cave and pour into the evening sky in search of insects. Located on San Antonio’s suburban fringe, Bracken is the summer home of the world’s largest bat colony. All told, 20 million free-tails migrate here every March to raise their young before returning to Mexico in November.The cave is a rar…

The Pacific Coast saw record numbers of dead Cassin’s Auklets this winter. We dive in to see what went wrong.

The free pass is over. On Friday, Duke Energy Renewables pleaded guilty to the deaths of more than 150 protected birds at two of its Wyoming wind power sites and agreed to pay $1 million in fines. It marks the first time a wind energy company been prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, despite the fact that numerous projects are known killing grounds of protected avian species. “In this plea agreement, Duke Energy Renewables acknowledges that it constructed these wind projects in a man…

Dining in Japan can be quite the wild experience—and not because of the cuisine. Some bars have live penguins. Cat coffee shops that allow patrons to play with the felines. There’s even a café with two resident goats for customers to pet. Now people are flocking to owl cafes. The live-bird establishments first popped up late last year, with more opening in Tokyo and Osaka this past summer, the gaming site Kotaku.com reports. “Some of the cafes even serve owl-themed snacks. Some of them allow yo…