ryan
@RyanFMandelbaum
Followers
11K
Following
76K
Media
2K
Statuses
21K
bird-brained writer find me here https://t.co/gKm9rA270m (they/them/opinions mine) pls preorder by book (pinned tweet)
outside
Joined September 2015
it's time: please preorder my book, WILD NYC! It's a field guide to nature in nyc and i tried to capture stuff i didnt think other urban nature guides were talkin about. it has lots of my photos and illustrations by the amazing @beck2thefuture. it's good!!
6
17
62
i am begging freelancers and remote workers to consider working at the library instead of a cafe.
778
13K
139K
what do you think it’s like to be a pet. things just happen to you for no explainable reason. now you’re being lifted into the air. now you’re being scolded for… urinating? now you’re wearing a hat and there’s a cake on fire in front of you. what can you do.
166
12K
128K
why should you do that? because our libraries are being defunded and "quiet space to work" is one of the whole points of the library, which is free!! if there's no demand for the library then what ammo will they have against the gutting?.
94
2K
34K
one of the nicest things you can do for someone, i think, is let them get unapologetically excited about something they're passionate about, ask them engaging questions, show them that you're listening, and let them go on for as long as they want.
69
6K
16K
@eperlste @JacquelynGill many libraries do have cafes. and if you wanted to do both, why not buy your coffee at the coffee shop and bring it to the library? many libraries are fine with you drinking beverages with lids in their sitting areas. i'm not pitting one thing against the other.
37
198
13K
you heard it here first folks, barred owls say defund the police.
Louisiana police officer crashes after owl flies into patrol car, starts pecking at him
13
790
4K
If you're just hearing about it, here's what you need to know about the #Strike4BlackLives and related #shutdownSTEM/#ShutDownAcademia movements. thanks for Gizmodo for letting me continue blogging about important things :) .
269
1K
3K
hi, reporting in from southern ecuador, i have a terrible sunburn but it was worth it to get a glimpse at the rarest bird i’ve ever seen: the blue-throated hillstar, which was discovered in 2017 and has only been found on a single mountain
38
293
3K
just thinking about how a single billionaire could pay three months salary to thousands if not tens of thousands of employees without putting a dent in their overall wealth.
15
545
2K
i was driving outside calgary toward a spot for great gray owls but really had to pee so i pulled off onto a side road for some privacy and that's where the great gray owl was
33
178
2K
@RaxKingIsDead house sparrow is literally the platonic form of a spark bird. it is the “nature is everywhere” of birds. this person is a loser.
6
1
2K
do u wanna know how a red crossbill's beak actually works? good because i'm gonna show you
32
388
2K
extremely cool: took a guided bird tour in puerto rico for my birthday and then at the end of the tour the guide said “do you have your field guide with you” and i said yeah here it is and he said do you want me to sign it and i said what and then looked and he co-wrote it.
19
33
2K
imo the best part of being a birder isn’t having a big list or seeing lots of species in a day - it’s the excitement it brings to my every day life, like, walking to the subway and noticing a common loon fly over or hearing a migratory warbler singing in a street tree.
58
130
1K
there's a stained glass window in a church in the UK with one of the most common North American sparrows on it, the white-crowned sparrow, because the British birdwatchers who came to chase a vagrant one in 2008 raised £6000 for the church's restoration
26
175
1K
i'm muting this because i am too busy to meaningfully engage. i'm glad this is resonating with some people. you are welcome to spend your money at a local cafe *and* go to the library. if you don't like the library, sorry! bye everyone.
8
12
1K
@Eve6 man got mad that he lost the "should i resign" poll and now is trying to rig the system so he'll win it if he does it again.
3
20
1K
im a real danmn adult, eat soup no bib at all. no high chair. no mommy to wipe my chin. just pure dexterity. hand eye coordantion. years of practice to get here. spoon to bowl spoon to mouth. thats it. this is grownup life baby.
4
232
1K
i met my first canada jays today. i cannot believe this bird exists. a balding teddy bear. a fearless suet stealer. a curious cuddlebird. if all birds were like this everyone on earth would be a birder
28
217
1K
i want there to be more birders because my thought is that maybe if there was a lot of demand to see birds then maybe we wouldn't let all the birds go extinct.
28
125
1K
if we're ever birding together and you attempt to pet a live wild bird i'm going to swing my binoculars at you.
#Nature gives every #life form the best chance for survival. It doesn't distinguish between its #creations. #Camouflage is one of the best examples to witness this #natural preservation. #ocelair
22
135
1K
i guess this is what i deserve for posting a bug i found in the bathroom to inaturalist
15
71
1K
a good reminder that on migration, virginia rail habitat is “the least likely place you can imagine”
my friend is at the Os game and there’s a Virginia rail just sitting on the field as the game is occurring
6
111
1K
did you know that new york city sits on a biodiversity hotspots? part of what made it so appealing to indigenous people and colonizers was its biodiversity. trying to build atop such a place basically guarantees human-animal interaction. like native muskrats in bodegas.
I refuse to ever go back to New York City
16
116
1K
this afternoon i went up to the apartment roof for a little sky watching where this stunning cerulean warbler was waiting for me in my street tree! wild to see this rare treetop dweller from above. also now the rarest bird i’ve seen from my bed
28
75
1K
when i was in colombia i jokingly told my guide camilo that we'd see a solitary eagle (one of the rarest eagles in the western hemisphere) and then we did (1/4)
8
40
1K
here's the most frequently observed bird in each state according to eBird data
32
161
957
i went back out to try and photograph the comet last night again and then turned around and saw jupiter and saturn so i tried to photograph them with my birding lens. pretty happy with the results tbh
41
91
954
i can't point out exactly what's different about this toucan that makes clear it's a juvenile but you can just tell that it's a stupid little baby and not a regal rainforest spirit
25
107
991
special shout out to the mom on the subway today who, when her son shouted "mommy, that boy is wearing lipstick!" in my direction, replied "yes, and it's very pretty".
7
41
880
i moved apartments this week. it's sad — it was an awesome (and cheap!!) spot in park slope with native trees out front and migratory bird flight lines overhead. i saw 126 bird species from there in the 6 years i lived there, so here's a recap of some of my coolest sightings!.
6
30
928
this originally said "the nicest thing" but i deleted that because the nicest thing you can do for someone is like, pay off all of their loans and expect nothing in return or give them a kidney or help them take down the patriarchy or something.
4
47
870
i finally mustered up the courage to pitch a story to the New York Times
66
89
779
@bijanstephen mandatory death sentence for every president at the end of their second term.
16
49
747
a beginner's guide to seeing tropical birds.toucans: like, telephone wire birds.gorgeous hummingbirds: in every bush.parrots: everywhere but somehow only flying overhead.the boringest brown bird imaginable: mega rare, needs hours-long hike to one spot and you'll only hear it.
12
68
811
wildlife photographers will say that you shouldn't photograph birds on human-made structures, which i find extremely weird. if you're encountering birds in human-altered habitats and only portraying them on "natural" surfaces, you're just presenting fiction.
39
35
747
check it out!!! snapped this pic of the jupiter/saturn conjunction right before i got clouded out.
23
78
743
usually when you pull up to the rare bird chase, the departing birders say "good luck" because it's not guaranteed you'll see the bird. at the long island lark bunting chase, a departing birder instead said to me "have fun with it" because the bird was just standing there
11
72
762
i was out birding yesterday and saw a peregrine harassing something at midday, but when i looked up it wasn’t a bird but my lifer hoary bat! the hoary bat is migratory and the NY barrier islands concentrate reorienting migratory birds, so i assume the same was happening here.
13
62
717
it was the only sticker i had to contribute to this punk bar’s bathroom
6
49
619
new birding goal: photograph a.-house wren in a house .-cactus wren on a cactus.-rock wren on a rock.-winter wren in the winter.-bewick’s wren in a buick.etc.
32
28
572
one of the most incredible birding moments i've had recently was last week, i was looking at a northern mockingbird while a blue jay flew over and called, then after a beat, the mockingbird started making quiet little blue jay calls to itself.
13
41
574
they are called gentoo penguins because they are wittle gentoomen
1
79
644
when nelly furtado says she’s like a bird but doesn’t know where her home is, gotta disagree that birds are like that… knowing where their home is, that’s like birds’ whole deal.
14
49
567
the thing about covid is that i simply don't want to catch the disease that makes your brain smaller.
8
60
559
BUT WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO MIGRATE!!!!! WHAT IF I JUST WANT TO STOMP AROUND AND BE ANGRY ALL DAY???
8
52
545
we couldn’t get married by the state today but thankfully the robins and ghosts served as our witnesses and officiant. so happy to spend forever with @brittanywidseth
78
7
525
in 1979 someone wrote into the british medical journal a note titled ornitherapy which said "as a tranquilizer, birdwatching may be as effective as any drug, but cheaper and safer than many." if that excites you then you should read the thing i post in the replies
6
38
560
going back 5 years through a hot person's media tab and only liking the photos of birds.
5
39
547
guess what: i wrote the cover story of the july-august issue of scientific american!! squawk!!!!.
27
86
485
people reported a "very cooperative" yellow-throated warbler at the cemetery near my house, so i thought i'd try to photograph it. i found it quickly and it stuck around for like 30 seconds but it was dark and rainy so i got no in-focus photos. except for this one
13
38
484
basically, the crossbill's bill is nature's little crowbar and i love that for them. thanks for following along!
9
28
478
birders will be like "i know a place" and then take you to a parking lot behind a closed toys-r-us.
18
42
479
this is a gray catbird appreciation post. it has a hat and a red butt and says meow. a perfect bird
12
42
455
here's what they don't want americans to know about swans: swans as graceful symbols of love is a lie foisted upon us by the british with their invasive mute swans. take pride in our native trumpeter swans: jaunty, awkward behemoths that plod around honking like rubber chickens
14
67
468
just a reminder that my definition of the midwest (bounded by the missouri and ohio rivers) is the perfect definition because it deals with all the awkward edge cases (pittsburgh and st. louis now both midwestern cities, only parts of missouri and the dakotas feeling midwestern)
41
42
465
when you find a lot of woodcocks in one day it feels like that scene from the matrix where neo realizes he's the one and sees everything in the matrix code
10
37
451
@AckermansNicole i want nothing more than to see a black-crowned night heron hop up the side of a tree and hang upside down on a branch like a nuthatch.
5
6
451
a friend and i went to see the hurricane flamingos in pennsylvania, where i learned that flamingos can. walk on water???
12
52
455
I did it. first time. I yelled at a man in the park for letting his dog off leash in a protected area.
20
5
428
there are a few people i can think of who have asked me why red crossbills were my favorite bird and then listened intently as i explained call types and irruptions and the evolutionary story behind their bills and that really made me feel good.
4
7
466
got drinks with my neighbors and they told us that they had a weed in the backyard that they'd grown fondly of and didn't want to pull, and when i looked today they had two giant pokeweeds—a native plant loved by birds—growing by their shed and i was very proud of their instincts.
4
13
451
what's that. *squints* did a bird just drop a fish out of the sky?? wait a second (clicks camera) (looks at photo) (zooms in) oh
7
25
440
canada warblers aren't shy but they like to hang out in shady areas under leaves so i've never gotten a great picture of them. but this one took a liking to a spot right underneath a footbirdge in prospect park, allowing for some very goofy photos
13
25
423
yesterday i thanked the bus driver which caused him to go on an angry loudspeaker tirade about how you shouldn't thank the driver but it was hard to hear so people thought he was saying you *should* thank him and then loudly thanked him as they debarked for the rest of the ride.
14
13
415
bird photography is actually very easy if you set out to make photos like this your goal
15
23
408
today i saw all three of nyc’s grosbeaks- blue, evening, and rose-breasted- in a single tree.
18
7
400
mommy and a baby ????? no it’s just a common tern being eclipsed by a much larger royal tern!! my friends did not laugh at my “mommy and baby” joke even after the first of 5 times i made it while we were looking at the birds which naturally meant i had to tweet it
6
20
427
hello from antarctica. there are a lot of penguins and a lot of ice. the sun sets at 11:30 and comes up at 2. i like it
10
29
450
here's a processed photo of the vermilion flycatcher from this past weekend and my ebird checklist describing the experience!
17
18
378
birder fact: no birder actually uses the term “murder” for a flock of crows. however, most birders use the similarly silly term “murmuration” for a flock of starlings, for some reason.
35
35
401
snapped this photo over the weekend which really shows how different the size can be between two members of the same species. they're both cooper's hawk (you can tell from the shape and markings) but the rear bird is probably a female given how much bigger it is.
11
29
375
mallards will mate with pretty much any species we refer to as a "duck." this is bad for the less common species in their genus, and also makes some extremely messed up looking ducks. so here's a thread of mallard hybrids. first up: mallard x black duck.
23
129
394
hey! i watched tuca and bertie. i really loved it, i laughed and cried a lot, and think everyone should watch it. i'm also a huge dummy who loves birds, so i went birding through the show.
6
75
392
i love finches, so my most-wanted bird for my PR vacation was the island's only native finch, the antillean euphonia. fruit-eating birds like euphonias fared poorly after maria, and have grown harder to find. well, not only did i find one, but i found a pair building a nest!
7
23
391
do you think there’s room on bachelor in paradise for a staff naturalist… i’d just be there to tell them that the yellow-crowned night heron isn’t a penguin and identify the moths at the rose ceremony and stuff like that.
8
22
388
the merlin app calls clay-colored sparrows "incredibly cute" and i didn't see how they were any cuter than all the other sparrows until i took this picture
22
41
388
as a vocal member of the birding community, i'm livid that one of our members could have experienced this kind of trauma that we're all working to eliminate - at the hands of a powerful member of our community. you can read @itsaishawhite's account here:
2
43
368