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ryan

@ryanfm.bsky.social

1.4K followers 300 following 480 posts

bird enjoyer ryanmandelbirder.substack.com please order my book about nyc nature thank you https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ryan-mandelbaum/wild-nyc/9781643263281/?lens=timber-press they/them

www.hachettebookgroup.com

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 20h

in florida they just hang out in suburban parking lots apparently!

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 21h

murder mockingbird

a loggerhead shrike sitting on a fencepost with green in the background. its wings are slightly spread and its beak is slightly open. it is facing right. loggerhead shrikes are big-headed songbirds with a pale gray belly, darker gray back, stout black bill, thick black eye mask, and black wings with a large white spot in the middle of each wing.

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 1d

somehow stumbled into the fact that suntory (the japanese whisky company) runs an online encyclopedia about the birds of japan www.suntory.co.jp/eco/birds/en...

www.suntory.co.jp

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 2d

having seen rainbow starfrontlet in person i am going to go with that one. they are beastly hummingbirds in every sense of the word

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 5d

for me the vomit-like smell of ginkgo fruit is the nostalgic smell of fall, much in the way that rotting garbage and piss is the somewhat less nostalgic smell of summer

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 7d

that's crazy!!!

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 7d

it was a vagrant to suffolk county, new york! seen by lots of birders here

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 7d

woof, the fourth record, my bad!

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 8d

i was so lucky that i got to chase this common cuckoo - only the second ever in the lower 48 - in ny state last week. having never seen a eurasian or african cuckoo species before, i couldn't believe how big and conspicuous it was—cuckoos are mostly shy and hard-to-see in the western hemisphere.

a gray hawk like bird with thin stripes on its tail and back and white flecking on its face but with a thin slightly downcurved beak flying to the left with wings spread against a field with wooden posts.

the same bird perched on the string connecting wooden fenceposts in a weedy field, wings held back to balance, looking right.

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 8d

exactly

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 10d

it is objectively true that there are no good billionaires. but it's also true that if *i* ended up with a billion dollars, i would be a very good billionaire

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Reposted by ryan

Andy McGlashen @amcglashen.bsky.social · 11d

Good news from @ryanfm.bsky.social 🪶https://www.audubon.org/magazine/buckle-birders-winter-looking-finchy

Buckle Up, Birders—This Winter Is Looking Finchy

Good numbers of siskins, grosbeaks, and other favorites could be headed your way, according to the latest edition of the annual Winter Finch Forecast.

www.audubon.org

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 18d

up at 4:00am stewing because one time twelve years ago an entire room full of midwesterners laughed at me, a new yorker, for pronouncing drawer "drawa"

Reposted by ryan

Jen Cross @jencross.bsky.social · 19d

Here is an ant-mimicking spider from the Amazon rainforest. I was heading down a trail back to our boat and saw it and got a few shots. It's one of 3 observations of the species on @inaturalist.bsky.social
(Myrmecium deladanta) Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
#Arachtober

A dark brown spider that looks exactly like an ant, but it has eight legs. It is viewed from above and is standing on a leaf.

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 19d

young sheldon is always on the TV next to my favorite stairmaster at the gym and unfortunately i have come to enjoy it

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 20d

very big little guy behavior in orlando last week watching this purple gallinule pulling a lily pad over and folding it over to get better footing and feed on the flower underneath

purple gallinule, orlando wetlands

YouTube video by Ryan Mandelbaum

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by ryan

Hannah Miller @hannahem.bsky.social · 21d

I'm 100% with Ryan on this (and not just because I was on the same trip)!! Anthropomorphizing can of course go too far, but I've seen over and over again in my outreach work that a little bit can really help people connect to nature more!

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 22d

maybe a little different from my usual newsletter posts. but also, we should talk to animals more.
ryanmandelbirder.substack.com/p/we-should-...

we should talk to animals more

an essay on what i really mean when i call them "little guys"

ryanmandelbirder.substack.com

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 21d

but also undeniably has the most bird diversity in the eastern united states

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 22d

not any more than i am

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 22d

maybe a little different from my usual newsletter posts. but also, we should talk to animals more.
ryanmandelbirder.substack.com/p/we-should-...

we should talk to animals more

an essay on what i really mean when i call them "little guys"

ryanmandelbirder.substack.com

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 23d

had a work trip to orlando so i went a few days early to see what all the fuss was about. i had an amazing time and figured i'd share the full trip report here!

ebird.org/tripreport/4...

Florida! - eBird Trip Report

04 Oct, 2025 – 09 Oct, 2025. Created by Ryan Mandelbaum

ebird.org

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 23d

new blog from google

Meghan Bartels @meghanbartels.bsky.social · 23d

The recording didn’t work.

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 23d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 24d

something i loved about florida was realizing it's as if someone tried to recreate the tropics using north american flora and fauna. i loved seeing epiphyte-covered red maples in tropical hammocks, or pileated woodpeckers flying between grassland palms like crimson-crested woodpeckers on the llanos

ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 26d

i knew that the birdwatching was good in florida but i wasn't ready for just how many and how present the birds would be - birds that i expected to be in pristine habitat would just be in parking lots, street trees, roadside ditches, and vacant lots 🦉

a yellow throated warbler, a small black and gray and white bird with a yellow throat, in a live oak. i photographed this bird in a parking lot.

a snail kite, a slate gray raptor with an orange beak and orange feet, sitting in a young baldcypress. this bird was in a city park.

a florida scrub jay - a blue jay sized and shaped bird but without the crest, atop a tree. this bird was in a reserve behind a library.

a roseate spoonbill - a bright pink wading bird with a long flat spoon shaped beak, across a water feature in a mowed lawn. this bird was in a suburban housing development.

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ryan @ryanfm.bsky.social · 26d

it is actually bonkers that florida is called the sunshine state, i have never been to a rainier place in my life

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