Robert Francis
@birdhistory.bsky.social
Writing about birds in people history and people in bird history
birdhistory.substack.com
birdhistory.substack.com
Pinned
Some personal news: I’m writing a book!
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
Some personal news: I’m writing a book!
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
November 24, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Some personal news: I’m writing a book!
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
the most ☺️ bird i've ever seen
November 20, 2025 at 6:42 PM
the most ☺️ bird i've ever seen
I want someone to make a Merlin app but it's just Mark Catesby's descriptions of birds from 1732.
"This Bird, by its ungrateful brawling Noise, seems at Variance and displeased with all others" is a great field mark
"This Bird, by its ungrateful brawling Noise, seems at Variance and displeased with all others" is a great field mark
November 20, 2025 at 5:49 PM
I want someone to make a Merlin app but it's just Mark Catesby's descriptions of birds from 1732.
"This Bird, by its ungrateful brawling Noise, seems at Variance and displeased with all others" is a great field mark
"This Bird, by its ungrateful brawling Noise, seems at Variance and displeased with all others" is a great field mark
This feels important to me
November 19, 2025 at 2:26 PM
This feels important to me
Nighthawks nesting on an apartment roof in Brooklyn, 1914
November 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Nighthawks nesting on an apartment roof in Brooklyn, 1914
Every day you don't go birding is a day closer to death
October 25, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Every day you don't go birding is a day closer to death
Birding is clearly having a cultural moment. What it would take to make this a political moment? Birds are declining at an alarming rate and the 100M birdwatchers w/ the $107B they spend on birding yearly haven't emerged as a political constituency. It's a hobby, not a movement.
October 25, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Birding is clearly having a cultural moment. What it would take to make this a political moment? Birds are declining at an alarming rate and the 100M birdwatchers w/ the $107B they spend on birding yearly haven't emerged as a political constituency. It's a hobby, not a movement.
Reposted by Robert Francis
This creed hasn’t changed: man above beasts, profit above life. We still trade extinction for “growth,” still justify destruction as destiny. This isn’t fringe—it’s mainstream, rooted in 10,000 years of monotheistic dominion.
This was written in 1879, just a few years before passenger pigeons disappeared from the wild. These people are still out there
October 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
This creed hasn’t changed: man above beasts, profit above life. We still trade extinction for “growth,” still justify destruction as destiny. This isn’t fringe—it’s mainstream, rooted in 10,000 years of monotheistic dominion.
This was written in 1879, just a few years before passenger pigeons disappeared from the wild. These people are still out there
October 14, 2025 at 8:48 PM
This was written in 1879, just a few years before passenger pigeons disappeared from the wild. These people are still out there
Here’s a great little story from 1885 about a semi-wild stork? heron? crane? stalking around Memphis “exactly like Oscar Wilde” subsisting entirely on house sparrows, for which it was undoubtedly considered a public servant
October 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Here’s a great little story from 1885 about a semi-wild stork? heron? crane? stalking around Memphis “exactly like Oscar Wilde” subsisting entirely on house sparrows, for which it was undoubtedly considered a public servant
Typical craigslist ad
October 13, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Typical craigslist ad
After passenger pigeons disappeared people tried using house sparrows for their shooting contests instead, which they hoped would kill two birds with one stone
October 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
After passenger pigeons disappeared people tried using house sparrows for their shooting contests instead, which they hoped would kill two birds with one stone
A list of birds that once frequented New York City, but had disappeared by 1923. It's encouraging that nearly every one that has not gone extinct can at least occasionally be spotted in the city.
October 10, 2025 at 7:39 PM
A list of birds that once frequented New York City, but had disappeared by 1923. It's encouraging that nearly every one that has not gone extinct can at least occasionally be spotted in the city.
To be a bobwhite in a potato field hootin with my bobwhite wife
September 26, 2025 at 3:31 PM
To be a bobwhite in a potato field hootin with my bobwhite wife
Americans saw extinction as an inevitable consequence of progress, connected to native peoples' removal. "The passenger pigeon - the very image of exultant wildness - will soon be a rarity," having "departed w/ the disappearance of savagery in the land. " - Harper's Weekly, 1889
September 24, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Americans saw extinction as an inevitable consequence of progress, connected to native peoples' removal. "The passenger pigeon - the very image of exultant wildness - will soon be a rarity," having "departed w/ the disappearance of savagery in the land. " - Harper's Weekly, 1889
One candidate for best folk name is the Red-bellied Woodpecker, which apparently went by Chad
September 23, 2025 at 2:17 AM
One candidate for best folk name is the Red-bellied Woodpecker, which apparently went by Chad
schnip schnap, they're eating my peas
Incredible story from Alexander Wilson, America's first ornithologist, in 1812.
Incredible story from Alexander Wilson, America's first ornithologist, in 1812.
September 22, 2025 at 8:14 PM
schnip schnap, they're eating my peas
Incredible story from Alexander Wilson, America's first ornithologist, in 1812.
Incredible story from Alexander Wilson, America's first ornithologist, in 1812.
Having names for plants and animals is our starting point for interacting with nature. I think that's discouraging for a lot of people because they don't know the names for things around them (me included!) but instead why don't we just… make them up?
Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.
Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots
These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?
birdhistory.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Having names for plants and animals is our starting point for interacting with nature. I think that's discouraging for a lot of people because they don't know the names for things around them (me included!) but instead why don't we just… make them up?
Reposted by Robert Francis
Another excellent piece here, this is the best bird writing in the biz right now
Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.
Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots
These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?
birdhistory.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Another excellent piece here, this is the best bird writing in the biz right now
Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.
Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots
These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?
birdhistory.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.
If you're my enemy, this is how I'm regarding you
September 17, 2025 at 7:28 PM
If you're my enemy, this is how I'm regarding you
While "odd duck" and "silly goose" both began their rise to prominence in the 1990s, it seems like "odd duck" is of truly recent origin, while "silly goose" has enjoyed the periodic resurgence in popularity, most recently in the 1870s.
September 16, 2025 at 12:32 AM
While "odd duck" and "silly goose" both began their rise to prominence in the 1990s, it seems like "odd duck" is of truly recent origin, while "silly goose" has enjoyed the periodic resurgence in popularity, most recently in the 1870s.
Reposted by Robert Francis
I wrote about the Reiser brothers and their hilarious, disgusting Listers documentary for Slate:
slate.com/culture/2025...
slate.com/culture/2025...
One of the Funniest Documentaries of the Year Is Streaming for Free on YouTube
Listers is a journey into the dark and cringy heart of one of the world’s most peculiar hobbies.
slate.com
September 15, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I wrote about the Reiser brothers and their hilarious, disgusting Listers documentary for Slate:
slate.com/culture/2025...
slate.com/culture/2025...
Guano miners on Laysan Island, 1891.
September 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Guano miners on Laysan Island, 1891.
Reposted by Robert Francis
The Pittsburgh/sooty bird one, of course, is real:
Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS
Atmospheric black carbon has long been recognized as a public health and environmental
concern. More recently, black carbon has been identified as ...
www.pnas.org
September 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The Pittsburgh/sooty bird one, of course, is real:
Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....