Weekly Bird Report

It’s a juvenile Purple Gallinule with ginormous feet, an appetite for spiders and no fear of people, and it’s the rarest thing in a Cape Cod cranberry bog this fall. Find out what brought it to West Yarmouth and why the harvest may be keeping it fed.

A Crested Caracara spent a month at Wellfleet’s Duck Harbor, drawing birders from all over, then vanished. Then one flapped across the windshield on the way to Red River Beach in Harwich.

When the nor'easter finally let up, a backed-up wave of fall migrants arrived on the Cape, from Black-throated Blue Warblers to a Bell's Vireo. More may be here right now.

Leach's Storm-Petrels, Long-tailed Jaegers, Northern Fulmars, a South Polar Skua and two Sabine's Gulls all rode in on a stubborn nor'easter. Here's a look at who showed up, where to find them, and why the storm just wouldn't leave.

A whale watch out of Barnstable Harbor turns into an unforgettable show of humpbacks, dolphins, and pelagic birds feeding together off Stellwagen Bank. Plus, a Red-necked Phalarope, four species of shearwater, and one very out-of-place Black Vulture in Orleans.

Fall migration turns the yard into a crossroads, from a pale young Blackburnian Warbler foraging on the ground to a bedraggled Broad-winged Hawk pausing mid-journey. Both are headed thousands of miles south, possibly converging in the cloud forests of the Andes.

The Crested Caracara pulled its usual disappearing act in Wellfleet, and a Swallow tailed Kite in Mashpee just set a state record for the latest sighting ever. It's peak shorebird migration season, and it's time these underrated travelers got some airtime, with a beginner's guide to the sandpipers and plovers gathering on Cape Cod's flats before their long flights south.

A Crested Caracara turns up at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, marking the second Cape sighting of this warm-climate raptor this summer. This report covers the species' puzzling northward push since 2020, plus other notable birds including a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Tricolored Heron, and a performative Clapper Rail in West Harwich.

After literally years of trolling us, the weirdest presumed breeding bird on Cape Cod has finally given up the goods. The huge, unmistakable birds in question, known to nest prominently in the tallest tree around, have somehow hidden definitive evidence of actual nests with chicks in them since at least 2022.

That famous Bridled Tern is back in the news again, this time at Seagull Beach in Yarmouth. But there's bigger birding happening on the Vineyard, where a marathon dawn watch at Aquinnah produced 91 species and some early signs of fall songbird migration.

Late-summer Cape Cod brings rare Swallow-tailed Kites and spectacular waves of migrating shorebirds. Find out where to see both before the season flies by.

Shorebird migration is picking up, but the world's friendliest rare bird stole the show. This week, the famous bridled tern toured Cape Cod and the Islands before returning to Scituate.

A rare tropical seabird has spent weeks charming its way around Scituate Harbor, perching on cars, deck railings, and even the heads of beachgoers and their dogs. Bridled Terns almost never show up in Massachusetts outside of hurricanes, let alone linger all summer acting like a friendly parrot. This week we dig into the sighting history, compare it to a more standoffish bird that's been working the coast of Maine and New Hampshire since 2024, and consider a few Cape reports from earlier this summer that may be connected. Plus a theory involving a marooned sailor and a rottweiler named Flotsam.

A Crested Caracara, a tropical bird of prey rarely seen north of Florida and Texas, turned up at Race Point in Provincetown this week, one of several surprising sightings across the Northeast this summer. A look at the species' odd habits, its wandering history in Massachusetts, and a running debate about whether it really belongs with the falcons.

It's all about water. One refilled bird bath brought a flood of orioles, a Wellfleet Bay stream draws in warblers and bluebirds, and a volunteer's photos of daytime owls bathing have to be seen to be believed.

As Whip-poor-wills grow scarce in the region's pine woods, a larger and considerably ruder cousin has taken up residence: the Chuck-will's-widow. Once found no farther north than Virginia, this bird-eating nightjar is now breeding across the Cape and Islands in ever-increasing numbers.

Despite its reputation as a quiet month for birding, June delivers a string of surprises on the Cape and Islands this week, led by multiple rare Gull-billed Tern sightings along the coast. From an unexpected Red Crossbill heard from a driveway to a Mississippi Kite studied from a standstill on the Sagamore Bridge, the birds are overachieving.

A short stop at a Mass Audubon nature playground becomes an insect safari full of parasites, predators, mimics, and a tiny fly with a very big name.

A spring storm delivers rare seabirds, massive flocks of songbirds, and the Cape’s first confirmed Prothonotary Warbler nest.

Wildlife photographer Diane Palomba noticed something strange at Long Pasture: hummingbirds nesting suspiciously close to a Cooper's Hawk. Turns out they knew exactly what they were doing.

Mark Faherty recaps an exciting week of spring migration on Cape Cod, featuring rare ibis sightings, a surprise Chestnut-collared Longspur, and the unofficial arrival of “Ibisfest.”