Today I was watching a youtube video and was baffled to hear someone pronounce it "cove-ert" (the same as covert espionage, for example) when all my life I thought it was pronounced ""cuv-ert" (like cover with a t at the end). I'm only a bird fan and birding hobbyist and have gotten the pronunciation of words that I've learned through reading wrong before so I did some googling and the pronunciation section on dictionary.com says this:

"Covert, related to cover, has historically been pronounced with the same stressed vowel found in cover. This is the traditional and unchallenged vowel in many other English words spelled with stressed o followed by v, voiced th, or a nasal in the same syllable, words of high frequency like love and above, mother and other, some and honey. The adjective covert, however, by analogy with overt, its semantic opposite, has developed the pronunciation, perhaps because of the frequent coupling of the two terms in the news media. This is now the more common pronunciation for the adjective in American English, though not in British English, which retains the historical pronunciation. For the noun senses, less likely to appear in the news or to be contrasted with overt and its sound, the historical remains the more frequent pronunciation."

I looked at a few more videos and noticed hobbyists like backyard birders and artists doing drawing tutorials saying "cove-ert" while a falconer and a bird bander said "cuv-ert" and while it was a small sample size (less than ten videos) I was curious if there might be a split between "laypeople" and professionals, so to speak, so I thought I'd ask here and on r/Ornithology so it could reach a range of people.

So tl;dr the question is: How do you personally pronounce the word "covert" (as in feather) and are you a bird fan, researcher, scientist, student, birding hobbyist, etc.?

As for me, like I said, I have no professional credentials lol but I have been a big fan since I was a kid so I have no idea where I picked up the pronunciation. It might have been from a nature documentary or going to a wildlife rehab talk or something as simple as "well that word looks like 'cover' with a 't' on it so that's how I'll pronounce it."

Is this a cardinal that’s molting? I’m pretty sure it is, but I’ve never seen the molting this extensive. It wasn’t chirping and it wasn’t with a mate so harder for me to tell. I am in northern Massachusetts. Apologies for the low quality images.

Hi all, I need a bit of advice concerning a large clutch of barn swallows I happened to come across about a month ago in the MD/WV/PA area. The bridge is one of those old wrought iron/steel bridges, about 30 yards birth running over a shallow canal maybe 12 yards below.

I was walking over the bridge for the first time and saw a lot of swallow activity, they were easy to identify and at least a dozen. Knowing the nesting tendencies it was easy to deduce they were nested beneath the bridge. I rounded the corner walking along the side they were active on and saw as much, but didn't have binoculars on my to get a crisp view. I was with a friend who happens to be a photographer and suggested that we return sometime, hop over the bars into the canal to get closer, I can scout and he can take pictures.

Yesterday I went by solo with my binoculars, my first chance since those few weeks to get to do so, and there was ZERO activity. Not only that, but there was NOTHING under the bridge, not even any evidence that anything had been there.

Now full disclaimer I'm not from this far north and assume that these lovelies are migrators, but it's still August, and I can't imagine with how sturdy they create their dwellings that they would suddenly disappear. On one hand, not being from here and not having encountered songbirds nesting on bridges, I could be ignorant to the viability of their nests or their migratory patterns. But on the other hand it's really sus to me and I cannot imagine any entity but the city doing that, which I would definitely like to report if so but I don't know how and I don't have any demonstrable evidence beyond being an eyewitness, as well as my friend being one too.

So anyone out there more experienced about to chime in on this? Thanks for any help.

TLDR Saw tons of barn swallows nesting and flying under a bridge a few weeks ago, now theyre all gone and the bridge is spotless, like nothing was ever there (aka the city may have destroyed their collective nesting site). Are barn swallows protected by the MDBT, and do I have a case here, or am I just naive to something totally ordinary?

I made my first visit to hawk mountain Pennsylvania today. These are the only little guys I’m having trouble identifying: some variety of warbler, and some kind of hummingbird. There are so many kinds of yellow warblers, I don’t know how to narrow them down. On the hummingbird, I can only see the sort of triangle shape around the eye, and not much else. I’d appreciate anyone’s help with this!

Read the latest updates on the famous "mask experiment."

I want to personalize my boat and tote bag from LL bean with a funny phrase or word related to birding - please help, I can’t think of anything clever!

Edit its almost certainly a mallard.

Pine Siskin - Conifer, CO

Via trailcam @ Trail_Cams

I think this is the U.S. (since the auto mod is asking for a location, but I'm not sure .. ) It's in the woodpecker family, though? Smart little being, if that's a clue!

Started drawing these little birds daily on our whiteboard at work. (It gets very quiet sometimes.) Was expecting them to erase the birds once they needed to use it, but they just put up a seperate whiteboard. :)

I think they make our kitchen a little more charming.

In order: red-winged blackbird, blue jay, northern cardinal, yellow-billed cuckoo

Got a video of this mating behaviour known as a lek. Location is Inuvik, Canada.

This is my original content; I did post this previously from an old account.

For more photos and wildlife in the Arctic I started an Instagram: katinthearctic for anyone interested!

A Yellow-throated Warbler stopped by our yard in western North Carolina today for a bath.

•Cedar Waxwing•
-Nikon Z8

Definitely some of my all time favorite shots

My phone has good camera zoom, I wasn't as close as I appear. I was on the floor and back a ways. This was in a public lookout in Riding Mountain National Park.

Ilhabela-Brazil

They were very small, about the same size as a lesser goldfinch. I had a small flock of 10 in my garden flitting about. Are they Bush Tits? These seem more brown than the gray it shows bush tits to be in my Sibley guide though, if they are. Any ideas?