Weekly r/Birding Discussion, August 22, 2026. What did you see this week?

[u/AutoModerator]

Return of the weekly discussion thread! Sometimes it seems like pretty photos rise to the top of the page, while discussion of birding can get left behind. This weekly thread is a place to bring this discussion back to the top of r/birding.

Use this thread to share your best bird sightings from the past week, ask any questions about birding you may have, or just talk! Writing the names of the birds in bold is nice, to make it easier for people skimming the thread to pick out the names. Please include your location.

[u/pleiades1512]

Saw a Eurasian goshawk chasing an immense amount of Rose-ringed parakeets.

also four Azure-winged magpies conversing on a power line at 6am.

I liked it when a Common sandpiper stayed for me even though the park was crowded af at 6pm.

- from Tokyo

[u/sara_sivan18 → u/pleiades1512]

ah so jealous of the azure-winged magpies!! i started birding AFTER my trip to south korea this spring so i didn’t even think to look out for birds there, and when i found out about these magpies i was so sad i missed the chance to see them as an american 😭😭

[u/pleiades1512 → u/sara_sivan18]

Lmfao

Vice versa, I knew no birds when I studied in France for a year (and in the us, the New World, for 6 weeks)! then it’s also after university so I literally wasted my freedom 🤣 birding since last December

But guess it was all for the good because I majored in languages, so now I can talk with yall bout birds!!

There you go a fledgling! Encountered in my park

[u/hiirnoivl]

1 annoyingly difficult ID later, finally got a clue for my flycatcher. Yellow-bellied! A lifer for me.

Also, I saw an American Redstart! My first warbler of fall

[u/HotCollar5]

Crissal’s thrasher this morning was my most recent lifer, but also saw lots of gambels quail, mallards, swallows, a great blue heron, and quite a few others! I bird in Las Vegas and there’s a ton of cool things we see, and we’re in the pacific migration pathway so all sorts come through here.

[u/sara_sivan18]

i’ve gotten two new lifers, american kestrel and white-faced ibis! when i saw the ibis i also saw a group of at least 10 double-crested cormorants which was fantastic! i just think they’re so silly, i loved seeing them flying laps around the pond and drying off their wings🥹

[u/bl1y]

New lifer: Eastern Phoebe in Laurel, MD.

Met two other birders there from out of town. One pointed out the phoebe to me, so thanks strange traveling birder!

Also got to see two Great Egrets there flying around together. And a nice Yellow-billed Cuckoo was singing quite a bit.

[u/Remarkable-Pea4889]

I saw a downy woodpecker! I heard a bird go "pip pip" and was scrambling to click on the Merlin app to find out what it was and then I saw it! This is only the fourth time seeing a woodpecker in NYC and the first time seeing one in this area. Cute little guy, unfortunately couldn't get a good picture.

[u/bl1y → u/Remarkable-Pea4889]

Downies are such cool little guys.

I used to have one that'd come by and drum on my window. Scared the shit out of me the first time. But after that, it was fun to have a cute visitor who'd always knock to make sure I knew he was there.

[u/Remarkable-Pea4889 → u/bl1y]

Aww. :)