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Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr.bsky.social
13K followers 822 following 908 posts

NYT bestselling author of Becoming Earth (Random House) ✵ Contributing writer, New York Times Magazine ✵ Naturalist, wildlife gardener & photographer, baker ✵ 🇱🇧🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 ✵ Surname rhymes with neighbor ✵ www.ferrisjabr.com

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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
-The Great Owl in The Secret of NIMH -The nightmare scenes and repair shop "vivisections" in The Brave Little Toaster -When Rabbit of Disney's Winnie the Pooh gets lost in the misty forest and every unseen ribbitting frog and leaf-munching caterpillar becomes a terrifying portent of imminent doom
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Siri Carpenter @siricarpenter.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is tonight (Tuesday). Join me and @ferrisjabr.bsky.social for this chat about The Best Science Stories and How They Work, and Ferris’s brilliant contribution to the book.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Found this exceptionally fuzzy moth (Tolype distincta) on our doorstep yesterday. The striking raised crest of dark, metallic scales is thought to be part of their camouflage. Caterpillars feed on Douglas fir and other conifers. I moved them to leaf litter so they wouldn’t get stepped on.
A very wooly grey and white moth sitting on a stone doorstep with wings folded. Fluffy legs and fuzzy butt. An odd Mohawk-like streak of brassy scales on their thorax.
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Marina Richie @kingfisherjourney.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Do you live in the Portland area? I'll be in conversation with Ferris Jabr, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Earth, this Monday, September 14th at 7 pm at Powell's Books: lnkd.in/p/gWmKbGhW @ferrisjabr.bsky.social @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social @powells.bsky.social #birds
lnkd.in
Marina Richie in Conversation With Ferris Jabr | Marina Richie
Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees is coming to Powell's Books in downtown Portland. I'm honored to be in conversation with Ferris Jabr, New York Times best-selling author of Becoming...
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Overhead view of our backyard from the same vantage point. August 2020 vs. August 2026 From a derelict grass lawn to a thrumming wildlife garden. Always growing, always changing. Every year a bit different from the last.
Aerial view of backyard in Portland, Oregon. On the left, a haggard grass lawn with pieces of cardboard and plastic pipes laid out to mark potential locations of a pond, flagstone path, and raised beds. On the right, the same backyard viewed from the same place, now packed with green vegetation and flowers.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Bay Area Folks: I’ll be giving a talk + signing books at the renowned @exploratorium.bsky.social the evening of this Thurs, Sep 3, part of the museum’s popular After Dark program. Tickets available here: www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calend... Hope to see you there!
Poster for said event. Program from 6PM to 10PM. Talk at 8PM.
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 26/08/2026
DEVASTATING FLOOD Security camera footage shows the moment the flood crashes through the Nepal-China border. The flash flood wipes out everything in its path. People, houses, roads, and power projects were swept away in Nepal, while officials in Tibet said they feared “major casualties.”
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Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The source of the flood in Nepal is a collapsed glacier 🧪⚒️
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/08...
nytimes.com
Live Updates: Helicopters Rescue Nepal Flood Survivors, With More Than 1,000 Still Missing
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 27/08/2026
Nepal flash flood: more than 1,500 missing, mostly tourists, after disaster kills at least 165 at Tibet border
theguardian.com
Nepal flash flood: more than 1,500 missing, mostly tourists, after disaster kills at least 165 at Tibet border
Entire populated areas swept away after glacial collapse causes catastrophic flood in mountainous region popular with trekkers and pilgrims * Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates * What we know so far * Have you been affected by the flash floods? Nearly 1,500 people are missing, the majority of whom are tourists, authorities have said, after a catastrophic flash flood hit Nepal and Tibet, roaring down valleys and wiping out entire villages, with the preliminary death toll standing at 165. Rescuers are racing to locate people missing in the mountainous region popular with trekkers and pilgrims, including the hundreds of nationals from India, the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Continue reading...
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Looking for a gorgeous and hardy plant that is native to much of North America, easy to grow from seed, capable of reaching tree-like stature and mass in just a few months, and that feeds not only native pollinators, caterpillars, and birds, but people, too? I give you: the Sunflower!
Collage of photos of sunflowers in a garden: several mammoth sunflowers with yellow heads plus a multi-branched auburn variety. Native bees visiting the flowers. A goldfinch eating the seeds.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
🧵Thread on the fascinating phenomenon that is the multi-species foraging flock: If different species are competing for finite resources, why would they band together like this? Research suggests that by doing so they enhance their chances of finding food, flushing out insects, and avoiding predators
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I love when multi-species flocks of birds descend upon the garden to bathe, forage, spar, and frolic. Today was a record-breaker for number of bird species in the garden simultaneously: chickadees, juncos, sparrows, wrens, goldfinches, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, nuthatches, and grosbeaks!
Collage of nine photos of named birds, ranging from yellow and black goldfinches to red-breasted nuthatches and grosbeaks to grey-brown chickadees and sparrows, plus a small downy woodpecker with a red cap and an Anna’s hummingbird with a shimmering magenta throat.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
New species sighting in the garden! Another impressive mimic: the Western hornet fly. Look for the bulbous eyes and waggling wings. Most sources describe this as a fairly rare species. This is my first sighting in 6 years, though I’d wager they’ve been in the yard before, sneaky and unnoticed.
Photo of described insect. It has the shape of a bulbous fly but the yellow and black markings of a wasp.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
New bee in the garden! I thought this leafcutter looked a bit different from the rest, but it took a while to get decent photos. This is the horn-faced leafcutter bee (Megachile fidelis). Check out those chompers!
Three photos of said bee. Roughly the size of a honey bee, mostly yellow, somewhat fuzzy, with very distinctive bold black stripes and large serrated jaws reminiscent of some beetle pincers.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Looking sharp! This is a cuckoo leafcutter bee, aka a sharptail bee (Coelioxys). Much like some cuckoo birds, they parasitize the nests of other species. Females use their dagger-like tails to slice open the nest of a leafcutter bee and lay their own egg within.
Photo of described bee on a small pink daisy-like flower. She is green-eyed with a fluffy thorax and a strikingly pinched abdomen ending in a blade-like tail and adorned with black and white stripes. Same bee viewed from the side.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Skippers out and about. Like tiny flying Persian carpets.
Photo of a small fuzzy butterfly with wings of orange and burnt umber perched on a light purple daisy. Same butterfly from a different angle.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
An ambitious leafcutter bee struggles to transport her especially hefty cargo. For some reason this reminds me of visiting a bookstore.
A leafcutter bee with legs wrapped around a piece of yellow leaf larger than she is. Same bee struggling to take off with said leaf.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Multiple dragonfly species have been breeding in the backyard pond for several years, but this is the first year I’ve repeatedly witnessed and documented the egg-laying process in the moment.
A dragonfly with tattered wings arching and dipping her tail into a pond to lay eggs. Her reflection is visible in the water, almost forming a closed loop. Same dragonfly hovering above the pond. Mottled copper and green.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Chickadees enjoying a summer spritz as I water the plants
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Beelysian fields
Closeup photo of a fluffy, orange, green-eyed native longhorn bee on a rudbeckia. A cluster of yellow rudbeckia fills the background
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Good morning from me and this gorgeous Nevada bumblebee, one of the two largest bumblebee species in North America
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
One plant, 15+ visiting insect species: the power of a native bloomer! This Douglas aster is one of the most popular plants in the garden right now, enticing a diverse entourage of bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, and more. It will keep blooming into October, providing vital late-season resources.
A photo collage of insects visiting a Douglas aster, a PNW native that produces clusters of pale purple, daisy-like flowers. The collage depicts shimmering green sweat bees, fluffy longhorn bees, a compost fly, mason and leafcutter bees, stripy nomad bees that camouflage themselves as wasps, a paper wasp, a honeybee, a small wool carder bee, and a bumblebee.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
A dragonfly — likely a cardinal meadowhawk — laying eggs in our pond! I slowed down the video a bit so you can get a better look at the telltale tail-dipping behavior. Dragonfly larvae/nymphs spend ~several months to five years underwater before climbing ashore and molting into a winged adult.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
A Cooper’s hawk landed on our roof yesterday, the 2nd especially large & magnificent bird to grace our home, following the Great Blue Heron earlier this year. I believe this means we have been accepted by avian kind & officially initiated into HAWK: Human Allies of Winged Kreatures — a great honor.
Spliced photo of a great blue heron and Cooper’s hawk perched on a rooftop.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Crouching Gardener, Hidden Dragon
Series of four photos of a corner of a garden, progressively zooming in to one plant, which is eventually revealed as the perch of a gorgeous yet camouflaged dragonfly, primarily green with a red tail, blue flanks, transparent wings, and large gray eyes.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
BREAKING: Orcas have invented the piscine piñata
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This week in the garden: Glittering green cuckoo wasp graces dried leaf Bumblebee traffic jam among the Nasturtium Astata wasp surveys domain from poppy perch Longhorn bee fits, thus sits
A sparkling green cuckoo wasp perched on dead vegetationBumblebee traffic jam: One already inside a yellow Nasturtium, the other coming in for a landingSmall longhorn bee nestled in a tiny daisySmall glossy black wasp perched on a dried poppy seedhead
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
With its magnificent monoliths, foggy forests, shapeshifting sand dunes, and teeming tide pools, the Oregon coast is one of my favorite places on Earth. Over the weekend, during low tide, some friends showed us their favorite spot to observe the soggy and spectacular cosmos of seashore life.
A collage of photos of the Oregon coast, featuring towering isolated rock formations, sinuous sand dunes, and an array of marine life, including sea anemones, barnacles, and sea stars.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Honored to be a small part of this extraordinary and enlightening compilation, edited by @siricarpenter.bsky.social and featuring contributors like @edyong209.bsky.social @maryroach.bsky.social @sabs.bsky.social @bengoldfarb.bsky.social @amymaxmen.bsky.social and more!
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Sometimes dragons deign to let you approach
Four close up photos of two different perched dragonflies, one red, one blue.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Now in print. Thank you so much to everyone who read and shared the story — it generated a big response! More than 26K likes on Instagram, more than 700 comments on the NYT website, a lot of reader emails — a truly spirited discussion. Plants provoke our passions.
Photo of the quoted New York Times Magazine article on the native plant movement.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Major Pollinators Ranked by Overall Importance 1. Bees 🐝 2. Flies 🪰 3. Beetles 🪲 4. Moths 🌙🦋 5. Wasps 🐝▶️◀️ 6. Butterflies 🌞🦋 7. Birds 🐦‍⬛ 8. Mammals 🦇 9. Reptiles 🦎 10. Ants 🐜 That's my rough draft, mostly as a fun exercise and thought experiment. I'll add some notes below. What would you change?
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
It’s cloudy and drizzly and this adorable fuzzy longhorn bee is sheltering in a dahlia 🥹
A hot pink dahlia with spoke-like scooped petals and a bright yellow center. A small fuzzy orange bee with very long antennae curled up near the center of the dahlia.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Clearing out the birdhouse in which the black-capped chickadees nested and successfully fledged. Absolutely PACKED floor to ceiling with a spongy, soft, highly compressible mattress of moss, plant fibers, and animal fur. Think of all the foraging required to make that!
A small suspended wooden birdhouse with a chickadee entering, tail still exposed. Same birdhouse with door open, revealing nest. Nest removed, revealing spongy tangle of moss, plants, and fur.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
‘Scuse me! Coming through!
A metallic green sweat bee on a pink dahlia. The same bee about to be dive bombed by a fuzzy orange Longhorn bee.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Much of the time, I’m unimpressed with these supposedly intelligent algorithms that routinely offer me things in which I have little to no interest or overlook something I would absolutely love. Every now and then, though, they are almost eerily precise.
Screenshot of an automatically suggested search query on Instagram. Text reads: “Search: weird wasps and flies in nature”
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The Open Notebook @theopennotebook.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
We’re excited to have “Mind Blender” by @ferrisjabr.bsky.social (first seen in @nytimes.com Magazine) with annotations by Bijal P. Trivedi in our new book, The Best Science Stories and How They Work. Pre-order here: www.theopennotebook.com/the-best-sci...
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Ever seen a twerking bee who looks like she just took a bath in a bowl of cheese puffs? Probably the superpollinator that is the leafcutter bee! Whereas honeybees pack moistened pollen into dense balls on their legs, leafcutters store it loosely across their fuzzy bellies. That means…
Closeup of a Leafcutter bee on a flower. Similar to a honey bee but covered in blonde fuzz. Leafcutter bee arching her behind into the air, revealing thick yellow coating of pollen dust.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I decided to try making one of the latest summer culinary fads: Sicilian watermelon pudding. Verdict: really good! Simple, light, tangy, highlighting an underused flavor. Also spotted some fresh blackcurrants at the store and made my version of Ribena. Perfect for seltzer and cocktails.
A white ramekin filled with pink watermelon pudding garnished with chopped pistachios and mint. A glass bottle filled with plum-dark blackcurrant cordial.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The black-capped chickadees that nested in our garden have successfully fledged! Despite daily surveillance, I unfortunately missed the moment of departure. Since then, however, they’ve visited the garden several times, looking extra bright and fluffy, as though freshly groomed.
Four photos of young black-capped chickadees. Small songbirds with gray plumage and black patches on their heads and necks, surrounding a stripe of white. They are perched on various trees branches.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
For the @nytimes.com Magazine, I wrote about the increasingly fervent native plant movement; its esteemed guru, the entomologist and bestselling author Douglas Tallamy; and the complexities of ecologically responsible gardening in our modern era. Gift link 🎁 : www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/m...
nytimes.com
I Wanted an Ecologically Responsible Garden. It Was Harder Than I Thought.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
1/3 WHOA! 😍 Just observed a white-lined sphinx moth flying through the garden for the first time! They’re also known as hawkmoths / hummingbird moths bc they’re so large that you could mistake them for a bird! By far the largest native moth to visit the garden. In fact, I think it’s breeding here! …
Photo of described moth in flight. A very large moth with a plump brown body and long, angled wings. Primarily shades of brown and gray, but striped and accented with white, as well as striking patches of pink on the lower wings. Same moth resting with wings closed.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Indoctrinating the youth with a passion for all the vital little wild things
Photo of me leading two kids on a backyard bug tour
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Lately I’ve been encountering a lot of species I've never or rarely seen in the garden: weird and wonderful creatures that look like tiny dragonflies with the invertebrate version of scoliosis; or electric type Pokémon; or what happens when a moth and lobster are fused during a teleporter accident.
Photo collage of especially strange and unique insects, depicting:
Clearwing moth (likely strawberry crown moth)
Thick-headed fly
Grass-carrying wasp
Beewolf
Weevil wasps
Longhorn beetle
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
🎆🌸🌻🌸🎆
A collage of flowers in pinks, oranges, purples, peaches, and yellows: spiky thistle, star shaped balloon flower, dahlias, and clematis, ruffly marigold, coreopsis, and calendula
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Nevada bumblebee in the garden! Second largest bumblebee in North America
Photo of a large bumblebee feeding on lavender. The bee is mostly golden yellow with a black head and tail and prominent black dot on the thorax.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
I've been documenting a pair of black-capped chickadees nesting in our garden as they fly back & forth every few minutes, hunting meals. An avg clutch of 6 to 8 chickadees requires 3,000 to 5,000 feedings over the ~16 days from hatching to fledging. Most popular foods: caterpillars, moths, spiders.
A collage of 16 photos of black-capped chickadees. Each photo depicts a closeup of a single chickadee with prey in their mouth, such as a caterpillar, adult moth, other winged insect, or spider. The chickadees are small songbirds with gray-white plumage and patches of black on their heads and throats.
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Even the undersides of the painted lady’s wings are gorgeous — an intricate marbling of creams and caramels flecked with peacock blue. And just look at those silky tresses!
Photo of a painted lady butterfly with folded wings revealing an intricate marbled mosaic of white, golden brown, and faint blue. Painted lady with unfolded wings revealing bright orange splotches surrounded by jet black areas with white spots, similar to a Monarch’s palette. Close up of butterfly body flanked by clumps of long feathery hairs.
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