
Hey! I'm Alexandre Lajeunesse and welcome to my author page.
I'm a Canadian birder and trained ornithologist, and the founder of The Birding Insights. This is where I dig into the stories behind rare sightings, range expansions, and the everyday lives of the birds around us. My birding started in Quebec and has taken me all the way to the far end of Patagonia, but honestly the birds close to home surprise and delight me just as much as anything I find halfway across the world. They brighten every adventure, and if you're looking for me, I'm probably somewhere scanning for my favorite, the Long-tailed Jaeger.
My articles
Far Eastern Curlew in Quebec: A First for Eastern North America
A birder went to Carleton-sur-Mer to see a Hudsonian Whimbrel and found the wrong curlew standing beside it. What the record is, and how to behave if you go.

Why Crossbills Breed Whenever They Want: The Nomads That Ignore the Calendar
Crossbills turn up when they feel like it, in any month, and then vanish. Here is what decides where they go, when they breed, and how you can find out which population you just met.

Sexual Coercion in Birds: Conflict, Anatomy, and Who Actually Wins
Courtship and female choice are only part of how birds reproduce. The other part is conflict, and the anatomy it has produced is some of the most remarkable evidence in evolutionary biology.

Brood Parasitism and the Cuckoo Problem: An Arms Race Fought Egg by Egg
A Song Sparrow feeding a fledgling twice its size is not a bird being stupid. It is the visible end of an evolutionary contest that has been running for millions of years.

Why Some Male Birds Are Deadbeat Dads: The Real Numbers on Parental Care
Birds have a reputation as the good parents of the animal world. The data says the truth is far more uneven, and the exceptions run in both directions.

Divorce in Birds: Why Even Albatrosses Leave Their Partners
The birds we hold up as models of lifelong partnership do leave each other, and the conditions that make them do it turn out to explain a great deal about how pair bonds work.

Same-Sex Pairing in Birds: What the Nests With Too Many Eggs Revealed
It started with a puzzle nobody could explain: gull nests holding twice as many eggs as they should. The answer turned out to be two females, and it landed in the middle of a fight it never asked for.

Birding in Tadoussac and the Haute-Côte-Nord: The Complete Site and Trip-Planning Guide
The Haute-Côte-Nord strings ten serious birding sites along a hundred kilometres of Route 138, and almost none of it is documented in English. Here is where to go, when, in what order, and where to sleep.

Seabirds of the St. Lawrence Estuary: A Pelagic Trip That Is Not Pelagic
Puffins, phalaropes and jaegers within sight of shore, on water so rich that whales work it alongside the birds. Here is what comes past the boat on the St. Lawrence estuary, and how to name it in the five seconds you get.

Northern Saw-whet Owl Banding at Tadoussac: A Night With Quebec's Smallest Owl
Saw-whet owls are among the most common owls in the boreal forest and among the least seen. A banding night is the one reliable way to meet one, and it exists because researchers went out after dark and found a migration nobody knew was happening.

Why Raptors Funnel Through Tadoussac: Inside a Migration Bottleneck
Soaring raptors will not cross cold water, so coastlines gather them. Where the Saguenay fjord meets the St. Lawrence estuary, that rule produces one of eastern North America's cleanest migration bottlenecks, and one of its great places to stand.

Côte-Nord Migratory Bird Festival 2026: The Complete Guide to Quebec's Best Week of Fall Migration
Quebec's North Shore hosts its sixteenth migratory bird festival from 21 to 27 September 2026. Here is what the week actually contains, what it costs, and what to book before it fills.

Lekking Birds and Their Dance Battles: Why a Few Males Win Everything
Some male birds own nothing, defend nothing, and raise nothing. They gather on a shared stage, dance, and let the females decide. Here is how that system works and why it produces the most extravagant birds alive.

How to Watch Bird Courtship Displays: Leks, Timing, and the Optics That Matter
Courtship is the most watchable thing birds do, and the most easily ruined by watching it badly. Here is how to find displays, how to behave at them, and what to carry.

How Do Birds Mate? The Cloacal Kiss, the Pair Bond, and What Actually Happens
The physical act takes about a second, and almost everything interesting about bird reproduction happens around it. Here is the full picture, from anatomy to the social arrangements birds actually run.
