Migratory Bird Day and Red-wing Springs

To celebrate International Migratory Bird Day—today!—we’re going to look at one of the most conspicuous migratory species that you’ll see on Shedd’s grounds. From its high-pitched trill to a flash of red on black to the surprising thunk on the back of your head, the red-winged blackbird is hard to ignore.

April Fish of the Month: U.S. Pacific Cod

Choosing to eat sustainably can have a positive impact on the health of our oceans and lakes, which is why  Shedd’s Right Bite team highlights a sustainable seafood option every month. April’s Fish of the Month is U.S. Pacific cod.

Blind Seadragon Gets a Helping Hand

When the Fishes department moved a leafy seadragon into the 4,700-gallon kelp forest habitat on the Abbott Oceanarium’s Coastal Walkway habitat, the aquarists watched closely to make sure that the more animated weedy seadragons didn’t slurp up all the live mysid shrimp before the leafy got his share. “That’s when we noticed that the leafy wasn’t eating on his own,” aquarist Erika Moss says.

What to do? Hand-feed the seadragon, of course.

New on View: Edible Jellies

No, we’re not talking about the kind you eat with peanut butter and bread.

Red Irish Lord

How this North Pacific fish got its common name is beyond us. It ranges from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula east through the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, down the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States to Monterey Bay, California. It’s separated from the Emerald Isle by the same land mass that kept Columbus from getting to India (but that’s another holiday and parade).

Happy Birthday, River Otter Rio!

From her button nose to her long, tapering tail, North American river otter Rio rollicks and rolls in her Local Waters habitat, belying the fact that she turns 21 today.

National Invasive Species Awareness Week

If you wonder what National Invasive Species Awareness Week, March 3 to 8, means to you, consider this: More than 180 invasive species have adopted the Great Lakes ecosystem as home.

One-eighty. And counting.

Happy Birthday to Shedd on Founders Day

Eighty-nine years ago today, 12 civic movers and shakers met in the office of Chicago’s premier architectural firm, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, on the 14th floor of the Railway Exchange Building (later the Santa Fe Building and today Motorola) on Michigan Avenue. There they incorporated the not-for-profit Shedd Aquarium Society.

Happy Third Birthday, Nunavik!

At some point, you realize that the little guy, until August the youngest beluga, who you remember as being all gray and roly-poly and plush-toy-cuddly-looking, is lately so big that you can’t pick him out among the other belugas.

Nunavik, who turns 3 today, is undeniably a juvenile whale.

What the Calves Are Up To

If you’ve seen Shedd’s new aquatic show, A Holiday Fantasea, you know that Sagu (SAH-goo), our 6½-month-old Pacific white-sided dolphin calf (shown above on the left) gets into the act alongside his mom, Piquet. During the show, you’ll see him engaged in formal training. Lisa Takaki, senior director of marine mammals, says, “He seems to LOVE it and is very attentive—usually!”