10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 21, 2015

I’ve not made spectacular progress writing up my trip to Africa earlier this year, so perhaps I should get on that. So instead let’s talk about South Africa’s best kept birding secret (at least outside of the country) Wakkerstroom. A bit closer to town I checked out some hides overlooking ponds.

South Africa 145

South Africa Africa Falcons Family 145

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2016

While much of East Africa is deforested, Uganda retains its trees, particularly in places like Bwindi Inpenetrable and Kibale National Parks, two of the largest and most important expanses of forest in the region. In the relatively brief period, my group had something on the order of 450 species. I, personally, had around 430.

Uganda 162

Uganda Africa Squirrels Tanzania 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

Or would be, had I encountered more of them – so far, I have seen only a very small share of the approximately 233 woodpecker species, and got decent photos of an even smaller number – not much more than 10% of all of them. It is the most widespread woodpecker in Africa, claims the HBW.

Woodpeckers 233

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 233

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical description of the family is that of “a tropical African and Asian songbird that typically has a melodious voice and drab plumage”, another is “small, dull-colored passerine birds of Asia and Africa”, yet another states that they are “often rather plain” Individual species get even harsher reviews.

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South Africa Malaysia Africa China 227

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

A family motel and passion for responsible ecotourism brought her home to the Oregon Coast where she and her husband, Erik, adventure and record a podcast ( Hannah and Erik Go Birding ), created in an effort to inspire others to get out and bird. Marion has a fascinating history with invasive species.

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South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2024

Only in Africa is it really easy to see a big variety. On my 21-day Kenyan safaris we reckoned to find around 600 species of birds and around 60 mammals, both impressive totals. Lion – much easier to see than an Aardvark In contrast to East Africa, encounters with mammals while out birding in Europe are relatively few.

Fur 187

Fur Bulgaria Otters Estonia 187

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

According to the HBW, there are 41 species of African Barbets and 34 species of Asian Barbets. There are also 14 species of New World Barbets and 2 species of Toucan-Barbets (all in South America). The Crested Barbet (Kruger Park, South Africa) looks a bit like a pointillist painting gone wrong.

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South Africa Africa India China 207

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2013

So naturally, I got to thinking about kinglets, and their Palearctic kin, the “crests,” and where they belong in the avian family tree. The family Regulidae comprises six small, hyperactive species that range through the great boreal and temperate forests North and Middle America, North Africa, and Eurasia.

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Family Guatemala Mexico Japan 183

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2012

Ourselves, for instance; just consider how many sweet or gritty stories you’ve seen about Olympic athletes’ family backgrounds over the last few weeks. We’re going to look at its family tree today, at where it fits in the grand avian assemblage, at what makes it at once unique yet not so alone after all. But not all.

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Family Guatemala Stray Groups 177

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2020

North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. Trogons and quetzals are an ancient, colorful bird family that occurs in forests and other wooded habitats from the American tropics to Africa to Southeast Asia. So let’s look at this sampler, shall we?

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America Arizona North America Texas 263

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families.

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Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 163

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2020

I feel that like most bird families (with the obvious exception of pheasants), buntings are somewhat underrated. At my regular birding spot at Nanhui, Shanghai, five or six species of buntings can be seen fairly regularly, and about the same number very occasionally. In other words, they are my kind of birds. Pallas Bunting.

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South Africa China Germany Family 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2015

While there as some very attractive members of the family (or families, scientists can’t make up their minds) in Asia, in Africa the babblers tend towards the restrained when it comes to plumage. Like others of the genus Turdoides it is also a very social species, found in often noisy groups.

Africa 162

Africa Asia Family Groups 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2024

Called home to the Oregon Coast to operate the family motel, in her free time she leads Tufted Puffin walks and escapes to guide at birding festivals and explore the world as often as possible. Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa are heavily eBirded because Americans regularly visit. eBird is a huge help with that.

Senegal 197

Senegal South Dakota Gambia Birds 197

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2016

A couple of years ago Adam posted a story on this site that so entranced me that when I went to South Africa a bit over a year ago the location he described was top of my bucket list. But I did visit it, and saw many of the incredible species he described, one of which, my major target of the day, was the Drakensberg Rockjumper.

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South Africa Africa Family Groups 102

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2015

In many ways the weaver family is for Africa are similar beasts to the pseudowarblers of North America (sometimes called wood-warblers). They are also generally easy to see, especially species that construct huge colonies of woven nests in villages and farms (or even cities). They also have messy nests for the family.

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South Africa Senegal Ethiopia Africa 154

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2021

Of the thirty or so members of the family Icteridae that go by the name “oriole” on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, several species are partial enough to fruit that they even visit feeders that offer it as jelly, as the sugar-preserved form usually reserved for human consumption is known.

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2017 Portugal Europe Africa 205

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. By this I mean applying the term antelope to cover all of the family Bovidae, which would include the sheep, goats and ox.

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Africa Hunters Goats Sheep 167

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. Honesty requires that I confess to having seen none of these species. These species are visually very similar, with subtle differences in their tail patterns.

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Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 184

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2020

That is because we receive so many extra species from up north, which can double the number of potential species in many of our most important avian families: Ducks, Hummingbirds, Wood Warblers, New World Sparrows, Tyrant Flycatchers, and many others. Oddly enough, it evolved in Africa, where there are no hummingbirds.

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Game Lions Africa Family 157

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

It’s a month to I go traveling in Africa again, but between that date and now I have a massive project to deliver, which has reached the ‘invading my dreams’ level of panic. So go to Queen Elizabeth National Park and tick this tricky species (I actually have no idea how seasonal this species is here).

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Uganda Madagascar Buffalo Africa 194

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Thus, this study on the feeding ecology of African Harrier-hawk is imperative for understanding the species adaptation to environments and also a crucial factor to be considered while examining their economic status.” I guess blushing is easier if you have a bald face like this species. Thanks for pointing it out though.

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South Africa Niger Birds Mice 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2012

Before self-rule it was administered by South Africa and known as South-West Africa. After a brutal colonization that included genocidal campaigns against the Herero (80% killed) and Nama (50% killed) tribes, the Germans lost control when South Africa invaded soon after the declaration of the First World War.

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Namibia Angola Lovebirds South Africa 252

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2022

Instead, they usually just describe species seen at a specific location, with the vague notion that these descriptions might be interesting to other birders. It looks quite distinct compared to some of the other recently discovered species. I guess my sympathy is more with the Plain Bunting, if such a species existed.

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China Birds Vietnam Asia 208

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2016

Africa is home to many striking and brightly coloured members of the starling family, a family that gets short thrift in many parts of the world due to the widespread introduction of a few rather, uh, domineering, species. It’s endemic to Southern Africa, and not uncommon in its range.

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South Africa Africa Family Species 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2019

However, as DNA and morphological studies have indicated, despite the barbets of Asia and Africa looking quite like the ones in the Americas, they aren’t closely related to each other. The two families of New World barbets, the Capitonidae and the Semnornithidae, are actually more related to toucans. and the Prong-billed Barbet.

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Costa Rica Colombia South America Ecuador 169

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

The text goes far beyond just those two birds, however, as Doug works his way through the puzzles presented by the incredibly wide diversity of bird behavior, even within species, citing current research and new and old theories, reasoning out the most likely and unlikely answers. The six middle chapters are my favorite reading. ” (p.

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Science Albatross Research Birds 216

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2015

It can’t have escaped your notice lately that the blog has been overrun with articles about North America’s pseudo-warblers (or wood warblers, as some people, apparently unaware the name is taken by a proper European species, call them), and, even worse, no small amount of poetry.

Africa 174

Africa Feral Ethiopia Tanzania 174

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Photos courtesy of Mosetlha Bush Camp A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg.

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South Africa Africa Game Elephants 219

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

Now that we’re officially into autumn as of yesterday afternoon, there may be a few swallows lingering along the riverways and reservoirs here, and some may be found here and there into October, but by and large, the several species of swallows we see around here are birds of the summer. 1246-1260).

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2016 Europe New York Africa 242

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

I stopped at the Red Crossbill , realizing that the species indeed “occupies an immense range, including North America, Eurasia, and northern Africa” (HBW) – including Baxi forest, China. It is hard to see any scientific value in defining a bird species as a country endemic. Progress of sorts, I guess.

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China Birds Nevada North America 230

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2018

1300kms off the coast of East Africa and over 1000kms NE from Madagascar is a tiny speck in the ocean. They are all recognisable from their families in Africa and are simply referred to by prefixing with “Seychelles” With most species being the only representative of their family, it made identification easy.

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Seychelles Madagascar Africa Zebras 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

While much of the attention that Africa’s tourism industry gets is for its (deservedly) popular national parks and game reserves, a lot of wildlife viewing is possible away from the big name places. Red-crested Korhaans are attractive members of the bustard family. I mean education. You decide. Crested Barbets come in close.

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Zimbabwe Botswana South Africa Endangered Species 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2022

St Lucia is a small town on the Southeastern coast of South Africa. As this African Green Pigeon shows, the color should offer good camouflage for species living on trees. In case you do not know that brimstone is sulfur, the Brimstone Canary brings the point home by having the Latin species name sulphurata.

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South Africa Africa Saint Lucia Birds 202

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Africa’s famous Big Five , but do you know there is also an equally fascinating Little Five ? Africa is famous for its large, charismatic mammals, and the Big Five epitomize the most sought-after of these fantastic beasts. This blog post will discuss both the Big and Little members of these quintuplets.

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Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 204

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

So, it sometimes comes to South Africa to relax and enjoy relative anonymity. Colorful bills and heads seem quite popular among Letaba’s bird species – see the African Jacana (blue and black) … … the Striated Heron (yellow and blue) … … and the Yellow-billed Stork (yellow and red).

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2019

The noble Blue Tit once ranged from Iran through Turkey and Europe to the Canary Islands (the Spanish Islands off North Africa – the other bird was named for the islands incidentally) and North Africa. Then someone decided that the Canary Island birds were a separate species. But the name… oh god the name.

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Iran Barn Owls New Zealand Europe 129