article thumbnail

Birding Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo

10,000 Birds

When not climbing, he collected species, and thus a number of birds are named after him. Three of them can be found on Mount Kinabalu, and local bird guides speak admiringly of colleagues who have seen all three of them on one day (we only managed two). Like the broadbill, Whitehead’s Spiderhunter is a Borneo endemic.

Birds 232
article thumbnail

Birding Shanghai in December 2023

10,000 Birds

I was thinking of inventing a background story about a Chinese poet mentioning starlings (and other bird species) in one of his poems, and a rich Chinese fan of these poems pursuing the ambition of introducing all bird species mentioned therein to China, explaining the occasional occurrence of the starling in Shanghai.

Birds 199
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

Birding Nonggang, Guangxi, China – part 2

10,000 Birds

This is the second part of a post showing some birds seen at Nonggang in December 2022, along with the usual (mostly irrelevant) comments. The poor bird’s Latin species name is macgrigoriae , apparently (HBW) named after Jane Grant McGrigor, the daughter of Maj. Sir James McGrigor (1771-1858) Director Gen.

China 237
article thumbnail

Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan (Part 1)

10,000 Birds

Given that according to the HBW, the species prefers dense primary and secondary montane forests, the note that the bird also forages among kitchen waste (in the same HBW entry) seems somewhat incongruous. Note to those readers who do not know Wham!: Congratulations, you are much younger than me and got spared a lot of truly awful music).

Burma 209
article thumbnail

Birding the Ndumo area, South Africa

10,000 Birds

It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. It goes like this: While fishing, the bird tucks its head down and uses its wings to create a shady area. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

article thumbnail

Birding Sepilok, Borneo (Part 1)

10,000 Birds

Sepilok is one of the best places I ever spent time birding at – I did so for a week and could have easily spent more time there. So, in order to economize a bit, the Sepilok birds are described in three separate posts. Maybe the HBW should be administered by a university with a stronger interest in birds than Cornell.

article thumbnail

Some Germans have a bird – A short birding trip through the German language

10,000 Birds

Having come back to the blog in whatever form and persistency, the overarching subject of language in birding seemed to be a suitable and deserving theme since bird names were part of my original beat. How have birds infiltrated our everyday language, even of non-birders? No birds required. ” – You have a bird!

Germany 190