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Crested and Proud

10,000 Birds

Quite a few bird species have crests. Their main use is to display – either to communicate with other members of the species or to scare other species, as a raised crest makes the bird appear larger. So much for the educational part of the blog post. Crests are made of feathers.

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Birding Under the Influence: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

If you followed Dorian’s adventures on his Big Year blog, Biking for Birds , you are familiar with many of these stories, but not the major one, the internal journey that was going on inside Dorian’s mind as he pedaled and birded: his history and multi-year struggle with alcoholism and related addictions. There are also surprises.

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Best Bird of the Weekend (First of August 2021)

10,000 Birds

The beginning of August raises all kinds of mixed feelings, especially if you live in a temperate zone north of the Equator. I added yet another new Monroe County bird in the form of a Stilt Sandpiper this weekend, which is the only way this species earns my Best Bird honors. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

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Potential Efficiency Improvements

10,000 Birds

Why tediously write blog posts when ChatGPT can do it for me? So, I asked ChatGPT: “Please write a 500-word blog post about birding in Shanghai in the style of Kai Pflug for the website 10,000 birds” This is the result: Greetings, fellow birding enthusiasts!

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Big Year Birding Update

10,000 Birds

Seeing as it is near the midway point of the year I thought it would be nice to check in on how the blogging Big Year birders are doing thus far in 2012. Josh Vandermeulen is sitting pretty at 317 species for the year in Ontario, only 21 off the province’s record of 338, set by Glen Coady in 1996. It’s quite a list!

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Birding Balangshan, Sichuan, China (part 3)

10,000 Birds

High up at almost 4500 meters, some Alpine Accentors were posing in the sunshine, justifying the description in the HBW as “large, attractive accentor” (though eBird seems to disagree, instead characterizing the species as a “stocky, stout, and unobtrusive bird”). I side with the HBW on this issue.

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Quarantine Twitch for the Best Backyard Bird

10,000 Birds

The message she relayed made me blurt out a string of words that cannot be repeated on this blog – let’s just say that my priorities immediately shifted. Typical of the species. Both species seemed content to observe each other though. Hopefully they found a suitable place nearby to raise the next generation!

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