10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2022

” Funny how the difficulty of breeding a species can be illustrated in simple monetary terms. But that may have helped me to see them – the species is quite nomadic and settles wherever there is rain. Ok, back to the (presumably non-sacred, certainly non-mummified) Australian species. In a paper published in 1938 (!),

Birds 147

Birds Australia Sheep Zebras 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

According to the HBW, when breeding, male birds do most of the incubation and parenting while females often leave the nest up to one week before the eggs hatch. According to Couzens, after laying the eggs, females sometimes immediately abandon their first mate and pair up with another male. But maybe that is actually a good thing.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

There was a time when I thought each bird species had its own individual song. Then I found out that there was this vocalization called a ‘call,’ so I thought each bird species had its own individual song (but just the males) and individual call. There is so much here! How do they know?

North America 279

North America Research Birds Groups 279

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

We can, of course, count wild, native, species. We can count vagrant species that made it to the area we are in under their own power. We can count introduced species that have met the criteria of the “Bird Police” for the area to which they are introduced. When we eat eggs we eat chicken eggs almost exclusively.

Chickens 215

Chickens Florida Feral Species 215

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

As a Northeast birder I am familiar with the alarming decrease in the number of Red Knots along Atlantic shores and have signed petitions and written e-mails calling for legislation and rules that will limit the overharvesting of the horseshoe crab, whose eggs Red Knots depend on. million in the late 1990’s. Should the gulls be controlled?

Delaware 186

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 186

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? Kinabalu (at 13,455 feet the highest peak in southeast Asia), and human development that has resulted in freshwater rice fields, secondary forest, and oil palm plantations, this means that Borneo offers an incredibly high degree of biodiversity. Now, I’m not so sure.

Brunei 182

Brunei Birds Asia China 182

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Artists rendition of Inkayacu paracasensis There are 17 living species of penguins, which make up their own Linnean family (Spheniscidae), which is the only family in the order Sphenisciformes. Penguins are flightless, but some species locomote over long distances on antarctic ice to travel between breeding grounds and the sea.

Penguins 202

Penguins Seals Peru Science 202

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

It’s also about human-owl interaction on an individual level and a wider sociocultural level, and ultimately how we can use all this for habitat and bird conservation. The species are taxonomically divided into two families: Tytonidae, Barn-Owls, and Strigidae, Owls, encompassed in one order, Strigiformes.

Owls 231

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 231

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

First published in 1973 in association with the Asa Wright Center, the book focuses on species descriptions, with illustrations grouped together in plates positioned in the center of the book. The guide covers 477 species, an expansion of 35 from the second edition, which was published in 1991. The AOU has not accepted that split.

Trinidad 211

Trinidad Birds South America Research 211

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Kooyman (co-author with Jim Mastro) spent decades studying Emperor Penguins and can be considered the world’s foremost expert on the species. Empire Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) are the largest living penguin species, almost four feet tall (taller when they stretch), and the least likely to be seen on birding or nature trips.

Penguins 171

Penguins Seals Leopards Research 171

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2023

Shockingly, the Ashy-throated Parrotbill apparently is a species heavily hunted for bird fighting in Guizhou Province, China ( source ). If being hunted by evil humans was not enough, Ashy-throated Parrotbills are also hosts of the parasitic Common Cuckoo. Some individuals even rejected their own eggs when they were in the minority.

Eggs 179

Eggs China Birds Mammals 179

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2023

In total, there are eight species of hornbills in Borneo – the best place to see them seems to be the Kinabatagan River area (also known as Sukau). For example , fallen figs do not seem to mind catching a ride with Oriental Pied Hornbills. Indeed, this species seems to be the equivalent of weeds among the hornbill species.

Rhinoceros 135

Rhinoceros Singapore Transported Hunting 135

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). The eBird description of the Small Niltava starts with the surprisingly dull statement that “size distinguishes this species from other niltavas” Who would have thought.

China 248

China Birds Pythons Eagles 248

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

There is something about a mature rainforest, for example, that cannot be replicated by any human. Humans have altered their habitat for hundreds of years, creating various new habitats that some aspects of nature have come to colonize. When out birding, I prefer completely wild habitat.

Trinidad 236

Trinidad Family Abandon Abandoning 236

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

For example , in one study, it was found that more than 80 percent of the fledgling Australian Magpies born in a territory one year were sired by males from outside its borders. Gisela Kaplan has written a book about the species, and how they seem unperturbed by humans: “It’s one of their most successful defense strategies.

Birds 248

Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 248

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

The last example suggests the difficulty of making a clear distinction between an animal part and an animal product. If a genetically engineered animal’s legs periodically fell off, would not its legs be more like a product of an animal (analogous to eggs) than a part of the animal? Would the blood be analogous to milk or eggs?

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2022

Once the egg has been laid, the female is chased away and the males hatch it.” On the other hand, given China’s low birth rate, they might serve as an example for the future. The species is listed as Vulnerable, with severe degradation of the wintering lake habitats in China cited as an important factor.

Birds 230

Birds China Pythons Breeding 230

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

Humans have always classified organisms in a variety of ways, depending on need. There are important details within that dictum that we will ignore here, but this has to do with knowing when a characteristic doesn’t really tell you about the relative position of species on a “tree of life” vs when the characteristic works for that purpose.

Monkeys 149

Monkeys Gorillas Whales Whaling 149

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2023

I visited Tengchong in late 2020 and wrote about it – but I also went there earlier, in 2017, and this post shows some photos I took during that trip, along with the usual comments that seem to be much more about ridiculing my fellow humans (especially ornithologists and the like) than providing useful information on birds.

China 200

China 2017 Birds Indonesia 200

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2018

Basically, this species is so dimwitted, it doesn’t know how to survive. Because, Pink Pigeons are not capable of doing the tasks required to create and bring up children of the species. These endangered birds have trouble producing a fertilized egg and, even worse, they don’t even know how to build a nest so the egg survives?

Mauritius 103

Mauritius Stud Zoos Eggs 103

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2012

I know on some level, I think that’s something almost all of us can get behind…no one, except the most callous and cold-hearted of the human race things its fine to torture animals, or deny that they are capable of pain and suffering. For example, when the U.S.

Animal Rights Movement 224

Animal Rights Movement Animal Rights Rights Wildlife 224

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

Animal rights is concerned with preventing the suffering or even use of animals by humans. Wildlife conservation is concerned with protecting wildlife at the level of species or perhaps population. By way of an example take the Western Gulls that I studied on the Farallon Islands in California. It’s only natural.

Animal Rights 268

Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 268

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

It is the 100th Anniversary of the extinction of the species known as the Passenger Pigeon and writers are paying attention. Errol Fuller’s The Passenger Pigeon is a beautifully illustrated, elegantly written “celebration” of the passenger pigeon and the artists who illustrated and photographed the species.

2014 162

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2012

You’re a mammal, so you might be tempted to use yourself as an example mammal, but humans are actually kind of bad examples of mammals, so perhaps we’ll use a well studied hoofed animal instead. Think about the difference between birds and mammals. as both use internal fertilization. What’s that?

Mammals 170

Mammals Eggs Abandon Abandoning 170

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

The section South Georgia Wildlife describes 65 species of birds, 20 species of sea mammals, nearly 60 species of insects, and more than 40 species of flowering and nonflowering plants. They breed in dense colonies, incubate their single egg on the feet, and take more than a year to fledge a chick.

Georgia 175

Georgia Penguins Wildlife Whales 175

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

She doesn’t know the species till it emerges, almost dreamlike, from the heavy glare of the sun. There is also a third element, only hinted at in the opening–the environmental and scientific necessity of gathering this data to document the importance of keeping the Pacific Northwest waters healthy and uncontaminated by human elements.

Fox 100

Fox Albatross Geese Bald Eagle 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2023

For birders, the Wolongshan area is like a poorer cousin of Balangshan – due to the lower elevation, the bird species here are more common and thus less interesting. Some Chinese Babax waste part of their lives feeding chicks of Large Hawk Cuckoos, which parasitize the babax species.

Hamburgers 229

Hamburgers Birds Science China 229

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2023

So, for example, there was ample warning of the danger of snow. The family has about 37 species, but that includes several fulvettas – only 21 of the species have “parrotbill” in their names (and frankly, the bills of fulvettas do not look like those of parrots at all).

Pandas 226

Pandas Birds Eggs China 226

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2023

The Ashy Tailorbird is a good example of the different perspectives of describing a bird – while the English name focuses on the body of the bird, the Latin species name ruficeps refers to the rufous head. The paper cites the example of the Blue-footed Booby: Its foot color becomes duller when the birds are malnourished.

Woodpeckers 229

Woodpeckers Birds Eggs India 229

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

The title is a bit deceptive, for while photographs are a huge part of the book, it is grounded in the 239 species accounts written by woodpecker guru Gerard Gorman. This background material is a good, succinct framework within which to read the Species Accounts, particularly for birders new to woodpecker study.

Woodpeckers 256

Woodpeckers 2002 Europe Research 256

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2022

The ongoing destruction of Nanhui, where the species can frequently be seen on migration, certainly will not help. Judging from the facial expression of this White-shouldered Starling , I would rather not have an annoyed bird of this species as a roommate. The species has reversed sex roles, with the males doing the incubating.

China 199

China Birds Ukraine Killing 199

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2022

A study has shown that they make false alarm calls when seeing other species such as meerkats with attractive food. The Green-winged Pytilia was previously mostly called Melba Finch, which is also its Latin species name (melba), even though nobody seems to be quite clear about what the melba means or where it comes from.

South Africa 204

South Africa Africa Birds Cape Verde 204

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Given the complexity of the research, the result feels like a bit of a letdown – “northern populations start migration earlier than southern populations, especially in autumn” The species name of the Chestnut-eared Bunting is fucata , from the Latin “fucare”, to paint red. Better safe than sorry.

Birds 230

Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 230

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

The Crossley ID Guide: Waterfowl covers every residential, migrating, vagrant, exotic, and introduced swan, goose, dabbling and diving duck in North America (Canada and the United States): 62 Species Accounts on four swan species and one vagrant subspecies; 15 goose species; 46 duck species; plus accounts for hybrid geese, ducks and exotics.

Ducks 128

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 128

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2018

Let us now give an example of wise conservation of what remains of the gifts of nature.” That year Congress passed the Lacey Act, followed by the tougher Weeks-McLean Act in 1913 and, five years later, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protected not just birds but also their eggs, nests, and feathers 1. A newly created U.S.

Hunting 118

Hunting Hunters Gorillas Wolves 118