10,000 Birds

AUGUST 2, 2011

Besides the avian attributes of flight, feathers and laying eggs, potoos are quite possibly the most unbird-like birds in the world. This is an adaptation that it shares with other potoo species, as shown in Corey’s photo of a roosting Great Potoo. In reality though, this is actually a pretty stellar nesting strategy.

Costa Rica 249

Costa Rica Jamaica Eggs Cooking 249

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

When you monitor a species of birds over many years you learn a lot from your observations and you soon become aware of the fact that some birds are just better at parenting than others. There is egg predation, chick loss and sometimes possibly just some “bad parenting”! Three eggs in the nest.

Eggs 165

Eggs Raised Breeding Family 165

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

Note to other species: better do not rely on mature primary forests, as this may lead to extinction. This says more about my inability to differentiate between warbler species than about the rarity of the bird – but the bird was kindly singing. Also, do not smoke as it is not good for your health.

Birds 130

Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2015

To the north they are very unlucky with predation before the eggs even hatch out, but to the south the eggs hatch out and then the predation occurs on the chicks. Thankfully with the longevity of this species it appears the population is fairly stable, but this may not always be the case if predation continues at the rate that it is.

Feral Cats 159

Feral Cats Eggs Feral Cats 159

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2019

Not only did we observe the bird species most days, but we also had the privilege of observing them at a nest. Oriental Pied Hornbills are quite strange in their nesting habits, because the female bird is sealed into a tree trunk during the incubation of the eggs.

Singapore 113

Singapore Seals Eggs Australia 113

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2015

The Brown Pelican and the Peruvian Pelican are closely related and once were considered the same species. Both pelicans have a very specialized foraging strategy that depends on abundant fish near the surface. The species reached pre-pesticide numbers by the late 1990s and was fully delisted in 2009.

Pelicans 157

Pelicans North America Peru Fish 157

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2020

In the marshes of the estancia , he discovers what he comes to believe is a new species of rail – one of the “accidentals” of the title. And the nandu, a South American rhea, has an intriguing chick-survival strategy: a week before hatching, the male (who does the incubating) pushes one egg out of the nest.

Uruguay 156

Uruguay 2001 Bald Eagle Science 156

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2011

Brown-headed Cowbirds evoke strong feelings in many birders, some of whom can’t abide a bird that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests, often to the detriment of the nest owners’ offspring. Now nearly ubiquitous from forests to urban centers And our young have even more bird species as mentors.

Eggs 160

Eggs Buffalo Sparrows Humane 160

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

The book is divided into the five sections–talk, work, play, love, parent–and within those sections into 14 chapters that focus on a singular aspect of that behavior–alarm calls, mimicry, using smell, fire spreading, following army ants, Raven play, Kea play, diversity of sexual practices, crazy and exotic ways of wooing the female, (..)

Research 237

Research Birds Science Costa Rica 237

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2017

Steal and eat their eggs? But for millions of years up until now you haven’t had an international audience of thousands of highly social mammals with their own particular quirks and evolutionary strategies watching your every move around the clock. Again, I know you’re just doing what you gotta do.

Bald Eagle 100

Bald Eagle Belize Iowa Eggs 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Both the male and female of the species have a bright red crown. Within a group, 1–7 male co-breeders compete for matings with 1–3 joint-nesting females who lay their eggs in the same nest cavity. Acorn Woodpeckers are the only species to store individual nuts in holes drilled in granaries. Click on photos for full sized images.

Woodpeckers 186

Woodpeckers Breeders Groups North America 186

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

They are two strikingly different strategies, both of which seem to working well this spring, as everywhere one turns there is new life on the Tundra. Here they are a common breeding bird, one of our two species that migrate from here to Europe and then south. They are born nearly naked, with the odd tuft of down, blind, and helpless.

Eggs 194

Eggs North America Breeding Europe 194

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. The African Spoonbill is one of the six global spoonbill species, and the main African one (there are also some Eurasian Spoonbills in Africa).

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

It’s the warbler that is often the last unchecked species on birders’ life lists and, whether you list or not, for most of us observing it is a once in a lifetime experience. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species list. A nest wasn’t found until 1903, which set off a craze for Kirtland’s Warbler skins, nests, and eggs.

Michigan 240

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 240

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 ). Apparently , they use the presence of their own eggs as a cue for recognizing parasitic eggs – so without the presence of their own eggs as a template they fail to recognize a parasitic egg.

Eggs 174

Eggs China Birds Mammals 174

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

In China, wherever there is one real tourist attraction (like the Great Wall), the local strategy seems to be to add some fake attractions – replicas of palaces or tombs, amusement parks, shopping centers – in order to maximize the income from tourists. But the starting point has to be a real attraction, not a fake one.

China 242

China Birds Pythons Eagles 242

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

I’ve been fortunate to see two Penguin species in the wild (African and Galapagos) and have dreamed of seeing more–maybe even all!–especially The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.”

Penguins 278

Penguins Georgia New Zealand Albatross 278

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. It turns out that the two strategies may be related.

Breeders 210

Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 210

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Starvation and predators make it hard to grow up, and birds have evolved a lot of strategies to give (at least some of) their chicks the best chance in life. One strategy that varies among birds (and other animals) is the number of offspring. Seabirds are one group of birds that go for the latter strategy.

Eggs 166

Eggs Puffins Breeding Raised 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2012

But the honeyguides, indigobirds, and a single species of duck all do the classic cuckoo strategy (obligate interspecific brood parasitism) as well. This behavior is most common in colony nesters, since popping next door to drop off an egg is a lot easier than hunting down another nest through acres of forest or grassland.

Eggs 156

Eggs Neglecting Adoptable Hunting 156

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2023

For example, a researcher and presumed ornithologist set out with two hypotheses related to the Ashy Drongo (and another drongo species) and wrote a paper about it. ” Nicely phrased, too – who would want to argue with an “evolutionary adaptive strategy”? Well, maybe some hardcore creationists, I guess.

China 193

China 2017 Birds Indonesia 193

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

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. When these birds breed, this can lead to highly cringeworthy announcements, for example from Adelaide Zoo : “We have egg-citing news!” This is what killed James Dean.

Birds 242

Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 242

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2014

The local Bald Eagles are getting busy, I suspect there is an egg in the nest. The birds were too far away to identify, and I know more than one species does this, but if I had to guess they were starlings. If half the Warblers go extinct, that would be a lot of species but you’d still pretty much have Warbler DNA.

Birds 185

Birds Bald Eagle Zoos Philippines 185

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

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. Rather, cladistics is a way of looking at the process of evolution of species.

Monkeys 144

Monkeys Gorillas Whales Whaling 144

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

Each species account includes common and scientific name, size and weight (all metric), and information boxes on Key Identification Features (including how to differentiate the species from similar creatures), Habitat in Kruger, Habits (nocturnal or crepuscular or diurnal, social or loner, feeding behavior) and Diet.

Rhinos 247

Rhinos Mammals Animal White Rhinos 247

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2012

Both Elk and songbirds have the same basic method of inseminating eggs, which is one of the steps in reproduction (but not by any means the first!), Songbirds grow the offspring internally for only a very short while, and then pop out an egg, which is then cared for over a significant period of time until it hatches.

Mammals 168

Mammals Eggs Abandon Abandoning 168

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2021

This may have been partly a leftover from the Victorian fascination with egg collecting (the infamous passion known as oology), but probably more from people’s burgeoning interest in the nests and eggs found in their gardens and fields, gateway artifacts to a newer hobby called birdwatching. The Harrison guides are out of print.

Eggs 244

Eggs Birds United States Sparrows 244

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2012

Within the bird world, so many different strategies and methods of mating and reproduction have evolved, it simply boggles the mind. Greater White-fronted Geese are one of many species that mate for life. After laying eggs, they have little to do with the upbringing of their chicks, leaving the male to handle things.

Albatross 202

Albatross Birds Lifestyle Raised 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2012

One of the more interesting aspects (in my opinion) of breeding in birds is their mating strategy. There are four main mating strategies in birds: 1) monogamy, 2) polygyny, 3) polyandry, and 4) polygynandry. of all bird species, is polyandry. The final, rarest mating strategy, found in less than 0.1%

2002 170

2002 North America 2000 2009 170

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2024

.” Blue-bearded Bee-eaters seem to have a pretty clever hunting strategy. The species name athertoni is derived from Lt. Unfortunately, there is not much literature on the species except for the inevitable analysis of the mitochondrial genome. They provoke honeybee colonies, which then fly out and attack the bird.

Squirrels 141

Squirrels Birds China Bears 141

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

To be honest, both the robin and the flycatchers shown above remind me of the easter eggs I hunted for as a child – the same strong colors in front of a green background, same time of the year (feel free to insert your own Proust Madeleine reference here) … Bluethroats apparently are good at imitating other birds.

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2021

Colombia is one of those countries that Dragan’s dreams are made of: it has 1,965 bird species – more than any other country in the world. Among them are 94 endemics and 101 near-endemics, four introduced species and only 42 vagrants. No matter how big your avian-related library is, this would be a terrific addition to it.

Birds 246

Birds Colombia Collecting Bald Eagle 246

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 190

China Birds Ukraine Killing 190

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2023

The Fairy Pitta is listed as Vulnerable, with the HBW that the species is “rare; global population probably no more than a few thousand individuals” While the sexes are alike, my guess is that the Fairy Pitta in the photo is a male given its early arrival date in Shanghai. And how do Fairy Pittas get injured and possibly die?

Birds 130

Birds China Research Tenant 130

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2022

For the authors of this study on the Sabota Lark , this makes them end the abstract of their paper with the slightly pompous and simultaneously slightly unambitious claim that “This study provided a foundation for future comparative studies on avian life-history strategies in larks.” She also laid eggs in Melba Finch nests.

South Africa 197

South Africa Africa Birds Cape Verde 197

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 124

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 124

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

I have written about the interesting sex life of these jacanas a few times already (short version: female mates with male, lays a bunch of eggs for him to incubate and raise the chicks, leaves him, finds another male, repeat). Apparently, after a male first mates with a female, he throws out the first one or two eggs she lays in their nest.

Birds 147

Birds China Eggs Breeding 147