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Tiny Asian bird discovered as sole member of ancient family. Who’s next?

10,000 Birds

Big news about a small bird broke earlier this month when bird researchers from several nations announced that the species formerly known as Spotted Wren-Babbler ( Spelaeornis formosus ) — a tiny, secretive bird of montane forests from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China — is not a Spelaeornis wren-babbler at all.

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Vagrancy in Birds: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Thank you, goddess of birding luck and text group people).* It also summarizes the vagrancy status of every bird family in the whole wide world, which makes it fun to read as well as superbly educational. The Family Accounts are the fun part of the book. Copyright © 2022 Alexander Lees and James Gilroy.

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Bird Talk: An Exploration of Avian Communication–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Ballantine and Hyman explore how birds communicate and summarize studies on how that communication functions in diverse bird families all over the world. There is discussion of the communication signals birds use in very large groups to locate mates and children, which is something that never occurred to me. There is so much here!

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Baby Bird Identification: A North American Guide–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

An impressive combination of research and artwork, combined with a pragmatic organization aimed towards quick identification, and education, Baby Bird Identification extends the frontiers of bird identification guides and is an important contribution to wildlife rehabilitation literature. Woodpeckers are a family of focus for Tuttle-Adams.

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Birding Ruili, Yunnan

10,000 Birds

The result is a description of the Velvet-fronted Nuthatch like this: “One of the few nuthatches to break the general neutral color scheme of the family, this stunner can be quite common …” This species is a cavity nester but unable to build its own cavities. Some research topics seem a bit bizarre to me.

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For Wildlife Emergencies, Contact Animal Help Now

10,000 Birds

If you’ve had an encounter with a wild animal – a bird stunned by hitting a window, a fox hit by a car, or a family of raccoons unexpectedly found residing in your attic – you know how hard it can be to find help. This is a valuable resource you can pass along to your friends and family, wherever they live.

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Our Favorite Bird Books (and one pair of Binoculars) of 2022

10,000 Birds

Here are ten titles (it could have been more) selected for their uniqueness, excellence in writing and research, and giftability. Lees and Gilroy delineate vagrancy status and trends for every bird family worldwide, highlighting examples, synthesizing research, and framing it all with their own thoughts and conclusions.

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