10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

If you had your choice of one bird family to pursue, to seek out and observe and photograph and kvell over, which one would you choose? A passion for one bird family is also very useful. Hummingbird species, on the other hand, number in the hundreds. So, when British natural history writer Jon Dunn (not to be confused with U.S.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Ecuador Bolivia 264

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 224

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2024

Interestingly, these juveniles look more similar to another species, the Pale-billed Parrotbill, than the adult babblers – and they sometimes are part of the same flock. If you want to see how this species builds its nest, see here.) These roads are much less of a hindrance for the Pin-striped Tit-babbler , a mid-story bird.

Burma 205

Burma Birds Vietnam Laos 205

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

We saw several species of this challenging family, after some time I managed to graduate with the ability to classify them as “streaked” or “unstreaked” When it came down to the actual species, however, I left it to the expert! Yellow-breasted Apalis. Northern Anteater-Chat. million years ago!

Kenya 209

Kenya Groups Washington Game 209

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Species formerly referred to as P. One recent study found that this species was sister to P. perdix , and also that race przewalskii (sometimes subsumed within suschkini , but generally paler) was basal to other taxa included within the present species. barbata , but present name has priority.

China 257

China Birds Austria ALA 257

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2021

Being a bit older myself now, I have to point out that young human males usually do not look that good, at least to me. If that band had had to name themselves after a bird species rather than after a surname, they probably would have called themselves the Asian Brown Flycatchers. A juvenile male. The real thing: an adult male.

Birds 242

Birds LACS France Japan 242

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

Not bad given that the 5 families in the inner circle of the laughingthrush family have a combined number of about 68 species. The Hainan version is sometimes considered a separate species, in which case it is classified as Near Threatened. 36, if my counting is right and there has been no very recent split or lump.

San Diego 219

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 219

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2024

Of course, the same applies to pizza services for humans. 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. The bees pursue the bird until it settles down somewhere, try to sting it, and get eaten ( source ).

Squirrels 141

Squirrels Birds China Bears 141

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Sometimes I just want to hug eBird, or more specifically, whoever writes the short species descriptions (even though I am not the typical hugging kind of person, trust me on this). The Plain Sunbird is the plain vanilla version of the otherwise often very colorful family (ok, a very low-budget sort of joke). “Dull, me?

Los Angeles 200

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 200

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Bad developments indeed, particularly as the White-backed Vulture was found to be a good avian biomonitor species – if it does badly, most likely the environment as a whole will do badly, too. I could immediately tell them it was an Egyptian Goose – an invasive species in Germany but not at Kruger.

Elephants 147

Elephants Birds Congo Africa 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2019

Belonging to the family “Sulidae” , which includes both the Boobies and Gannets, in 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson introduced the genus “Sula”. In most cases, it is thought to come from the Spanish word “Bobo” referring to stupid, or ignorant. What could be wrong with a Blue-footed Gannet?

Iceland 126

Iceland Family Birds Groups 126

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2022

Here in Shanghai, December is the month that a birder’s addiction cannot be satisfied by the increasingly meager assortment of species at Nanhui – we have to go to other places as well. This includes the Common Pochard , a species classified as Vulnerable despite a relatively large population that is, however, declining rapidly.

Birds 227

Birds Chickens Mammals Japan 227

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

Or would be, had I encountered more of them – so far, I have seen only a very small share of the approximately 233 woodpecker species, and got decent photos of an even smaller number – not much more than 10% of all of them. So, writing a post about them is easy.

Woodpeckers 245

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 245

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 144

Monkeys Gorillas Whales Whaling 144

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 234

Dissection Birds Research Europe 234

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

It is a book with a careful infrastructure, however (even though it doesn’t have an index), with references to one section from another, enabling the curious reader to go down structured rabbit holes, pursuing information on nesting or skeletal systems or feather structure throughout the book. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley.

2020 264

2020 Birds Groups North America 264

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. ” The Australasian Swamphen used to think of itself as a subspecies of the Purple Swamphen but then started a self-improvement program and ended up as a full species.

Birds 242

Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 242

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It’s relatively easy to classify birds into family groups based on physical characteristics. It’s very hard to organize the many ways in which human beings relate to avian beings into comprehensible text. We view them as our enemies when they eat our crops and as an extension of our family when we see them at our feeders.

Birds 224

Birds Egypt Family Eagles 224

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Second, reading about birds courting and parenting brings out the tendency to identify, which leads directly to anthropomorphism, the tendency to assign birds human emotions and thoughts. Think of birds too much as humans and you lose the specialness that makes them birds. Some people love books like that. Yellow Warbler fledgling.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 9, 2019

Just imagine a family excursion to Yellowstone to photograph grazing herds of elephants – equally wrong. I do count, write and eBird all crow species I encounter, but, I admit, without much excitement. Such news would usually end up in tabloids with some title reference to Hitchcock’s The Birds. Something was very wrong.

Protection 162

Protection Elephants Owls Laws 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2022

I was surprised that this species is named for its vocalization – which sounds like laughter. For example, the Diamond Dove is the world’s second-smallest species of the columbidae order ( source ). The Latin species name haematonotus (“blood-backed”) sounds a bit more exciting but not necessarily more accurate.

Australia 147

Australia Birds Parrots Ostriches 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2015

Since we’ve covered some generalities already, once a month I’ll be exploring how a species, genus, or family of birds got its name, and how those names fit in with our larger understanding of, and relationship with, birds. At the request of blog management, I’m embarking on a series of posts on the names of birds.

Falcons 260

Falcons Eagles Meat Geese 260

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2020

I always approach the bridge slowly to see what bird species are below and around the area. There is a family of feral foxes that I often encounter near Bennison Creek. Once I find a few active species I watch and wait. This particular tree has been excellent for a variety of bird species including Eastern Spinebills.

Fox 156

Fox Feral Ducks Horses 156

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

I saw two Pitta species at Hongbenghe, both among the slightly less glamourous among the pitta family: The Blue-naped Pitta … … and the closely related Rusty-naped Pitta. The Blue Whistling Thrush is presumably named for its loud human-like whistling, and possibly for being blue.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

After writing this last sentence, I looked up the species in the HBW and found the sentence “Song poorly documented” in the appropriate section, while with regard to calls, the description is that “call is a two-note raspy nasal ‘ryeeh-reh’”. The Hair-crested Drongo is a bit more common here.

Singapore 147

Singapore Birds Mountain Goats Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

The bird on the photo is one of the estimated 3500-15,000 individuals still alive according to the HBW – a frightening thought given the (too) large number of humans, of which there are about 1 million times more (and of course, each of which weighs 5000 times more than the flycatcher).

Birds 130

Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2018

Even with today’s environmental laws, we are losing species at an alarming rate, and with Ryan Zinke as Interior Secretary it’s no wonder. Some people actually don’t consider human beings as animals. Some people think humans are superior to all other life forms. A newly created U.S. A newly created U.S.

Hunting 115

Hunting Hunters Gorillas Wolves 115

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Many species build nests of sticks or mud or spit on human-made structures , or in houses we’ve constructed specifically for their use. Even non-birders are not immune to their influence, as the term swallowtails is universally known to refer to anything with a “V” shaped fork. Sailors saw them as good luck.

Jordan 192

Jordan Iowa Birds Africa 192

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

Picidae, Woodpecker, is one of those charismatic bird families that everybody gets excited about. Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide is the first major guide to family Picidae in 20 years. This is a comprehensive, handsome reference book that is likely to become the standard for many years.

Woodpeckers 252

Woodpeckers 2002 Europe Research 252

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2015

None fly, most are curious and social, which probably contributes to our cultural perception of penguins as one step away from human. This is not your ordinary reference book, though it was cited as one of the best reference sources of 2014 by Library Journal. Some are cute, some are dignified (and royal!).

Penguins 209

Penguins New Zealand South Africa Albatross 209

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 25, 2017

Was there a parent, friend or family member that took you out to look at birds for the first time? Depending on what source you refer to, there are as many as 8.7 million flower species on earth, although the consensus seems to be around 1.8 I have no doubt that every one of us, at least to some extent, have a different story.

Costa Rica 116

Costa Rica Birds Species Humane 116

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

Meanwhile across the ditch , my useful column last week explaining how awful oxygen thief Tony Abbott could distract Australia from his flailing incompetence has sadly for him arrived too late and he has been disposed in what Australians mysteriously refer to as a spill. Progress, of a sort. This is a double edged sword for me.

Australia 160

Australia New Zealand Guinea Hunters 160

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2017

The guide covers 520 species of birds regularly found in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, including, interestingly, a number of exotic species. There is also a traditional index to bird species, by common and scientific name. Species Accounts are arranged taxonomically, grouped by family.

North America 178

North America America Birds New York 178

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2017

” Kricher delineates the many types of bird families and species you are likely to encounter in the Neotropics, emphasizing habitat and behavior (especially feeding behavior, and particularly fruit eaters; fruit is an important element when it comes to tropical ecology). .” Please–do not read this section only!

South America 162

South America Ecuador Reptiles America 162

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

But, sometimes an appreciation of birds and birding requires more than a reference book with images of birds and facts about their identifying field marks. And, Essay #195, “Our Human Values: The Ugly,” describes the standoff between catfish loving Double-crested Cormorants and catfish farmers in the Missouri Valley.

Birds 115

Birds North America Breeding America 115

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2014

Parrots captivate me more than any other bird family. For one, they are remarkably diverse with a little over 380 species spread over every continent except Europe (only introduced) and Antarctica. However, they do not occur evenly across their familial distribution. I am a self-proclaimed psittacophile. Most do not.

Parrots 169

Parrots Brazil Mauritius Dominica 169

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2013

Sure, they may lack the audacious colors of jays or the imposing attitudes of raptors, but it is wrens, with jaunty tails and brazen attitudes and ringing, rambling voices, that re on anyone’s short list of favorite garden birds for almost as long as humans have paid attention to birds. Which, of course, is why we call them troglodytes.

Jordan 207

Jordan Birds North America Tenant 207