article thumbnail

Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea 2nd edition – A Field Guide Review

10,000 Birds

Just last year, 5 new bird species and 5 new subspecies were discovered in a few short weeks of fieldwork on the islands of Taliabu, Peleng and Batudaka. In recent years Indonesia has been competing with the Andes as the region giving rise to the biggest number of undescribed bird species (naturally, all of them endemics).

Indonesia 264
article thumbnail

Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan (Part 1)

10,000 Birds

This is the home of the Rusty-naped Pitta , admittedly one of the less glamorous of the family, particularly the subspecies found in Yunnan, but still a nice sight and still a pitta. The scientific species name of the Rusty-naped Pitta oatesi honors Eugene William Oates (1845-1911), an English civil servant in India and naturalist.

Burma 197
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

For the Love of Trogons

10,000 Birds

The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. Honesty requires that I confess to having seen none of these species. These species are visually very similar, with subtle differences in their tail patterns.

Mexico 182
article thumbnail

Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf Bird Leaf Leaf Leaf Leaf

10,000 Birds

You’d think that dressing in green to hide from predators inside a dense rainforest is as a strategy as plain as day, yet only a surprisingly limited number of bird species on Borneo have ventured down that evolutionary road. Interestingly, the females are more varied between the species and are far more readily identified.

Indonesia 166
article thumbnail

Victoria’s Riflebird, a Bird-of-paradise

10,000 Birds

There are few families of birds as bewitching as the birds-of-paradise. Adding to their mystique is the remoteness of their home, the undeveloped and rarely visited islands of New Guinea and eastern Indonesia. There are, however, two species that are more accesible than the rest of the family. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VGongXYDGo

Indonesia 189
article thumbnail

Waxwings and their kin: Meet the bombycillids

10,000 Birds

This group — dubbed the bombycillids , from the waxwing genus and family name — appears to fall near kinglets and a large group containing thrushes and muscicapids (Old World flycatchers and chats) in the passerine tree. Here’s the only known video footage of that species: Kauai Oo. Spellman et al. Spellman et al.

article thumbnail

Asia’s Deadliest Bird: The Brown Prinia

10,000 Birds

From a birder’s perspective however, this is both a shame and a blessing, as I will show below based on my observations of the species on the island of Java in November. The prinias are a group of around 25 Old World warbler species found in Africa and Asia. The Brown Prinia is an Asian species with a very peculiar range.

Burma 161