10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2021

As of mid-November 2021, the Collaborative had submitted more than 4,200 checklists (up from 1,700 in 2018) and has observed 691 species in the United States (up from 618). Thus, there are now seven states with 200+ observed species. The state with the largest increase was Arizona , with 139 species added.

United States 189

United States West Virginia Puerto Rico Minnesota 189

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2022

The stars of the bird world take many forms and fame is often related to location but some species, some cool groups of birds are accorded priority no matter when or where they are seen. The Olive-crowned Yellowthroat is one of Costa Rica’s resident wood-warbler species. See our eBird list here.

Costa Rica 268

Costa Rica Nashville Tennessee Turtles 268

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2020

Niagara Falls State Park, right above the cataracts, is where I used to bike to on May days to see dozens of fantastic chestnut Bay-breasted Warblers whispering from the canopy, American Redstarts and Tennessee Warblers and Nashville Warblers filling the woods with song. One of the common species of middle elevation habitats in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Panama Nashville Baltimore 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 3, 2024

For example, I had to be in Nashville (Tennessee) for a conference. My Kenya list of 69 species consists entirely of birds I saw during business trips to Nairobi. This is a tiny speck of green but I saw about 20 species there, and two lifers – Chimango Caracara and Spot-winged Pigeon. Most importantly, enjoy the moment.

Birds 149

Birds Nashville Unwanted Kenya 149

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

It’s also a big time for bird movements, a period punctuated by waves of migrants, first the early ones, then a time of many species, and finally, those last “late” migrants moving north. The same goes for Blackburnian and even Tennessee Warblers. Some Tennessee Warblers also feast on bananas.

Costa Rica 133

Costa Rica South America Tennessee Philadelphia 133

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2022

They are places where we invest most of our birding time and rightly so; mature tropical forests are where we find the highest number of species. Additional bird species prefer the sun-drenched vegetation of open fields and other edge habitats. Find a brushy field during the winter months and you might also find these colorful species.

Costa Rica 255

Costa Rica Farming Sparrows Birds 255

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2018

Baltimore Orioles are coming to feeders in November and checking out avocado trees (I saw six of them doing just that a few hour ago), Tennessee Warblers are masquerading as Old World warblers in most places, and small flocks of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are making appearances. For example, our most common Empid. Those would be birds like.

Costa Rica 134

Costa Rica Baltimore Tennessee Parrots 134

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

Many birders have places they return to year after year, special pilgrimages promising scenes and species they see nowhere else. He did, however, manage to see a migratory Tennessee Warbler at Kissena Park on Saturday morning and he decided that was his Best Bird of the Weekend. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2018 124

2018 Ponies New York City Tennessee 124

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

That fallacious family name seems to have encouraged all manner of knaves, dunderheads, and miscreants when time came to label species. Most of the warblers south of the border escaped this ignominy; those Basileuterus and Myiothlypis species generally appear exactly as advertised. NAMED FOR PEOPLE. NAMED FOR PLACES.

Rights 113

Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2023

Pelee National Park – Ohio Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge – Texas These locations offer a variety of habitats including marshes, wetlands, forests, coastal areas, and deserts, attracting numerous bird species throughout the year. Please note that the availability of specific bird species may vary depending on the season.

United States 162

United States Michigan Texas Virginia 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2013

You may argue that they don’t wreak the same havoc with the indigenous species as do the two aforementioned invasives, but that would be a rather avicentric view. In particular, I remember this one Chukar situation down South in Tennessee* a while ago. With not a species to spare. . But Chukars are okay. An ABA Code 2.

Kazakhstan 173

Kazakhstan Tennessee North America Sparrows 173

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). There are about 50 different species of flowerpeckers globally. If these are taken off, the species looks just like Clark Kent. “Dull, me?

Los Angeles 175

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 175

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2021

Tennessee Warbler is one of my winter birds. Patience, persistence, and focus are still part of the equation but where to look depends on the species you are looking for. Counting birds during migration is fun but I’m thinking more about raptor surveys for resident and wintering species. Do Some Raptor Counts.

Costa Rica 203

Costa Rica Liberia 2020 Birds 203

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2018

I’ve been birding on the Tennessee side of GSM for over thirty years; and Cades Cove is at the top of my easily accessible, ‘private’ habitats. This area, located in the southeastern Tennessee side, is one of the few open spaces in the park. Think dozens and dozens of wood Warbler species.

Louisiana 151

Louisiana Tennessee Bald Eagle Bears 151

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

If you wrote to Tennessee in the 10,000 Birds campaign this winter, you can cut and paste your letter, changing “Tennessee&# to “Kentucky.&# We fought them back in Tennessee; there’s a two-year stay on their proposal. We can fight them back in Kentucky, too.

2011 238

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 238

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. For them, God probably was the one instructing the drongos to mob one species but not the other. Why show photos of species as boring as this Ashy-throated Warbler ?

China 175

China 2017 Birds Indonesia 175

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2019

This year, my main challenge is identifying 700 species within the borders of Costa Rica by December 31st. Those 700 species also need to be identified by my partner Mary (the other half of Team Tyto) because the road to 700 species is one that we are walking together. Such stops have already yield the tiger-heron and dipper.

Costa Rica 167

Costa Rica Tigers Birds Tennessee 167

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2011

Everywhere cranes gather, from New Mexico to Indiana to Tennessee, people come to watch them. Pushing a hunt on a touchstone species like the Sandhill Crane at a time when wildlife watching is exploding and hunting is declining is an oddly divisive thing to do. What’s the necessity of hunting cranes?

Kentucky 256

Kentucky Hunting Tennessee Indiana 256

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

It wasn’t until well after I returned home that I found the answer: They were winter Tennessee Warblers who’d been feeding in a flowering Combretum tree. New species. Here’s a typical fall Tennessee Warbler –that needle-sharp bill, pale superciliary, and lack of wingbars, tailspots, or streaks of any kind.

Tennessee 185

Tennessee Costa Rica New Jersey Birds 185

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2019

As with any home inhabited by birders, we have kept track of all species heard or seen, night and day. The farm would have even more birds if not for the bio-diminishing blend of poison and monoculture but the adjacent hedgerow does support quite a few species especially when the figs and other trees are in flower or draped with fruit.

Costa Rica 150

Costa Rica Barn Owls Birds Parrots 150

10,000 Birds

APRIL 14, 2015

The official Florida checklist counts over 500 species, and thus Florida citizens had a wealth of State Bird candidates to choose from when they named the Florida state bird in 1927. This common bird is also the state bird for Arkansas, Texas (another avian hot spot), Tennessee, and Mississippi, so Florida even misses points for originality.

Florida 165

Florida Legislature Arkansas Mississippi 165

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2019

Stuff wanders in, others things wander out and in the meantime, birds like Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl , two species of caracara, flycatchers, Clay-colored Thrushes , doves, and others make themselves at home. They shared the bushes with three of Costa Rica’s common flycatcher species, each nearly as vocal as the blackbirds.

Costa Rica 161

Costa Rica Barn Owls Stray Dog Blackbirds 161

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 28, 2024

I have been slowly working up to my latest life list benchmark (2,000 bird species) and scoured eBird for a location within an 8-hour flight to get some lifers. For birders, there are many birding hotspots that are easily accessible and host endemic species. And somehow this directed us to Oaxaca.

Mexico 177

Mexico Birds Oregon Groups 177

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

As of mid-October 2018, the Collaborative had submitted more than 1,700 checklists and observed 618 species in the United States. The heat map is revealing: Unsurprisingly for a site founded and run by two New Yorkers (one of whom literally wrote the book on birding New York), the Empire State boasts the highest number of species (316).

Rhode Island 114

Rhode Island United States West Virginia Puerto Rico 114

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2019

I generally wait until I have at least a dozen species on my year list before having my first drink of the year. Dr. Crow is dubiously credited today for originating the sour mash method used in traditional bourbon and Tennessee whiskey distillation. But which species of crow is our Old Crow – Fish or American?

Mississippi 115

Mississippi Kentucky New York Tennessee 115

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2018

Known as a warbler haven, 30+ species visit this bi-state park near the Kentucky and Virginia southern border. Rocky Fork State Park, Tennessee. There are guides for historic buildings as well as birding tours. American Kestrel. Photo by © Mike Blevins. Breaks Interstate Park, Kentucky. Yellow-rumped Warbler. Photo by © Mike Blevins.

West Virginia 169

West Virginia Virginia Kentucky South Carolina 169

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2012

There are a couple of species of which I wish I had gotten better pictures (especially Cape May Warbler ), there are a couple species of which I couldn’t resist sharing more than one shot, and there are a whole bunch of species that managed to avoid my camera altogether.

2010 168

2010 Louisiana Tennessee New York 168

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2018

By the end of my walk around Meadow Lake I had hit double digit wood-warblers for the day, with Tennessee and Orange-crowned Warblers at Baisley Pond Park as additional highlights. It’s hard to complain about an October day that nets over seventy species with ten of them wood-warblers! Orange-crowned Warbler at Baisley Pond Park.

Tennessee 146

Tennessee Family Birds Species 146

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2013

It was a relatively slow evening but I still tallied eighteen species of wood-warbler, to say nothing of orioles and tanagers and thrushes and vireos. The waterhole usually attracts both species of waterthrush but this year when the Louisiana Waterthrushes were moving through the waterhole was dry. It was great despite the lousy light.

Louisiana 160

Louisiana Tennessee Species Birds 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2018

At last count, there are 25 species of birds named for U.S. states, with varying degrees of geographical relevance (sorry, Tennessee Warbler ). But only two states have more than one bird named for them: Hawaii and California, with nine and seven extant and eponymous species, respectively.

2015 113

2015 San Diego Family California Condor 113

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2017

It’s not that they don’t like them, it’s just that most are fairly common and tend to grab the spotlight when you still need to focus on much rarer, less colorful species. Not so for the Yellow-eared because that fancy one is one of the rarer species. The Lanceolated Monklet is a living plush toy.

Costa Rica 137

Costa Rica Birds Owls Tennessee 137

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

According to the data the authors gathered from banded and recovered Blue Jays , the species shows both a northward post-breeding dispersal (which we’re probably seeing right now, in September) and a southward migration. That last bit is my own interpretation of the data.)

Alabama 104

Alabama West Virginia New York City New York 104

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2024

Not only is the book reproduction cleaner and the colors brighter, it is slightly cropped so that the bird jumps off the page at you, but also cropping out the species name. As I said before, the book plates utilize the species names used in the original books and drawings. A little late, but very well done.

Australia 177

Australia Birds Europe Collecting 177

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Just about every species of bird that had ever been found in the Triangle of North Carolina had been seen at some time or another at Mason Farm. Over my many years and many visits, I’d racked up well over 130 species there, 28 of which were warblers. The bugs and snakes and salamanders were pretty great too.

North Carolina 164

North Carolina Salamander Farming Tennessee 164

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2016

It’s a welcome sound of “winter” in Costa Rica along with the chipping of Yellow Warblers , steady appearance of Chestnut-sided Warblers , and ticking notes of Tennessees. While watching the orioles move in and out of the patchwork of foliage and white sky, another, much more quiet and sneaky species popped into view.

Costa Rica 134

Costa Rica Baltimore Illinois Honduras 134

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 22, 2017

A Great Horned Owl , the most expected owl species in Colorado Springs according to eBird. And finally, the Tennessee Brew Works has brewed a State Park Blonde Ale to benefit the Tennessee State Park Conservancy. Could this be Le Capitaine?

Georgia 100

Georgia Colorado Tennessee Atlanta 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2020

The prospect of identifying a certain number of species in a given amount of time pushes us to pay more attention to birds no matter what the circumstances (although I suggest keeping the exclamations about species identifications to yourself during such solemn situations as funerals, graduations, and watching episodes of The Sopranos).

Costa Rica 255

Costa Rica 2020 Morals Farming 255