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. And of eggs and nests and birds on nests. But special.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2014

They cut down the trees the parrots used for nesting and brought black rats, who ate their eggs, and honeybees who swarmed into their nests, and by 1937 there were only about 2,000 Puerto Rican Parrots left. A second flock is released into the wild in 2006. Spanish settlers arrived in 1493 and called the birds Coterras.

Puerto Rico 238

Puerto Rico Parrots New York City 2013 238

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. Unless the woodpecker is drumming a hole into your garage, and then, well, it’s a different kind of excitement.)

Woodpeckers 248

Woodpeckers 2002 Europe Research 248

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

This is how, I think, the “Crossley technique” works best—coverage of specific bird families that pose identification challenges to birders at all levels of skill. Mystery images were one of the innovations of The Shorebird Guide (2006, co-authored by Crossley with Michael O’Brien and Kevin T.

Ducks 122

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 122