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Grallards: New Zealand’s Next Extinction or Newest Species?

10,000 Birds

Yes, cute little Skylarks were all well and good, but what Kiwis really wanted were birds they could shoot and fish they could, uh, fish. The obvious choice was the Mallard , that plucky familiar northern hemisphere species that is the father of the even more familiar domesticated duck. Not sure if it is yet.

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GUYANA–Simply Delicious Birding!

10,000 Birds

That’s because this fascinating part-Caribbean, part-south American country holds well over 800 species of avifauna making it without doubt one of my top three countries in all of the continent to visit. Ok, maybe not the vampire bat…but some of the more “cuddly” species are actually quite easy to see.

Guyana 278
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Birding Porto Lagos Lagoons, Greece, or the snake-cold Vergina lager

10,000 Birds

All around Porto Lagos (220 km / 140 mi east of Thessaloniki) lies the largest national park of Greece, Nestos Delta and the Vistonida-Ismarida lakes and lagoons complex, founded in 2008. The area is one of the most important in Greece for birds, comprising more than 270 species.

Greece 192
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A Tale of Three Magnificent Frigatebirds (Two I help, one tries to kill me)

10,000 Birds

The species name is long enough to be the middle line of a formal English haiku. In a quick review, you learn frigatebirds eat fish. You also learn that for birds that spend most of their lives drifting above the ocean and sleeping on the wing, the species isn’t exactly aquatic. Magnificent Frigatebirds were everywhere.

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Tricolored Blackbird in Trouble in California

10,000 Birds

The Results of the 2014 Tricolored Blackbird Statewide Survey confirm that this species is in rapid decline. ” The report continues: “Following the breeding season, most tricolors are found in the Sacramento Valley where they aggregate with red-winged and other blackbird species and feed, often in large flocks, on ripening rice.

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Common Noddy in Broome

10,000 Birds

It was the furthest bird species from my mind as the sky was blue and all had returned to normal. Although my last view of a Common Noddy was on 2nd March 2008 in cyclonic weather I knew what I had found. They feed on small fish and nest on outlying islands and it was an incredible bird to add to my 2014 list on January 2nd.

2014 165
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Madagascar’s Lost and Found

10,000 Birds

Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. Madagascar, however, has had more than its fair share of extinct or lost species and Madagascar Pochard was firmly on this list. Then in 1991, a fisherman on the lake caught a male in his fishing net.