10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2022

Thank you, goddess of birding luck and text group people).* My inner self felt stuck in an area between disbelief and total joy and the voices near me were echoing this state of mind: “Oh My God,” “I never thought I would see this bird,” “Look at that bill!” “How did that bird get here?”

Birds 263

Birds Compassion Eagles Science 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2012

As 2012 draws to a close we here at 10,000 Birds thought that it would be a great idea if we, like we did in 2010 and 2011 , shared our Best Birds of the Year. We also want to know what YOUR Best Bird of the Year was. Now on to the Best Birds of the Year for those who write on 10,000 Birds! Sound good?

2012 155

2012 Birds Guatemala Florida 155

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, experts have determined that the current rate of bird extinction is somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 times the background rate. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

Endangered Species 200

Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 200

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2022

In 2007 I was working in a university building that was just begging for bird feeders. This was where I set up my bird feeders, just one at first, then expanding as everyone expressed delight in seeing the Carolina Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Downy Woodpeckers. There were no dead birds for weeks. ©2012 Donna L.

New York City 261

New York City Birds Illinois Science 261

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2021

In 2012 , the NFC revised some of its goals and set forth a new vision of waterfowl management that emphasized a core of hunter and conservationist supporters. Although I have no evidence, I suspect eBirders are broadly representative of birders generally, though they are likely younger than the overall birding community.

Minnesota 264

Minnesota Research Pennsylvania Ohio 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Most years, there are no more than a few dozen reports of this species across the region. But in 2020 I personally saw thousands of Waxwings in a dozen or so sites, and every one of my birder friends across the country had a similar experience. and Canada, Waxwings are clearly an irruptive species for Mexico.

Mexico 147

Mexico 2020 2012 Parrots 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2012

An interesting–or perhaps enervating–aspect of this time of year is how birding tends to run feast or famine. Corey and I both pondered birds that are extremely ordinary for us. What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

2012 182

2012 Birds Experience Experiments 182

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2012

Summer can be boring from a birding standpoint or it can be very, very interesting. While I saw a number of tasty shore species, I most appreciated the behemoth Great Black-backed Gulls , which I’ve missed since I’ve moved upstate. What was your best bird of the weekend? How has yours been so far?

2012 177

2012 Birds Experience Experiments 177

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2012

My family took our annual post-Easter Egg hunt hike at Powder Mills Park, where I spied several gorgeous matched pairs of Wood Ducks along with lots of different woodpecker species. What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

2012 192

2012 Birds Eggs Hunting 192

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Then again, birding culture offered a surprising slate of events as well. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a more interesting species of warbler, likely the last Northern Parula he’ll find in Queens this fall. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

2012 160

2012 United States Birds Experience 160

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2012

Have the birds really started moving where you live? I was in Chicago (actually, I might even still be here by the time this post goes up considering my first flight was cancelled and my second has already been delayed once) and managed to sneak an awesome morning’s birding in the Chevalier Woods Forest Preserve.

2012 171

2012 Chicago Florida Birds 171

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2012

My weekend was devoted to a seemingly endless celebration of my son’s 8th birthday, which meant that my best bird was bound to be a backyard species. What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

2012 176

2012 Jamaica New York Birds 176

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2015

A pelagic trip yesterday put Corey in a quandary over what to choose as his Best Bird of the Weekend. One of the awesome gull species the folks on the boat spotted? Even better was that these were the first Corey had seen since 2012. What was your best bird of the weekend? Birding best bird weekend'

2015 165

2015 2012 Birds Experience 165

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2012

I blitzed Cobb’s Hill Park for a taste of migration, coming away with some lovely, lovely birds. While spotting six thrush species in a morning–four at once visiting a long puddle in the path–was a treat, I was most pleased to see Great Crested Flycatchers. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2012 169

2012 Birds Experience Experiments 169

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2012

It’s not their potential new species that has piqued my attention but rather the frequency with which the nuthatches have been flying to the ground. What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

2012 171

2012 Birds Experience Experiments 171

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2012

Or join in… Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was, what else, his first Red-headed Woodpecker in Queens ! I had my share of best birds while visiting Wild Wings at Mendon Ponds Park. What was your best bird of the weekend? If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.

2012 166

2012 ALA Woodpeckers Birds 166

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2012

Do you get out birding much? If you’re checking in here on a Monday morning, chances are you have a bird tale to tell. Then again, maybe like me you simply enjoy hearing about the avian observations of others even when you can’t make time for your own bird chases. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2012 164

2012 Birds Medical Owls 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2019

I was poking around my eBird checklists recently and came across one from one of my more intriguing days birding. Like many birders, I’ve had “patches” where I routinely go birding. Patch birding is rewarding because the birds become familiar, as do the changes across the seasons. There is satisfaction in the everyday.

San Francisco 134

San Francisco Portland Whales Whaling 134

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

If you were ever looking for a reason to pay careful attention to the common birds around you, this weekend offered the perfect opportunity. Have you been participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count ? You won’t be surprised to learn that Corey had many good birds to choose from for his Best Bird of the Weekend.

2012 156

2012 Birds Jamaica New York 156

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2020

Over a decade ago I stumbled upon the first edition of the field guide to the birds of T&T and marveled at the astounding diversity within its pages. I had already been birding for some time, but my photography was poor and my identification skills were abysmal. Many of them were outrageously plumaged. I carefully noted this.

2012 202

2012 Bears Experience Experiments 202

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2014

Any doubt I had about the need for a book about rare birds in the United States And Canada were wiped out on a Sunday evening in early February with two birding friends. My friends had many more years of birding on me and had many stories to tell. I kept wishing I had Rare Birds of North America , by Steve N.

North America 259

North America America Birds United States 259

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica: A Field Guide covers 113 damselfly species and 170 dragonfly species, a total of 283 species. Wait–that adds up to 290 species, but the book only covers 283. .* Wait–that adds up to 290 species, but the book only covers 283. Paulson, William A.

Costa Rica 263

Costa Rica North America Family America 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2012

If you live in any of those places, I’d love to go birding with you! Of course, everything required to get away for a week has kept me extremely busy, so I don’t even have a best bird for this weekend. His Best Bird of the Weekend? What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

2012 115

2012 New York Malaysia Singapore 115

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. It is the first bird field guide to every country of Central America (plus the islands governed by those countries).

America 214

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2014

That will be the opening day of the 18th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida. I had a great time back in 2012 and even more fun in 2014. Who knows what great birds 2015 will bring? Like this past January, I will be leading field trips and spending the rest of my time birding.

2015 205

2015 Wildlife Florida Birds 205

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Are seabirds the last frontier of bird identification? They say so right here in the Preface of Oceanic Birds of The World: A Photo Guide —seabirds are “some of the most challenging of all birds to identify.” And, for many of these species, you need a boat that goes very far from shore, to extremely remote areas.

Albatross 167

Albatross North America Birds Groups 167

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. It provides goals and a definite direction for your birding travels and thoughts; sometimes it even becomes the basis of a book!

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Ecuador Bolivia 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2023

My book of choice for this time of year is Jerry Liguori’s Hawks At A Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors, a brilliant tutorial on how to recognize raptors by shape and flight style, distilling years of experience and expertise into 216 pages. This was remedied in 2012, when I reviewed the second edition.

2011 100

2011 North America 2005 Eagles 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2016

New Year’s resolutions from birding friends are starting to trickle in as I write this review. It is the last day of 2015, time to select the bird of the year past and set goals for the bright open future, when everything is new again. The process is called “Wide-angle birding: Be the bird, see the bird.”.

Birds 190

Birds Groups 2015 North America 190

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

All of these titles deal with birding in specific North American geographic areas: The Atlantic coast, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The photos show the forms of the bird seen on the east coast and are annotated with notes on plumage and other distinguishing field marks. It’s time for some short book reviews. Well, short for me.

Pennsylvania 176

Pennsylvania Texas Whales Whaling 176

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2020

A fact to which my wife will begrudgingly attest, as my memory is excellent when it comes to anything bird-related yet exceptionally poor otherwise. It was late December, 2012, and I slotted into a sizable group under the joint leadership of two highly respected birders. Third time’s the charm, they say. Summer Tanager.

Trinidad 181

Trinidad Livestock 2015 Groups 181

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2017

Are there birders out there who do not dream of birding Australia? Possibly birders who have already birded Australia (but, wouldn’t you want to go back?) or birders who live there (but, how can you bird it all?). So, I welcomed the opportunity to review The Australian Bird Guide.

Australia 109

Australia Birds Penguins 2015 109

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

I first encountered Molly Hashimoto’s bird art in California. Hashimoto’s prints and water color bird portraits differ in materials and style from Harper, but she shares with him a talent for portraying common birds in a lively, accessible, yet new way that belies the artistic processes employed to create the finished image.

Birds 159

Birds Eggs Laws Woodpeckers 159

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2013

Usually, it’s “Bird eating fish” but here we have a case of a “Bird-eating fish.” It has also found its way to Japan where it is considered to be an invasive species. So, the modal catfish is a fish that hunts from below, can take large prey, and occasionally eats a bird.

Fish 210

Fish Birds Whales Whaling 210

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2013

As 2013 draws to a close we here at 10,000 Birds thought that it would be a great idea if we, like we did in 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 , shared our Best Birds of the Year. We also want to know what YOUR Best Bird of the Year was. Now on to the Best Birds of the Year for those who write on 10,000 Birds!

2013 168

2013 Birds Costa Rica India 168

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

There were three profound questions my birding group discussed while we birded Trinidad and Tobago, back in December 2012: (1) How many Bananaquits could fit on a banana? (2) 3) What was the best guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago? The bird guide question was a conundrum.

Trinidad 205

Trinidad Birds South America Research 205

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2018

What do you do when you are a bird guide in a Central American country incredibly rich in birds and other natural resources but which has no birding field guide? selling original art plates, and sponsorships and donations from birding and conservation companies and agencies from the U.S., You write your own. Gallardo did.

Honduras 106

Honduras Birds 2015 Family 106