10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2014

Here are three excellent but very different children’s books I enjoyed this year (two were published in 2013, one in 2011). They start out in New York City, climbing a skyscraper to see a Peregrine Falcon, the world’s fastest-moving bird, diving at almost 200 miles an hour after a pigeon. Lee & Low Books, October 2013.

Puerto Rico 241

Puerto Rico Parrots New York City 2013 241

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Regardless of whether you think field guide sequences should or should not reflect current evolutionary sequence, it’s comforting and easy to find falcons next to hawks, vireos next to warblers. 4 (July 2013), pp. Fantasy is the key word here. Doing this work takes time! All plumage variations are clearly labelled.

Costa Rica 227

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 227

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. Peregrine Falcon nests. Yellow Warbler fledgling.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

212) who trap, follow, and analyze the migration paths of Snowy Owls, a project founded in 2013, the magic year of the Snowy Owl irruption. This is the hook that draws us into reading about and caring about migrant birds, that and the charisma of birds like Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Kirtland’s Warbler, Snowy Owl, and Amur Falcon.

Cyprus 259

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 259

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2013

I’m not going to try to explain why people are fascinated by hawks; human-to-avian psychology is not my specialty. The Introduction succinctly describes the basic concepts of migration and molt and summarizes raptor families: vultures, eagles, osprey, buteos, accipiters, harriers, kites, falcons. Princeton University Press, 2013.

North America 223

North America Bald Eagle Falcons Owls 223

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2016

Others, by their own admission, are Luddites and believe that the pinnacle of human technological achievement was reached on the day that man first bound a notebook in moleskin. Barred Forest-Falcon – Micrastur ruficollis. Collared Forest-Falcon – Micrastur semitorquatus. Brown Falcon – Falco berigora.

2016 154

2016 Sanctuary Australia Ghana 154