10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2014

The photo above is a breeding-plumaged Myrtle Warbler by Kelly Colgan Azar. A thread on BirdChat two weeks ago reminded me of a fascinating paper that went up online last fall and was published in the January 2014 issue of Evolution: Migration, mitochondria, and the Yellow-rumped Warbler (Toews et al.).

United States 234

United States 2011 Guatemala North America 234

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2019

I like observing them, reading about them, grappling with species and subspecies identification, and even—on a good day—talking about sparrow taxonomy. Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.

North America 147

North America Sparrows America United States 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2014

the same few states always come to mind first…Alaska, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Humboldt and Del Norte Counties offer top-knotch birding, and a suite of species that can’t be found in the rest of the state. Black-vented Shearwater can be abundant in southern California waters some years, as they have 2013-2014.

California 198

California San Diego Birds Oakland 198

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2018

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently decided that the Sonoran Desert population of Bald Eagle is not a listable taxon under the Endangered Species Act. Under ESA, the term “species” actually has three categories: (1) species, (2) subspecies, and (3) distinct population segments (DPS). What does that mean?

Bald Eagle 100

Bald Eagle Eagles Endangered Species 2017 100