10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2016

Recently published research suggests that these corvids are at least as clever as primates like chimpanzees. A team of researchers from Sweden, the UK, and Germany collaborated to study intelligence in Ravens, Jackdaws , and New Caledonian Crows.

Sweden 100

Sweden Primates Germany 2014 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2015

Another product has been invented that could cut down on the number of wild birds killed by domestic cats. The idea is that brilliant colors will warn birds that something is coming, and they’ll fly away. Susan Willson, who led a field study involving pet cats in 2013 and 2014. Three of my eight are prolific bird killers.

Cats 260

Cats Butcher Birds Pets 260

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

This is Liz’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. The rise in drone popularity over the past few years has been meteoric — and in our typical human arrogance, we’ve once again ignored the fact that for the past 150 million years, the sky has belonged to the birds.

Birds 180

Birds Protection Idaho Bears 180

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

I have recently written about the American Birding Association, as it is currently searching for a new president. Additionally, I was curious how the ABA arrived at its precarious financial position, so I did some historical research and decided to share the results. in total revenue, but from 2014-2020, it averaged about $1.3M

2020 178

2020 2010 2007 2019 178

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Ron Pittaway has published his winter finch forecast for the winter of 2013-2014. Matt Young (may6 at cornell.edu) of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology will identify types for you from recordings and this will help his research. … Birding winter finches' HOARY REDPOLL. THREE IRRUPTIVE PASSERINES. RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH.

2013 161

2013 2014 Alaska Canada 161

Reddit Animals

JULY 6, 2023

The research used data collected by coastal residents along beaches from central California to Alaska. The study showed that a warmer ocean, particularly during marine heatwaves or El Niño events, resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands to millions of marine birds within one to six months of the temperature increase.

Washington 40

Washington Alaska Wildlife 2014 40

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2013

In 2013 I birded in two countries, submitted eBird checklists for seven U.S. At the beginning of the year I said the following about my goals for the year’s birding: I start 2013 with 297 birds on my Queens Life List , 500 birds on my ABA Life List , and 1,096 birds on my World Life List.

2013 170

2013 New York City New York Trinidad 170

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Audubon guides to birds have been around since 1946. The first guide bearing the National Audubon Society imprint was Audubon Bird Guide; Eastern Land Birds , written by Richard Hooper Pough, and illustrated by Don Eckelberry. Plate 28 from Audubon Bird Guide, Eastern Land Birds, by Richard H. Knopf, 1994/97.

North America 278

North America America Birds California Condor 278

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2015

I came late to bird feeding, and when I was finally able to put out a “thistle” sock and a seed feeder (or two or six), I was amazed by the learning curve. There is a long list of articles and books on how to feed birds in your yard. Feeding Wild Birds in America: Culture, Commerce & Conservation by Paul J. And conservation.

America 221

America Industry Squirrels Birds 221

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

One of these days, Jeopardy will feature a category called “Field Guides” and the first clue will be: “This landlocked South American country finally got its own bird field guide in 2016, but it wasn’t available in the United State until 2019.” Bolivia doesn’t come up much in discussions of birding travel.

Bolivia 167

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 167

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 157

Pennsylvania Texas Whales Whaling 157

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

These birds may be the North American ash tree’s last line of defense against the EAB invasion. A study in the journal Biological Invasions used Project FeederWatch information to determine that populations of the above-named birds increased (although the Hairies and Downies initially decreased) in areas of heavy EAB infestation.

Woodpeckers 273

Woodpeckers Illinois Science Chicago 273

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2016

There is bird version of this in the Everglades. It turns out that there is an example of this with wading birds in the Florida Everglades. For the many breeding birds facing high nest-predation pressure, enemy-free space can be gained by nesting near more formidable animals for physical protection. Probably not.

Alligators 112

Alligators Protection Leopards Birds 112

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Louisiana is a magical place to bird. At the same time I was ogling Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Upland Sandpipers, Marybeth Lima was also birding Louisiana. Chapter Two is a potpourri of stories about nemesis birds, birding by ear, birding for science, under the rubric of birding ‘for the love of it.’

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2017

I was recently reminded of how heavy (in my mind and heart) that second reason weighs when I got a copy of “Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago” by J. Phillipps: A field guide to the birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali (1993): based on taxonomic order from 1975 with some changes on colour plates for practical reasons.

Brunei 149

Brunei 2009 2016 2014 149

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2019

It’s never too late or too early to buy a children’s book about birds. It’s been a few years since my last roundup of children’s bird books, and children’s book writers, illustrators and publishers continue to produce picture books that feature avian protagonists. First, the board books.

New York City 142

New York City Pelicans Birds New York 142

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2015

This is a key feature of birds. Not all birds fly, but all birds have flight related anatomy and at least descend from those that did. Birds evolved from bipedal terrestrial animals to flying creatures over a roughly similar time range (roughly… meaning, tens of millions of years). And there would be a lot to eat.

Rodents 183

Rodents Primates Bats Science 183

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2019

Owling on Christmas Bird Counts is a peculiar business. Some counters are unfailingly resolute in their dedication to this thankless graveyard shift of the birding world, marching headlong year after year into the bleak winter landscape in search of their heard-only, nocturnal quarry. There’s the whole role of chance in owling, too.

2017 136

2017 Owls Game California 136

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Beside birds, in this park you stand a chance of spotting the Eurasian Lynx , Brown Bear and Gray Wolf ! It is possible to reach it on the Friday afternoon, sleep there and go birding at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Well, do you really? The Forgotten Road does not exist on the GPS screen either. Am I complaining about it?

Serbia 182

Serbia Turtles Birds Eagles 182

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2014

Birding being a visual and an auditory pursuit, it’s not surprising that publishers have taken advantage of the media of its day to produce bird books accompanied by CDs or DVDs. These allow birders to hear as well as see the birds they are studying. But, that technology is for another article.)

2006 191

2006 2014 Connecticut North America 191

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

Once you eliminate the risque jokes (I know, I know, but it’s a family blog) the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet might have the most comical name in American birding. How did this itty-bitty bird come to be saddled with a moniker that sounds exactly like a punchline about bird names? There is no great mystery here.

Costa Rica 102

Costa Rica 2014 Family Collecting 102

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2014

So, the other day I was looking at my Twitter feed and noted a story about African Tigerfish eating birds. People who live among the African Tigerfish have been known to claim that they will leap out of the water and take down a bird in flight, but this is one of those things you hear from the locals but maybe don’t fully believe.

South Africa 200

South Africa Botswana Africa Fish 200

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. But birds are dinosaurs. Birds have a number of features that distinguish them from, say, camels. As Lee Et.Al

Camels 195

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 195

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2014

When the proprietors of Costa Rica’s Finca Luna Nueva Lodge graciously invited Corey and me to visit, we were both thrilled at the prospect of awesome Costa Rican birds at an amazing ecolodge. Anyone attuned to Neotropical birding knows well that the Arenal area is famous for phenomenal birding, perhaps among the best in the world.

2014 197

2014 Costa Rica Birds Groups 197

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Producing a book about birds and nesting is a dangerous business. The truth is that there are few images cuter than baby birds in the nest opening their mouths and begging for food, but there are curmudgeons amongst us, myself included, who don’t like to admit this. And of birds courting and mating. We simply refuse to squee.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2014

The Yellow-rumped Warbler ( Setophaga coronata ) complex is one of the most abundant and widespread representatives of the New World warbler family in North America, present in many parts of the United States even through the winter months, when the birds feed on small fruits and other foods, including sap. So Toews et al.

United States 225

United States 2011 Guatemala North America 225

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2016

The Great Elephant Census found that populations of Savanna Elephants Loxodonta africana have fallen by 30% between 2007 and 2014 (around 144,000 animals poached or population shrunk at a rate of 8% a year, a level higher than their reproduction rate; source https://peerj.com/articles/2354.pdf

Elephants 180

Elephants Botswana Zimbabwe Africa 180

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2019

My review copy (well, actually a contributor’s copy—more on that later) was waiting for me when I returned from the ABA birding tour of Thailand and Malaysia (more on that in a separate post) in early March. The book does not include House Sparrow, an Old World sparrow that belongs to a completely different bird family. Mexico border.

North America 141

North America Sparrows America United States 141

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Most of the books about extinction, including Fuller’s Extinct Birds (now, ironically, out of print), describe what was lost and look for explanations, scientifically and historically. The idea of Lost Animals was conceived after the publication of Extinct Birds (2001), a 400-page, four-pound book on 75 extinct species.

Animal 263

Animal Mammals Hawaii Dolphins 263

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2016

Journal of Raptor Research 27:175-179., 2 Menzel, Sandra, “ An Assessment of Artificial Burrows for Burrowing Owls in Northern California ” (2014).Master’s References: 1 Plumpton, D. Nesting habitat use by Burrowing Owls in Colorado. Master’s Theses. Paper 4505.

Owls 101

Owls California 2010 Colorado 101

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 16, 2021

Have you ever birded a place so young that birds still have no names? At first we followed one trail, without success, then we followed the other one – the same happened – and when we were ready to enter the boat, to cross the river arm behind the sandbank, there it was, the bird with no name.” Thamnophilus sp.

Colombia 274

Colombia Birds Fish Venezuela 274

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The magnificent history and diversity of birds on Earth came into sharper focus this month with the publication of 28 new scientific papers in Science and other journals. One of the central papers, Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds (Jarvis et al. American Flamingo photo by Dick Culbert).

Family 279

Family Parrots Birds 2014 279

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2014

The result is a nature lover’s paradise rich with mountains, beaches, and birds. Lots and lots of birds! I visited Hong Kong from February 20-27, 2014. Though my trip wasn’t dedicated exclusively to birding, that was part of my daily routine and sometimes the focus of my day. Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island.

2014 206

2014 Eagles Asia Groups 206

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

You know there is probably some evil backstory if Wikipedia talks of a “complex” legacy of Raffles – further detailing that “he was ultimately an imperialist benefiting at the expense of the indigenous peoples” So, I guess this is another bird name that should be changed eventually.

Los Angeles 175

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 175

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2022

The Eurasian Wryneck is the woodpecker that doesn’t look like a woodpecker, the bird with the portmanteau name that is also a medical condition (and which may remind some people of a Nora Ephron essay). They are slim and small-headed birds and their bills are fine, not strong and dynamic. This is a very easy book to read.

Woodpeckers 223

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand 2014 223

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 211

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2018

In addition to my monthly posts here, I have also written short pieces and feature articles that rely on bird-related scientific literature. Other papers are locked behind paywalls.) That research ultimately led to an article about the conservation efforts regarding the Laysan Duck in the June 2017 issue of Birding.

Transported 113

Transported 2011 Research 2012 113