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Flights of Passage: a book review

10,000 Birds

You can’t say the same about migration: you can’t say that every book about birds is necessarily about migration, for the simple reason that only about 4,000 bird species migrate (with some 1,800 of those traveling long distances). (Well, purely physical attributes play a part, too: they’re pretty good looking.).

Alaska 240
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The Smell of Napalm in the Morning

10,000 Birds

The majority are clearly Mallards , followed by Garganeys , with one and possibly more Green-winged Teals , also Ferruginous Ducks … Surprises among them are one Common Shelduck , a species that most likely breeds some 15 mi from here (and my first shelduck of the year) and an even greater surprise: two Eurasian Wigeons.

Serbia 185
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Solid Air: Invisible Killer Saving Billions of Birds From Windows–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Maybe it’s because he’s still focusing on the research that still needs to be done–a long list that he would like to see encompassing areas of economics, law, architecture, psychology, sociology, and recreation as well as biology, zoology, and ecology. It’s not a bad idea. with a median estimate of 599 million.

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The Ross Sea – the Last Intact Marine Ecosystem on Earth – and I

10,000 Birds

“Below the 40th latitude there is no law; below the 50th no god; below the 60th no common sense and below the 70th no intelligence whatsoever.” (“Antarctica” by Kim Stanley Robinson, 1998). So close to the pole only a handful of bird species can survive, and even so, death toll is very high, hence their populations must be huge (millions).

Russia 187
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Germany’s Great Bustards and how to see them

10,000 Birds

I am not entirely sure whether most birders outside Germany know or realize that Germany still has a decent population of one of Europe’s most attractive and desired bird species: the Great Bustard Otis tarda. This is prohibited under German nature conservation laws and a moral no-go.

Germany 102
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How to Know the Birds: The Art and Adventure of Birding – A Book Review

10,000 Birds

So, for example, Essay #15, “Individual Variation,” uses Herring Gulls to introduce the concept that one species, even one species at a specific age, can vary widely in appearance. The Checklist is more than a taxonomic listing of species and chapter number and title; it also contains useful notes on each bird family.

Birds 116
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Britain’s Birds: An Identification Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Over 3,200 photographs have been used, most showing species in their habitats. There is also text, distribution maps, a dark red bar “warning” about similar looking rare species, and conservation symbols. So, how do you find the species account for Kestrel if falcons are not placed between woodpeckers and parakeet?

Ireland 161