10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Though we arrived in the afternoon, we quickly spotted not one, not two, not three… but eight Red-headed Woodpeckers ! Now, this is a bird species that is declining, and the eight we saw made up twice the total number of Red-headed Woodpeckers I have ever seen before my day on the Backcountry Trail. Red-headed Woodpecker.

Alabama 150

Alabama Bald Eagle North Carolina Woodpeckers 150

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2024

I’d love to have known where and when the Great Spotted Woodpecker in my photograph below was ringed, but though the ring is clearly visible, the number stamped on it isn’t. They are of the race islandica , a sub species of the nominate race, limosa. Whether it has been seen again I don’t know, but I found its history fascinating.

Lithuania 130

Lithuania Iceland Morocco Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

I had just a split-second glimpse of this species – my only second ever – yet immediately knew what is it, but I was driving through a snowbound countryside and had another car behind me, therefore I stopped a good 50 metres later to eBird it. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos minor. Fortunately, B. Am I satisfied?

Owls 106

Owls Greece Serbia Woodpeckers 106

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2017

All of 2016 only netted me one new species for Queens, a Greater White-fronted Goose. I will see at least 500 species for the year. I saw 425 in 2016, 510 in 2015, 560 in 2014, 517 in 2013, 529 in 2012, 375 in 2011, 601 in 2010, 609 in 2009, 313 in 2008, and 459 in 2007. I will see a Black Woodpecker. That really sucks.

2017 104

2017 Puerto Rico 2016 Austria 104

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2019

This species was discovered (shot, actually) in the 19th century, only to be lost through the entire 20th century. The Forest Owlet is an endemic species of this mountain range. Since this was written in 2013, “the Forest Owlet population was in 2015 estimated by Birdlife International at less than 250. Let’s go.”.

India 183

India Owls Tigers Cows 183

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2019

He worked back when you could still have a reasonable hope of seeing the now-probably-extinct Imperial Woodpecker, which he did, five times, though never in Michoacán.). It was July of 2015, and I had been looking for a way to get as low and as high as possible within my one-hour-birding radius. And I don’t… much.

Mexico 132

Mexico Birds 2013 Lamb 132

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

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 174

Serbia Protection Eagles Ducks 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Two maps of the northwest Bronx and adjacent Yonkers, one from 1891 and one from 2015, pp. The book is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Avifaunal Overview,” and “Species Accounts.” Most birders will go straight to the “Species Accounts.” “Wait!” ” you’re probably saying.

New York City 154

New York City New York Birds Breeding 154

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2017

Back then, in 2012, the motivation was to have something nice to blog about and to show Corey how the cow eats the cabbage since he was seeing too many good species too easily. However, I started to fail in the following year, and my blog post on 2015 is still – to this day – incomplete. Species List.

2017 100

2017 Germany 2012 2013 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2015

However, there are a few stand out sites here and there that are significantly better for species like Jabiru, Lance-tailed Manakin, and Nicaraguan Grackle to name a few. BUT, we did see lots of other nice birds, most of them bonus species tough to see elsewhere in Costa Rica. We had several Least Bitterns. This ain’t the wren.

Costa Rica 177

Costa Rica Chile Nicaragua San Jose 177

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

So, the 49 subject species include birds with interesting family behaviors that we might not see every day (Cedar Waxwing, Great Blue Heron, Peregrine Falcon), migrant songbirds (Tree and Barn Swallows, House Wren), and common, everyday birds (Northern Cardinal, Downy Woodpecker, and, yes, Rock Pigeon). Egg biology, from Part I.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

where and when the species is likely to be seen on the east coast, flight style, size and structure as compared to similar species. Of the 426 species on the official state checklist, this guide covers 252. Attention is also paid to when and where each species is likely to be seen in the state.

Pennsylvania 173

Pennsylvania Texas Whales Whaling 173

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Fernandina’s Flicker, a tongue-twisting alliterative name for one of the most endangered woodpeckers in the world! Navarro’s exceptional drawings illustrate the species accounts. Forty-eight species. Bee Hummingbird, the smallest hummingbird in the world! Cuban Black Hawk, split in 2007 from Common Black Hawk!

Cuba 236

Cuba Birds United States 2000 236

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2016

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 148

Ireland Birds Groups Falcons 148

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2016

In addition to splits, selected rare visitors have been added (Lesser Sand-Plover, Zenaida Dove, Red-vented Bulbul and African Collared-Dove are some of the species new to the East book, Streaked Shearwater, Stonechat, Red-flanked Bluetail and Japanese White-eye are some of the West adds), and selected exotics.

North America 168

North America 2003 Birds America 168

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

The warm, sunny climate beckons a wide variety of passerines, raptors, and shorebirds to spend the winter, inflating the species diversity to the extent that Miami-Dade can go toe-to-toe with counties in Texas and Arizona during this season. Can we hit 200 ABA-countable species in four days next year? Red-headed Woodpecker: 1.

Miami 168

Miami 2015 United States Birds 168

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2022

(Note: this post refers to a trip I took a long time ago, in 2015. Like many other species, the Chinese Nuthatch is expected to be affected by climate change. For this and a few other species, a 2003 paper tries to estimate this effect and concludes that depending on which of two scenarios will occur, the range reduction will be 79.8-80.4%

Mongolia 197

Mongolia Hedgehogs Russia Morals 197

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2023

The photos in this post were taken in 2015 and 2016 – I was not only an amazingly attractive, almost young person then, but also a surprisingly bad photographer. I also only managed to see rather common bird species at Shennongjia, a nature reserve in Hubei province, China. “Hey, it’s such a beautiful sunny day!

China 179

China Birds Eggs Woodpeckers 179

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

Anyway, so I started checking my bird photo collection for photos of species starting with an A (after all, this is a bird photo blog, though I sometimes tend to forget this). Maybe there was a time in the history of ornithology when some bird named Ashy was very popular, resulting in more species named in the same way.

South Africa 330

South Africa China Nevada Africa 330

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2023

For example, a researcher and presumed ornithologist set out with two hypotheses related to the Ashy Drongo (and another drongo species) and wrote a paper about it. For them, God probably was the one instructing the drongos to mob one species but not the other. Why show photos of species as boring as this Ashy-throated Warbler ?

China 189

China 2017 Birds Indonesia 189

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2017

Shallows provide an ideal spawning ground for almost 50 fish species and submerged islands breeding ground for more than 100 bird species. Until about a decade ago, this warmth-loving species lived only in the south, but then it quickly spread much further, even north of the Danube. Mallard – Anas platyrhynchos.

Romania 125

Romania Serbia Turtles Blackbirds 125

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2014

Sure, I didn’t like it in 2007 when I was doing a (not very) big year in New York and Black-backed Woodpecker would not cooperate for me. But I had seen one in 2006 and I have since seen them twice more so the species never rose to the level of nemesis bird for me. Below I share my five nemesis birds to be.

Costa Rica 201

Costa Rica Hungary Honduras Birds 201

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2018

Guide to the Birds of Honduras was self-published in 2015, text by Gallardo and artwork by John Sill, Michael DiGiorgio, and Ian Griffiths. Species Accounts. The Species Accounts are arranged in a rough AOS taxonomic order. Each index entry gives the page number of the species account and the plate number in bold print.

Honduras 105

Honduras Birds 2015 Family 105

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2015

Well, that, and the fact that my previous Big Day attempt in 2015 got rained out. Rufous-winged Woodpecker – one of the many forest-based birds in Costa Rica. Rufous-winged Woodpecker – one of the many forest-based birds in Costa Rica. Yes, that’s right, a hundred or more species plus the ones heard at dawn.

Costa Rica 157

Costa Rica Species Owls 2015 157

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2017

This past Saturday, 07 October, was the day for the Queens County Bird Club Big Sit, our fourth year of counting every species we could see from the hawk watch platform at Fort Tilden, in southwestern Queens. Well, during a Big Sit a bird is a bird is a bird and they all count as one species. It was so bad I never even blogged it.)

Birds 111

Birds Dolphins Canada Sparrows 111

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Brit birder Goodie didn’t do an ordinary big year; he decided he would see every Pitta species in the world (32 at the time) in one year. Gerard Gorman’s Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide (Firefly Books, 2014) describes the 239 species of the family Picidae in all their hooded and crested, spotted and streaked glory.

Papua New Guinea 186

Papua New Guinea 2014 Penguins Birds 186

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Decades later, Richard Pough’s Audubon Bird Guide, Eastern Land Birds (I happily own the 1948 edition) included nest and egg descriptions for each species as well. Harrison in 1978 (it is now in its second edition, 2015, PUP). And photographs of feathers in the species accounts, which surprised me. Baicich and Colin J.

Eggs 240

Eggs Birds United States Sparrows 240

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2019

In reverse order, the medals were awarded for “most species seen in a country”, to Australia with 420, USA got the silver, scoring 556 while the runaway winner was Costa Rica with 646 species. Gray-and-buff Woodpecker – Hemicircus concretus. Lewis’s Woodpecker – Melanerpes lewis. 27 Dec 2018.

2018 113

2018 Australia Woodpeckers Sparrows 113

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2018

During October, 7 countries (Costa Rica, Australia, USA, India, Hong Kong, UK, Serbia) were birded by 11 beats who shared 135 checklists and noted 697 species. Syrian Woodpecker – Dendrocopos syriacus. White-backed Woodpecker – Dendrocopos leucotos. Chestnut-colored Woodpecker – Celeus castaneus.

2018 113

2018 Australia Woodpeckers Sparrows 113

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2018

8 beats shared 126 checklists accounting for 704 species. Gray-and-buff Woodpecker – Hemicircus concretus. Lewis’s Woodpecker – Melanerpes lewis. Red-headed Woodpecker – Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Acorn Woodpecker – Melanerpes formicivorus. Bosque da Barra, Rio de Janeiro.

2018 113

2018 Australia Woodpeckers Sparrows 113

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2018

They noted 598 species as a team, bringing the year total to 2118 and pushing the life list to 3555. Blond-crested Woodpecker – Celeus flavescens. Black-backed Woodpecker – Picoides arcticus. Gray-and-buff Woodpecker – Hemicircus concretus. Crimson-winged Woodpecker – Picus puniceus.

2018 113

2018 Australia Woodpeckers Los Angeles 113

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2016

All birds are equal on this list; parking lot birds or pelagic species, breeders or fly-overs, all will be accorded the same status and each shall be worth 1 credit on the list. Lewis’s Woodpecker – Melanerpes lewis. Red-headed Woodpecker – Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Cerro Lodge. 08 Mar 2016. Oak Run Road.

2016 154

2016 Sanctuary Australia Ghana 154