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Grifalco: Aglianico del Vulture “Gricos” (2016)

10,000 Birds

But they are also highly-prized for their ruthless and powerful efficiency in killing – medieval illustrations depict them downing cranes and a twentieth-century painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes shows a falconer’s Gyrfalcon inflicting a lethal strike on a Gray Heron ( Ardea cinerea ). Good birding and happy drinking!

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Rancho Naturalista Lodge, Costa Rica, or When Harry Met Mercedes

10,000 Birds

I am taking a sip of coffee, my eyes following an impossibly colourful Kill-Bill ( Keel-billed) Toucan , flying against the background of the Irazu Volcano slopes and, farther to the right, water-vapour ‘smoking’ Turrialba Volcano on the horizon. Some years later, he returned to Rancho for a few months as a volunteer. Why go that far?

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Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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Altruism, Albatrosses, and Vicious Young Men

10,000 Birds

The oldest Laysan albatross was last seen raising a chick on Midway Atoll in 2016, at age 66. They were simply sent to Family Court. But no one who has ever cared for another creature – be it bird, animal, or human – can comprehend, much less cope with, this kind of brutal, pointless killing. Gutierrez was 18.

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The Eagle Huntress–A Film Review

10,000 Birds

Even when hunting in sub-freezing temperatures on the edge of the Mongolian border or doing her chores around the family ger (yurt) in the isolated Altai Mountains, Aisholpan beams. Eagle hunting is a family tradition that goes back at least 12 generations, part of the larger nomadic Kazakh culture. It’s exciting.

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What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The species are taxonomically divided into two families: Tytonidae, Barn-Owls, and Strigidae, Owls, encompassed in one order, Strigiformes. They are also threatened by cultural beliefs that lead to killing them because they’re seen as harbingers of death and bad luck. They are also hunted. This is a great summer read.

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Birding Tabin, Sabah, Borneo

10,000 Birds

The Plain Sunbird is the plain vanilla version of the otherwise often very colorful family (ok, a very low-budget sort of joke). Market prices have tracked demand: in 1987 birds retailed for $ 14, rising to $ 44 in 2014 and $ 99 in 2016.”