article thumbnail

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!

2016 100
article thumbnail

Best Bird of the Weekend (Third of September 2016)

10,000 Birds

Sadly, the award must be posthumous, as birders at the pond later on Saturday watched the one-eyed wonder get killed by an opportunistic Peregrine Falcon. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

2016 154
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

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?

article thumbnail

Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The tiercels (young Peregrines) must deal with Golden Eagles, Ravens, adult Peregrines, and foxes; they must also learn to navigate the skies and make their own kills, luckily these skills appear to be innately learned. Coyotes took carrion from young Condors and then killed the weakest ones. It’s not easy.

article thumbnail

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. 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. They are docile and devoted parents who will not leave their nests.

Albatross 214
article thumbnail

I Remember Elephants

10,000 Birds

In Africa, one elephant is being killed every 15 minutes. But the “illegal international trade” is already there, killing – among other places – in Kruger (S. Another ellie is being killed as you read this line. Turn your eyes to the European Union which could have stopped it in 2016, but chose not to. Perhaps 15 minutes?

Elephants 184