10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2017

For the last several years, I have produced a small run of calendars for my fiends and family. The ones that will be in the calendar, the elite 12 are selected by not only the quality of the image, but most colorful, most unique, and in the case of a couple of birds cut out this year, species that appeared in last years Calendar.

2017 141

2017 Culling 2016 Birds 141

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2018

At last count, there are 25 species of birds named for U.S. But only two states have more than one bird named for them: Hawaii and California, with nine and seven extant and eponymous species, respectively. My first California Quail in California, at Point Reyes National Seashore in October 2017.

2015 113

2015 San Diego Family California Condor 113

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

The main attraction for birders here are the hornbills – I have written about them before , so this post will be more on the other birds I saw there in 2017. Anyway, it is a very cute-looking bird if you are big enough not to be among its prey of (mostly) insects.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2023

In 2017 the arrival of the Magpie Geese warned us of the high rainfall ahead and then they bred in the area. This year we have had high numbers of Magpie Geese once again in the Broome area and this last weekend we observed our first family groups for the season. The Magpie Geese bred again in the Broome area during 2018.

Geese 147

Geese Breeding Australia 2017 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

There was a time when I thought each bird species had its own individual song. Then I found out that there was this vocalization called a ‘call,’ so I thought each bird species had its own individual song (but just the males) and individual call. Bird communication is a complex and evolving science.

North America 279

North America Research Birds Groups 279

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2021

“Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea” by James A. kg could be, do keep in mind that this guide covers 4,400 km / 2,750 mi of the Earth’s circumference, or 11% of the length of the Equator, and describes 13% of global bird diversity. Eaton, Bas van Balen, Nick W. Brickle and Frank E. Rheindt is a big book.

Indonesia 264

Indonesia Timor Brunei Guinea 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

May is a busy month for birds migrating through Shanghai – and of course, last May was completely missed due to the lockdown. So, I spent a lot of time birding this month, and to keep this post at a manageable length, it mostly only covers the first half of May. The video is notable for the bird basically refusing to move at all.

Birds 130

Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 26, 2017

Your first weekend of spring or fall may have been uneventful in terms of birds, but pace yourself. Rochester is still wintry, but bird activity among the common species has picked up quite a bit. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one of the easiest to decide that he can remember. ” How about you?

2017 121

2017 Owls Birds Woodpeckers 121

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2017

I was fortunate to not only run into some tasty year birds like Pectoral Sandpiper but also some local birders I knew only by name. Corey had a great weekend in his hometown visiting his family and making a couple visits to local birding hotspots. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

2017 100

2017 Birds Experience Experiments 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2020

Having finally found a Black Vulture for my Queens list , an important tick both because it was long overdue and because it was the tenth bird since my last set of predictions, it is time, once again, to look at what might be coming to my Queens list. Black Vulture – The bird that has been reported the most in Queens that I have never seen.

2018 168

2018 2015 Birds 2019 168

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

Within 140 ac / 60 ha of Rancho Naturalista’s Reserve, there are 500 bird species – or 55% of the nation’s total! While I already visited Costa Rica once, I do not feel overly-confident with its birds. And Verbena attracts another specialty bird and a regional endemic (from Honduras to Panama), the Snowcap.

Costa Rica 261

Costa Rica Rats Parrots Raccoons 261

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

The Juniper Titmouse ( Baeolophus ridgwayi ) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. You can also see my 10000 Birds post on the Oak Titmouse here. Thanks to my friend Rebecca Carrier for penning this post for 10,000 Birds on my behalf. One of my favorite bird species living by my house is the Juniper Titmouse.

2017 173

2017 New Mexico Groups Abandon 173

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2018

A couple of the biggest of bird families are restricted to the Americas. Just about anywhere a birder ventures, the miniscule members of the latter family can be seen, and in most tropical locales, it’s not just one species. Purple and shining beryl adorn the males of this beautiful little bird. The female.

Costa Rica 230

Costa Rica Nicaragua Panama Honduras 230

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2017

Birds of Kruger National Park covers the 259 species most frequently seen in the park, about half of the total number of birds documented there. Regular readers of 10,000 Birds may remember Jochen’s posts about keeping taxonomy out of field guides. The 224-page book is organized by habitat and behavior, not taxonomy.

Ecuador 185

Ecuador Wildlife Reptiles Birds 185

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

Hannah Buschert was first exposed to birds and birding during a required ornithology course at Oregon State University and she quickly caught the birding bug. This is Hannah’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Hannah and Erik ready to see some birds! I love to go on cruises.

South Africa 264

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Happy New Year, 10,000 Birds readers and writers! Everyone is looking back on their best birds of 2019, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a book that looks back a little further: Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City , by P. The Bronx also has a special place in birding history.

New York City 164

New York City New York Birds Breeding 164

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2017

We had high hopes for our first morning’s birding with our main goals being the two hummingbirds that are most easily found in the east, the Antillean Crested Hummingbird and the Green-throated Carib. Curse the lumpers who stole species status from the white-shielded Caribbean race of coot! Such awesome creatures.

Puerto Rico 111

Puerto Rico Birds Woodpeckers 2017 111

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Yet, as I was slowly running out of other bird groups that I knew nothing about, I had no other choice but to start learning what I was always running away from: those abominable shorebirds. Illustrated by Chandler’s mainly excellent photos, the book shows about 180 species, or some 80 % of the total. What is it, then?

Botswana 131

Botswana 2017 Groups Europe 131

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2018

No matter where or when we bird, we have our targets. Our bogey or nemesis species, birds that we would opt to see over others. Back in the early days of birding with optics, I wonder if such wanted species would have been birds that were much more common in present times. This bird does indeed glow.

Costa Rica 102

Costa Rica Bald Eagle Eagles Birds 102

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2017

After a very good Wet Season with substantially more rain than normal over the first few months of 2017 the land was flooded and a huge variety of birds arrived in the Broome area to take advantage of the ideal conditions for breeding. Two birds on the right and one on the left-note the bills! Australian Painted Snipe nest.

Breeding 100

Breeding Eggs Raised 2017 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2017

The birding has been rewarding as always and we have been able to add several birds to the 2017 year list that we may not see around Broome every year. Bush walking in extreme heat has its rewards and not just the bird life!

2017 100

2017 Australia Ducks Family 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2017

Now, those of you familiar with my tendency to chase birds in New York and knowledgeable of the spate of Great Gray Owls we have had in 2017 might question why it took me to nearly the end of March to make a trip upstate to see one. I, on the other hand, enjoy living with my family and would like to keep doing that.

New York 102

New York Owls Beavers Puerto Rico 102

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

There are birders who watch hawks and there are hawk watchers who bird. The guide presents 69 species and 1 subspecies, from “NEW WORLD VULTURES: Cathartiformes” to “OSPREY: Pandioninae” to “FAMILY: Accipitridae” (Kites, Hawks, Eagles, Hawk-Eagles), to “FALONIDS: Falconidae” (Falcons, Forest-Falcons, Caracaras, Kestrels, Merlin).

Mexico 180

Mexico America North America Falcons 180

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2020

Be careful how you Google ‘bird of paradise’! It’s the bird family that most people don’t know is a bird family. It’s the bird family that most people don’t know is a bird family.

Guinea 264

Guinea Birds Papua New Guinea Family 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2017

Written by an ornithologist who is also a birder and who embraces the world from an ecological viewpoint that sees birds as part of larger systems of evolution, succession, and mutualism, The New Neotropical Companion is the textbook-that-is-not-a-textbook you always wanted to read, though you may not know it yet.

South America 171

South America Ecuador Reptiles America 171

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 214

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

If, someday, you make your way to Morelia, and ask for me to show you some of our best birds, I will surely do my best to accomodate you. In the case of most of these wonderful bird species, I probably know where they are most likely to be found. The Aztec Thrush is a beautiful bird, with bold dark/light plumage patterns.

2017 233

2017 2019 Nashville 2018 233

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Photos courtesy of Mosetlha Bush Camp A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg.

South Africa 244

South Africa Africa Game Elephants 244

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

I’ve never been to the Indonesian Archipelago, but I really like the birds there. Lynx Edicions, the ornithological (and now mammal) publisher that gave us the Handbook of the Birds of the World , has now published Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea , by James A. So, this is no ordinary bird guide.

Indonesia 142

Indonesia Brunei Birds Malaysia 142

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2017

The Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Eastern North America by Nathan Pieplow is innovative, fascinating, and challenging. The guide covers 520 species of birds regularly found in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, including, interestingly, a number of exotic species. But, first the basics.

North America 184

North America America Birds New York 184

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Way back on 16 May I managed to see my 312 bird species in Queens to add to my Queens list. Somehow I forgot that the last time I predicted what the next ten species I would see in Queens would be was back on 30 December 2013, when my list was sitting at 302. Sooty Shearwater – This will take some more dedicated seawatching.

2013 160

2013 2010 2012 2011 160

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2017

Can a family-focused trip—even to one of the world’s most biodiverse countries—deliver enough opportunities for avian observation to satisfy this serious world birder? With enough planning, you can enjoy a family-friendly, bird-rich vacation in the Panama Canal zone. If you have kids, you’re probably as curious as I was.

Panama 100

Panama 2017 Monkeys Family 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2016

I opened the year in California and even though I flew out in the evening on New Year’s Day I did see some species out there that I would otherwise not have seen for the year. Winter birding around New York City was just so-so but I did add one species to my Queens list. Aaaarrrgghhhh!

2016 147

2016 Puerto Rico New York City New York 147

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.

Woodpeckers 255

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand 2014 255

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

And, for all our complaints about brown and gray plumages, gulls can be beautiful birds (well, some more beautiful than others, and Heermann’s Gull is one of my favorites, with one N at the end or two). In a birding world that celebrates identification, there are surprisingly few articles and books on gull identification.**

North America 211

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2017

Diversions like these definitely help get us through the more prosaic birding months. My family and I enjoyed the Corn Hill Festival this weekend, which is definitely one of Rochester’s better events. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was easy for him to decide. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2017 100

2017 Endangered Species Falcons Birds 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2017

Starting in the mid-1990s, there was a “where to watch birds in…” series of five site guides written by Nigel Wheatley and covering South America (1994), Africa (1995), Asia (1996), Europe & Russia (2000) and Central America & the Caribbean (2001). Family accounts for all 142 bird families recorded from the region.

Africa 182

Africa Botswana Nigeria Namibia 182