article thumbnail

Do nine-primaried oscines represent 16 different families?

10,000 Birds

For those of us in the Americas, nine-primaried oscines are among our most familiar and beloved birds: finches; sparrows, juncos, and towhees; warblers; blackbirds, meadowlarks, and orioles; cardinals and grosbeaks; and tanagers. Some scientists have lumped them all into one enormous family (e.g., Keith Barker, et al.,

Family 178
article thumbnail

Siskins, Pine and Otherwise

10,000 Birds

I’ve written before about how much I enjoy the abundance of Pine Siskins in my adopted home. I’ve always been rather fascinated by trans-Atlantic bird families, perhaps because of growing up with copious mentions of British birds in my children’s books. The siskins are much simpler.

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 of Belize & Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide Review Doubleheader

10,000 Birds

And when writing a field guide, it is accepted practice to adopt one of the above and to stick to it, with any questions or disagreements safely ensconced in the text, not in an actual change of species. Checklist for Belize lists 622 species in 76 families, of which 104 are rare or accidental and four introduced.

article thumbnail

Birds and People: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

It’s not like I had forgotten lists created with friends of ‘songs with birds in the lyrics’, my personal favorites being Sondheim’s Green Finch and Linnet Bird and the Beatles’ Blackbird. It’s relatively easy to classify birds into family groups based on physical characteristics. As they say, the relationship is complicated.

Birds 215
article thumbnail

Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America: A Review by a Sparrow Fan

10,000 Birds

Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. The book does not include House Sparrow, an Old World sparrow that belongs to a completely different bird family. Scope of Book. Rick Wright agrees.

article thumbnail

The Case for Adding the U.S. Territories in the Caribbean to the ABA Area

10,000 Birds

Both Puerto Rico and the USVI have active birding communities that are currently excluded from full membership in the ABA family. All Americans Should be Full Members of the ABA Family. Adding Puerto Rico and the USVI would largely achieve the goal of bringing all Americans into full membership of the ABA family.