10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Africa’s famous Big Five , but do you know there is also an equally fascinating Little Five ? Africa is famous for its large, charismatic mammals, and the Big Five epitomize the most sought-after of these fantastic beasts. This blog post will discuss both the Big and Little members of these quintuplets.

Buffalo 194

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 194

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2015

It can’t have escaped your notice lately that the blog has been overrun with articles about North America’s pseudo-warblers (or wood warblers, as some people, apparently unaware the name is taken by a proper European species, call them), and, even worse, no small amount of poetry. Word spreads.

Africa 174

Africa Feral Ethiopia Tanzania 174

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

So, it sometimes comes to South Africa to relax and enjoy relative anonymity. Colorful bills and heads seem quite popular among Letaba’s bird species – see the African Jacana (blue and black) … … the Striated Heron (yellow and blue) … … and the Yellow-billed Stork (yellow and red).

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2015

One – the Takahe is far too cool a species to lose. Two – there is so much distinctness amongst the different forms of the Purple Swamphen that lumping means we may as well lump all the world’s reed warblers into one huge species and be done with it. This is ridiculous for two reasons.

Spain 157

Spain Hunters Africa Hunting 157

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2012

The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. They are also believed to be related to the Rail-Babbler of Tropical Asia.

Sierra Leone 262

Sierra Leone Ghana Cameroon Equatorial Guinea 262

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2013

What a way to sum up what is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest birding sites and certainly my favorite in southern Africa. Both species of southern African otters are also regularly encountered ( Cape Clawless and Spot-necked.). The endemic Bush Blackcap is now placed in the babbler family, photo by Adam Riley .

Lesotho 163

Lesotho Africa Birds Rats 163

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

This is “the deep cradle of Western ornithology: the birthplace of bird study,” he tells us as he writes about gazing at the 8,000-year old depictions of “flamingos, herons, raptors, avocets and many other species” (p. With Birkhead, you never know what’s going to come next.

Dissection 208

Dissection Birds Research Europe 208

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. millions years ago.

California Condor 175

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 175

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

We saw a smaller member of the potoo family, Northern Potoo , Nyctibius jamaicensis , at Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge, boating and birding the Salado River. Our group got to see another species that is a master of camouflage on our trip for the Honduran Emerald. Later on, we saw a second one that was actually moving!

Honduras 241

Honduras Birds Costa Rica Groups 241

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2015

Early starts are the rule when monitoring endagered species in Mkuze Game Reserve, in South Africa, but there’s a particular urgency to this morning’s start. And the two species were not inclined to get on, by which I mean that Lions will kill other large predators including Painted Wolves. Resilience.

Wolves 187

Wolves Lions Dogs Vet 187

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

Africa 261

Africa South Africa Gabon Uganda 261

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2014

From a birder’s perspective however, this is both a shame and a blessing, as I will show below based on my observations of the species on the island of Java in November. The prinias are a group of around 25 Old World warbler species found in Africa and Asia. The Brown Prinia is an Asian species with a very peculiar range.

Burma 160

Burma Laos Birds Indonesia 160

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Its great diversity of habitats hosts an incredible bird count of over 900 species, including Africa’s 2nd highest list of endemics and near-endemics (after South Africa).

Ethiopia 234

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Game 234

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? With a trip to South Africa on the horizon at the time, I thought I could handle it. Not a great place for a family vacation, though I think Duncan will disagree. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m already looking up birding tours of Borneo and pricing airfares.

Brunei 172

Brunei Birds Asia China 172

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2015

But I do have rules about whether I can have said to have visited a country, ie does the country “count” which I have inherited from my family, particularly my Dad. My favourite was a family of Hartlaub’s Babblers on the Namibian side, and a bright jewel of a Malachite Kingfisher on the Botswanan side.

Botswana 162

Botswana Birds Lesotho Elephants 162

Reddit Animals

DECEMBER 15, 2023

forest buffalo goes into first ​ hyena: The spotted hyena is a highly successful animal, being the most common large carnivore in Africa. The spotted hyena displays greater plasticity in its hunting and foraging behaviour than other African carnivores it hunts alone, in small parties of 2–5 individuals or in large groups.

Africa 40

Africa Buffalo Ostriches Animal 40

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2014

There were opportunities to go to far flung places like the islands of the Pacific or the coast of Canada or the Yorkshire Dales… Anyway, as I was obsessed by Africa at the time, I leapt at the opportunity to go to Namibia to collect samples of bat DNA for a biogeography project. A Bat Hawk hunting bats. And then, there it was.

Bats 154

Bats Birds Vanuatu Namibia 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Pafuri lies in the northernmost part of the Kruger National Park and is described as “some of the most potentially productive birding territory in South Africa” on the SANParks website. ” (HBW). ” (HBW). Vultures, therefore, tend not to nest in areas with high elephant populations ( source ).

Elephants 147

Elephants Birds Congo Africa 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2020

It didn’t occur to me till I started reading The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird that there was also a possible threat to the eagle herself: poachers, who steal raptor eggs and chicks. wrote a lengthy article in Outside magazine (Jan. 2019), and now this book. ” [loc.3014,

Falcons 198

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

” Writing about owls means writing about roughly 250 species (I counted 245 on the 2022 Clements spreadsheet, but I might have missed a few, and we all know that each classification system is different). These are behaviors that are most likely to vary across species and topics that make for compelling stories.

Owls 199

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 199

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

I’ll never forget my introduction to the mammals of Kruger National Park, South Africa. We –participants of the ABA South Africa Safari—were on a small plane when one Lori Conrad looked out the window and screamed, “There are elephants down there!” Species that belong to the famous “Big Five” get special badges.

Rhinos 232

Rhinos Mammals Animal White Rhinos 232

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

A displaying Sunbittern close to Selva Verde Lodge, Costa Rica Secondly, Sunbitterns belong to a monotypic family, Eurypygidae. However, morphologically and behaviorally they are perhaps closer to the Kagu of New Caledonia and the Painted Snipes of Africa. A real misfit basically. Kind of like what I was like when I attended school.

Costa Rica 249

Costa Rica Suriname Eggs Hunting 249

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2013

My best bird of the year is based on the sighting rather than the species. Obviously my best bird of the year is going to come during this trip, what with several species of endemic pitta and broadbill possible, not to mention 8 species of hornbill and numerous babblers, storks, kingfishers, trogons and even the endemic Bornean Bristlehead.

2013 167

2013 Birds Costa Rica India 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

I was in contact with a group of birders for whom I arranged and guided an annual tour to Africa. We already had South Africa, Zambia and Uganda under our belts, but my clients’ request for the next year came right out of the blue: Ghana! We also knew we had discovered Africa’s next hot birding destination.

Ghana 187

Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 187

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2012

They occur in three biogeographic regions; the Neotropic, Afrotropic and Indo-Malaya ecozones, basically tropical South and Central America, Africa south of the Sahara and tropical Asia. The diminutive Tinkerbirds are Africa’s smallest barbets, depicted here is Red-fronted Tinkerbird photographed at Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Ethiopia 222

Ethiopia Tanzania Africa Uganda 222