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My Ten Best Birds of 2019

10,000 Birds

I birded Uganda, which was my first time on the continent of Africa. I also spent a week in northwestern Costa Rica on a family vacation, a long weekend in Barbados, a week in Georgia, and two week-plus-long trips to visit relatives in southern California. Such are the travails of a birder traveling with a non-birding family.

2019 143
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Meet Suliformes, one of the newest orders of birds

10,000 Birds

That larger clade is in turn sister to a clade containing the four remaining totipalmate bird families, which do still seem to be related, and which needed a new order name once pelicans were removed. But meanwhile, let’s look at the four avian families that comprise the brand new order Suliformes. Feeding Frenzy at Jamaica Bay.Or

2011 155
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Spotted Thick-knee

10,000 Birds

In southern Africa, there are two species. The Spotted Thick-knee , Burhinus capensis is, is found across much of Africa, favouring open country and is perfectly suited to the dry sandy ground of the cape region, where this individual would almost certainly have been overlooked were it not for its bright yellow legs, eyes and bill.

2011 170