10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Knowing that there are reserves with long lists of 600 or more species, I set my threshold at more than 600 birds… and found only a few such hotspots. In early November 2020, there were 15 countries with more than 1000 species eBirded so far. Other than that, there are barely a few hotspots with over 500 species.

Asia 276

Asia Malaysia Papua New Guinea Thailand 276

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. A Great Argus in full call, this species’ tail consists of the longest feather in the bird world. Africa’s impressive Long-tailed Widowbird by Adam Riley. Widowbirds.

Papua New Guinea 248

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 248

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families.

Family 164

Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 164

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2019

However, as DNA and morphological studies have indicated, despite the barbets of Asia and Africa looking quite like the ones in the Americas, they aren’t closely related to each other. The two families of New World barbets, the Capitonidae and the Semnornithidae, are actually more related to toucans.

Costa Rica 178

Costa Rica Colombia South America Ecuador 178

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Adam will be leading 10,000 Birds readers on an amazing odyssey into Africa starting… now! To the uninitiated, Africa conjures up images of underdevelopment, poverty and hardship. I was fortunate to have been born and raised in Africa, and although I have traveled extensively around the world, it remains my home and in my blood.

Papua New Guinea 231

Papua New Guinea Madagascar Africa Equatorial Guinea 231

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2017

I was looking for a new project to write about on Wikipedia, something unusual, and this species appealed for reasons I can’t quite define. The migration within South America of local birds, as opposed to North American visitors, is poorly understood for many birds (as in Africa). It was both mysterious and plain.

Science 111

Science Argentina South America Uruguay 111

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. ’s bird family tree in a new tab and follow along as you read. Now we move on to the Neognathae , which also has two very deep branches that lead to all the other living species of birds. Open Jarvis et al.’s

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

My home country of South Africa can only be described as a birding paradise! Originally considered monotypic, two species are now recognized. Cape (or Rufous) Rockjumper is a true South African endemic and restricted to the southwest Cape. Starting off with my favorites (I have to say that!), the Rockjumpers.

South Africa 234

South Africa Lesotho Africa Swaziland 234

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

The text goes far beyond just those two birds, however, as Doug works his way through the puzzles presented by the incredibly wide diversity of bird behavior, even within species, citing current research and new and old theories, reasoning out the most likely and unlikely answers. Why are all the real tanagers in tropical America?

Science 228

Science Albatross Research Birds 228

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2014

The broadbills are always a family* that birders visiting South East Asia want to see, and who could blame them? I’m not sure if they are as difficult a family to spot in the wild, but I certainly have had little luck with them in the past. This isn’t even the prettiest species they have!

Madagascar 167

Madagascar Malaysia New Zealand South America 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

Woodpeckers are phenomenally well-represented in Colombia and the country holds anything from 42 to 44 of the world’s woodpecker species, depending on which list you follow. The piculets are a distinctive and unique sub-family of woodpeckers that are best represented in South America. www.youtube.com/watch?

Colombia 176

Colombia Woodpeckers South America Family 176

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2014

There are approximately 10,000 plant species in the Cerrado. It also supports the greatest variety of large mammals in all of South America, including such iconic species as Maned Wolf and Giant Anteater. A Rufous-winged Antshrike, a typical species of lightly wooded savanna in the lower elevations of the park.

Brazil 169

Brazil South America Collecting America 169

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2011

It made us reach for our field guide for North America, but that really does not compare to the real thing. I had spent several holidays with my family in the USA in the 1980′s and then worked in Maine during the summer of 1985-beware the poison ivy and the snapping turtles!

South Africa 159

South Africa United States Austin Alligators 159

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2011

One such controversial bird is the Veraguan Mango , a small hummingbird species that was, until very recently, believed to be a Panamanian endemic. Veraguan Mango by Carlos Bethancourt Although the Neotropical region supports fewer bird families than Africa, there are considerably more bird species here than anywhere else on earth.

Panama 216

Panama Costa Rica 2011 Cleveland 216

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Eight days with 20 of the world’s top birding guides looking for some 1,000 species and three dozen endemics. You can see as many hummingbird species as the folks at Magee Marsh are seeing warbler species—during 25 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. As the rally tore through its itinerary, the species piled up.

Peru 255

Peru Birds South America Owls 255

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

And, I started daydreaming about encountering something a little different, maybe a Horned Frog, Ceratophrys cornuta, a large, squat green and brown frog of South America, with a wide mouth large enough to eat other frogs as well as reptiles. A book about all the frogs and toads of the world is an ambitious undertaking.

Reptiles 190

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 190