10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

According to the HBW, there are 41 species of African Barbets and 34 species of Asian Barbets. There are also 14 species of New World Barbets and 2 species of Toucan-Barbets (all in South America). The Crested Barbet (Kruger Park, South Africa) looks a bit like a pointillist painting gone wrong.

South Africa 202

South Africa Africa India China 202

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2022

Hunting and disturbance, deterioration, fragmentation and destruction of habitat were the forces behind the decline of this, once widespread species, making it Critically Endangered on the IUCN Global Red List. After my trip, I followed the news of this species closely. Males reach 1.2 meters (3.9

Gazelles 253

Gazelles India 2012 Endangered Species 253

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2023

This leaves Shanghai in June with basically just the year-round species and the summer breeders, maybe with a few added ultra-lazy individuals of migratory species. Fortunately, there are a few more such breeding species than most Shanghainese are aware of. Such as the Black-winged Cuckooshrike.

Birds 130

Birds Eggs Breeders Breeding 130

Reddit Animals

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

The top 10 facts about African wild dogs , also called the African painted dogs and the African hunting dogs is a wild canine that is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. A dog is a dog : The Cape hunting dog and painted dog are other names for the African wild dog.

Dogs 40

Dogs Gestation Zebras Fur 40

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Thus, this study on the feeding ecology of African Harrier-hawk is imperative for understanding the species adaptation to environments and also a crucial factor to be considered while examining their economic status.” I guess blushing is easier if you have a bald face like this species. Thanks for pointing it out though.

South Africa 147

South Africa Niger Birds Mice 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2015

In many ways the weaver family is for Africa are similar beasts to the pseudowarblers of North America (sometimes called wood-warblers). They are also generally easy to see, especially species that construct huge colonies of woven nests in villages and farms (or even cities). They also have red eyes. Taking off.

South Africa 154

South Africa Ethiopia Africa Senegal 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2022

They are places where we invest most of our birding time and rightly so; mature tropical forests are where we find the highest number of species. Additional bird species prefer the sun-drenched vegetation of open fields and other edge habitats. Find a brushy field during the winter months and you might also find these colorful species.

Costa Rica 262

Costa Rica Farming Birds Sparrows 262

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. By this I mean applying the term antelope to cover all of the family Bovidae, which would include the sheep, goats and ox.

Africa 164

Africa Wolves Sheep Goats 164

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2021

Of the thirty or so members of the family Icteridae that go by the name “oriole” on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, several species are partial enough to fruit that they even visit feeders that offer it as jelly, as the sugar-preserved form usually reserved for human consumption is known.

2017 200

2017 Portugal Europe Africa 200

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.

Rhinoceros 199

Rhinoceros Buffalo Elephants Leopards 199

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

When you think of invasives, you think of the birds that have been helped by human beings to get where they are, such as House Sparrow or European Starling. Other species have certainly expanded their ranges, but never in such a rapid and global scale. Cattle Egret has been introduced by humans to Hawaii and the Seychelles.

Cattle 170

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 170

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2021

That’s because this fascinating part-Caribbean, part-south American country holds well over 800 species of avifauna making it without doubt one of my top three countries in all of the continent to visit. Ok, maybe not the vampire bat…but some of the more “cuddly” species are actually quite easy to see.

Guyana 278

Guyana Otters South America Colombia 278

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

Even in the tropics there are few birds that excel some of our own in elegance and beauty of plumage and we have an unusually large number of species considering the smallness of the area they inhabit. ” (Woodward brothers, “Natal Birds”, 1899) The mighty Drakensberg Mountains run along the western boundary of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Mozambique 185

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 185

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. There is so much here! How do they know?

North America 278

North America Research Birds Groups 278

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2013

More recently a study of Babblers in South Africa may have demonstrated a similar kind of extortion. We are speaking of the Pied Babbler ( Turdoides bicolor ) of the Kalahari in South Africa. . “If you don’t feed me right way, I’m taking off this wing and your reproductive success is done!”

South Africa 183

South Africa Fowl Africa Pelicans 183

Critter News

AUGUST 23, 2009

I've been reading a lot about threatened elephants and primate populations in Africa and wondered about lions. Tags: africa Kenya lion endangered species. One rarely hears about how they are doing. But, unfortunately, they are in trouble too. This article talks about the specific situation in Kenya.

Kenya 100

Kenya Lions Endangered Species 2002 100

Critter News

JULY 24, 2009

To me, eating apes of any kind is akin to human cannibalism. The Last Great Ape Organization in Cameroon is only one of them, but it's the only law enforcement nongovernmental organization in Africa. Tags: africa bush meat congo gorillas endangered species cameroon.

Gorillas 100

Gorillas Cameroon Apes Congo 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

Or else I’d be tempted to mention that the cold rainy weather has given way to a massive heat wave and drought, or that the summer doldrums this year are more boring than ever, or that it is so unfair that Corey is more than 100 species ahead of me in his year list, or that I really would enjoy some nice birds for a change!

Germany 174

Germany Russia Iceland India 174

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Many species build nests of sticks or mud or spit on human-made structures , or in houses we’ve constructed specifically for their use. The family is global in its distribution, with 83 species of around 19 genera. The highest diversity is found in Africa, where the family is believed to have originated from.

Jordan 183

Jordan Iowa Birds Africa 183

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Ethiopia , a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. The Abyssinian Empire was the only African nation to survive what is now known as the Scramble for Africa, and was never colonized (it did endure 6 brutal years under Fascist Italian occupation).

Ethiopia 266

Ethiopia Eritrea Africa Mammals 266

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY.

2014 186

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 186

Critter News

JUNE 21, 2009

Jason Bell-Leask, IFAW Director Southern Africa} said "For years the herd has been maimed by local villagers, sometimes using appallingly cruel methods to protect their crops and granaries from raids by the elephants. Tags: malawi africa animal rescue elephants endangered species.

Malawi 100

Malawi Elephants International Fund For Animal Welfare Rescue 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 216

Dissection Birds Research Europe 216

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!). This bird was kept in captivity until it died a year later.

Madagascar 236

Madagascar Lemurs 2006 Owls 236

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

I do not get too many comments on my blog posts, but it seems that whenever I write about jacanas – whether in Africa, Australia, or Asia – there is an unusually high number of reactions (well, maybe one or two rather than the usual zero) from female readers. This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). How efficient.

Birds 162

Birds Japan South Korea Abandon 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. This species is found on the African continent, in Angola, as well as central, eastern, and southern Africa. Ostrich eggs have been used by humans for millennia.

Africa 40

Africa Ostriches Buffalo Animal 40

Critter News

MAY 29, 2009

The tourism revenue creates an incentive for Uganda to protect the endangered species at the same time that it contributes to human welfare. Tags: developing countries africa economic development ecotourism uganda gorillas. This is a kind of symbiotic relationship that only benefits both members of the relationship.

Uganda 100

Uganda Gorillas Endangered Species Africa 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2012

We humans often understand things by exploring their relationships. Evening Grosbeak ( Coccothraustes vespertinus ) by putneypics The finch family, Fringillidae, comprises more than 200 species distributed throughout the Western Hemisphere and across Eurasia, Africa, and Indomalaya. And back to finches.

Family 177

Family Guatemala Stray Groups 177

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2020

One of the world’s most handsome and successfully introduced gamebirds, the Common Pheasant has been well-established for centuries — thanks to human trade — far outside of its original range in the Balkans and the foothills of the Caucasus, first in Roman times across most of Europe, and later in North America (beginning in 1773).

2015 155

2015 Portugal France Europe 155

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

Endangered Species 187

Endangered Species Species Morocco South Africa 187

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. What is surprising is quite how many species did end up here, and how economically unimportant they were.

New Zealand 161

New Zealand Possums Rabbits Ferrets 161

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

It all seems like such a charmed life … until you have to fly down to Africa for the winter. Fearing that a natural disaster, introduced species, or disease could wipe this fragile population out, the U.S. Thanks to a little human intervention, the future looks much brighter for Millerbirds. Fish and Wildlife Service). **And

Cambodia 143

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 143

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. Here’s the kicker though.

California Condor 179

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 179

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2016

From the Abstract and summary: Changes in climate can cause populations of species to decline, to increase, or to remain steady. looked across species of common birds in Europe and the United States. Reminder: This study looked at the more common species. Stephens et al. Why are Europe and North America different?

North America 115

North America Europe America United States 115

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

Primarily, Lapwings are an Old World family with over 20 species including Australasia’s Masked Lapwing , Asia’s Yellow-wattled Lapwing and the Red-wattled Lapwing of the Middle East. Masked Lapwing Africa is the spiritual home of the Vanellus family, boasting as many as 14 species including the abundant Crowned Lapwing.

Brazil 130

Brazil Protection Family Africa 130

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2011

The quest to see a particularly challenging species is something I dream about, plan for, study and rave about. And every so often the experience is heightened by witnessing a challenging species doing something extraordinary, giving me a unique perspective into its shy life that is, for the most part, hidden from human eyes.

Ecuador 150

Ecuador South Africa United States Hunting 150

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2013

They are a commensal species, meaning that they are a wild animal that lives in close association with humans, not as a pet or as a farm animal but more like a parasite, to the extent that it is hard to find them in truely wild settings, and it is hard to find human settlements without them. We are not counting insects.)

South Africa 193

South Africa Killing Nebraska Collecting 193