article thumbnail

Rancho Naturalista Lodge, Costa Rica, or in the Land of Coffee and Chocolate

10,000 Birds

The campus has a pond (above), partially covered by hyacinths full of Northern Jacanas , where I tried to spot at least one caiman (alas, without success), a botanical garden and manicured grounds (with quite a few Green Ibises ) together with a souvenir shop. Next goal: 1100 species, to cover about 10% of the total.

article thumbnail

Laughing at you, not with you

10,000 Birds

Not bad given that the 5 families in the inner circle of the laughingthrush family have a combined number of about 68 species. The Hainan version is sometimes considered a separate species, in which case it is classified as Near Threatened. 36, if my counting is right and there has been no very recent split or lump.

San Diego 198
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

15 expat-friendly countries for a birder to move to

10,000 Birds

This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. And it raises a question: if all the birds are having a party over there, am I in the wrong spot? And a mere 120 bird species would be a good reason not to take Polynesia as an option.

Sri Lanka 256
article thumbnail

Birding Shanghai in March 2023

10,000 Birds

Its mood is not helped by the ambiguous review on eBird: “Although not actually pale, this brownish songbird is one of the plainer thrushes in its range” The Latin species name of the Dusky Thrush is eunomos (I guess that is Greek, but whatever) – meaning well-ordered. One page is dedicated to the Long-tailed Shrike.

Birds 186
article thumbnail

My Top 12 Wildlife Watching Moments

10,000 Birds

Today is the United Nations World Wildlife Day, a time to celebrate and raise awareness of the living world around us. Raising and lowering its head, like stretching. I already have a history of searches for this species. The closer one raises her head, than lies back. It rotates its head 180 degrees to keep an eye on us.

Wildlife 172
article thumbnail

Birding Nonggang, Guangxi, China – part 2

10,000 Birds

Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). The eBird description of the Small Niltava starts with the surprisingly dull statement that “size distinguishes this species from other niltavas” Who would have thought.

China 217
article thumbnail

Where have they gone?

10,000 Birds

WinGS volunteers visit gull roost sites, counting six key species: Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull. Alas, there wasn’t this year, but this wasn’t due to a sudden collapse in bird numbers, but the weather.

Ireland 208