10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2012

This Sunday I will be off the coast of Kaikoura on South Island for the first time since 2008 checking out the amazing albatrosses they have there. This isn’t about boasting or making Corey feel jealous (okay it is), its an introduction to one of the birds I won’t be seeing there this weekend.

Albatross 126

Albatross New Zealand 2008 Georgia 126

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

Hannah Buschert was first exposed to birds and birding during a required ornithology course at Oregon State University and she quickly caught the birding bug. This is Hannah’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Hannah and Erik ready to see some birds! I love to go on cruises.

South Africa 263

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 263

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

We might have limited space but we make up for it with a massive amount of biodiversity including well over 900 bird species on the official Costa Rica bird list. With good reason, lots of birders visit Costa Rica and we also have a good sized local birding community. Perhaps they only sing at certain times of the year?

Costa Rica 213

Costa Rica Latvia Albatross Netherlands 213

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2022

Most of the usual birds seem present, a frog or two call from a small wetland, and a few other expected animals are there too. Even so, in the short term, it can be hard to accept that hundreds of species are close to being extinguished from this irreplaceble tapestry of life, that hundreds more are headed for the same eventual abysmal stop.

Costa Rica 256

Costa Rica Parrots Albatross Birds 256

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

Costa Rica has long been one of the more frequently visited global birding hotspots. In addition to providing many people with wonderful life experiences, these birding visits have helped increase our understanding of local bird distribution. More Birding in the Northern Volcanoes. More Pelagic Trips in the Caribbean Sea.

Costa Rica 258

Costa Rica Birds Albatross Protection 258

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2022

No macws in Niagara Falls… On the birding side of the coin, August up north is the quiet before the big fall migration rush, a time when many birds quiet down and change feathers before they chase the summer south. The woods and fields lack much of the bird song of May and June but coastal habitats and wetlands are another story.

Costa Rica 189

Costa Rica Eagles West Virginia Albatross 189

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2023

The (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record – which is the book’s full title, or Arjan Dwarshuis’s Big Year, as I prefer to call it shortly, is a highly anticipated and a long awaited travelogue of the author’s 2016 race against time across 40 countries in his attempt to break the world birding record.

Papua New Guinea 247

Papua New Guinea Guinea Suriname South America 247

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Birds of Belize by Steve N. Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Two books, two authors, two countries bursting with neotropical avian diversity. © 2023 by Steve N.

Costa Rica 212

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 212

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

This shouldn’t have to be stated, especially in a book on bird evolution by an evolutionary biologist with a Ph.D. How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity by Douglas J. Futuyma is a synthesis of theory and research about evolution and birds. that’s three birds).

Science 213

Science Albatross Research Birds 213

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2020

If you want to write a bird guide, you should have guided people yourself. Howell and Fabrice Schmitt: both of them are international bird tour leaders with WINGS. Birds of Chile – A Photo Guide has 240 pages and more than 1,000 photos accompanied by a brief text to make bird ID easy. And that is what recommends Steve N.

Chile 199

Chile Birds South America North America 199

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

For several years I lived and birded in the south of Africa , and still have my battered second edition (1997) of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa, the most trusted local field guide. Distribution maps show the relative abundance of a species in the region and also indicate resident or visiting status.

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Swaziland Lesotho 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2024

Birders know that some of the finest birding locations in the country are on federal land , which include national parks , wildlife refuges , forests , monuments , and seashores , among others. These lands support countless birds, either year-round, as migratory stopovers, or as breeding grounds. But what else should birders know?

Virgin Islands 208

Virgin Islands Alaska United States Endangered Species 208

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2014

You’ve no doubt heard about birds being put at risk by nonnative cats, rats, and even goats. In the case of Midway, a National Wildlife Refuge , the offending species is Golden Crownbeard ( Verbesina enceliolides ) , an innocuous-looking flower that’s native to Mexico and the Southwestern United States. But plants?

Albatross 187

Albatross Goats United States Japan 187

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Anyone that has read my posts before knows I love Kaikoura and the amazing people at Albatross Encounter. This species is best seen at Kaikoura , but they do disperse after the breeding season, so I didn’t see any when I dropped by at Easter. Salvin’s Albatrosses were nice to add to my year list. Not a bad day!

Albatross 158

Albatross New Zealand Fish Breeding 158

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2018

These remote islands, some more than 1,000 miles from Honolulu, are home to huge globally-significant colonies of Laysan and Black-footed Albatross, among many others. Invasive species , particularly rodents, have long been a problem on the Hawaiian archipelago. Midway’s birds are also protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Mice 102

Mice Albatross Honolulu Endangered Species 102

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Kaikoura, in New Zealand’s South Island, is arguably the best place in the world to see albatrosses and petrels. And the endemic Hutton’s Shearwater, which only breeds in Kaikoura, will keep you entertained for those few minutes till the albatrosses hit. More Albatrosses, this time a White-capped Albatross !

Albatross 180

Albatross New Zealand Dolphins Whales 180

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2013

I will never tire of banging Kaikoura’s drum as the best place in the world to see albatrosses, and since albatrosses are the among the best birds in the world it amazes me that none of you have made it out here yet (actually, some of you have, per some of the comments, but Corey hasn’t). At first anyway.

Albatross 165

Albatross New Zealand Seals Fur 165

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2011

It is easy to forget sometimes that birds can do weird things. Most birds will follow a set group of behaviours, building a nest a certain way, courting a certain way, eating a certain set of food. Most birds will follow a set group of behaviours, building a nest a certain way, courting a certain way, eating a certain set of food.

Albatross 179

Albatross Hawaii Seals Parrots 179

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

Additionally, there are still a few regularly-occurring Pacific pelagic species that I have never seen. The boat is called the Legacy and it is an 80 foot whale watching vessel that generally seats 115, but takes about 70 for birding trips. If I saw that bird, I did not appreciate it, so it is not on my list.

San Diego 147

San Diego Los Angeles Cooking North Carolina 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2016

One of my ambitions for this year is to do more birding around New Zealand, and in particular try and knock off a few of the possible species here I haven’t seen yet, perhaps with a mind to breaking 100 species here in a year. Without an albatross how could I torment Corey? A big bird in a bigger sea.

New Zealand 100

New Zealand Albatross Cooking Dolphins 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2021

Last year there was a spate of books specifically about bird “behavior” – though one might well say that every book about birds, from field guides on up, is about behavior in some way or another. It’s the behavior that makes them fascinating to us. Well, purely physical attributes play a part, too: they’re pretty good looking.).

Alaska 205

Alaska Breeding Kenya Africa 205

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2018

About six-and-a-half years ago I had the privilege of watching a young Waved Albatross on the Galapagos island of Española learning how to fly. The sight of the large bird, so awkward on the ground, trying to launch itself with the coaching of an indefatigable parent, was funny, charming, and amazing in its uniqueness.

Albatross 114

Albatross Penguins Research Breeding 114

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

A rare bird is one we don’t see very often. However, that doesn’t mean that the bird species in question is necessarily endangered. None of these are rare in their normal haunts but seeing them in Costa Rica would be a major birding event. Oh, how that would be a nice year bird.

Costa Rica 161

Costa Rica Birds Panama Sparrows 161

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2014

I’m at a yearly disadvantage when it comes to deciding my Best Bird of the Year (BBOY) here on 10,000 Birds. That’s why I went for an albatross, because it wasn’t my BBOY, but it would at least tweak Corey. The scope is to give you the illusion you might be able to work out the species).

2013 174

2013 Birds Rhinoceros Thailand 174

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

My reasons for doing so were actually bird related, namely a PhD in bird evolution, the less said about the better. As I go about any part of my life here were I’m not looking for birds I’ll never see much more than the same twenty or so birds, a decent number of which are introduced species.

New Zealand 106

New Zealand Albatross Parrots Penguins 106

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

Look for someone carrying a camera with a lens long enough to knock a bird off its branch. There are three causes for the uptick of bird photographers into the world of birding – the advent of digital cameras, particularly digital SLRs, improvements in lens technology, and most importantly the growth of social media.

Birds 137

Birds Malaysia Albatross Wildlife 137

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2014

I bring this up not to boast (well, not much) but because I think that this approach to wildlife travel is somewhat neglected in birding circles. Read most accounts of how birders see birds outside their patch and one way or another, they’re tourists. Nothing forms bonds like rolling around in bird…uh… waste.

Uganda 161

Uganda Sharks Africa New Zealand 161

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Buller’s Albatross ( Thalassarche bulleri ) and Cape Petrel ( Daption capense ) at Kaikoura. The focus of today is one of the guys above, but since I have already done a story on Buller’s Albatrosses before it is going to be about the other guy. This post is not about albatrosses!

New Zealand 158

New Zealand Albatross South Africa Brazil 158

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

And the famous Wandering Albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird, nearly 12 feet across in the largest individuals. Four families are often recognized: storm-petrels, albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels , and diving-petrels. Ringer Procellariiformes contains some of the greatest wanderers in the avian world.

Albatross 180

Albatross Penguins Groups New Zealand 180

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2015

Oh, and I need to sort out about 4000 photos and add 250 year birds to 2014 and 400 to 2015… So , yeah, I’m kind of in a state. So I’m afraid retrospective posts on my overall trip will have to wait till I can organise my thoughts, although safe to say if you like birds you could do a lot worse than southern Africa.

Penguins 155

Penguins Seychelles Albatross Africa 155

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2013

The giant petrels are aptly named, massive lumbering fulmarine petrels as large as small albatrosses that terrorise the Southern Ocean. There are two species, rather conservatively named the Southern Giant Petrel and, the star of today’s show, the Northern Giant Petrel. Northern Giant Petrel ( Macronectes halli ).

Albatross 147

Albatross Penguins Adoptable Birds 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

Some birders like to see just birds, while others like birds, but don’t mind stopping or even taking detours to see other creatures along the trail. I like to see birds for a long time and hear their vocalization; even if these are common species. Pelagic birding was so different. Birding is supposed to be fun.

Peru 187

Peru Birds Albatross Experience 187

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2012

Wedge-tailed Shearwaters The commonest of the two shearwater species you can find on the island, this species has burrows all over the place. They are also one of the more vocal species on the island, braying like lost souls under the house we lived in. Pretty neat bird though. To be an albatross is to move!

Albatross 126

Albatross Hawaii Japan New Zealand 126

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

They are, I think, the most numerous species of seabird in the tropical Pacific I haven’t done a post on yet. Their name in Hawaiian is ewa ewa, literally “cacophony”, and another name for the species is wideawake tern, which is how they’ll leave you at first. If not, then certainly the loudest.

Hawaii 167

Hawaii Albatross Breeding Species 167

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2016

I purchased my first Sibley— The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America —in 2003. Am I willing to give up the field guide which bears the mud and dirt of so many falls on so many birding trips? Am I willing to give up the field guide which bears the mud and dirt of so many falls on so many birding trips?

North America 159

North America 2003 Birds America 159

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2011

Last week I introduced the Great Frigatebird , one of five species of man-o-war bird. I got rather carried away showing all the plumages you can see around a breeding colony, which means I had to split my post on the species into two. They are capable of covering great distances, perhaps like an albatross.

Albatross 163

Albatross Birds Hawaii Philippines 163

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2013

I am back home and recovered from the Birding Rally Challenge in Northern Peru (Rally). Well, I will start by saying I am not new to non-stop birding; some friends and I tried to break the 24-hour record number of birds in Florida (Big day). Photo: Peru Birding Rally. Photo: Peru Birding Rally.

Peru 258

Peru Birds South Africa United Kingdom 258