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? And, that falcons are about as far away from hawks as a bird family could get. This means that loons are no longer first!

North America 160

North America 2003 Birds America 160

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

That fallacious family name seems to have encouraged all manner of knaves, dunderheads, and miscreants when time came to label species. North American warblers, on the other hand, often bear names of, at best, marginal utility. Somehow, the northernmost redstart in the Americas didn’t receive the same treatment.

Rights 113

Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

In all of North America, only one avian species serves as both the beloved mascot of seven states as well as the totem to two professional sports teams (and an infinity of amateur ones!) The family Cardinalidae encompasses a plethora of New World passerines. Within this family, one finds more familiar footing with the genus Cardinalis.

St. Louis 180

St. Louis United States Belize Guatemala 180

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

It is worth pointing out that titmice belong to the family Paridae , an expansive international clan made up primarily of what we call “chickadees” in the states but are known as “t**s” in the Old World. What do you expect of those decadent, debauched Europeans? Birders, because they look, notice them everywhere.

Arizona 264

Arizona Oklahoma Texas Mexico 264

4 The Love Of Animals

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

But, pets also become bona fide family members with which we establish genuine relationships—incomparable emotional bonds that can have extraordinarily positive physical and psychological impacts on humans. Retirement, illness, death, and moves can take away close friends and family members. Below, Paul Mann, Founder and CEO of FETCH!

Pets 100

Pets Emotional Dogs Cats 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

They didn’t say, when you hear owls calling from an Utcubamba roadside at noon, bear in mind that Rich Hoyer can produce a full range of geographically appropriate pygmy-owl vocalizations without so much as moving his lips. Birding bird race Birding Rally Peru South America' Photo by Hugh Powell. Bird photos by Alfredo Fernandez.

Peru 254

Peru Birds South America Owls 254

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

This small pine tree was very recently demolished by a brown bear. This is like Sibley calling his bird guide “The Sibley guide to Birds of Massachusetts and North America” The latter sounds silly, right? The claw marks on this brown bear’s footprint make you wish you had taken the other kind of canon with you.

Europe 165

Europe Mammals Animal Birds 165

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

Found throughout South America in ever-dwindling numbers these extremely beautiful birds – threatened by habitat destruction and collection for the wild bird trade – are often difficult to see and hard to find. As this is an ongoing project we accept applications and volunteers throughout the year.

Peru 255

Peru Parrots 2011 Research Center 255

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2021

So, while I am lucky enough to live with my wife and family near the village of Mapleton, in the Blackall Ranges, first join me for a little journey to part of the coast. As in North America this tattler loves the rockier outcrops down here in Australia too. Obviously, the Wandering Tattler is, for us, strictly a summer visitor.

Australia 253

Australia North America Cooking Fish 253

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Duck : “any of various swimming birds (family Anatidae, the duck family) in which the neck and legs are short, the feet typically webbed, the bill often broad and flat, and the sexes usually different from each other in plumage.”. Some entries include etymology (word history) information.

Albatross 104

Albatross Bears Ducks Bald Eagle 104

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

It’s my fantasy and it’s yours: Quit the job, say good-bye to the family, and bird. That’s Pitta, people, not Antpitta, which is what I foolishly first envisioned, having never birded beyond the Americas.) And sun bears. It’s what I dream of every Monday morning. And mosquitos. And leeches. And pit vipers. And leeches.

Hunters 192

Hunters Sri Lanka Asia Solomon Islands 192

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2018

And, with all due apologies to those who have yet to acquire a taste for tartness, please bear with us and rest assured it won’t be long before we move into less summery fare. . For all its imposing reputation, German brewing has produced its fair share of forgotten relics. Chilean Flamingoes. So, take heart, former Vice President Dan Quayle.

Germany 100

Germany Utah Adoptable Stray 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. The bird’s skeleton bears similarities to New Guinea’s much smaller (!)

Solomon Islands 275

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 275

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2011

Nice. ((** all names have been changed to protect identities and have been substituted with (almost) randomly chosen substitutes suitable for a family of Alpine Accentors.)) Might I assume that women typically bear fewer children, or fewer survive? small families putting less pressure on the adult members of the family).

2011 210

2011 Breeders Breeding Deer 210

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

Informed literature bears out my experience that most birds are seen singly or in pairs. A three-part trip report for Hong Kong including the Orange-headed Thrush and visiting Tai Mo Shan , Cheun Lung Family Walk, and Aberdeen Reservoirs, can be found on Redgannet. The former British colony’s Z.c. Great shots!

2011 181

2011 Deer India New York 181

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2020

It bears an iconic name associated with insanity and betrayal, but also with time and seasonality. A Sage Thrasher – a vagrant from western North America and only one of a handful of New York State records – was found on the other side of the Hudson River over in Columbia County in early November. It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it?

2020 231

2020 Birds Germany Costa Rica 231

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2016

While California Quail are quite common all around North America, getting a really nice shot, out in the wild is always a challenge. While in Kodiak Alaska, I did get a few very nice Kodiak Grizzly Bear shots. This large bear was chasing salmon, and paid me little or no attention.

Grizzly Bear 117

Grizzly Bear San Jose Bears Fish 117

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

The verdant Appalachian Mountains, North America’s concerned forehead, stretch from the northern parts of Georgia all the way to the fir covered forests of New England. For the birder, it means a near steady stream of birds crossing over your head from east to west.

Tennessee 174

Tennessee Salamander North Carolina Georgia 174

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2012

They occur in three biogeographic regions; the Neotropic, Afrotropic and Indo-Malaya ecozones, basically tropical South and Central America, Africa south of the Sahara and tropical Asia. Gray-throated Barbet is one of the plainer members of the African Barbet family. Note the strange nasal tufts at the base of the bill.

Ethiopia 230

Ethiopia Tanzania Africa Uganda 230

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2019

Ever the moral perfectionist, Franklin argued that the turkey was a much more honorable and determined fowl, and suggested the bird – as an “original Native of America” – would make a decidedly more fitting avian mascot for the United States (seemingly implying – incorrectly – that the Bald Eagle is not an indigenous New World species).

2017 151

2017 Bald Eagle United States Turkey 151

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2018

In 1850, the Passenger Pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius ) was the most abundant bird in North America and possibly the world. Even more disconcerting to me than these “trophy hunters” killing wildlife for “sport” is the belief by some that carnivores such as bears and wolves should be eliminated. But I digress.

Hunting 111

Hunting Hunters Gorillas Wolves 111