10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

For many North American birders, wood warblers represent everything exciting, compelling, and immediate about birding. Consider some examples: NAMED FOR OTHER BIRDS. Somehow, the northernmost redstart in the Americas didn’t receive the same treatment. Even worse, such sobriquets obscure insight into the birds themselves.

Rights 113

Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

It was in the great borough of Queens in New York City that I first discovered both beer and birding, two great loves of my life that happily intersect with great regularity here at Birds and Booze. Good birding, happy drinking – and na zdrowie! *If If you’re curious, the correct pronunciation can be found here.

Poland 144

Poland Detroit New York City Eagles 144

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2011

I travel for birding. I’m about to head out to the Hula Valley Bird Festival and as I’m packing, I thought I would share with you some essentials I think any birder should plan to have in their suitcase–no matter where they are visiting. I’ve never regretted any of these items being in my suitcase.

Birds 260

Birds North Dakota Florida Soreing 260

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2019

Well, it’s happened again – my first bird of the year was a crow. For the most part, they conduct their morning journey in silence, but sooner or later one of these crows is destined to become my first bird observation of the year, either by uttering “caw!” Old Crow is named not for the bird, but for Dr. James C. or “uh-huh!”

Mississippi 117

Mississippi Kentucky New York Tennessee 117

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

There were three profound questions my birding group discussed while we birded Trinidad and Tobago, back in December 2012: (1) How many Bananaquits could fit on a banana? (2) 3) What was the best guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago? The bird guide question was a conundrum.

Trinidad 202

Trinidad Birds South America Research 202

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

” But the tanager brand is changing. Most of these birds are small, finch-like species with thick, conical bills for cracking seeds or eating insects. ” For these reasons, it is perhaps no surprise that bird bills have played a prominent role in their classification.

2003 219

2003 Sparrows Family South America 219

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Which, naturally, got me to thinking about the newly erected order Suliformes, a development I mentioned in my December column, 2010′s Top 10 Developments in Bird Taxonomy and Systematics , but which I thought deserved further examination, for it’s one of those stories that defines the era in which we are living and birding.

2011 154

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2012

This is all Dale’s fault, with his defection to team Dendroica just because he saw a couple’ colourful birds at the Biggest Week. It is an important prerequisite for sure, but the deciding factor of course is the warble in the bird’s song! So how can you claim these birds to be “warblers”?

Kazakhstan 166

Kazakhstan Branding Groups Sparrows 166

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2014

Birders have been eagerly anticipating The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition , since it was announced that David Allen Sibley was working on it. The first edition, I think it is fair to say, has been pretty much become the go to field guide for North America in the years since it was first published back in 2000.

United States 258

United States Owls 2000 North America 258

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2017

The point is, the field guide I grabbed without hesitation was the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition by Jon L. No other field guide to North American birds does rarities so comprehensively and so well. (To Bins, camera, Nat Geo—the three essential elements for a mega-rarity twitch.

North America 186

North America America 2017 Birds 186

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2019

Despite what the name of this column may have led you to believe, I almost never drink and bird. On days I do bird, it’s usually the very first thing I do in the morning – often before the sun is up – at a time of day when coffee is my beverage of choice. I can’t think of many easier or more pleasant ways to bird.

Goats 122

Goats Seals 2003 South America 122

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2024

I don’t remember where I first learned about Elizabeth Gould–possibly when I was birding Doi Angkhang, Thailand and saw a stunning little bird named Mrs. Gould’s Sunbird–but I have been fascinated by her story and her art for the past five years. And I’m so happy I did. Twelve years!

Australia 197

Australia Birds Europe Collecting 197

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. British birder Chris Gooddie, my new birding hero, not only dreamed the fantasy, he lived it. That’s Pitta, people, not Antpitta, which is what I foolishly first envisioned, having never birded beyond the Americas.)

Hunters 199

Hunters Sri Lanka Asia Solomon Islands 199

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2018

After four decades of establishing bitter hoppiness as the hallmark of their brand of craft brewing, American brewers have turned their attention to other brash flavors, diving headlong into sour brewing of late. Good birding and happy drinking! Tart is tart and hoppy is hoppy and never the twain shall meet. Well, until now.

Collecting 100

Collecting St. Louis Dogs Sparrows 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2019

For a third year in a row, Birds and Booze has dipped on a bird-themed Champagne to recommend for New Year’s Eve. There just doesn’t seem to be much – if anything – out there, a scarcity addressed in last year’s Birds and Booze post for the New Year. Well, we’ve done it again.

Geese 135

Geese Branding France Poland 135

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2020

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskeys all month long. But for such a cheery and spritely little bird, the robin’s long list of roles in legend and literature takes some dark and unexpected turns. Robins aren’t really quite red though.

Ireland 165

Ireland Branding Spain Compassion 165

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2020

Whisky Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskies all month long. White-fronted Goose by John James Audubon (1785-1851) from The Birds of America. Perusing an extensive menu of Scotch whiskies is a bit like poring over a telephone directory in Scotland.

Geese 158

Geese Ireland Branding 2016 158

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 did not get to appreciate all that America had to offer for the birder until I returned with my husband, Grant, in 1989. It has the common names of the birds in English, Afrikaans and Eastern Bantu and Native languages!

South Africa 159

South Africa United States Austin Alligators 159

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2013

We can bird all over the world, and although we are not guaranteed a field guide to every single region and country in the world, there are a whole lot more of them than in the mid-1970’s, when world birders like Phoebe Snetsinger often had to put together their own checklists and guides. I couldn’t wait to give names to all my new species.

Ireland 177

Ireland France Breeding Eggs 177

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2020

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskeys all month long. In the above preface to Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze, we’re promised “rugged Celtic landscapes of Scotland and Ireland and the birds that inhabit them”.

Ireland 201

Ireland Branding Species Industry 201