10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2020

That still leaves 11 Warblers that breed in Michoacán. Like the Common Yellowthroat , the Yellow Warbler breeds no further south than the central Mexican highlands. I must admit that I had the idea the Grace’s Warbler , common in our pine forests, were also at the southern edge of their breeding range here.

Mexico 352

Mexico Honduras South America America 352

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.

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Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

JULY 8, 2020

One of the ways I could describe the unique mix of birds I can see here in southwestern Mexico, would be to divide our species into five categories. We also have many species that we share with the rest of Mexico, Central America, and/or the southwest of the United States. But, once you bird beyond the U.S.

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Mexico Birds Honduras United States 214

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2020

It was when I searched for migrant birds on gorgeous days of September, usually near the Niagara Gorge, sometimes while fishing for salmon in the powerful green waters. The muted colors of Blackburnians, Black-throated Greens, and Blackpolls fit right in with the dull greens and golden highlights of the early fall vegetation.

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Costa Rica West Virginia New York South America 334

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2020

For myself and surely thousands of other birders, May is when I saw my first of many birds. May migration in many parts of eastern North America was and is an amazing natural celebration. Yes, the birding is truly exciting but we just don’t have the annual parade of breeding plumaged, singing warblers, grosbeaks, and orioles.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Panama Nashville Baltimore 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2019

Bird migration! Our big month of bird movements in Costa Rica, the 10th month of the year, is when most of the swallows, Scarlet Tanagers , thrushes, and other species on the South American express push through. Some stop right in front of our place in the urbanized intermontane valley where the majority of Costa Ricans reside.

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Costa Rica Nicaragua Birds Panama 265

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2023

A new book about the angelic-looking, identification-stumping birds of the oceans, rivers, and marshes has finally been published! That would be Terns of Europe and North America by Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson, published in 1995, another fantastic book, but out-of-print and in need of an update. Tern lovers rejoice!

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North America America Species Groups 225

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2016

Can you remember any birding movie before Schrodinger’s Cat? For me, the only “birding” movie that I knew of were the Dogs of War (1980). I knew about the movie since my early birding days although it was more than ten years later before I saw it. He may have been looking for the best way to sabotage a power supply, right?

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Belize Birds Africa Dogs 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2021

We didn’t manage to make it happen the first Monday, but on the 28th of June, we birded his property together. and Canada and winter in northeastern Mexico, while the sedentary wrens of central Mexico, Central America, and South America are now to be identified as Grass Wrens. That’s 100% Barn Owl butt, right there.

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Barn Owls Owls Mexico Leopards 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2020

Where do you go to bird, when you know you might not be able to go anywhere else? But it was the Long-billed Dowitchers who were really rocking their breeding plumage. How on earth do they breed so quickly up north?) Of all North America’s Plovers that may migrate, only the Snowy and the Killdeer breed this far south.

Mexico 175

Mexico Breeding Ducks North America 175

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2014

I had the pleasure of attending the first Mountain Bird Festival in Ashland Oregon recently and it was great! The Wildlife Conservation Stamp Project was one of the sponsors of the festival which was hosted by the Klamath Bird Observatory. References: 1 Birds of North America Online. Click on photos for full sized images.

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North America Oregon Birds Owls 214

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. There are many dusty side roads in this area, many of which offer productive birding.

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Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 207

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

However, for those of us living the birding life, Spring is more than just the transition between the cold and the warm. It’s also a big time for bird movements, a period punctuated by waves of migrants, first the early ones, then a time of many species, and finally, those last “late” migrants moving north.

Costa Rica 151

Costa Rica South America Tennessee Philadelphia 151

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In September, I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to an increasingly popular destination for birding: Honduras. Chris Lotz, the owner of the international bird tour company Birding Ecotours , invited me to join him on a familiarization trip that included several highland sites as well as Pico Bonito Lodge.

Honduras 232

Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 232

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2012

Evening Grosbeak Male ( Coccothraustes vespertinus ) photos by Larry Jordan The Evening Grosbeak ( Coccothraustes vespertinus ) is a striking bird. The female is more subtle in her plumage but gorgeous in her own right. As you can see, Evening Grosbeaks visit bird feeders, often during fall and winter irruptions.

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Jordan North America Breeding Birds 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2022

sq mi), which contradict the conservation significance of the bird it was founded for, some three decades ago – the Critically Endangered Great Indian Bustard. My guide, Chirag Solanki, told me he had once been searching here for five days, before he managed to locate the birds. Indeed, I say. And the animals themselves?

Gazelles 263

Gazelles India 2012 Endangered Species 263

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?

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North America 2003 Birds America 177

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

If you like birds on posts, if seeing “little brown jobs” posing nicely in the distance as you drive or walk along a dirt road only to have it fly away as you approach makes you deliriously happy, then North Dakota is the place for you. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Scott Barnes, N.J.

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North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 152

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.” (Can Answers below.*).

America 214

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

One of these days, Jeopardy will feature a category called “Field Guides” and the first clue will be: “This landlocked South American country finally got its own bird field guide in 2016, but it wasn’t available in the United State until 2019.” Bolivia doesn’t come up much in discussions of birding travel.

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Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 187

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2013

This is such a weird time of year at bird feeders. Most birds have finished up raising young, but a few are in the thick of it like American Goldfinches. Our latest nester, these birds don’t start their breeding season until July and are frantically feeding young right now.

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Baltimore North America Breeding Raised 178

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2018

Angela Minor has lived, traveled, and birded from the southern U.S. As a freelance travel writer, she authors the state park birding series at Bird Watcher’s Digest, writes for several travel publications including Blue Ridge Country, Smoky Mountain Living, World of Cruising, and serves as a field editor for Birds & Blooms.

Texas 193

Texas North America Alaska America 193

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2014

In her free time she travels near and far to find birds to continue building her life list, though many of her favorites can still be found right in her own backyard. She has contributed many pieces to 10,000 Birds and writes about her birding adventures on her blog, newbirder.tumblr.com. Lots and lots of birds.

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Birds Florida Groups Breeding 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2013

These two water management wetlands are amongst the very best birding and photography locations in south Florida. link] From the tangled scrub at the entrance to Green Cay my guests emerge on the boardwalk, cooing and ahing at the tameness of all the birds. Right in the open. And this is where magic happens from time to time.

North America 238

North America Factory Alligators Trafficking 238

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2023

Flight Paths is a splendid but risky title for a book about bird migration. It could easily be mistaken for a book about aviation or space navigation or even a flight simulator game if you don’t read the long, adjective-filled subtitle: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration.

Science 207

Science Illinois Investigation Research 207

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

Isn’t it a Eurasian bird?… No, I’d remember that, I didn’t see that many birds in France. …maybe there’s a secret Corn Crake breeding farm out in Gilgo Beach. Our Target Bird . Had the bird moved to a different area? The bird was right there, they said, pointing vaguely north.

New York 173

New York North America France Feral Cats 173

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

2014 has been a good year for us at 10,000 Birds. We’ve traveled to lots of places, seen lots of great birds, and met lots of great birders. So, as we’ve done for the last several years we thought we would share our Best Birds of the Year with you. Below are our Best Birds of the Year. What was yours?

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2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 202

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2020

It’s not our first encounter with juniper at Birds and Booze, but this is our first gin, surprisingly. Of course, we had to wait until I found a gin decorated with a bird, rather than, say, a portrait of Queen Victoria (as found on bottles of Bombay Sapphire) or one of those burly Beefeaters that guard the Crown Jewels.

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New York Connecticut Mississippi North America 171

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2013

With the Audubon Christmas Bird Count season in full swing here in the Western Hemisphere, one of the birds on my mind is Golden-crowned Kinglet , a bird often heard and seen on the counts I do every year, and thus one that holds special seasonal significance to me. Birds kinglets taxonomy and systematics'

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Family Guatemala Mexico Japan 190

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

Birds are supposed to have feathers and birds without feathers look incomplete, like they left home with shaving cream on their ear and toothpaste spots on their shirt. The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. T urkey Vulture, photo by Dawn Puliafico.

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California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 196

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Between our many residents and migratory species, birding in central Mexico is a joy. Baird’s Sandpipers , like the one at right, helpfully still have summer coloring when they fly through my area (in great numbers) in August and September. The post Special ID problems in Mexico appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

Mexico 145

Mexico United States North America Ethics 145

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2015

Known as the Great Egret in the Americas, it was commonly referred to as the Great White Heron in the Old World. You see, the Great (White) Heron/Egret is a polytypic species with four subspecies: alba in Europe, egretta in the Americas, melanorhynchos in Africa, and modesta in Asia and Oceania.

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Asia Europe Germany Breeding 188

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2021

“That bird! That bird, chase it! Shearwaters scattered at our approach and the wind howled in our ears but it couldn’t dampen Wilfredo’s focus, nor his vocal insistence to “follow those birds”! As the prop motor revved and ocean spray flew by, I wondered, “Which birds”?

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Dolphins Sea Turtles Turtles 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2015

I started birding in what must have been 1978. Each new bird has been and still is a major personal achievement, another goal made, and always cause for unquestionable personal celebration. Two weeks ago, one of those oceanic birds became my latest and second lifer of the year. Since then, I have pretty much lived for lifers.

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Costa Rica Birds Pennsylvania North America 150

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2013

Bushtits ( Psaltriparus minimus ) are the only New World representative of the long-tailed t**s ( Aegithalidae ) and they are primarily limited to the western parts of North America and the highlands of Central America. Probably one of the most interesting things about these little birds is that they are cooperative breeders.

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North America Breeders America Breeding 196

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

Baby Bird week couldn’t come at a better time for someone in the High Arctic, suddenly there are birds hatching everywhere. Baby birds here, as everywhere else fall into two broad categories, altricial and precocial. Precocial birds hatch in a relatively developed state. And now onto some precocial birds.

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Eggs North America Breeding Europe 199

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

Bird blogging in May always gives me the creeps. This ridiculous focus of the Birding Internet on North American wood-warblers is boring on a quiet day and highly annoying during peak migration. It visits bird feeders, making it a worthy spark bird to new birders as they may see it closely. And do they ever try so hard.

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Sparrows Italy Asia Austria 234