10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2019

We should stop naming birds, especially non-European birds, after European and Euroamerican naturalists and scientists, especially if we are committed to making the worlds of birds and birding accessible to more people than the demographics that produced the Audubons, Wilsons, Stellers, and MacGillivrays.

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Birds North America Cooking Campaign 260

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

They also remind me why I love birding in Michoacán. The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. Both are large, stocky birds, with a large head and long, squared-off tail. Those are good numbers.

Mexico 201

Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 201

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Here are some things I’ve learned from the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean by Scott Weidensaul: The Burrowing Owl is the only North American owl species where the male is larger than the female, albeit, only slightly larger. And the term is ‘non-reversed size dimorphism.’).

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North America Owls America Dominican Republic 239

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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Dissection Birds Research Europe 242

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2020

Gaines, notwithstanding that the story (1) takes place in the Uruguay of 1999, with plenty of commentary on the Uruguayan political scene of that time, (2) is narrated by a bird illustrator who identifies the birds he sees only by their common Spanish names, and (3) flashes back to the use of torture by South American juntas in the 1970’s.

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Uruguay 2001 Bald Eagle Science 157

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

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Birding for the Curious: The Easiest Way for Anyone to Explore the Incredible World of Birds by Nate Swick brings birding back to its roots—a simple, joyous way to enjoy nature using our eyes, ears, hands (for sketching), and brain. There are now no excuses except a lack of curiosity. And, nobody wants to admit that.

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Birds North Carolina North America Owls 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

But, sometimes an appreciation of birds and birding requires more than a reference book with images of birds and facts about their identifying field marks. There are large avian handbooks and small ‘how-to bird’ guides, and quite a few excellent books of both types have been published.

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Birds North America Breeding America 116

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Louisiana is a magical place to bird. At the same time I was ogling Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Upland Sandpipers, Marybeth Lima was also birding Louisiana. Chapter Two is a potpourri of stories about nemesis birds, birding by ear, birding for science, under the rubric of birding ‘for the love of it.’

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Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2020

Sure, they’re always a dependable, can’t-miss tick whenever you need them to be there, whether it’s the first day of the year, or the first few minutes of a Big Day or Christmas Bird Count. But there’s no getting around the fact that the starling is likely the most detested bird on the continent – as far as birders are concerned, anyway.

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Farming New York Breeding Unwanted 204

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

These bark-burrowing beetles, which apparently hitched a ride in cargo shipments from their native Asia, have been starving the ash trees of eastern and midwestern North America to death for a dozen years now. These birds may be the North American ash tree’s last line of defense against the EAB invasion. Enter the woodpecker.

Woodpeckers 273

Woodpeckers Illinois Science Chicago 273

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

For many North American birders, wood warblers represent everything exciting, compelling, and immediate about birding. That fallacious family name seems to have encouraged all manner of knaves, dunderheads, and miscreants when time came to label species. Consider some examples: NAMED FOR OTHER BIRDS. NAMED FOR PEOPLE.

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Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 3, 2017

It is now the month of love, and there are few birds I love more than the alcids. According to Reedman , murre is the old Cornish world for a Razorbill , and eventually became a vernacular term for alcids more broadly; murrelet, then, makes simple sense as a name for the smaller members of the family. The Long-billed Murrelet , well.

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North America Science Collecting Fish 116

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Hugh Powell is a science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Hugh, who years ago helped me find my first Pauraque in the Rio Grande Valley , visited Peru as part of the 2014 World Birding Rally, where he stopped thinking of himself as an experienced birder. This is his first contribution to 10,000 Birds.

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Peru Birds South America Owls 255

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

These were the sounds I heard as I walked around a small pond in Amherst, Massachusetts last week, looking for dragonflies, listening for birds. The chapter also spends time discussing classification, explaining how scientific naming works and providing a chart of Frog families and their geographic ranges. These are terms of usage.

Reptiles 193

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 193

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2011

For birders especially in America, this landscape will soon provide doom, destruction, death, and decay. And you might live to bird another day. If you are mildly interested, proceed and read the caption. Despite being taken in Europe, this image exemplifies why forest birding in North America might soon be rated NC-17.

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North America Europe America Asia 145

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The magnificent history and diversity of birds on Earth came into sharper focus this month with the publication of 28 new scientific papers in Science and other journals. One of the central papers, Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds (Jarvis et al. Open Jarvis et al.’s

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Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

I happen to be particularly fond of turtles because my family has taken care of a small box turtle for 30 years (beware–turtles are extremely low-maintenance pets but will outlast your child’s youth and probably your life). Or that tortoises and terrapins are considered part of the turtle family. Lovich and Whit Gibbons.

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Turtles Tortoises Family Terrapins 219

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

They looked out their windows and across their patios and up from their apartment terraces and saw–birds. This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives.

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2020 Birds Groups North America 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2023

Christian Cooper comes on screen about two-and-a-half minutes into The Central Park Effect , appreciating a Prothonotary Warbler at ‘the Point’ while telephoning a friend with the news (this is pre-text group), a nice hint of the collegial networks that underlie Central Park birding. Memoirs are rare in the birding world.

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Emotional Birds Minneapolis Nepal 229

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. That’s right – birds eating clay. Scarlet and Blue-and-Yellow Macaws Ara macao and A.

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Peru Parrots 2011 South America 255

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2014

Birding in Israel? Proving that cruelty knows no bounds, some (language unsuitable for a family blog) in Virginia Beach is shooting blow darts at birds. Meanwhile, an Oregon farmer caught a beating from a neighbor irritated by his loud “bird cannons.” (Who News Bird evolution Common Cuckoo Israel Nature News perching'

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Science Hawaii South America 207

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2013

And now we enter into a family of birds more or less unknown to non-birders. To know a grebe is to take your bird awareness to another level. To cast your eyes to the cattails on the edges of the pond or the raft of birds at the lake’s center and to know what you are likely to find. Not enough for you?

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Jordan Guatemala Birds South America 205

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2011

My birding adventures this week, while Western, were far from Interior (three words for you: Black-bellied Whistling Duck ). As the title implies, it is the casual to very casual birder, and by extension the gardener, walker-in-parks, or general noticer-of-things who is curious about the birds s/he encounters in everyday life.

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North America America Dissection Birds 160

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

My home country of South Africa can only be described as a birding paradise! In this post, I’d like to focus on a small selection of South Africa’s special endemic birds. In this post, I’d like to focus on a small selection of South Africa’s special endemic birds. Starting off with my favorites (I have to say that!),

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South Africa Lesotho Africa Swaziland 240

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2011

It is also familiar at inland sites in winter, especially reservoirs and refuse tips, and breeds in the relatively-Northerly regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. There are also juvenile birds to confuse a birdwatcher. at Gloucester Harbor Birding The San Jacinto Valley.Or Get yours today!

2011 157

2011 Cyprus Species Deer 157

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2020

I Love Birds!: 52 Ways to Wonder, Wander, and Explore Birds with Kids. Her children’s books–which include the charming Mama Build a Little Nest , other picture books, and chapter books–evince an easy familiarity with birds, their science and birding ethics. How many birds do you see?

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Los Angeles 2019 Birds 2014 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2018

He roots the theft in the history of collecting bird skins, in the brief life history of Edwin Rist, in the secretive world of classic fly tying, and in his own efforts to follow up on a police investigation that got the man but not all of the loot. Only, birders don’t require pieces of dead birds to satisfy their desires.

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Collecting Iraq Ostriches Science 106

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2011

A profound and deep understanding of birds is hard to complain about. Despite the vacant look in the eye of a Rock Pigeon , birds are not stupid…they cannot afford to be, or else they wouldn’t be here now. crossing the Carribean and winding up in South America? I believe in science.

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Emotional Science Birds Mammals 222

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Sandhill Crane Hunt in Kentucky?! If you wrote to Tennessee in the 10,000 Birds campaign this winter, you can cut and paste your letter, changing “Tennessee&# to “Kentucky.&# Kentucky Dept.

2011 258

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 258

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica: A Field Guide by Dennis Paulson and William Haber fills a large gap in the field guide coverage of Costa Rica and continues the high level of excellence set by Paulson’s previous guides to dragonflies and damselflies of eastern and western North America. Paulson, William A.

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Costa Rica North America Family America 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2023

February 2023 was a slow month for birding in Shanghai, at least for me – so slow that I almost put the Spotted Dove , possibly my least favorite bird here, on the cover. Not a cover species The Black Kite is not actually black, but of course, misleading bird names are not exactly rare. Maybe those should be protected too?

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Birds Iraq China Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2015

As 2015 comes to a close and birders the world over start thinking about what 2016 will bring we here at 10,000 Birds would like to take a moment to celebrate our best birds of 2015. Each Beat Writer was given the opportunity to share their Best Bird of the Year for 2015 and, as usual, we had some pretty solid birds.

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2015 Costa Rica Birds Sparrows 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2014

I am also writing it on the tails of an excellent review by Corey who, although he termed his post a collection of “impressions,” really did nail down the great content of The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition , by David Allen Sibley, as well as the minor items that need to be improved. I like this.

North America 251

North America Birds Species America 251

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2018

So many birds of white and gray touched with black. So many immature birds utilizing a palette of brown and ecru, burnt umber, white and black. Gulls of the World is meant to cover more geographic area (add South America, Australia and the Arctic and any other parts of the world not covered in the first book) and less detail.

2004 167

2004 North America America Europe 167

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2022

I came back from a Monday birding trip and told my wife, prior to reviewing my photos, that I saw a bird that was either 1) interesting, or 2) historic. And the bird in question even allowed me some great photos! The Marbled Godwit is, by Godwit standards, an unambitious bird, mostly limiting itself to a single continent.

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Mexico 2018 Ducks Breeding 242

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2012

Barbets are a group of medium sized, chunky, generally colorful, frugivorous, hole-nesting near-passerines, that are popular targets for anyone birding in the tropics. Originally they were all placed in the family Capitonidae , but over time taxonomists have determined that actual relationships between these barbets are far more complex.

Ethiopia 244

Ethiopia Tanzania Africa Uganda 244