10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2014

The featured image above shows a female incubating eggs from my first resident breeding pair back in 2007. Violet-green Swallows will nest solitarily or in colonies and in my experience seem much more mellow than other swallow species. The four to six eggs are white and unmarked. Click on photos for full sized images.

Eggs 162

Eggs North America 2007 Woodpeckers 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2013

They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of South America as their destination. We hope that our journey will provide important information about many Neotropical bird species as well as inform conservation.” Very little is known about this enigmatic species.

South America 179

South America San Diego Mexico America 179

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2015

Western Bluebirds ( Sialia mexicana ) like the male shown above, as well as Eastern Bluebirds ( Sialis sialis ) and Mountain Bluebirds ( Sialis currucoides ) have all benefited from 90 years of nest boxes and bluebird trails, monitored by thousands of bluebird enthusiasts across North America.

Tenant 160

Tenant Farming Illinois North America 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

Excellent 10,000 Birds posts have been written about Pico Bonito and Honduras by Corey and Carlos , so I’m going to focus on some of my most memorable experiences. Our group got to see another species that is a master of camouflage on our trip for the Honduran Emerald. Which is why seeing them was such a great experience.

Honduras 242

Honduras Birds Costa Rica Groups 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

It was not a kitty cat, even though all of its relatives in the Americas were. But they don’t live in North America. I new him because we enlisted his Dryfus Lion and one of his tigers to carry out experiments with bones (this is something archaeologists do). The most interesting thing about this cat was lack of kitty-cat-ness.

Feral Cats 252

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 252

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2019

That summer of 1938, when he was ten years old, Cade read of two brothers, Frank and John Craighead, who wrote of their experiences with falcons in National Geographic. Endangered Species List, giving it free reign to wander and populate North America in ever increasing numbers, including a nest on the ledge of the U.S.

Falcons 171

Falcons California Condor Alaska Texas 171

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Experiments in the field (the famed Asa Wright Nature Center veranda) involving Bananaquits and bananas came up with numbers ranging from 7 to 16, but a tanager always came along to interfere with Bananaquits’ noisy appreciation of their namesake fruit. (2) Which hummingbird was more beautiful—Tufted Coquette or Ruby-topaz Hummingbird? (3)

Trinidad 189

Trinidad Birds South America Research 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

For ornithologists, it is the documentation of a multi-year project designed to record the distribution and abundance of birds in a specific area (in North America, usually a state or a province), utilizing a mapping method involving blocks and grids. You can see the Species Account for Henslow’s Sparrow above, in the banner photo.

Pennsylvania 220

Pennsylvania Breeding Birds Sparrows 220

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2014

The island contains 80,000 breeding Sooty Terns, in addition to 4,500 breeding Brown Noddies and another 100 breeding pairs of the huge Magnificent Frigatebirds, not to mention pelicans, herons, Black Skimmers , other tern species, and so much more. Sooty Terns are incredibly birds. Each took merely a minute or two.

Birds 174

Birds Florida Groups Breeding 174

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2024

Being a westerner — raised in California, and now living in western Mexico — I was perhaps most excited about the migratory birds that breed in eastern North America. This was only my fourth encounter with the species (all on the east side). Although, truth be told, this species does seem to be a rarity in Tabasco.)

Mexico 185

Mexico Birds Raccoons Baltimore 185

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

It’s the warbler that is often the last unchecked species on birders’ life lists and, whether you list or not, for most of us observing it is a once in a lifetime experience. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species list. A nest wasn’t found until 1903, which set off a craze for Kirtland’s Warbler skins, nests, and eggs.

Michigan 221

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 221

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

I’ve been fortunate to see two Penguin species in the wild (African and Galapagos) and have dreamed of seeing more–maybe even all!–especially The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.”

Penguins 277

Penguins Georgia New Zealand Albatross 277

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

At the very least appreciated for their hard-shell adaptation, the way they quietly survive in ponds, rivers, oceans, islands, forests, even, for a few species, deserts, and, if you are of a certain age, their cultural depiction as ninja warriors. Or that tortoises and terrapins are considered part of the turtle family.

Turtles 189

Turtles Tortoises Family Terrapins 189

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2019

While the jays did catch our attention by way of a smart crest and different shades of blue and gray punctuated by a black necklace and mascara, they were part of our common natural experience, their existence was taken for granted. Like crows and jays, they are social, vocal, intelligent, and omnivorous (including eating eggs and nestlings).

Costa Rica 167

Costa Rica Panama Eating Eggs South America 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

There is a total of 235 different bird species in Greenland, most of them are migratory birds with approximately 60 species breeding within the land. When their nests are ready the birds lay two eggs, and in rare occasions only one or three. Destinations Arctic Tern Greenland North America' Source: Shutterstock ).

North America 175

North America Eagles Breeding Fish 175

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2012

from University of Miami in 1966 and has written over 75 scientific and popular papers and books, including Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide. Press in 2009), active participation in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas and leading dragonfly trips to Costa Rica and, hopefully this summer, Panama.

United States 225

United States Costa Rica Massachusetts North America 225

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2011

How do I know of their Gothic moods when they have hidden them so well in an egg-white shell of conformity? And I haven’t even started to write about ageing them … What are your experiences, and what is the colour of the claws on your local gull species? It is the claws that give them away, their black nail polish.

2011 158

2011 Birds Deer Europe 158

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2013

I couldn’t wait to give names to all my new species. I tried using the Internet, but found it frustrating for all the usual reasons; websites either didn’t include all species or were difficult to use for identification. Each species account is 2-pages long, one page of text and one page of photographs.

Ireland 168

Ireland France Breeding Eggs 168

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Typically, at least here in North America, we think of migration as a north-south affair. In the High Arctic we find several migrating species that break that mould. The population that nests in the western reaches of North America’s Arctic will cover about twice that distance, through Asia and down in to Africa.

Africa 192

Africa Somalia North America Nigeria 192

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. Read about them here but also get out and experience them.

South Africa 158

South Africa United States Austin Alligators 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2019

Books about birds are a wealth of written and pictorial information to birders, and an exalted few have become watersheds in the history of ornithological study: Ornithologiae by Francis Willughby, Birds of America by John James Audubon, and Guide to the Birds by Roger Tory Peterson, to name just a few of the most legendary.

2015 113

2015 Italy Falcons Europe 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

The title is a bit deceptive, for while photographs are a huge part of the book, it is grounded in the 239 species accounts written by woodpecker guru Gerard Gorman. This background material is a good, succinct framework within which to read the Species Accounts, particularly for birders new to woodpecker study.

Woodpeckers 234

Woodpeckers 2002 Europe Research 234