10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

Raptors of Mexico and Central America by William S. This is the first identification guide that I know of that covers Mexico (technically North America but rarely included in North American raptor guides) and Central America. The colors are rich, much deeper and beautiful than the muted inks in my copy of Hawks of North America.

Mexico 174

Mexico America North America Falcons 174

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2023

It all started many years ago, when for my ninth birthday I received my first copy of Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe (3rd revised edition, 1958). In the front was the first checklist I’d ever seen: it featured all the birds of Europe, and within days I was ticking away merrily. Fantastic!

Sri Lanka 241

Sri Lanka Kenya San Francisco Greece 241

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

For Europe, only very few books exist that cover the topic at all. So here it is, the review of Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe by Lars-Henrik Olsen. This is like Sibley calling his bird guide “The Sibley guide to Birds of Massachusetts and North America” The latter sounds silly, right?

Europe 166

Europe Mammals Animal Birds 166

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2024

These images are a wonderful cross-section of Gould’s best work, pulling from books on Toucans, birds of Australia, Trogons, Europe, and Darwin’s Voyage of H.M.S. All of Elizabeth’s birds were drawn from skins, though the Birds of Europe images benefitted from her observations of real live birds.

Australia 202

Australia Birds Europe Collecting 202

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2015

Feeding Wild Birds in America: Culture, Commerce & Conservation by Paul J. The growth of community bird feeding programs in the 1920’s, for example, is shown to be rooted in post-World War I America prosperity–more spending money, more time, and (this is the part I like) the availability of cheap grain. And conservation.

America 239

America Industry Birds Squirrels 239

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families. Getting entirely new families is easy when you start birding. Sometimes you may even lose them, like the aforementioned woodswallows which are probably no longer a family.

Family 164

Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 164

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Many of us in North America are facing the imminent departure of “our” hummingbirds for the next few months, though across the Gulf Coastal Plain, a few western hummingbirds are staking out winter homes, and hardy Anna’s Hummingbirds will do just fine along the Pacific Coast and in Arizona all winter long.

Family 208

Family Ecuador Costa Rica United States 208

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2021

Fittingly, this revolutionary style is a product of Europe’s Age of Revolutions, being first introduced by the Austrian brewer Anton Dreher in 1841, at the beginning of what was perhaps the most tumultuous decade of the European nineteenth century.

Boston 190

Boston Austria Industry Europe 190

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2019

It was not my first time birding in Europe, and my work obligations only allowed me to get out four too-brief times in nine days. And when an American or Latin American birds Europe, what appear to be common species can still be lifers. (In Even so, I was able to see 54 species, of which fully half were lifers.

Spain 204

Spain Europe Sparrows Mexico 204

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

The first bird to draw my eye was a fine adult Grey Plover, or what is known in America as a Black-bellied Plover, sitting characteristically hunch-backed just a few yards from my car, on the edge of the tide. A few do breed in Europe, on the extreme north-east of European Russia. A Ringed Plover.

Geese 198

Geese Russia Breeding Unwanted 198

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2019

Anyone in North America might know them as Cosmopolitan Butterfly. Any individuals found in Britain are immigrants or progeny of emigrants from Europe and Africa and thus receive exalted status. as I have some from the family in my garden. The Aristocrat group is not a recognised classification group.

Ireland 125

Ireland South America North America Groups 125

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2014

I love babblers, and whether you treat them as a single family or several (and I understand the jury keeps getting called back on that one), its a hard family not to like. Babblers are a diverse family or group of families, but when you say babbler I think of birds that are a) highly social and b) quite noisy.

Malaysia 199

Malaysia Squirrels Asia Family 199

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2015

I still know my audience - this is primarily a blog read by birders in North America, who see the term “squirrel” as little more than a synonym for house sparrow, starling, pest and cholera. Germany, like most of Europe and very much unlike North America, is home to only one species of squirrel.

Squirrels 162

Squirrels North America Germany Europe 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. Another member of the stork family, the African Openbill , looks like it is could benefit from a good orthodontist. And sadly, it is listed as Endangered.

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

It covers 434 species across 9 orders and 18 families of birds. Other families are more complicated and these introductory sections are correspondingly longer and amazingly more detailed. Although Harrison did all the artwork for the 1983 title, he enlisted artist Hans Larsson for terns, gulls, and skimmers–the Laridae family.

Albatross 279

Albatross Penguins Family Groups 279

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2022

It also summarizes the vagrancy status of every bird family in the whole wide world, which makes it fun to read as well as superbly educational. The Family Accounts are the fun part of the book. It reminds me a lot of Rare Birds of North America , the 2014 book by Steve N. Don’t worry.

Birds 263

Birds Compassion Eagles Science 263

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. By this I mean applying the term antelope to cover all of the family Bovidae, which would include the sheep, goats and ox.

Africa 173

Africa Hunters Goats Sheep 173

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2018

Gulls of the World: A Photographic Field Guide is a successor, or companion, as the author terms it, to Klaus Malling Olsen’s classic guide, Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America (Helm, 2004*). I suppose this works with such a small family, but it made my librarian brain ache just a little bit.

2004 161

2004 North America America Europe 161

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

Cuba (twice), South America (twice), Europe and Morocco (once) and Bali (once). The third weekend of January, I travelled to the coastal city of Acapulco to give a seminar on family finances at a church there. And my one lifer for the trip was a family of Rufous-naped Wrens that apparently live in the same garden.

Birds 166

Birds 2006 Mexico Morocco 166

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. These large seedeaters (belonging to the weaver family) are so named for the generally black plumage of the adult male, resembling a widow in mourning. Widowbirds. Photo taken by Adam Riley in Zimbabwe.

Papua New Guinea 248

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 248

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2019

They give short shrift to New Zealand’s birds, lumping them with odd names no one here uses because the names are shared elsewhere and God knows America isn’t going to take a hit for us. The Blue Tit, the common garden staple of Europe, was now the Eurasian Blue Tit. I’m not blind to the list’s faults, though.

Iran 134

Iran Barn Owls New Zealand Europe 134

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Its natural range in Europe was restricted the the surroundings of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and in Asia it ranged from Asia Minor to central China. Contradicting this relentless shooting were efforts to establish feral populations in many regions of Europe, both within and outside its natural range. Now, enjoy the pictures.

Feral 171

Feral Europe Asia North America 171

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 27, 2012

One of the sweetest subsections of the duck family has to be the sawbills, formally known as mergansers. Mergansers are a family of diving waterfowl in Merginae , the seaduck subfamily of Anatidae. Anyway, the hoodie is the only merganser endemic to North America. Notice the sawbill?

North America 238

North America Thailand Russia Ducks 238

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2017

Starting in the mid-1990s, there was a “where to watch birds in…” series of five site guides written by Nigel Wheatley and covering South America (1994), Africa (1995), Asia (1996), Europe & Russia (2000) and Central America & the Caribbean (2001). Family accounts for all 142 bird families recorded from the region.

Africa 176

Africa Botswana Nigeria Namibia 176

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Even the names we give to some birds reflect their dependence on the cultivated landscape – we have Barn Owls ( Tyto alba ) and Barn Swallows ( Hirundo rustica ) over much of the world, and Orchard Orioles ( Icterus spurius ) in the Americas really do have a fondness for fruit groves.

Vermont 121

Vermont Belgium Farming Europe 121

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

the development of field-based ornithological research in Europe and Great Britain; a quick step back through the history to look at bird protection, conservation, and our precarious future, with a focus on Birkhead’s long-term (50 years!) Birkhead knows that these are sensitive topics.

Dissection 234

Dissection Birds Research Europe 234

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

A large family of White-crested Helmetshrikes , sounding like electrical toys, formed a flock within a flock, while the Black Cuckooshrike was happy to search for caterpillars alone. Long-billed Crombecs are members of the African warbler family. On the ground Blue Waxbills and Golden-breasted Buntings looked for fallen seed.

South Africa 145

South Africa Tortoises Woodpeckers Birds 145

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

The Bering Land Bridge linking Siberia to North America is an example. Indeed it was part of that family. Until then the fantails were a family of rather personable flycatcher-like birds ranging from India to New Zealand. This is a long and roundabout way to introduce one such biogeographical oddity today.

Horses 166

Horses France North America Fiji 166

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

Picidae, Woodpecker, is one of those charismatic bird families that everybody gets excited about. Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide is the first major guide to family Picidae in 20 years. Gorman, a Brit who now resides in Central Europe, is a naturalist and tour leader who specializes in Eastern Europe and woodpeckers.

Woodpeckers 252

Woodpeckers 2002 Europe Research 252

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Their taxonomic affinities have caused great confusion and debate amongst ornithologists; they were originally assigned to the thrush family, then Old World warblers before being shifted to babblers (the last mentioned a common dumping-ground for any aberrant passerines).

South Africa 234

South Africa Lesotho Africa Swaziland 234

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Howell and Jon Dunn list “overall size and structure” as the fundamental first step in gull identification in their classic Gulls of the Americas (though they then go on to describe endless variations of plumage patterns). This isn’t a new idea. Species Accounts. Gulls Simplified covers 25 species. Range Maps.

North America 208

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 208

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

I haven’t yet been birding in Europe but whenever I occasionally skim a field guide about the birds on the other side of the Atlantic, I’m always encouraged to find that I’m already familiar with many species found over there, even though most of my birding experience has been limited to eastern North America.

2017 118

2017 Portugal Rabbits Europe 118

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2011

For birders especially in America, this landscape will soon provide doom, destruction, death, and decay. 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. Yes, there is a bird in this picture.

North America 145

North America Europe America Asia 145

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

Birders in the Americas may not be aware of it, but from the higher ground of a European perspective the American “warblers” are intensely overrated. To us on the traditional side of the Atlantic, they’ll always belong to the family Iznogoudae , the birds who want to become warblers instead of the warblers.

Sparrows 227

Sparrows Italy Asia Austria 227

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 9, 2011

I mention all of this because we in North America, especially the southern part of North America, have storks too. This begs the question, how did the Wood Stork end up in the Americas with relatives so far away? But ours have none of the cultural cache that European White Storks enjoy in their home range.

North America 170

North America Pedigree South Carolina Brazil 170

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2014

Parrots captivate me more than any other bird family. For one, they are remarkably diverse with a little over 380 species spread over every continent except Europe (only introduced) and Antarctica. However, they do not occur evenly across their familial distribution. I am a self-proclaimed psittacophile.

Parrots 169

Parrots Brazil Mauritius Dominica 169

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2022

Tap water is not as cold as in Europe (and, I presume, North America), but to be called lukewarm it should be warmer. You will love the softness of their beds and the breakfast area in the front yard (at 5 am, when we ate, the temperature was pleasantly cool 24 ºC / 75 ºF), but do not expect hot showers.

Colombia 252

Colombia Birds Cooking Fish 252