article thumbnail

Not enough Woodpeckers

10,000 Birds

It is hard to imagine any birder not liking woodpeckers – they are the “motherhood and apple pie” of the avian world. The Bearded Woodpecker (Mkuze, South Africa) does not really look any more bearded than many other woodpeckers. It is the most widespread woodpecker in Africa, claims the HBW.

article thumbnail

How to see a Black Woodpecker in Germany

10,000 Birds

Black Woodpeckers are usually easy to find in Germany. At least one birder will now likely grab his war hammer and check flight availabilities from New York to Frankfurt as well as average prison sentences in Germany for first degree murder. Here in Germany, we have them. Yes, some birders may frown at this statement.

Germany 100
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

The Collins Bird Guide, 3rd edition

10,000 Birds

Those extra pages (32 more than #2) allowed for more space and completely or partly new plates of grouse, divers (loons), several groups of raptors, terns, owls (birds shown from several angles now, new vignettes, too), swifts (additional three rarities added into main plates), woodpeckers (have you ever seen an overweight woodpecker?),

Europe 259
article thumbnail

Best Birds of my First Year with 10,000 Birds

10,000 Birds

Mandarin Ducks, Munich, Germany. Sure, it is an introduced species in Germany. Iberian Green Woodpecker, Madrid, Spain. Mexico has a good number of greenish or rusty Woodpeckers. All my Woodpeckers have been among the black and white jobs with small patches of red, orange, or yellow. I think all Swifts are cool.

Austria 150
article thumbnail

The Rose-ringed Parakeets of Heidelberg

10,000 Birds

Here in Germany, we don’t wish we had. Yes, Germany has parrots, or parakeets to be more precise. Unlike North America, Germany has never had naturally occurring psittacines that went extinct, and the one we have is a true and complete invasive alien introduction. Because we never have had.

Germany 248
article thumbnail

The mousebird mystery

10,000 Birds

They were once a widespread and diverse group, however, with many fossils known from what are now North America and Europe. ’s “land bird clade,” with passerines, parrots, falcons, woodpeckers, the Coraciiformes (kingfishers, hornbills, bee-eaters, etc.), But to what other birds are mousebirds related?

Kenya 175
article thumbnail

Black Woodpecker: Officially a Nemesis

10,000 Birds

Sure, occasionally a bird has given me problems, like Black-backed Woodpeckers back in 2007 when I was doing an alleged Big Year in New York State, but not seeing a bird for a single year does not make it a nemesis. But Black Woodpecker ? Yet, here I am, back from Austria, minus one Black Woodpecker sighting. What happened?