10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2017

Birds of Kruger National Park covers the 259 species most frequently seen in the park, about half of the total number of birds documented there. This still leaves the user flipping through sections, looking for the species in question, though I don’t think there are many species with this habitat overlap.

Ecuador 180

Ecuador Wildlife Reptiles Birds 180

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2024

Phoebe Snetsinger was an American birder who first passed the 8,000 species mark. Famous ornithologist Ted Parker crashed into a mountain in Ecuador while surveying birds. It has all Big Five animals and a whole lot of other grumpy mammals. She died in a car accident during a birding trip. And so forth. None were found.

Mozambique 231

Mozambique Birds Ghana Namibia 231

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2014

I actually have many targets, in a way, a I want to see lots and lots, but there is one species that the reason that the trip is even happening, the animal that has been pretty much the top of my animal bucket list for well over a decade. It’s a species that has bedeviled and bewitched me over the years.

Sharks 177

Sharks Leopards Whales Whaling 177

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2017

In 2009, I traveled from New York City to the tropical rainforest of Ecuador. The first edition, A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics , was published in 1989. It was my first trip to the Neotropics, and I had no idea what I was getting into.

South America 162

South America Ecuador Reptiles America 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 16, 2011

In spite of this New Zealand does have an iconic family of birds that has served as an emblem for the country for over a century, the kiwi. There are are presently thought to be five species of kiwi with a possible sixth extinct species, all of which have suffered varying degrees of range contraction since the arrival of humans.

New Zealand 149

New Zealand 2011 Deer New York 149

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

That larger clade is in turn sister to a clade containing the four remaining totipalmate bird families, which do still seem to be related, and which needed a new order name once pelicans were removed. But meanwhile, let’s look at the four avian families that comprise the brand new order Suliformes.

2011 155

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 155