10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2020

That does not make it sound like a very promising or important bird habitat. This means that every year, millions of birds fly by the city on their way between their breeding grounds in Northern Asia and their wintering spots in Southeast Asia and Australia. And yet it is. So, there is some hope.

Wildlife Reserve 173

Wildlife Reserve Asia China Birds 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2014

In Australia we definitely have our fair share of invasive species and the main problem is that we are such a huge land mass with such a small population. The population of Australia is concentrated mainly around the city areas along the coast and many invasive species have been able to spread with ease.

Australia 157

Australia Species Feral Cats Feral 157

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2021

Currently he is the convenor for Birdlife Australia in his local area and, as that suggests, he loves sharing his passion for birds and all wildlife through outings and bird walks. Currently Ken continues to dream of overseas birding tours but will settle for ones down under. First the listing part.

Birds 264

Birds 2020 Australia Species 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

This is a bit of a dilemma for local authorities – on the one hand, they would presumably like to protect the birds, on the other hand, they also want to draw as many tourists to the place as possible. Still, it is a good place for birds, and given the gregarious nature of most of the Chinese tourists (similar to shorebirds?),

China 287

China Birds Fish Asia 287

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2023

The (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record – which is the book’s full title, or Arjan Dwarshuis’s Big Year, as I prefer to call it shortly, is a highly anticipated and a long awaited travelogue of the author’s 2016 race against time across 40 countries in his attempt to break the world birding record.

Papua New Guinea 258

Papua New Guinea Guinea Suriname South America 258

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2021

Down here in Australia one can be a birder for a long time without experiencing a proper twitch. The recorded bird was a Nordmann’s Greenshank. This was the first record for my home state of Queensland, indeed a first record for anywhere in Australia away from the north west area of Western Australia.

Australia 264

Australia 2019 Thailand Russia 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2019

10%: Australia, Papua New Guinea. Interestingly, the respondents felt no need to further elaborate why, presuming that everyone knows why they should bird Costa Rica. While Peru was seen as the best country for “birds and ancient sites”, Ecuador was seen as “much safer” and best for its size and easiness of getting around.

Papua New Guinea 214

Papua New Guinea America Costa Rica Sri Lanka 214

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2020

Will bird tour agencies, guides, eco-lodges survive? Will the threatened species make it through if there are no birding tourists to make those birds and their habitats valuable to local people just the way they are (as opposed to tropical timber)? What will be left of birding tourism? Colombia 1959 bird species 2.

Uganda 257

Uganda Bolivia Ecuador Indonesia 257

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2015

Of course there has been a good reason for this, especially when we discovered the first Temminck’s Stint to ever be observed in Australia! We also did some inland birding to the Pilbara in November, but I will return to some news on the shorebirds along our coast for this week.

Taiwan 111

Taiwan Australia 2015 Japan 111

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

In Australia we encounter the subspecies Limosa limosa melanuroides. The Black-tailed Godwits that we observe here in Australia breed in east Siberia and Mongolia. The migratory shorebirds are now returning to the Broome area and the numbers of birds on the beaches of Roebuck Bay are rapidly increasing.

Mongolia 147

Mongolia Australia Breeding Asia 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2018

Birders follow different patterns of bird migration and their local activities and travel accordingly. It illustrates the bird richness per country. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands. Focus on the wider triple border area – the birding top of the world.).

Equatorial Guinea 207

Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Guyana Central African Republic 207

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. This bird is represented in an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. Can’t say that it is a particularly obvious name from seeing the bird.

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2011

Carpet Shark washed up Carpet shark being returned to the sea I hope you have enjoyed this little insight into our varied wildlife here in the north of Australia. This involves the sighting of these birds both here and overseas resulting in some incredible life stories. I loved your post, I have to visit Australia someday.

Australia 153

Australia 2011 Sharks Deer 153

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2023

(My Shoebill photographs, incidentally, were digiscoped from a small boat, so they’re not as sharp as they could be, but they are great reminders of an encounter with an extraordinary bird). Tawny Owl , one of the first birds I remember seeing (at the age of five) Like most of us who watch birds, I enjoy listing.

Sri Lanka 241

Sri Lanka Kenya San Francisco Greece 241

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2020

Be careful how you Google ‘bird of paradise’! It’s the bird family that most people don’t know is a bird family. It’s the bird family that most people don’t know is a bird family. For many years it was thought the two bird families were related taxonomically.

Guinea 264

Guinea Birds Papua New Guinea Family 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2015

I had only just written about the observation of a Little Tern flagged in Taiwan last week when another flagged bird from overseas placed itself in our path! Of course this is a risky business when dealing with birds, which could fly off at short notice! Finally some photographs of our visitor from Japan!

Japan 100

Japan Australia Taiwan Asia 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

A paper titled “Crested Goshawk Accipiter trivirgatus may adapt well to life in urban areas across its range in Asia” already made the same observation in 2018. When not watched by people thinking of the chick as cute, it eats birds though. Actually, as I just found out, this is not really new information.

Birds 147

Birds China Eggs Breeding 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2013

Did you ever wonder what the world looks like through a bird’s eyes? From the comfort of your own living room (or wherever your TV is), you’ll be able to essentially peer over the shoulders of birds as they fly, and see what they see. Now is your chance to find out. Beginning on Sep. Not in the U.S.? And many more!).

Downers 192

Downers France South America North America 192

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

I’ve been fortunate to encounter many owls in my birding life, sometimes because I’m looking for them, sometimes happily by happenstance. It’s also about human-owl interaction on an individual level and a wider sociocultural level, and ultimately how we can use all this for habitat and bird conservation.

Owls 224

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 16, 2018

In Australia we often observe Peregrine Falcons and they are the subspecies Falco peregrinus macropus. There has been a previously accepted record by the Birdlife Australia Rarities Committee in regards to a Peregrine Falcon observed in the Northern Territory on November 4th 2016.

Falcons 113

Falcons Australia 2016 Investigation 113

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

Not professionally – these people come in SUVs and probably never recapture their gas money from the fish they catch (though come to think of it, neither do I with my bird photos). This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). One strange thing about Chongming is the inevitable presence of people fishing. End of side note.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2013

You’ve got till the end of the night to get me your wren posts and photos for the next I and the Bird! I’ll also take any bird that has wren in the name, like Fairy Wrens of Australia and Wren Babblers of Asia. Send them to naswick AT gmail.com and put IATB in the subject line.

Asia 155

Asia Australia Birds 155

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2013

Oriental Pratincoles Glareola maldivarum are usually seen in large flocks in Australia and the numbers can be staggering as I mentioned in a post some time ago. Many bird species are more relaxed whilst you sit in your vehicle beside them than if you venture out from a distance further away. Oriental Pratincole.

Australia 151

Australia 2004 Asia Industry 151

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2013

To all but the greediest rice and spirulina farmers of Southeast Asia, any member of the genus Lonchura is a joy to watch. The munias, or mannikins, or silverbills, as the genus’ members are called, are finches belonging to the Estrildidae , and the 40-odd species range from Africa throughout South and Southeast Asia to Australia.

Indonesia 177

Indonesia Asia 2012 Africa 177

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

More than a few groups of birds around the world have been given names with wren in it, almost as if the sight of a very small and active bird automatically associates with the small Winter Wren of England where most of the namers originated. Better yet, the correct habitat is usually not hard to find.

Australia 177

Australia New Zealand South America Asia 177

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2012

There I found a study which showed that the ingenious little birds had found a protein source that allowed them to coincide their breeding with times of man-made, rather than natural seasonal abundance. They are popular as caged birds and escapees have established a number of feral populations beyond their normal ranges.

Asia 197

Asia Feral Breeding Africa 197

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

When you think of birding around Broome you no doubt think of shorebirds, because we undoubtedly have one of the best selection of migratory and non-migratory shorebirds right here on our beaches and at our ephemeral lakes. Once again the Black-breasted Buzzards were sun-bathing and the variety of birds was incredible.

Australia 145

Australia Asia Rights Breeding 145

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2015

It’s December and that means one thing—a great excuse to buy books on birding. I thought I’d do a round-up of some of the best bird books reviewed this year, a few memorable titles from recent years past, and one that wasn’t reviewed but which I love, that would be great holiday gifts. Books for Beginning Birders.

Papua New Guinea 187

Papua New Guinea 2014 Penguins Birds 187

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2012

After good rains we get a variety of locusts and this will attract various insect-feeding birds from afar. They breed in the arid inland areas in Mongolia and northern China and then migrate south into coastal parts of south-east Asia and northern Australia.

Mongolia 187

Mongolia Asia China Shelters 187

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2013

Our first cyclone for the season has formed, but it is to the north of us and heading east and we are expecting one or two cyclones in coming months and hopefully some birds blown off course with it! Observing birds, but ready for any weather! Roosting shorebirds…note the large birds with a long bill… Bar-tailed Godwits.

Asia 145

Asia Australia Bats Breeding 145

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

Isn’t that a bird that doesn’t venture “down under”… you are correct… or you were correct! In late 2009 there was huge excitement in Broome when a Plover was observed at the famous Poo Ponds and was initially presumed to be a Ringed Plover , which is extremely rare, but not unheard of in Australia.

Australia 200

Australia Asia 2009 Fish 200

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2013

Rose by any other name also appears prominently in the plumage of some very perky birds. Of the four rosy finches, lovely earth-toned birds anointed with stark pink around the wings and lower parts, three ( Grey-crowned , Black , and Brown-capped ) are found in the western United States. To put it simply, pink birds are awesome!

Mauritius 177

Mauritius Lovebirds United States North America 177

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

I’ve never been to the Indonesian Archipelago, but I really like the birds there. Lynx Edicions, the ornithological (and now mammal) publisher that gave us the Handbook of the Birds of the World , has now published Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea , by James A. So, this is no ordinary bird guide.

Indonesia 134

Indonesia Brunei Birds Malaysia 134

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2011

I mentioned last week, while talking about rails and the Pacific, that Tonga is not a particularly birdy birding destination. A combination of extinctions and proximity to Fiji means that a trip to that island group would net you pretty much all the same birds plus a whole raft of others.

Tonga 166

Tonga Fiji New Zealand Parrots 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

They took dogs to Australia, chickens across the Pacific, rabbits to England, horses to the New World, and then brought potatoes back. A housecat in Buenos Aires got its start in Africa, a sheep in Australia to the Middle East, a chicken in Ireland can trace its origin to the jungles of Asia.

New Zealand 162

New Zealand Possums Rabbits Ferrets 162

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

These photos are a small taste of the birds that can be encountered during a trip to this area during the spring season (August-September is usually best but the exact flowering peak varies according to several climatic factors). Image by Adam Riley The endemic Karoo Prinia is a common and confiding birding of the region.

South Africa 243

South Africa Africa New Zealand Asia 243

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

So any birds that don’t belong to these genera can be considered either ducks or swans or something else. The Cape Barren Geese of Australia are sometimes placed with the true geese and swans, sometimes with the shelducks and sometimes within a separate tribe called Cereopsinae. Others are not so clearly defined.

Geese 185

Geese Ducks Botswana South Africa 185