10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2022

Every place has its common birds, the species that do very well in a given habitat. As we like to say, these are species that are “hard to miss”, birds that, if you are watching, will be seen. As one might expect, signature birds take many forms. Bird in southern Asia and there are mynas and magpie-robins.

Costa Rica 147

Costa Rica San Jose Asia Geese 147

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 220

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 220

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

Presumably, in the early days of ornithology, some scientists spent most of their time transcribing bird calls. The Black-faced Laughingthrush (Longcanggou, Sichuan) is a real beauty, though this photo does not fully do the bird justice. This post shows some of them. It’s the eyes, I guess.

San Diego 214

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 214

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Some people read cookbooks though they have no intention of whipping up a mushroom risotto, some people read bird guide books, even when the likelihood of actually seeing the creatures in those guides is remote. It covers 434 species across 9 orders and 18 families of birds. SCOPE & SPECIES ORGANIZATION.

Albatross 279

Albatross Penguins Family Groups 279

10,000 Birds

JUNE 30, 2022

In addition, it has over 450 bird species and more than 30 in-country endemics, of which it is possible to see every single species! Where to look for the birds? Birding agencies seem to stick to their announced plans and no news of cancelled tours had reached the bird tourism market.

Sri Lanka 147

Sri Lanka Ghana Uganda Eagles 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

If you are a migratory bird in Europe and western Asia, this is your sweet spot. This grim scenario is a fact of life for millions of migrating songbirds, raptors, and other birds each year. There aren’t many solutions proferred—the article is really about consciousness-raising—but it’s well worth a read.

Cambodia 144

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 144

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2012

The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. They are also believed to be related to the Rail-Babbler of Tropical Asia.

Sierra Leone 271

Sierra Leone Ghana Cameroon Equatorial Guinea 271

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Birds fascinate us for many reasons. The migration stories of many of those birds is another. Or at stories of a bird like Red Knot B95, twenty-one years old and logging miles that could take it to the moon, and half way back. It is a 15,000 km round trip, for a bird that only typically weighs in at about 28 grams, or an ounce.

Africa 201

Africa Somalia North America Nigeria 201

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

And where all those birds are? This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. And it raises a question: if all the birds are having a party over there, am I in the wrong spot? I am talking 600 or 700+ bird species.

Sri Lanka 257

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 257

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

And, for all our complaints about brown and gray plumages, gulls can be beautiful birds (well, some more beautiful than others, and Heermann’s Gull is one of my favorites, with one N at the end or two). In a birding world that celebrates identification, there are surprisingly few articles and books on gull identification.**

North America 205

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 205

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius. Some time after the Spanish encounter with the Turkey, birds were brought back to Europe where they were raised and became an important source of food and fancy feathers.

Turkey 207

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 207

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2013

There is a Linnet at Kissena Corridor Park in Queens, and though I bird this park regularly, the Linnet, a bird regularly found in Europe, Asia, and North Africa and also named in a sweet song by Stephen Sondheim (Green Finch and Linnet Bird from Sweeny Todd) has eluded me. Maybe I had seen the bird and I didn’t know it?

Ireland 172

Ireland 2013 Breeders Ducks 172