10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

The Spring Festival – or Chinese New Year – is a big period for traveling in China. While not on the scale of bird migration, it is routinely and somewhat lazily described as the biggest annual migration of humans in the world. Once the bird takes up a different position, it gets more interesting.

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China Birds Pythons Rabbits 219

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2021

However, this is not what this post is about (though you could do worse than to search for the Larson cartoon “Stupid birds” online). Instead, I want to talk about those bird species that look like being drawn by a talented cartoonist even when in fact it is just me having taken a photograph. They were made by Wang Jing.

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Birds China Penguins Asia 245

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2024

Birding Shanghai has its own specific annoyances apart from birds not showing up. Finally, there are specific restrictions for foreigners – I guess we might steal some vital state secrets that have some kind of relationship with the local birds. Tianmashan had two interesting birds in March. in northeast Asia.”

Chicago 149

Chicago Birds Asia China 149

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2022

The Siberian Rubythroat seems to somewhat lack a proper inbuilt GPS system – while it breeds as far west as the Ural Mountains and winters as far est as Central India, it does not migrate through central Asia in large numbers (even though this would be the shortest way). So better not let a rubythroat bite you. .

Russia 230

Russia Asia Philippines Taiwan 230

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2023

For birders, the Wolongshan area is like a poorer cousin of Balangshan – due to the lower elevation, the bird species here are more common and thus less interesting. I can confirm that the Indian Blue Robin – as stated by the HBW – tends to sing from deep cover – not ideal behavior for a bird photographer.

Hamburgers 222

Hamburgers Birds Science China 222

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2020

That does not make it sound like a very promising or important bird habitat. Shanghai is located on the coast of the East China Sea and lies right on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. The birds passing through Shanghai include many rare and endangered birds. And yet it is. So, there is some hope.

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Wildlife Reserve Asia China Birds 173

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2023

Its minor claim to fame among the water towns around Shanghai is its sex museum – a bit of a rarity in traditionally prudish China. Also, isn’t exactly the part of the bird that I would think of as the throat black rather than white? Thanks to F. for pointing out this nest – I would not have found it myself.

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Birds Asia Battery Woodpeckers 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 27, 2022

When you think of the best birding in the south of Asia, it is Malaysia that comes to mind, although you are likely not to even think of the country as such: you are dreaming of the (Malaysian) province of Sabah, in the north of the island of Borneo. And yet, it easily fits the largest pocket of my reporter’s vest.

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Malaysia Singapore Asia Birds 251

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

T he Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (Tengchong, China) is a tiny bit bigger and looks much soberer. The little red bit on the crown on this photo indicates that it is a male bird. A point in case: the Crimson-breasted Woodpecker (Tengchong, China). Supposedly, they smoke less than the Brown-capped ones, too.

Woodpeckers 245

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 245

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2023

By Louis-Jean Germain Influenced by his mother, Louis-Jean Germain has long been interested in art, and in recent years, he has become an avid painter of Asian birds. Germain has lived in East Asia since 2014. A that point in time, I could not imagine the adventure that I was going to experience and how birds would have rescued me.

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Birds China Emotional Vietnam 189

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

The main attraction for birders here are the hornbills – I have written about them before , so this post will be more on the other birds I saw there in 2017. Anyway, it is a very cute-looking bird if you are big enough not to be among its prey of (mostly) insects. I have written about the hornbills of this area before.

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Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Sepilok is one of the best places I ever spent time birding at – I did so for a week and could have easily spent more time there. So, in order to economize a bit, the Sepilok birds are described in three separate posts. Maybe the HBW should be administered by a university with a stronger interest in birds than Cornell.

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Woodpeckers Birds Eggs India 222

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2020

Winter is not the greatest time for birding in Shanghai, and this year, there was no escaping to Southeast Asia due to Covid-19. In fact, if I were to leave China right now, they would not let me back into the country. The obvious local star of the bird world is the Reed Parrotbill.

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2020 China Asia Owls 197

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

Well, they mainly feed on birds, which may explain their low popularity. For the White-throated Rock Thrush , Wikipedia gives the slightly puzzling statement “The bird’s population is unknown, but is not increasing or declining.” Even if they look as charming as this Northern Boobook. Unfortunately, it is true though.

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Birds China Eggs Owls 208

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.

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Uganda Bolivia Ecuador Indonesia 257

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2022

If you think it is rather pretentious to start a birding blog post with a Kafka story, I fully agree with you. Anyway, the story is not quite how I remembered it, to be honest, but fitting enough to describe the almost claustrophobic birding experience in ever-shrinking Nanhui. I just want to point out it could be much worse.

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Raccoons Birds Oregon China 229

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical description of the family is that of “a tropical African and Asian songbird that typically has a melodious voice and drab plumage”, another is “small, dull-colored passerine birds of Asia and Africa”, yet another states that they are “often rather plain” Individual species get even harsher reviews.

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South Africa Malaysia Africa China 239

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2022

Bird-wise, Mauritius is probably primarily known for a bird that no longer exists, the dodo. I could not have designed a nicer-looking red bird. The Red-whiskered Bulbul is also an introduced species, probably joking about being stranded on an island (warning: this is an inside joke based on the Latin name of the bird, P.

Mauritius 239

Mauritius Birds 2000 South Africa 239

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2023

In Kangding, there is a rather opulent bird hide – two stories, solid construction, spacious, lots of glass, a separate paved parking lot, though mysteriously (and as far as I can tell from my experience of living in China for almost 20 years, not indicative of fundamentally different physical needs of Chinese people) missing a bathroom.

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Birds Mammals St. Louis Monkeys 147

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

So, this post just shows 25 birds I spotted at Nanhui (coastal Shanghai) in October 2019. Despite not being rare in China, this was the first time for me to see Carrion Crow at Nanhui. One of the birds seemed somewhat incompetent in handling the seeds of the local trees. Sometimes I am tired of words, tired of writing.

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2019 Japan Birds Owls 200

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

Shanghai parks are rather crowded and noisy places, but the goshawks – who unlike me have lived in China all their lives – apparently do not mind. 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.

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Birds China Eggs Breeding 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

With my favorite Shanghai birding place at Nanhui getting gradually destroyed under the watchful eyes of the local government favoring Tesla over terns, I have been searching for some alternative Shanghai locations with less ongoing construction, fewer people, and hopefully more birds.

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Cats Birds Kittens Transported 233

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. 1201-1400 sp: Venezuela; China. 1201-1400 sp: Venezuela; China.

Equatorial Guinea 207

Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Guyana Central African Republic 207

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

While I am still not so sure about China’s sense of humor – though admittedly, the issue is mostly a mismatch between what I think is funny and what the average Chinese thinks is funny, an issue that I have had in other countries as well – the country sure has its fair share of Laughingthrushes. This post shows some of them.

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San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 219

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2014

Big news about a small bird broke earlier this month when bird researchers from several nations announced that the species formerly known as Spotted Wren-Babbler ( Spelaeornis formosus ) — a tiny, secretive bird of montane forests from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China — is not a Spelaeornis wren-babbler at all.

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Family Comoros Asia Birds 271

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.

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Sri Lanka Kenya San Francisco Greece 241

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2022

At this moment, Baihualing is the eBird hotspot in China which has by far the largest number of species – 486. The scimitar gave the name to a group of birds, the 17 species of scimitar babblers (claims that these birds were named after the Scottish naturalist Edgar Scimitar, 1755-1806, are plainly wrong). Is there any?

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Litter China Species Abandon 227

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

As much as I love hearing about and sharing Best Birds of the Weekend, sometimes I have cause to ponder just what that term means. Obviously, the birds themselves are not jockeying for recognition. Rather, we designate best birds according to our priorities and perceptions of value. BBOTW speaks volumes about birders, not birds.

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2014 Feral Asia China 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2021

So, once you have paid the 10 RMB entrance fee, showed your green health code on your mobile phone, given your phone number and showed your passport at the entrance (after all, this is China during Covid-19), what is there to see in February? So, the birds on Tianmashan may well be the descendants of captive birds. A woodpecker!

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China Hawaii Asia Hunting 166

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.

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Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2014

The prinias are a group of around 25 Old World warbler species found in Africa and Asia. It inhabits rather dry areas within a region notorious for being one of the rainiest parts of the world, and is thus patchily distributed from Burma through Laos, Cambodia, parts of Thailand and south China, all the way to Vietnam. Yes, indeed.

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Burma Laos Birds Indonesia 162

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

The danger of reviewing a field guide to the birds of an exotic country you’ve never been to is that you become obsessed with visiting that country, no matter how far away and how expensive it may be. I’m already looking up birding tours of Borneo and pricing airfares. Borneo, the authors say, is under-birded.

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Brunei Birds Asia China 179

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2022

The Latin species name of the Marsh Sandpiper is stagnatilis , which somehow I thought might hint at the thin, needle-sharp bill of the bird (I do not know how I got this idea, maybe the word stagnatilis sounds kind of sharp) but in reality, stagnatilis means “of or belonging to pools or ponds” (HBW).

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Cattle Portugal Buffalo Breeding 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2011

This evergreen post, first written in 2004, has become a 10,000 Birds staple. No Christmas carol features birds as prominently as this one. To the birder, this begs the question: what species of birds appear in the Twelve Days of Christmas ? Why would the benefactor in this ballad vacillate from birds to jewelry to birds again?

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Turtles 2004 United Kingdom Geese 279

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2011

Birds & birding were definitely the last thing on my mind. The Black Stork ( Ciconia nigra ) has a very wide distribution in the Old World, ranging from Spain (an isolated population) and northern France through central and eastern Europe all across northern and central Asia to the Pacific coast of Russia and China.

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Germany Asia China Russia 152

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2017

I was given my first real field guide to the birds of Europe by my parents, a guide beyond the species found at backyard feeders and city ponds. However, all my keen travel plans and strategies frequently hit a snag roughly two-thirds into the book when I got to the page depicting a fine, delicate bird: the Azure Tit.

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Europe Birds Kazakhstan Russia 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2015

The pygmy wren-babbler is a tiny babbler that looks like a wren, making it a bird well named. Seriously, it is much nicer to blog about a brown bird with a descriptive name than some other bird whose common name references an ancient ornithologist none of us have ever met. Then, however, it becomes interesting. Very, at 7.5

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Vietnam Timor Myanmar Asia 161