10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 12, 2019

Fraser`s Hill in peninsular Malaysia is another one of these almost legendary birding locations in Southeast Asia. Wikipedia grudgingly admits that the species “has dramatic coloration unlike any other member of its genus”. To be called Lesser Racquet-tailed Drongo – what does this do to the morale of a species? Blue Nuthatch.

Birds 230

Birds Malaysia Morals Asia 230

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

I saw two Pitta species at Hongbenghe, both among the slightly less glamourous among the pitta family: The Blue-naped Pitta … … and the closely related Rusty-naped Pitta. It seems that this is another species for which the standard phrase of scientists anywhere, “more research needed”, applies.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

I do not get too many comments on my blog posts, but it seems that whenever I write about jacanas – whether in Africa, Australia, or Asia – there is an unusually high number of reactions (well, maybe one or two rather than the usual zero) from female readers. This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway).

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? Kinabalu (at 13,455 feet the highest peak in southeast Asia), and human development that has resulted in freshwater rice fields, secondary forest, and oil palm plantations, this means that Borneo offers an incredibly high degree of biodiversity. Now, I’m not so sure.

Brunei 184

Brunei Birds Asia China 184

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

The mechanism by which this is happening in at least some species of birds is very interesting. But, getting the nest set up, amorous acitivites, the laying and hatching of the egg, all that, happens earlier. ” This can also explain why advances in migration timing are not common among species migrating over long distances.

Taiwan 202

Taiwan Iceland United States Humane 202

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

With a hardiness that belies their delicate looks (but helps explain their phenomenal success), these pioneering pigeons are already sitting on eggs at at least one location in Montana. Especially of all the species that had been introduced to the US. So right now I’m feeling pretty good about Eurasian Collared-doves.

Montana 143

Montana 2011 New York Bahamas 143

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. The African Spoonbill is one of the six global spoonbill species, and the main African one (there are also some Eurasian Spoonbills in Africa).

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

That was a wild cat, a wild Wildcat, the cat that lives in the wild because that is where it is from and where it belongs, at the southern end of its pan-African range that extended at one time well into Europe and Asia. Also, feral Cats on islands seem to be a serious problem, causing the extirpation of some indigenous species.

Feral Cats 257

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 257

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2011

The most common species we see are the Stoke’s Sea Snake Astrotia stokesii , Dubois’ Sea Snake Aipysurus duboisii and the Olive Sea Snake Aipysurus laevis. Speaking of pregnant snakes, do sea snakes lay their eggs ashore like sea turtles or do they keep them internally until the young are ready to hatch/ be born, like some sharks?

Australia 155

Australia 2011 Sharks Deer 155

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

” Writing about owls means writing about roughly 250 species (I counted 245 on the 2022 Clements spreadsheet, but I might have missed a few, and we all know that each classification system is different). These are behaviors that are most likely to vary across species and topics that make for compelling stories.

Owls 235

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 235

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

For this reason, the species is evaluated as Vulnerable.” The Rufous-tailed Robin used to be called Swinhoe’s Robin but apparently, somebody decided that there were already too many bird species (6, according to the HBW) named after him. The Eurasian Hobby was another notable raptor of the month.

Birds 220

Birds China Eggs Owls 220

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2022

It seems that at Nanhui, somebody is trying to kill even more than 2 bird(s) (species) with one stone (to be more accurate, not a single stone but a massive amount of concrete). It also seems the species is good at keeping its nest hidden – while the bird was named in 1821, its nest and eggs were only discovered in 1958 ( source ).

Cattle 147

Cattle Portugal Buffalo Humane 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2023

Which made the rest of the trip a bit of a waiting period for contracting covid … Apparently, the Large Niltava is Asia’s largest flycatcher. Even in China’s slightly more remote provinces, one is never far away from species with treacherously pornographic names such as Japanese Tit. End of side note). End of side note).

China 147

China Hunting Birds illegal 147

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. Some Chinese Babax waste part of their lives feeding chicks of Large Hawk Cuckoos, which parasitize the babax species.

Hamburgers 233

Hamburgers Birds Science China 233

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

Take a medium-sized stork, then imagine placing a fried egg over each of its eyes. Color the white of the egg yellow and the yellow of the egg dark red, and you get a close approximation of what Storm’s Stork looks like. It is also by far the stork species with the lowest number of scientific papers focusing on it.

San Diego 201

San Diego Zoos Malaysia Eggs 201

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2023

Anyway, in case you are still reading, the main attraction at this hide is Lady Amherst’s Pheasant, which perversely is not featured in this post (it is treated in a separate one, thus grudgingly acknowledging the almost disgusting flamboyance of that species). This species tends to use plenty of hair gel to get the perfect wet look.

Birds 147

Birds Mammals St. Louis Monkeys 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

In the High Arctic we find several migrating species that break that mould. The population that nests in the western reaches of North America’s Arctic will cover about twice that distance, through Asia and down in to Africa. Anywhere from 3-8 very pale blue eggs are laid, incubated by both parents.

Africa 213

Africa Somalia North America Nigeria 213

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2023

The Ashy Tailorbird is a good example of the different perspectives of describing a bird – while the English name focuses on the body of the bird, the Latin species name ruficeps refers to the rufous head. The split makes the bird one of the six species endemic to Sabah, Borneo ( source ), four of which I saw during my week at Sepilok.

Woodpeckers 233

Woodpeckers Birds Eggs India 233

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

The Crossley ID Guide: Waterfowl covers every residential, migrating, vagrant, exotic, and introduced swan, goose, dabbling and diving duck in North America (Canada and the United States): 62 Species Accounts on four swan species and one vagrant subspecies; 15 goose species; 46 duck species; plus accounts for hybrid geese, ducks and exotics.

Ducks 131

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 131

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. Apparently, after a male first mates with a female, he throws out the first one or two eggs she lays in their nest. But it is all for science, I hear them say.

Birds 147

Birds China Eggs Breeding 147