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. As cheesy as it may sound, these experiences with what I was taught all my life were foes wanting nothing more than my demise were life-changing. Azure T**s. My first ever Azure T**s.

Europe 100

Europe Birds Kazakhstan Russia 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

I live in the southeast of Europe, for a while lived in the south of Africa and also have extensively birded western and central India. Here where I live – in one of the bird-richest corners of Europe, but I miss the species diversity of my yester years. Map by BirdLife International. I am talking 600 or 700+ bird species.

Sri Lanka 257

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 257

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

The Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita is an abundant species with an impressive global range that stretches from the West of Europe across Siberia to Russia’s far East, just falling short of reaching the Bering Straits by a laughable 800 kilometres, a fact one individual apparently found too awkward to bear. But easy ain’t all.

Kazakhstan 157

Kazakhstan Europe Russia Asia 157

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

They are part of the scarab beetle complex and over 300 species have been described, occurring not only in Africa but also Europe, Asia and the Americas. In Asia they are even commonly kept as pets! Lions quenching their thirst in Etosha National Park by Adam Riley Observing Lions hunting is a thrilling experience.

Buffalo 210

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 210

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

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. Introduction to Europe and Diffusion of Domesticated Turkeys from the America. The Spanish Colonial Experience and Domestic Animals. According to R.D.

Turkey 208

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 208

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2013

” The Wels Catfish, Silurus glanis , is the second largest fish in its range, which covers much of Europe and parts of West Asia. In parts of Western Europe, it is considered to be “exotic” because it has been introduced, possibly by anglers, in lakes and rivers in France and the Iberian Peninsula.

Fish 208

Fish Birds Whales Whaling 208

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY. But at any rate, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that was just incomparable; I hope I never repeat it, but was glad to have had it happen, just to enjoy the amazing encounter and horror movie–type buzz. Carlos’s BBOTY – the Nicobar Pigeon.

2014 194

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 194

10,000 Birds

APRIL 12, 2011

We started out as a team with enthusiasm and knowledge, but little experience in book-making. Any plans for further afield (USA, Asia, Africa)? We started the series with the idea that too many people travel away from Europe thinking that there is no real nature left there. As for the books, that is a different matter.

Badgers 145

Badgers Ethics Africa Spain 145

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

Birders from Western Europe will surely note, upon seeing Black-eared Wheatear here, the difference between this Eastern race and the Western race that they may have seen in Spain or France. Black-eared Wheatear passes through in slightly smaller numbers, with the main migration taking place in the last week or so of March each year.

Cyprus 145

Cyprus 2011 Deer New York 145

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences. I’m wondering as I write if you are shaking your head, uneasy that all these FACTS will interfere with your love of observing owls, an experience that easily borders on the mystical for some of us. But what do we know beyond these commonly seen and heard behaviors?

Owls 221

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 221

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Sure, their field guide, The Collins Guide , claims six species but two, the Corsican Nuthatch and the Algerian Nuthatch , have extremely limited ranges and one of those two isn’t actually found in Europe. I am fortunate in that I have encountered Eurasian Nuthatches on eleven occasions in three countries on my various trips to Europe.

Hungary 128

Hungary Europe Portugal Georgia 128

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2020

Also of use, as Gregory points out in the Introduction, is his experience with painting birds of iridescence, having painted a whole book on sunbirds! It’s easy to forget that Gregory himself has had years of experience with these birds through his ‘day job’ as a bird tour guide for Field Guides, Inc.

Guinea 264

Guinea Birds Papua New Guinea Family 264

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. Read what you want about the origin of domestic cats; the genetic evidence is not properly sampled.

Feral Cats 256

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 256

10,000 Birds

JUNE 30, 2012

The White-backed Woodpecker is the hardest resident woodpecker to find in Europe. Dendrocopos leucotos is absent from western Europe but is found in northern, central, and eastern Europe and across Asia as far east as Japan and Korea. We visited Hortobágy National Park, the Bükk Hills and places in between.

Woodpeckers 182

Woodpeckers Hungary Europe Japan 182

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2024

These images are a wonderful cross-section of Gould’s best work, pulling from books on Toucans, birds of Australia, Trogons, Europe, and Darwin’s Voyage of H.M.S. All of Elizabeth’s birds were drawn from skins, though the Birds of Europe images benefitted from her observations of real live birds.

Australia 197

Australia Birds Europe Collecting 197

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2016

By plumage and distribution, they can very roughly be divided into 2 groups (probably not reflecting taxonomic relations): One group inhabits central Asia ( personata ), the mountains of southern Asia ( alboides ), central East Asia ( leucopsis ) and the Pacific coast from the southern half of Kamchatka to Japan ( lugens ).

Germany 100

Germany Sharks Morocco Europe 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2019

Since Craig Robson’s “Birds of Thailand” (2002) is taxonomically outdated, the choice was Robson’s “Birds of South-East Asia” (the updated second, 2014 edition of the 2001 classic). This unusual idea cannot work with the outlines of USA or Europe, but Thailand has such a narrow and elongated shape that the map nicely fits next to a bird.

Thailand 196

Thailand Zambia Birds Asia 196

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

B95 and his Calidris canutus rufa kin may travel back and forth from South America to the Arctic, but another subspecies of Red Knot , Calidris canutus islandica , makes the journey up here from Great Britain and other parts of Europe. So does one of our small plovers, the Common-Ringed Plover.

Africa 202

Africa Somalia North America Nigeria 202

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2014

There is also a useful prefatory chapter on “How to Use This Book” that explains the unusual organization of the Species Accounts, as well as maps of the geographic areas—East Asia, Mexico and adjacent areas, the Caribbean and adjacent areas—discussed in the text, a glossary of advanced terms and abbreviations and a listing of abbreviations.

North America 258

North America America Birds United States 258

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Harrison writes in the introductory section “How To Use This Book”: “The basis of distinguishing confusion species is personal field experience gained over the past 60 or more years of sailing the world’s oceans during which all but one of the more than 430 species contained in this volume have been observed.”

Albatross 279

Albatross Penguins Family Groups 279