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. The Blue Whistling Thrush is presumably named for its loud human-like whistling, and possibly for being blue.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

Or would be, had I encountered more of them – so far, I have seen only a very small share of the approximately 233 woodpecker species, and got decent photos of an even smaller number – not much more than 10% of all of them. So, writing a post about them is easy.

Woodpeckers 224

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 224

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

In its natural old-world range, the House Sparrow offers an interesting identification challenge and has vagrant potential since it is a polytypic species with a highly complex taxonomy. The genus Passer has several well-recognized and recognizable species in Europe, and still holds several enigmas.

Sparrows 210

Sparrows Italy Asia Austria 210

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 10, 2020

A metaphor for life, I am tempted to say, if this wasn`t such a meaningless thing to say … November is a good time for several species of buntings, of which I am quite fond of. Would probably wear heavily patterned fisherman`s wool sweaters if turned into a human. Yes, it beat the European Robin, at least here in Asia.

Stray 234

Stray Asia Industry Family 234

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

Not bad given that the 5 families in the inner circle of the laughingthrush family have a combined number of about 68 species. The Hainan version is sometimes considered a separate species, in which case it is classified as Near Threatened. 36, if my counting is right and there has been no very recent split or lump.

San Diego 200

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 200

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

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. This species seems to enjoy being in mixed flocks with the White-shouldered Starling. The Spring Festival – or Chinese New Year – is a big period for traveling in China.

China 198

China Birds Pythons Rabbits 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

When you think of invasives, you think of the birds that have been helped by human beings to get where they are, such as House Sparrow or European Starling. Other species have certainly expanded their ranges, but never in such a rapid and global scale. Cattle Egret has been introduced by humans to Hawaii and the Seychelles.

Cattle 170

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 170

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. By this I mean applying the term antelope to cover all of the family Bovidae, which would include the sheep, goats and ox.

Africa 163

Africa Hunters Goats Wolves 163

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

It originally served as the port of entry for goods brought from Asia by Spanish galleons. I had never birded this way before, and can confirm that what I had heard is true: Birds are much more tolerant of human presence when those humans are on a boat! The 29 species I added to my January list say so as well.)

Birds 159

Birds 2006 Mexico Morocco 159

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. Storks are typically viewed as wetland species and whilst some storks are restricted to aquatic habitats, others are not. Like the Adjutants in Asia and Jabiru of the Americas, the Marabou is our bare-headed scavenging stork.

Africa 235

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 235

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Mute Swans are large, white, and decorative, and as such their natural range has been significantly altered by humans who generally enjoy having them around. Its natural range in Europe was restricted the the surroundings of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and in Asia it ranged from Asia Minor to central China.

Feral 168

Feral Europe Asia North America 168

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

Or else I’d be tempted to mention that the cold rainy weather has given way to a massive heat wave and drought, or that the summer doldrums this year are more boring than ever, or that it is so unfair that Corey is more than 100 species ahead of me in his year list, or that I really would enjoy some nice birds for a change!

Germany 173

Germany Russia Iceland India 173

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2012

It has recently been reclassified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; this category is reserved for only the most threatened species in the world. If this bird did become extinct, it would be the first pheasant species to have been lost in the 400 years since proper records began.

Vietnam 154

Vietnam 2000 Germany Asia 154

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

The mechanism by which this is happening in at least some species of birds is very interesting. ” This can also explain why advances in migration timing are not common among species migrating over long distances. Migration Shift Cause Better Understood. Birds have been migrating earlier. ” GannetCam.

Taiwan 187

Taiwan Iceland United States Humane 187

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2014

The scope is to give you the illusion you might be able to work out the species). My first view of this amazing species! Note bonus swift in background (no idea what species). I saw the species in one of it’s remaining strongholds, the Kinabatangan River. All you need is a boat, or a scope on a windy day.

2013 172

2013 Birds Rhinoceros Thailand 172

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). How efficient.

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.

Brunei 173

Brunei Birds Asia China 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2011

The absurdity of mob rule is summed up well, I think, by the idea of a fully healthy human male saying out loud, as evidence of a woman being a witch, that “She turned me into a newt!&# But what, exactly, is a newt? Newts can be found in Asia, Europe, and North America. You can what that one looks like in the image below.

Salamander 161

Salamander Pythons North America Europe 161

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2015

And, of course, the reputation of certain species of birds as troublemakers for humans is a problem in bird conservation, so this is worth watching. H5N2 is a subtype of Influenza A, and infects many species of birds including those mentioned as well as ducks (domestic and wild).

Mississippi 174

Mississippi Fowl Turkey Minnesota 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. What is surprising is quite how many species did end up here, and how economically unimportant they were.

New Zealand 161

New Zealand Possums Rabbits Ferrets 161

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

If you are a migratory bird in Europe and western Asia, this is your sweet spot. Fearing that a natural disaster, introduced species, or disease could wipe this fragile population out, the U.S. Thanks to a little human intervention, the future looks much brighter for Millerbirds. Photo of the Nihoa Millerbird by S.

Cambodia 143

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 143

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant. The little – the two species of black Buffalo Weavers obtain their appellation from their dark coloration that resembles their fearsome namesake.

Buffalo 197

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 197

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2013

There are some seven birds among the 100 most endangered species on the planet on the list of fauna and flora listed as the rarest by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Zoological Society of London – and this morning, I am after one of those! You know the secret of how African park rangers find animals for tourists?

India 237

India Gazelles Endangered Species Pakistan 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2016

Amongst all the species that were split off the Herring Gull, the Caspian Gull is my favourite one, and its existence alone is our fair reward for the identification crisis we had to endure during the dark ages of the 1990s. Yes, there are Caspian Gulls on this picture. And Jackdaws. And Black-eared Kites.

Kazakhstan 112

Kazakhstan Germany Ukraine Asia 112

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2013

It’s clear that ibis have been part of human civilization for as long as there has been civilization of which to be part. The group has a worldwide distribution; 28 species living and two additional extinct. It draws a more or less firm line between those species in the Old World and those in the New, however.

Birds 206

Birds North America Charlotte New Jersey 206

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. Yes, in the face of all the human tragedy the Cold War caused it may seem a miniscule aspect, but to a young boy who was passionate about birds, it wasn’t. This made me truly sad.

Europe 100

Europe Birds Kazakhstan Russia 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. New World Vultures.

California Condor 177

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 177

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 9, 2011

European Storks are majestic, they’re graceful and stately and all of the positively connotated adjectives that are applied to birds to which humans have a long and pleasant history rooted deep in our western cultural heritage. In fact, there’s hardly a bird in the world that has such a venerated relationship with us.

Pedigree 170

Pedigree North America South Carolina Brazil 170

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY.

2014 184

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 184

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

The gulls that spent months attacking any human on the place are content to loaf around and ignore you. And besides, it’s nice to see something that isn’t the same 12 (now 13) species of seabird (plus Molly Meep Meep, a Black Brant ) There may not be as many as in October, but they are there, and they can be cool.

Whales 157

Whales Whaling Sharks Bats 157

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. canariensis ).

Kazakhstan 156

Kazakhstan Europe Russia Asia 156

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 253

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 253

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

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. The species are taxonomically divided into two families: Tytonidae, Barn-Owls, and Strigidae, Owls, encompassed in one order, Strigiformes.

Owls 203

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 203

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. This is not entirely unknown among domestic animals, but many domesticates have no living wild version.

Turkey 199

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 199

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Other birds with webbed feet, including ducks and geese, have only three webbed toes; the hallux (which in birds is usually the “hind toe&# and in humans, the “big toe&# ) is free. For all of recorded history, humans have classified other living things by their physical characteristics.

2011 151

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 151

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

In 2012, I reviewed The Jewel Hunter , an absorbing narrative in which author Chris Goodie travelled throughout Asia, Africa, and Australasia to observe and photograph every Pitta species in the world. Hummingbird species, on the other hand, number in the hundreds.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Ecuador Bolivia 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2022

Oh, and maybe humans need to be a bit less destructive to your habitat, too. 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). Asian Dowitchers at Nanhui on July 26, 2022: all losers?

Cattle 147

Cattle Portugal Buffalo Humane 147