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 209

Sparrows Italy Asia Austria 209

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

Hongbenghe is a very small village in Yunnan, right next to the border with Myanmar. 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. I have written about the hornbills of this area before.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2018

It divides countries into categories, where the next category has 200 more species. In some cases the data are outdated, e.g. Costa Rica has 900 and not 800 species, but I made no corrections, remaining faithful to the original map data. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands.

Equatorial Guinea 188

Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Guyana Central African Republic 188

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 221

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 221

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2021

Just last year, 5 new bird species and 5 new subspecies were discovered in a few short weeks of fieldwork on the islands of Taliabu, Peleng and Batudaka. In recent years Indonesia has been competing with the Andes as the region giving rise to the biggest number of undescribed bird species (naturally, all of them endemics).

Indonesia 263

Indonesia Timor Brunei Guinea 263

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2016

The species, which migrates from the Russian Arctic to Southeast Asia, is down to about 200 breeding pairs in the wild, due to habitat loss and poaching. The paler eggs at right are fakes that scientists leave behind when they take the real eggs for incubation. Now, it’s Spoon-billed Sandpipers’ turn. Both photos by the WWT).

Eggs 190

Eggs Louisiana Breeding Asia 190

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2015

This is perhaps almost entirely due to the Common Starling , a species that is, over much of its range, an introduced pest. Starlings and mynas are adaptable, attractive and clever species. Male Red-winged Starlings (left) have glossy-black heads, while the females (right) have grey heads. Starlings have a bad rap.

Ostriches 146

Ostriches South Africa Africa Reptiles 146

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Knowing that there are reserves with long lists of 600 or more species, I set my threshold at more than 600 birds… and found only a few such hotspots. In early November 2020, there were 15 countries with more than 1000 species eBirded so far. Other than that, there are barely a few hotspots with over 500 species.

Asia 266

Asia Malaysia Papua New Guinea Thailand 266

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

36, if my counting is right and there has been no very recent split or lump. 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.

San Diego 198

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 198

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2013

To all but the greediest rice and spirulina farmers of Southeast Asia, any member of the genus Lonchura is a joy to watch. The munias, or mannikins, or silverbills, as the genus’ members are called, are finches belonging to the Estrildidae , and the 40-odd species range from Africa throughout South and Southeast Asia to Australia.

Indonesia 172

Indonesia Asia 2012 Africa 172

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Not too many highlights, not too many species … hard to say whether this is just the usual nostalgia for a better but probably nonexistent past or a real phenomenon. This species is listed as vulnerable – similar to the Yellow-breasted Buntings, it is trapped on a large scale. Humans, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Birds 224

Birds Humane Japan Ducks 224

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 194

Birds Malaysia Morals Asia 194

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2015

You see, the Great (White) Heron/Egret is a polytypic species with four subspecies: alba in Europe, egretta in the Americas, melanorhynchos in Africa, and modesta in Asia and Oceania. Just so you know. But we’re far from done with the confusion.

Asia 176

Asia Europe Germany Breeding 176

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 233

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 233

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

The Chestnut Bunting is quite a beauty, particularly when seen from the right angle. Always interesting to see the same species both in Germany (in my parents’ garden) and in Shanghai. Grey-faced Buzzards are also on migration in October, passing Nanhui on the way to their wintering grounds in South East Asia.

2019 185

2019 Japan Birds Owls 185

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2022

At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.” And it does not even live in reeds.

Raccoons 204

Raccoons Birds Oregon China 204

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2015

“The Pygmy Cormorant is a strictly protected bird species in Serbia, as well as in the European Union. It belongs to a group of species of special conservation concern, which under the European Birds Directive requires Member States to designate Special Protection Areas (Annex I species).

Serbia 176

Serbia Protection Europe 2015 176

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2016

Asia: Indeed, some 150 meters away, four males of the Great Indian Bustard are semi-displaying – more than one per cent of the surviving population! Asia: We wait on the top of the hillock crossed by a barbed wire fence and topped by a scarecrow. I already have a history of searches for this species. The Sun is just rising.

Wildlife 172

Wildlife Tigers Asia Europe 172

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2015

You’d think that dressing in green to hide from predators inside a dense rainforest is as a strategy as plain as day, yet only a surprisingly limited number of bird species on Borneo have ventured down that evolutionary road. Interestingly, the females are more varied between the species and are far more readily identified.

Indonesia 163

Indonesia Birds Asia Groups 163

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2015

Now that the World Big Year record has been broken by Noah Stryker , with more than three months and much of Asia and Australia to go, I guess a blog post on Big Years is in order. Also, the chances for adding vagrants depend on the occurrence of storms from the right direction during the right season. Frustration all around.

Feral 190

Feral Species Asia Rights 190

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2014

From a birder’s perspective however, this is both a shame and a blessing, as I will show below based on my observations of the species on the island of Java in November. The prinias are a group of around 25 Old World warbler species found in Africa and Asia. The Brown Prinia is an Asian species with a very peculiar range.

Burma 160

Burma Laos Birds Indonesia 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 13, 2012

Great Reed Warblers breed across huge chunks of Europe and Asia and winter across large swaths of southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. At least, that is what this North American birder thinks – we’ll know for sure if I ever encounter one again! If that makes any sense at all.)

Hungary 159

Hungary Asia Europe Africa 159

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

His obsession with all things feathered has led him to visit 20 countries around the world in the pursuit of thousands of different species of birds to watch, photograph, and enjoy. On Hokkaido there are three primary species that people go to see in the winter – the Big Three as I think of them. With the sun setting before 4 pm (!),

Japan 176

Japan Massachusetts Birds Eagles 176

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 172

Brunei Birds Asia China 172

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

Therefore I have decided to right my wrong by providing first and foremost some avian eye candy, and not talk. It breeds in a broad and not quite coherent band from Iceland in the west through central Europe and southern Scandinavia all the way to eastern Russia, wintering in Africa, parts of India, and Southeast Asia to Australia.

Germany 173

Germany Russia Iceland India 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2011

Black Skimmers are one of three species of skimmer in the world, all in the genus Rynchops. flavirostris and South Asia has R. Here’s hoping that all three species will be around for a long time to come! Africa has the African Skimmer R. albicollis , the Indian Skimmer. A word here about skimmer bills.

Niger 175

Niger New York Asia Fish 175

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2014

Yes, that’s right. The species you will shake your fist at after reading this post is the Pied Wheatear Oenanthe pleschanka. This handsome little bird has a wide distribution, roaming from north of the Black Sea over central Asia and way, way into China and Mongolia. But sit down first.

Kazakhstan 165

Kazakhstan Iceland Mongolia Wisconsin 165

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. Sounds like clever behavior by the parrotbills, right?

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

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

APRIL 9, 2011

And you are absolutely spot-on right in having finally worked out what this post will be about (lesson 2) … Treecreeper Identification The Treecreepers are creepy creatures outside North America. have asked themselves for ages: Is the Brown Creeper more than one species ? I’ll explain.

North America 145

North America Europe America Asia 145

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. The survival of songbirds depends in part upon eliminating illegal hunting. Photo by David Guttenfelder, courtesy of National Geographic ).

Cambodia 142

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 142

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 235

India Gazelles Endangered Species Pakistan 235

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

Larry starts us off right with an owl that makes birders drool: I was able to see and photograph many great birds in 2014 but my Best Bird of the Year would have to be the Great Gray Owl , the largest Strix in North America. Below are our Best Birds of the Year. What was yours? Let us know in the comments…see you there!

2014 183

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 183

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 195

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2014

Many of these migratory shorebirds will be heading into the Arctic to breed and some will make a stopover in Asia on their way to their breeding grounds. Red-necked Stint ”321″ to the right of the Greater Sand Plover with two Curlew Sandpipers. Red-necked Stint “321″ on the right-two blue flags.

Japan 173

Japan 2012 2013 China 173

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. I used to live in Botswana, where there are about 450 bird species in an area a few dozen miles from the capital; then somewhat naively moved back to Serbia with mere 250 species around the capital.

Sri Lanka 256

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 256

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2015

Since this is the season of love and harmony and all things nice, I sincerely and originally had planned to write an equally nice, loving and harmonic post on a beautiful group of birds that’s mostly found in SE Asia, the broadbills. Exactly, this is a shortbill and not a broadbill.

Groups 104

Groups Asia Species Birds 104