10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

That larger clade is in turn sister to a clade containing the four remaining totipalmate bird families, which do still seem to be related, and which needed a new order name once pelicans were removed. But meanwhile, let’s look at the four avian families that comprise the brand new order Suliformes.

2011 157

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 157

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2020

It’s the bird family that most people don’t know is a bird family. For many years it was thought the two bird families were related taxonomically. It includes a table listing the species, subspecies, author and date of original description, which I found quite handy in sorting out the birds. Introduction.

Guinea 264

Guinea Birds Papua New Guinea Family 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago covers 1,417 species, 601 endemics, 98 vagrants, 8 introduced and 18 undescribed species. Only one bird species has become extinct (Javan Lapwing), but many others are endangered, with some considered close to extinction (not surprising in an area with species restricted to one or two small islands).

Indonesia 140

Indonesia Brunei Birds Malaysia 140

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2012

Catbirds are a group of rather distantly related species all named for the fact that they make sounds that remind some of a cat meowing. Birds called catbirds include two species in the New World family, Mimidae, four from the bowerbird family, Ptilonorhynchidae, and one from the Old World babblers, Timaliidae.

Papua New Guinea 196

Papua New Guinea Ethiopia Guinea Cats 196

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Those are getting harder to find, so I was very happy when I was asked to review Searching for Pekpek: Cassowaries and Conservation in the New Guinea Rainforest , by Andrew L. Mack tells the story of how he set up a research station, and a life, in Papua New Guinea. Press, 2012).

Papua New Guinea 188

Papua New Guinea 2014 Penguins Birds 188