10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. There are many dusty side roads in this area, many of which offer productive birding.

Mexico 186

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 186

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In September, I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to an increasingly popular destination for birding: Honduras. Chris Lotz, the owner of the international bird tour company Birding Ecotours , invited me to join him on a familiarization trip that included several highland sites as well as Pico Bonito Lodge.

Honduras 207

Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 207

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

I asked a group of wildlife rehabilitators: “What are some of the Worst Bird Myths? Bats just love to fly into human hair!” Had they been able to make the jawbone talk, no doubt its first words would be, “You can’t put a baby bird back in the nest, because the parents will smell your hands and abandon it.”. Feel free to vent!”.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 172

Wildlife Rehabilitation Porcupines Raccoons Birds 172

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2020

Going birding is even more of a no-brainer now than before. Many moons ago, when I used to work in the (supposedly) booming petrochemical industry in Trinidad, most of my time was actually spent birding. I racked up a staggering number of life birds in the surprisingly rich surroundings during my four-odd years slaving for The Man.

Trinidad 207

Trinidad Battery Industry Bats 207

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2017

Birds with white on them are much more likely to take the form of goodies like the Snowy Cotinga , or two species of tityras. Masked Tityra – the most frequently encountered small bird in Costa Rica with white plumage. The Caribbean slope of Costa Rica also differs from the islands in having a lot more bird species.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica San Jose Bats Birds 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Its great diversity of habitats hosts an incredible bird count of over 900 species, including Africa’s 2nd highest list of endemics and near-endemics (after South Africa).

Ethiopia 235

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 235

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2018

It seems his family of 5, had rented a condo that sleeps 8, at Atlantis Resort, on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas. Now it was time to see what fun birds I could track down, and what kind of help was available once we got there. Despite all this, we did manage to get nearly 20 new birds for the list.

Bahamas 113

Bahamas Tucson El Paso Texas 113

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2014

The lodge is unusual in having a raised walkway behind the lodge, allowing those of us keen to bird or watch wildlife when most normal people are resting in the middle of the day. At nighttime this allowed some impromptu spotlighting, and we found many spiders, insects, bats as well as a Lesser Mousedeer and a sleeping Malaysian Flycatcher.

Rhinoceros 167

Rhinoceros Apes Elephants Monkeys 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2016

The English language, or at least the adherents thereof with more time on their hands than sense, has bestowed us a great number of names to collective nouns for groups of birds. English has not been similarly encumbered with frivolous names for young birds of specific types. A Jackbird! Jackbirds are young South Island Saddlebacks.

New Zealand 103

New Zealand Parrots Rats Bats 103

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

There are birders who watch hawks and there are hawk watchers who bird. The guide presents 69 species and 1 subspecies, from “NEW WORLD VULTURES: Cathartiformes” to “OSPREY: Pandioninae” to “FAMILY: Accipitridae” (Kites, Hawks, Eagles, Hawk-Eagles), to “FALONIDS: Falconidae” (Falcons, Forest-Falcons, Caracaras, Kestrels, Merlin).

Mexico 155

Mexico America North America Falcons 155

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Which, naturally, got me to thinking about the newly erected order Suliformes, a development I mentioned in my December column, 2010′s Top 10 Developments in Bird Taxonomy and Systematics , but which I thought deserved further examination, for it’s one of those stories that defines the era in which we are living and birding.

2011 151

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 151

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2017

When it comes to a one stop shopping for food and shelter, no other plant is as widely used as the Cardon Cactus family. The Elephant Cactus , puts out a white tubular flower that open from late March, until early, June, and are visited by nectar feeding bats at night and many birds during the day.

Elephants 104

Elephants Woodpeckers Squirrels Shelters 104

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2013

After a successful morning’s birding and a very fine lunch, Peter and I made our way to our next site, Bang Poo. In fact the area where the pier hit the mangroves was crammed with birds, including Pied Fantails, a very vocal Oriental Magpie Robin, Green Herons and Little Egrets. This piece follows on from Part One.

Thailand 102

Thailand New Zealand Family Bats 102

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2014

But spotlighting brings you the things you don’t see so much of when birding. Sometimes in a forest you’d be forgiven for thinking there was nothing but birds, monkeys and squirrels (and mosquitos, obviously), and then at night you start seeing civets, wallabies, and tarantulas. So many insects. And spiders, and scorpions.

Badgers 154

Badgers Wildlife Reptiles Monkeys 154

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2021

Ranging in color from off-white to dingy black, with pastel to gelatinous shades of yellow, orange, purple, and brown in-between, found in moist crevasses, decaying trees, rain-soaked pastures, mushrooms lack the beauty of butterflies and wildflowers cannot equal the action of bats, or flying fish, and certainly lack the spiritual zest of birds.

North America 246

North America America Species 2018 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2023

When you have birded a single area as much and for as long as I have birded Michoacán, it becomes progressively harder to find first-time species (“lifers”) there. I had seen several species turn up in new and unexpected places there, but none of them were birds that I had never seen before. Plus, dry tropical heat.

Bats 130

Bats Mexico ALA 2020 130

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

As mentioned in many other posts on this blog, the avifauna of Trinidad & Tobago consists of several species and family groups occurring very interestingly, in threes. I hadn’t noticed this until I began compiling my own book on the birds of T&T some years ago, and I thought it rather uncanny.

Trinidad 130

Trinidad Bats Falcons Groups 130

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

My first birding trip ever was to Arizona. I saw a lot of birds, learned a lot about birding (including the fact that I had lousy binoculars), and gained good birder friends. I had a list of birds I had missed and a list of birds I needed to see again—second lifers I call them. At least for birders.

Arizona 102

Arizona Lovebirds Phoenix New Jersey 102

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2020

I was lucky to visit India several times, but as a keen birder I carried along only a bird book, and even upgraded it to a new edition between the trips. Despite depicting 540 species/56 families, it is a lightweight book of 173 pages, easy to pack and carry. It also covers Andaman, Nicobar and Laccadive islands. cm Weight 0.4

Asia 173

Asia Mammals Sri Lanka Bhutan 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2021

Whether it is birding tourism or simply spreading awareness about biodiversity, it is always with the aim of getting us humanoids to treat nature a little (ideally, a lot) better. As a rule, any tree which sprung up at the fenceline was left alone – as it was highly likely it was planted there by bird droppings.

Opossums 264

Opossums Barn Owls Hunting Reptiles 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2013

JOHOR, MALAYSIA, DECEMBER 2012 – If you’re traveling to Singapore for birding, you might want to think outside the box or, in this case, the island. Some of the best birding in the area is just 90 minutes or so north in peninsular Malaysia, home of the infamous Panti Forest. Wanna try to ID this bird?

Malaysia 170

Malaysia Singapore Monkeys Birds 170

4 The Love Of Animals

MARCH 17, 2011

Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles; and bats, dolphins, whales, frogs, and various rodents use high-frequency sounds to find food, communicate with others, and navigate. Empathy Among Elephants. Photos courtesy of iStock.

Emotional 100

Emotional Animal Whales Whaling 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2019

The trend at this time of year is a downturn in shared lists and birds reported, nevertheless, 12 (is this a record?) Our two newest contributors have shared from Mexico and China, bringing the countries birded this month (also including; Costa Rica, Greece, Serbia, USA, UK, India, UAE and New Zealand) to 10. 13 Jun 2019. 13 Jun 2019.

2019 118

2019 Jamaica Eggs Woodpeckers 118

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2016

One of the key features of birds, and I use the term “key” literally, is vocalization. Primates are exceptional among the mammals, living amphibians (which represent only a small part of the original amphibian family tree) are pretty noisy too. Vocalization is central to bird behavior and evolution.

Groups 169

Groups Collecting Primates Bats 169

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2018

No matter how much I want to make sure these stories are all about the birds, there is just something I just have to get off my chest. I have now flown to New Zealand, in search of as many new bird species as I can track down, at a semi-pedestrian pace, mixed with some normal tourist activities. It’s all about March 1st. It is gone.

New Zealand 100

New Zealand Los Angeles Seattle Parrots 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2012

It is no secret that the large civic parks found in most large cities are great places to go birding, and it Centennial Park in Sydney is no exception. I popped in for a visit two days after Christmas in order to walk off some of the excesses of the last three days, and get a few good bird while I tried to salvage my health.

New Zealand 170

New Zealand Ducks Australia Japan 170

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2014

When you read trip reports of birders going to remote and interesting locations to see interesting (and not so interesting birds, I’m looking at you LBJs), these accounts are typically written by people who have either gone with groups of like-minded people or those that have gone it alone.

Birds 180

Birds Bats Elephants Family 180

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

I’ve decided to get into the bird tour business. Get up early, point at lots of birds, go back to the hotel for celebratory wine. If any birds give trouble just make up an answer, then say it with confidence. Guaranteed to produce birds you’ve never seen before or your money back! I can’t lose.

New Zealand 194

New Zealand Ducks Australia Mountain Goats 194

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

Is it wrong of me to go birding to get away from the kids now that they are at home all day? Can the whole family live together in harmony during the school holidays? Happy birding if you suddenly find yourself single. 458 birds were seen by 7 beats in 8 countries. 458 birds were seen by 7 beats in 8 countries.

2018 100

2018 Australia Woodpeckers Los Angeles 100