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. The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY. Below are our Best Birds of the Year.

2014 193

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 193

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

And birders spend a lot of their time watching the tree-crowns and, in the right place, spotting many other tree-dwellers. Strictly speaking, Mammals of Madagascar is not a field guide, because some larger groups (rodents, bats) cannot be identified down to a species level following the concise descriptions and a single illustration.

Madagascar 249

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 249

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Recent publicity about these remarkable tribes has resulted in tourists wanting to experience this wild land and its attractions for themselves. This is largely due to the remoteness and prior near inaccessibility of the area, forming a natural barrier to modernization and the detribalization of the Omo Valley.

Ethiopia 246

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

The leopards place their kill in a tree, protecting it from poaching by other predators. We also got great views of a very small mammal, Wahlberg’s Epauletted Fruit Bat, at Satara. And so, I went on the American Birding Association Safari to South Africa. So, the best way to find a leopard is to find the kill.

South Africa 254

South Africa Africa Leopards Penguins 254

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Our methods have changed over time — Linneaus, for example, chose not to classify bats among birds — but now, detailed molecular analyses can confound even the most comprehensive and rigorous morphology-based hypotheses, not to mention “obvious&# groupings. Wicked, right? The proposal from U.S. Hat-tip to Stella.

2011 154

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 154

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2013

If you can parse the subtle differences in his photo below, you’ll see the bird on the left is a dark morph Oriental Honey Buzzard, but the bird on the right is a pale morph Changeable Hawk-Eagle. All in all, a memorable Malaysian experience. Bats under a rocky overhang. Malaysian raptor clinic photo courtesy of Con Foley.

Malaysia 178

Malaysia Singapore Monkeys Birds 178