10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

These arid hills, cloaked in a mosaic of deciduous scrub and desert vegetation, form a northern outpost for several Neotropical species while also harboring several key endemics and southwestern Nearctic species. I had point blank life views of this tricky species from within a few feet.

Mexico 247

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 247

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2019

More than 5,000 bird species in the world make some kind of seasonal movement. As Kaufman shows, however, to birds and bats, they can be death machines. On our North American continent, tens of millions of birds are flying northward on peak spring nights. Example A, perfectly up to date, is the wind turbine.

Ohio 203

Ohio Bats Legislature Ducks 203

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

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). Here’s a sample of Plate 30, Bat Falcon and Orange-Breasted Falcon (pp.

Mexico 189

Mexico America North America Falcons 189

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2018

The crunch is on, and with less than two weeks left in the year, we are trying to squeeze out as many more species as possible. Last week, we quite impulsively jumped in a rental car and drove 2600 miles round trip to south Texas to pick up 34 new species. L ittle Big Year species – 1280. Bahama species – 38.

Bahamas 113

Bahamas Tucson El Paso Texas 113

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. Jackbirds are young South Island Saddlebacks. Conservationists pioneering translocation to a safe island managed to save the saddlback , but not the others.

New Zealand 150

New Zealand Parrots Rats Bats 150

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

I asked a group of wildlife rehabilitators: “What are some of the Worst Bird Myths? Rehabbers are very responsive, although constantly living under the gun makes us sometimes vent about species that aren’t necessarily the ones in question. Bats just love to fly into human hair!” Feel free to vent!”. The same goes for raccoons.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 189

Wildlife Rehabilitation Porcupines Raccoons Birds 189

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2015

But, I did take many photos, and used the book, in spurts during the trip and more closely afterward, to identify three seabird species, two expected (Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters) and one a surprise. It does not include near-shore, coastal species, like Brown Pelican, Elegant Tern, and Harbor Seal.

Dolphins 162

Dolphins Whales Whaling Porpoises 162

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

The small group was a good counterpart to the large, convivial ABA Safari group of 98 birders. That’s a lot, and the organizers of the safari did an excellent job of creating an environment that offered small group birding during the day and a birders party every night. Wait, let’s backtrack a bit.

South Africa 255

South Africa Africa Leopards Penguins 255

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2011

But that is because we often have the relationship between dinosaurs and birds reversed in our little primate minds; Much of what is bird-like is not exclusive to birds, but rather, to a larger group of dinosaurs. Facultative (occasional, used when needed) bipedalism occurs in one group of carnivores.

Birds 271

Birds Primates Marsupials Whales 271

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2014

We toured the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre after dark, and we did it by foot in a group that was just my family and a guide. We found some more sleeping birds, lots of frogs, and a Lesser Mousedeer – a new species for me! When I was in Borneo over Christmas we went out on four occasions, with results that were, well, mixed.

Badgers 154

Badgers Wildlife Reptiles Monkeys 154

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Yes, field guides to other groups of organisms, as there’s hardly any room left in your baggage or the energy to carry it. No, Madagascar is the most famous for an endemic group of mammals: lemurs, sifakas, indri, aye-aye – in total, 112 endemic species and subspecies of lemurs alone!

Madagascar 264

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

There were also small groups of Little Woodswallows perched on branches throughout the gorge and their chocolate brown colour added to the surrounding environment. During our short visit we observed 45 bird species and it is also supposed to be a good place to observe various bats and mammals after dark.

Australia 203

Australia Bats Mammals Groups 203

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

Along that stretch, we enjoyed Fork-tailed Flycatchers and other species in the open fields and marshes including Harriss’s Hawk , the local Nicaraguan Seed-Finch , and, best of all, a pair of normally sneaky and secretive Yellow-breasted Crakes walking in the open through a grassy marsh!

Costa Rica 180

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Farming 180

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

We are looking up in the sky, trying to identify the small group of swifts that are circling over head, when we are joined by a young man with his camera and tripod. He quickly starts pointing our different species that are all around us, with exceptional and obvious knowledge. Costa Rica species – 273. That story is here.

Costa Rica 113

Costa Rica Falcons Mexico Groups 113

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

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). Over a dozen distinctive ethnic groups exist here, many of whom live lives little touched by the modern world. Yellow-billed Stork. Hamar mother and child.

Ethiopia 255

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 255

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. Short-tailed Nighthawk (above and below) Overall, this species seems to be poorly known, which is understandable given its habits. Well, kind of.

Trinidad 130

Trinidad Bats Falcons Groups 130

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

This was a wonderful re-introduction to the desert species I was seeking. I met the group in Tucson and we spend the next week birding the hell out of the Sky Islands. I saw a lot of birds, learned a lot about birding (including the fact that I had lousy binoculars), and gained good birder friends. Highlights included a day on Mt.

Arizona 140

Arizona Lovebirds Phoenix New Jersey 140

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Despite depicting 540 species/56 families, it is a lightweight book of 173 pages, easy to pack and carry. Mammals of South Asia follows the latest taxonomy, describes all the species recorded within the region and provides a range map for each species. Larger species, that is, excluding dolphins and whales.

Asia 251

Asia Mammals Sri Lanka Bhutan 251

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. This photo is Nacho’s.

Bats 130

Bats Mexico ALA 2020 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

In 1903, the distinguished Elliott Coues declared , “This is a definite and perfectly natural group, which will be immediately recognized by the foregoing characters, one of which, complete webbing of hallux, is not elsewhere observed among birds.&# He could not say the same today. almost everything about flamingos and grebes).

2011 206

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 206

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. Sometimes the matriarch would even feed Babyl.

Emotional 100

Emotional Animal Whales Whaling 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

They claimed 15 species of bejeweled hummingbirds, 36 wood warblers, a Flame-colored Tanager , Greater Roadrunners (straight from the cartoon), and an oddly perched, metallic green-headed fellow called the ‘elusive’ Elegant Trogon. The Friends of Madera Canyon group publishes a good bird checklist.). Peregrine Falcon. Cooper’s Hawk.

Arizona 188

Arizona Tucson Birds North America 188

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2019

In a warm Catalonian March (I was about to say Spanish, but among quite a few flags, I haven’t seen a single Spanish one), Barcelona was filled with sunlight and full of Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets , two charming but alien and invasive species. As we enter the car, a Sardinian Warbler sings behind us, laughing out loudly.

Terrapins 222

Terrapins Eagles Europe Rats 222

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2016

So, probably, there were things we would have to call birds that were less like modern birds in how they flew than are modern bats. It is costly, it determines mating success, it defines and controls territoriality, and in some species may be communicative in other ways as well. The type species is Vegavis iaai.

Groups 207

Groups Collecting Primates Bats 207

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

Wildlife conservation is concerned with protecting wildlife at the level of species or perhaps population. With the exception of species that number in the hundreds, conservation biologists are not as concerned with the fates of individual animals, it is only when such fates of many individuals are added up do they begin to worry.

Animal Rights 270

Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 270

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2014

2014) — attempts to answer it by ranking species according to their “evolutionary distinctiveness,” or how distantly related they are to all other living birds. is not primarily a measure of the divergence dates of major clades of birds but rather of individual living species. ’s list.

Madagascar 278

Madagascar Comoros South America Ecuador 278

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 12, 2018

Our first three days were spent bouncing around from area to area, looking to find the species on my wish list. What did find right off the bat, was an amazing group of people, all willing to help out in so many ways. United States species – 350. Tom and Connie, and John Y. eBird Submissions – 417.

Texas 189

Texas Tucson San Antonio Owls 189

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2011

This is also a hard question to address because most data on animal size distribution does not compare across classes of animals, and/or focuses on groups that would not be helpful. Those mammals consist of the previously mentioned fossorial members of Insectivora, Rodents, and bats.

Mammals 233

Mammals Rodents Birds Reptiles 233

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2017

This past Saturday, 07 October, was the day for the Queens County Bird Club Big Sit, our fourth year of counting every species we could see from the hawk watch platform at Fort Tilden, in southwestern Queens. Well, during a Big Sit a bird is a bird is a bird and they all count as one species. It was so bad I never even blogged it.)

Birds 165

Birds Dolphins Canada Sparrows 165

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2014

When I write about dislike and frustration, I am not talking about the uncertainties of species limits in that particular group, about the different call types and their invasions and what challenges these bring to a birder’s work. Germany is blessed with a single species of crossbill, the Red Crossbill Loxia recurvirostra.

Germany 222

Germany Parrots Bats Europe 222

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2015

They are a different species to those that we have at home in Broome and have a lot more black colouring on their breast. As I got closer to Geelong there were several groups of Black Swans in the shallows feeding. There are 104 of these artistic bollards and each group has a rabbit painted on it somewhere for children to find!

Rabbits 157

Rabbits Bats Pelicans 2003 157

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2013

In a warm Catalonian March (I was about to say Spanish, but among quite a few flags, I haven’t seen a single Spanish one), Barcelona is filled with sunlight and full of Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets , two charming but alien and invasive species. Sardinian Warbler by Szabolcs Kokay. Steve answers: Bonelli’s Eagle !

Spain 255

Spain Terrapins Eagles Europe 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

Easily the highlight of the trip, it was one of three cetacean species we would see for the day, the others being Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and Common Dolphins. Nonetheless, I added a species to my state list and two to my year list so there was that… … It was not easy considering that it was still dark.

Whales 196

Whales Whaling New York Dolphins 196

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2012

The lake was filled with families of Dusky Moorhens and Purple Swamphens (or Pukeko as we call them in New Zealand), all tending small groups of black chicks. The other common duck species is the Hardhead , a local species of diving duck, but the rarest species (of which I saw only one) is the Musk Duck.

New Zealand 217

New Zealand Ducks Australia Japan 217

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2021

The roadmap out of lockdown here in the UK has allowed us to meet up in small groups to indulge in outdoor activities, so birders have been gathering in loose flocks to greet the migrants as they head north.

Woodpeckers 213

Woodpeckers Sparrows Blackbirds Ducks 213

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. And the birds? I saw plenty.

Birds 243

Birds Bats Elephants Family 243

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

And of course you’ll be keen to keep an eye open for Mantell’s Moa , one of ten species you should see on your tour. This species, the smallest, is endemic to North Island and should be fairly common in the wet lowland forests. Like many of its relatives, this species was also flightless.

New Zealand 251

New Zealand Ducks Australia Mountain Goats 251