10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2013

The Peru Birding Rally Challenge is a joint initiative between PromPeru and the Inkaterra Family of hotels. International teams compete for 6 days and 5 nights with the express purpose of recording the most bird species, by sight or by call, while the clock ticks down. Think the Birding World Cup or the International Birding Open.

Peru 231

Peru 2012 Birds Falcons 231

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2015

But bear with me for a second: this post presents a different context for a different squirrel. Germany, like most of Europe and very much unlike North America, is home to only one species of squirrel. The view from my office window towards the squirrel trees on the right. This is not about feeder competition and chicken wire.

Squirrels 162

Squirrels North America Germany Europe 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2017

Bear in mind, even the plants have to find ways to survive, so virtually every one of them has some form of thorny defense. When it comes to a one stop shopping for food and shelter, no other plant is as widely used as the Cardon Cactus family. Once the fruit is ripe, it becomes a primary source for many species.

Elephants 107

Elephants Woodpeckers Squirrels Shelters 107

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2014

So it was with my family’s trip to Borneo, where, for the end our trip, we had a choice of the Semporna Archipelago, home of the world famous dive site of Sipadan, or Mantanani, a small island off Borneo’s north coast which also had beaches and diving. The island is also a migrant trap at the right time of year.

Philippines 160

Philippines Turtles Owls Fish 160

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2016

Am I willing to give up the field guide which bears the mud and dirt of so many falls on so many birding trips? A guide that feels so right in my hands? And, that falcons are about as far away from hawks as a bird family could get. It’s a question many of us are grappling with. This means that loons are no longer first!

North America 166

North America 2003 Birds America 166

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

That’s right, the overwhelming benefits to the environment and the economy are generated by non-consumptive uses of the refuges like wildlife photography, environmental education, wildlife observation and interpretation, not hunting and fishing. 31 to provide inviolate sanctuary for migratory birds.

Fish 144

Fish Wildlife Hunting Game 144

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Eight days with 20 of the world’s top birding guides looking for some 1,000 species and three dozen endemics. You can see as many hummingbird species as the folks at Magee Marsh are seeing warbler species—during 25 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. As the rally tore through its itinerary, the species piled up.

Peru 255

Peru Birds South America Owls 255

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 30, 2015

The species has been on my personal radar for North Carolina for years. In short, it’s exactly the sort of place that a family would visit even if there weren’t a state first record at the top of the mountain. And it just so happened that the solitaire had set up shop right under the swinging bridge.

North Carolina 145

North Carolina Mountain Lions Otters Lions 145

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

This small pine tree was very recently demolished by a brown bear. This is like Sibley calling his bird guide “The Sibley guide to Birds of Massachusetts and North America” The latter sounds silly, right? species found only around the Mediterranean or in Europe’s Southeast.

Europe 165

Europe Mammals Animal Birds 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2018

All this has helped Ommegang become a tourist attraction in its own right. I can’t claim that the playful bird image that accompanies this release is an obvious likeness of any particular species – it’s more of a generic songbird that most people (i.e., alcohol by volume – as a welcome return to the style’s more temperate heritage.

Belgium 100

Belgium New York United States Skunks 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2015

There’s a Sloth Bear in tall, dry grass, barely 50 metres from us, but all we can see is a dark, shape-shifting shadow that eventually becomes all but invisible. Somewhere below that mysterious eagle, at the far shore of the lake, lies one Bengal Tiger … and further to the right – two more! The Telia Lake. He has earned his tip.

Tigers 248

Tigers India Killing 2012 248

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

The field site I am assigned to is located in one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and home to a particularly rich avifauna that numbers well over 500 species. That’s right – birds eating clay. Each bird, regardless of species, seems perfectly content to wait for the other to make the first move toward the colpa.

Peru 255

Peru Parrots 2011 Research Center 255

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

If you had your choice of one bird family to pursue, to seek out and observe and photograph and kvell over, which one would you choose? A passion for one bird family is also very useful. Hummingbird species, on the other hand, number in the hundreds. So, when British natural history writer Jon Dunn (not to be confused with U.S.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Ecuador Bolivia 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

bought the rights to Noah Webster’s famous American Dictionary of the English Language , though it later lost exclusive rights to the “Webster” name.). Goose : “any of numerous large waterfowl (family Anatidae) that are intermediate between the swans and ducks and have long necks, feathered lores, and reticulate tarsi.”.

Albatross 105

Albatross Bears Ducks Bald Eagle 105

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2014

Every spring they totally steal the show in the northeast and you really can’t blame birders for abandoning their jobs, their families, and their sanity as they rush to New York City’s abundant and amazing parks to see the show live and in technicolor. And, of course, the wood-warblers. Northern Parula. American Redstart.

New York City 172

New York City New York Kentucky Abandon 172

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. One species alive today offers a glimpse of such behavior: the Nicobar Pigeon ( Caloenas nicobarica ). .’s

Solomon Islands 277

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 277

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2011

Nice. ((** all names have been changed to protect identities and have been substituted with (almost) randomly chosen substitutes suitable for a family of Alpine Accentors.)) Might I assume that women typically bear fewer children, or fewer survive? small families putting less pressure on the adult members of the family).

2011 215

2011 Breeders Breeding Deer 215

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Once you reach Coconut Wells the road bears to your right and just as the bitumen ends you take a left turn towards the beach. We have actually been observing this species at this location a bit more often this year than other years, but it is always alone. Family of Brolga. Lesser Frigatebird.

Eggs 140

Eggs Birds Investigation Bears 140

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

Informed literature bears out my experience that most birds are seen singly or in pairs. A three-part trip report for Hong Kong including the Orange-headed Thrush and visiting Tai Mo Shan , Cheun Lung Family Walk, and Aberdeen Reservoirs, can be found on Redgannet. Very interesting species. Wicked, right?

2011 186

2011 Deer India New York 186

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2020

are up next, with a wonderful Australian species: It is very hard to choose a Best Bird of the Year any year. The male of this species has a royal blue throat, a white chest and rump, and a long v-shaped tail with intermittent white patches that makes it looks like part of it are floating in space. Clare (and Grant!) How cool is that?

2020 238

2020 Birds Germany Costa Rica 238

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 15, 2009

One might first ask, “Why does higher intelligence mean that one species is more valuable than other species?” Second, there are other species besides human beings that have high intelligence, e.g., chimpanzees and dolphins. What should our moral attitude be toward eating members of these species? KBJ: Ditto.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Meat Killing 40

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2012

The IOC world birdlist recognizes 90 species that bear the name “weaver” or “malimbe” Not all of these are true weavers as we will discuss below. There are currently 64 recognized species in this genus, a remarkable number indeed, and this includes the 5 Asian and 2 Malagasy species.

Tanzania 226

Tanzania Buffalo Kenya Namibia 226

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2018

Late last year we decided to meet up with my sister and her family in Western Australia and we reached an agreement that they would fly to Perth from Sydney during the school holidays in January. We were busy adding birds to the Year List as we travelled and had left home with 155 species and the number was soon increasing.

Australia 100

Australia 2018 Family Industry 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2019

Ever the moral perfectionist, Franklin argued that the turkey was a much more honorable and determined fowl, and suggested the bird – as an “original Native of America” – would make a decidedly more fitting avian mascot for the United States (seemingly implying – incorrectly – that the Bald Eagle is not an indigenous New World species).

2017 152

2017 Bald Eagle United States Turkey 152