10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2018

A 1978 paper in SORA indicates that Blue Jays had gone from “few extralimital records” prior to 1972 to rare but regular across the mountain West and into California, Washington and Oregon, with 220 extralimital records in the wither of 76-77 alone. 1978, for reference, was the year of my birth.

New York Times 140

New York Times Montana Oregon Deer 140

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2019

In the following year, American telegraph pioneer Samuel Morse encountered such difficulty in his original plan to lay underground telegraph cable between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. But history doesn’t seem to have recorded which species of bird first dared to land on an electrical wire. As Daniel L. Yet they are ours.

United States 116

United States Game North America New York City 116

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

In fact, the Dodo belonged to a clade (sometimes called Raphini) of 15 remarkable, bizarre, intriguing island-adapted pigeons, some of which are still alive today, but eight of which have been hacked from the tree of life, driven to extinction by humans. The painting above is by 17th-century Flemish artist Roelant Savery.

Solomon Islands 271

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 271