10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2024

In between now and then, I will spend a week and a half in California, in the land where birding may mean walking on paved paths, or even on a wooden boardwalk built through the middle of a salt marsh. I can also pretty much count on one or more joints to be a bit cranky on any given day — especially after a long day of birding.

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Birds Livestock Sparrows Mexico 182

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2024

The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness is about birds and taxonomy, history and art, the birding god we have revered and torn down, the ornithological originals we’ve ignored or simply don’t know.

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Birds Philadelphia Investigation North America 237

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2024

The Black-winged Cuckooshrike is breeding in several Shanghai locations – I suspect that some trees near the Nanhui hotel might be another one, given the vigorous singing of this bird. The Silver-throated Bushtit is a species in which the juvenile birds seem to be more colorful than the adults, in a reversal of the typical situation.

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Giraffes Birds Rabbits Breeding 169

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2024

Though the birding around Lake Kerkini may be outstanding, it’s inevitably the lake itself that is the centre of interest. The Greylags are interesting, as they are of the eastern race, rubrirostris , with distinctive pink legs and beaks, unlike the orange of our birds at home in Britain.

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Pelicans Greece Fish Birds 173

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2024

I admit this is not quite on the level of fellow writers’ posts describing birding as an extreme sport. The bird has now started using its scientific name, Hemipus picatus , as it is substantially shorter. Perhaps the middle section of blog posts should be relatively boring in order to get rid of the more casual readers.

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Myanmar Sri Lanka Nepal Birds 162

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2024

I was especially looking forward to take some better photos of the birds I saw last time, which I only managed partly. After all, I’d rather call myself a birder than a bird photographer, although I have to admit that I enjoy doing both more or less equally.

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Birds Germany Parrots Europe 168

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2024

While I have visited a few birding sites around the Netherlands during the course of my Bachelor studies, I did not go birding a lot around the city where I lived, Maastricht. On the bird recording site Waarneming, I saw that a Great Northern Diver ( Common Loon ) was found on a lake just south of the city.

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Netherlands Birds Ducks Hunting 203

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2024

The month starts with many birds and ends with very few – but some of those are quite spectacular. If there ever was a misnamed bird, it is the white-faced morph of the Black Bulbul. Apparently, the bird can warm itself if it gets cold. This bird is still at least 1000 km away from its breeding grounds.

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Birds Killing Breeding Breeders 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 24, 2024

There are beautiful beaches, a plethora of amazing food and drinks, a multitude of family fun locations, a world-renowned zoo, and one of the biggest birding festivals in the US. Birders biking around Mission Bay Each year, the San Diego Audubon Society hosts their annual birding festival in the third week of February.

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San Diego Sea Lions Lions Birds 182

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2024

National Wildlife Refuges provide valuable habitat for birds and other animals, and because they are protected that habitat persists despite increased urbanization and agriculture. Plus, they offer excellent birding. The post Birding Southeastern Washington (McNary NWR) first appeared on 10,000 Birds.

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Washington Oregon Birds Wildlife 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2024

Winter birding in Bonn generally appears to be rather bleak, but I can’t really complain with the Wallcreeper that spent several weeks just outside the city. Now that this bird has seemingly moved on, I had to find other species to distract me, but fortunately that was not too hard.

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Birds Ducks Groups Species 185

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2024

Whenever we feel 10,000 Birds could have more writers, we ask one of the many online AI art creation sites for a suitable illustration. The result is always ugly (see example above) and the opposite of what we seek: personal experiences and thoughts related to birds and birding, not some ChatGPT-written blurb.

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Singapore North America Birds America 155

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2024

In my younger days I was very keen on what is generally known as Big Day Birding, or trying to see as many species of birds as possible in one day. Called The Big Bird Race , it tells the story of how my team, representing Country Life magazine , recorded 155 species in 24 hours in East Anglia (Suffolk and Norfolk).

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Birds Kenya Barn Owls Owls 131

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2024

All birds have value. Let’s face it, some birds are more popular than others. There are bird species with the power of personality and feathered friends with super migratory prowess. In a lot of places, this backyard beauty is the most popular bird on the block! I wonder which birds are most popular in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Birds New York Parrots 236

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2024

For more bird-related public art in Portland, check out Tweets and Chirps. The post Golden-Crowned Kinglets are Trash Birds first appeared on 10,000 Birds. Photo: Golden-crowned Kinglet by Mick Thompson.

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Portland Oregon Birds 185

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2023

Perhaps a little more shock-inducing and paradoxical than concepts of birding at sewage ponds or graveyards, an oil refinery seems to be the antithesis of a desirable place for a birder. From Yellow-hooded Blackbirds to Purple and Common Gallinules , there are almost too many birds to focus on!

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Trinidad Birds Ducks Fish 252

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2024

Award-winning free-lance science journalist Nicola Jones , most noted for her work on climate change and environmental issues, ventured into the book world with a picture book on the wildlife rehabilitation efforts for one of North America’s most endangered bird species, the Northern Spotted Owl. Aim this at the 7–13 year-olds in your life.

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Owls Wildlife Rehabilitation Endangered Species Birds 181

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2023

I did not actually go to Afghanistan for birding. So, birds in Kabul. I am only including them in this post to give you my real-life Kabul experience … Four species are the most easily seen in the few urban parks (into which women are not actually allowed to enter – I am not sure about female birds).

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Afghanistan Birds Feral Zoos 158

AVMA News

AUGUST 21, 2023

Pilny presented sessions on July 15 at AVMA Convention 2023 in Denver about the consequences of wildlife trafficking on wild bird populations and the difficulties with rehoming unwanted birds. Latas and Anthony A.

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Unwanted Denver Trafficking Welfare 345

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

The first half of September (covered in my previous post ) was very productive, but the second half delivered some even better birding. These birds were omnipresent on the bushes and fence posts on the upper land of the island during the first weeks of my stay. We did see Eurasian Skylark , in addition to Horned Lark , as well though.

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Birds Adoptable Groups Species 196

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2023

How can one, in what is barely the second week of the first month of the year – even think of suggesting a Bird of the Year? I began recording my bird sightings with photographs in late 2009, and since then I have seen (or at least heard) a fair proportion of species recorded within my home country of Trinidad & Tobago.

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Birds Trinidad 2020 2012 255

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Serious birders may have an obsessive interest in birds, but one thing they universally don’t like are birds which, they believe, aren’t properly wild. This individual was photographed in India There’s one problem with this approach, as it can lead to birds being ignored.

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Netherlands Geese Birds Denmark 193

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2024

As South Germany always has different birds on offer to the area around Bonn, I had to take my camera with me. While I usually only take my binoculars on trips where birding is not really a part but I just want to make sure. The post Late Winter Birding in Munich first appeared on 10,000 Birds.

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Birds Germany Ducks Woodpeckers 155

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2024

Well, 2023 has ended, so it’s time to look back at the past year’s birding. The pleasures of birding are many and varied, so this kind of post always involves a list. I will also return to several birds which have already appeared here. The post My Favorite 2023 Birds first appeared on 10,000 Birds.

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Morocco Birds Turkey Mexico 158

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Sukau birding essentially means staying in a more-or-less comfortable lodge on the banks of the Kinatabagan river, and taking boat tours on more-or-less rickety boats on the river. So, just photos of the birds themselves. Why that makes Mr. Graydon worthy of having a bird species named after him is a mystery to me.

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Birds Eagles Elephants Rhinoceros 197

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

According to his Wikipedia entry, he was a strong but unsuccessful supporter of women attending the university, so he is one of the better people to name a bird species after. As I saw both of them at the same spot in Tengchong, I wonder whether the bird below is a result of a pairing of the two morphs. A bad one, admittedly.

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Nepal Birds Owls Fish 151

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2024

Given that according to the HBW, the species prefers dense primary and secondary montane forests, the note that the bird also forages among kitchen waste (in the same HBW entry) seems somewhat incongruous. Specifically, we are all particularly interested in the microbiota of birds living in a mining area.

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Burma India Birds Indonesia 180

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2023

The Dutch Island of Texel is well-known amongst European birders due to the exciting number and quality of birds it attracts during spring and autumn migration times. A few Bohemian Waxwings were also a great addition to my life-list and a long-awaited bird. maurus and S. stejnegeri generally have a warmer tone.

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Birds Groups Ducks Rights 213

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Of course, that means that the birds I saw on September 30 are now somewhere in blogpost limbo, not having appeared in the September post but also not legitimately belonging in the October one. After this longish and completely irrelevant introduction, finally here is a photo of the first bird of September 30th, a Black-winged Cuckoo Shrike.

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Birds Deer China Owls 201

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2024

This post starts like every birding blog post should start – by showcasing some bulbul species. According to the highly successful book ” 7 Habits of Highly Successful Birding Blog Post Writers”, only about 50% of birding blog posts should start with bulbuls). Yes, I am joking.

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Birds Owls China Research 139

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2023

On Tuesday my closest birding buddies, and, of late, my regular companions, wanted to go down to Paso Ancho. This did not seem like a problem to me, because a bit of rain really seems to bring out the birds in such a dry habitat. The post I’m Birding in the Rain, Just Birding in the Rain first appeared on 10,000 Birds.

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Birds Mexico Shelters Species 149

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

It feels good to start a post with some truly attractive birds – such as two species of broadbills. If you like cute birds, you will probably like the Black-and-yellow Broadbill. Homework assignment: Is the bird in this video a male or a female? Maybe the birds I saw were not real. You can see why here.

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Birds Sri Lanka Taiwan Species 193

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2024

Birding Shanghai has its own specific annoyances apart from birds not showing up. Finally, there are specific restrictions for foreigners – I guess we might steal some vital state secrets that have some kind of relationship with the local birds. Tianmashan had two interesting birds in March. One, a Ryukyu Minivet.

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Chicago Birds Asia China 139

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2024

Starting the New Year by trying to see as many species as possible is something of a birding tradition. My diary notes that the New Year dawned grey and windy, but I rose early, walked six miles before breakfast and noted a modest 26 species of birds. One of my more memorable New Year’s days was in the Falkland Islands, back in 1989.

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Birds Albatross Barn Owls Sparrows 193

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Birds of Belize by Steve N. Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. Dale Dyer put in years working on his paintings for Birds of Central America , both in the field and in the museum. Howell utilizes the IOC World Bird List (v.11.2, Why are these issues? © 2023 by Steve N.

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 194

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, offers several great birding spots and here are some recommendations for areas to go birding in and around the city, how to get there by public transport, and some of the bird species you might expect to see. It is home to almost a hundred bird species, including woodpeckers and songbirds.

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Transported Woodpeckers Birds Serbia 238

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2023

As the rice paddies near Kota Kinabalu described in an earlier post , Tanjung Aru beach is not really a major birding spot in its own right. However, it is only a short taxi ride away from the airport where most travelers will arrive at – better to see birds instead of just eating fast food while waiting for a connecting flight.

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Malaysia Philippines Parrots Birds 224