10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2024

One night while camping in the Himalayas, the birding friend hears a Satyr Tragopan calling. He leaves the camp to look for the bird, and has never been seen again. Birders will ask: did he see the bird? Is birding a dangerous sport, an extreme sport even? She died in a car accident during a birding trip.

Mozambique 227

Mozambique Birds Ghana Namibia 227

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

The full title of this exceptional book by Marie Read is Mastering Bird Photography: The Art, Craft, and Technique of Photographing Birds and Their Behavior. As a birder who photographs, rather than a bird photographer, this never occurred to me before and I find the idea intriguing.

Birds 197

Birds Ethics 2019 Experience 197

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2015

Ostensibly I was there to check out the brand new line of Trinovid binoculars Leica is releasing (or is it re-releasing?) Sure, I indulged in a little hand-held action in the presence of a good bird, but the results were so middling that I never really saw it as something to spend a lot of time figuring out. This changed last week.

Honduras 100

Honduras Branding Experience Experiments 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Which, naturally, got me to thinking about the newly erected order Suliformes, a development I mentioned in my December column, 2010′s Top 10 Developments in Bird Taxonomy and Systematics , but which I thought deserved further examination, for it’s one of those stories that defines the era in which we are living and birding.

2011 154

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 154

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2015

A mozzie bites me, so I take the “Expedition Plus Insect Repellent” from my rucksack (when I think about it now, any local brand would probably be equally efficient, but they lack the word “expedition” which immediately turns you into a proper explorer) and start spraying my hands and neck. He has earned his tip.

Tigers 250

Tigers India Killing 2012 250

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2013

We can bird all over the world, and although we are not guaranteed a field guide to every single region and country in the world, there are a whole lot more of them than in the mid-1970’s, when world birders like Phoebe Snetsinger often had to put together their own checklists and guides. I couldn’t wait to give names to all my new species.

Ireland 177

Ireland France Breeding Eggs 177