10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2019

Birdwatchers tend to like the rare, the exotic – yet many common birds are exciting as well. With that in mind, I would like to introduce what might be the 20 most common birds of Shanghai. If the Black-crowned Night Heron wasn`t fairly common in Shanghai, I think local bird watchers would plan weekend trips around it.

Germany 127

Germany Cattle Blackbirds Birds 127

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

In Tobago’s wetlands and forests we see the seasons changing in the faces of the birds. The first step in preparing for the breeding season is getting ready for courtship. The often overlooked Cattle Egret has legs that turn bright pink during this brief courtship period.

Cattle 182

Cattle Bears Breeding Animal 182

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

May is a busy month for birds migrating through Shanghai – and of course, last May was completely missed due to the lockdown. So, I spent a lot of time birding this month, and to keep this post at a manageable length, it mostly only covers the first half of May. The video is notable for the bird basically refusing to move at all.

Birds 130

Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Chinese Penduline T**s are not particularly woke birds. White’s Thrush is described as “burly” on eBird – not entirely unjustified, I guess, but this description fails to capture the way the intricate patterns of the bird make for great camouflage and also for its own kind of beauty. Maybe the grandparents help.

Birds 195

Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 195

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

With the lockdown lasting until the end of May (ironically thus pretty much including the whole spring migration – the divine sense of humor is a rather malign one, I am afraid), June still had the freedom of birding anywhere in Shanghai, not just inside a smallish compound. Accessorizing for birds.

Singapore 147

Singapore Mountain Goats Birds Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2021

The highway across Roebuck Plains heading south continues to offer great birding opportunities. They are ground-dwelling birds and there is plenty of food for them at ground level. If I zoom in on the larger flocks of Whiskered Terns you only get to see a handful of the thousands of birds! Whiskered Terns feeding.

Cattle 259

Cattle Breeding Family Birds 259

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

Like many of you, I had plans for this year’s spring migration: to bird the very best tour of the Balkans, heading for northeastern Greece. Then about a 100 km to the Ismarida Lake and Porto Lagos lagoons for breeding and migrating waders. And off birding I went. “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

Greece 232

Greece Bulgaria Birds Serbia 232

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

This can mean some interesting birding, if you can bear the Shanghai heat … Of course, the egrets and herons described in my last post are still around. Cattle Egret … though some of them seem to want to hide (which is really difficult for a white bird). Sanderling: A bird with strong work ethics.

Tigers 180

Tigers Breeding Cattle Bears 180

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

Not professionally – these people come in SUVs and probably never recapture their gas money from the fish they catch (though come to think of it, neither do I with my bird photos). This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). One strange thing about Chongming is the inevitable presence of people fishing. End of side note.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

The Latin species name cruentus , “blood-stained” has the same background Blood Pheasants mainly feed on mosses – not many bird species do this as mosses are not very nutritious. One of the threats to the Blood Pheasant comes from overgrazing by cattle.

Kansas City 130

Kansas City Kansas Livestock Eggs 130

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2022

Bologna La Grassa may revel in the indulgence of its Parma ham, lasagne, and rich, fatty ragùs, and Venice may boast the bounty of the sea, but the rugged, hilly homeland of the ancient Etruscans is undoubtedly cattle country. An avian butcher at work: Red-backed Shrike ( Lanius collurio ) depicted by Dutch bird illustrator J.G.

2019 219

2019 Butcher Livestock 2006 219

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2018

The country has one eBird hotspot with 200+ and 48 with more than 100 bird species. Among travel guides, due to its extensive coverage of natural history and birding sites, recommendation goes to Laurence Mitchell’s Serbia: The Bradt Travel Guide (5th edition, 2017). Little Bitterns are back by late April.

Serbia 152

Serbia Geese Owls Macedonia 152

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

If you like birds on posts, if seeing “little brown jobs” posing nicely in the distance as you drive or walk along a dirt road only to have it fly away as you approach makes you deliriously happy, then North Dakota is the place for you. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Scott Barnes, N.J.

North Dakota 138

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 138

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2016

I’m one of those people who thinks all birds are beautiful, from the drab House Sparrow to the pink Roseate Spoonbill. Yet, there is one bird that looks like a piece of fallen sky as it zips around eating summer insects, one bird whose blue color is so perfect that birders and non-birders alike can’t help but stare.

Nevada 100

Nevada Idaho United States Alaska 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

It stops those thousands of migrating birds flying across the Gulf of Mexico and directs them right onto the trees, fields, sanctuaries, beaches along the Bolivar Peninsula, where they hopefully find food and fresh water. And us, the birders who travel here from March to May to worship the birds as they seek to survive.

Houston 210

Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 210

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

The day before we headed south to Perth to circumnavigate Herdsman Lake and see the amazing bird-life there we did a short drive out of town at home in Broome. The road north was closed beyond a certain distance, but the road south remained open and always offers excellent birding opportunities when this happens.

Barn Owls 162

Barn Owls Seals Birds Cattle 162

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2022

On that glorious day, I observed ten critically endangered birds, representing 8% of their Costa Rican, or 2% of their global population!! In my previous post , I dealt with Rancho Naturalista Lodge itself and birding within their private reserve. But, let’s start at the beginning. My OCD would not stand that!

Costa Rica 234

Costa Rica Nicaragua 2019 Farming 234

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2017

There should be thousands of birds at this time of the year, Dimitris Michalakis from the Karla Lake management authority told me. In the northern section, the water was deep, interspersed by reed-islets, but the only birds were a few Little Egrets and Black-headed Gulls. Lesser Kestrel. I am trying to count them all!

Greece 186

Greece Killing Pelicans Eagles 186

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2020

Having observed the Cattle Egret in breeding plumage at the Derby Poo Ponds on June 19th we found ourselves at Windjana Gorge first thing the following morning. We soon added Sandstone Shrike-thrush to our 2020 bird list and it is a great place to find them without too much walking. A couple of crocodiles. Northern Fantail.

2020 261

2020 Australia Cattle Groups 261

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2013

In short, the accepted view used to be that a small breeding population of Egyptian Vultures inhabited Southern Africa, but has vanished facing the spread of towns, roads and farms. It was not the first note I have published, but was the only one about a bird I have never laid my eyes upon!

Sudan 225

Sudan Macedonia Botswana Serbia 225

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2020

Just under a fortnight ago, I saw a report on the local bird alert of a sighting of a group of approximately 20 Nacunda Nighthawks at a wetland not more than 20 minutes from where I live. Striated Heron in breeding plumage – extra plumes and blue lores. Such is birding, such is life.

Livestock 212

Livestock Ducks ALA illegal 212

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2014

CR being the highest category in the Red List , if I want to see some of those birds, I better hurry! Locals being vegetarians, why are there no birds? Sociable Lapwings breed in several areas along the Kazakhstani – Russian border and overwinter in Iraq, Sudan and northwest India. Did I counted some pile of dirt as a bird?

India 245

India Sudan Ukraine Camels 245

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2012

Have you ever enjoyed one of those brilliant birding expeditions, the outing where every target species takes its cue with machine precision? Of course we’ve all experienced the excruciating opposite of such an excursion, but when waves of new birds practically clamor for attention in quick succession, the feeling is exhilarating.

Trinidad 178

Trinidad Birds Fast Food Cattle 178

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

I am preparing for the new census of one of the rarest birds of Serbia, the globally threatened Great Bustard , taking place two days from now. Together with African Kori Bustard (which I observed on a camping trip in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve), this is the heaviest flying bird in the world. m–8 ft 10 in). Lots of it.

Serbia 104

Serbia Romania Hungary Hunting 104

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2018

Unlike Barred Owls they were accompanied by no great controversy , and unlike Cattle Egrets or Eurasian Collared Doves they didn’t come as an abrupt continent-hopping surprise. The post Shifting Baselines and Sneaky Jays appeared first on 10,000 Birds. 1978, for reference, was the year of my birth.

New York Times 140

New York Times Montana Oregon Deer 140

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2016

New Year’s resolutions from birding friends are starting to trickle in as I write this review. It is the last day of 2015, time to select the bird of the year past and set goals for the bright open future, when everything is new again. The process is called “Wide-angle birding: Be the bird, see the bird.”.

Birds 190

Birds Groups 2015 North America 190

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2018

Cattle fields surrounded the small town, the cows forming dark silhouettes against the rapidly graying skies. We felt in high spirits after a gorgeous afternoon in the grassland, tallying up over 20 species of birds, including three lifers for me. Ring-billed Gulls in the fading evening light. Add another species to the daily list!

Kansas 115

Kansas Pelicans ALA Cows 115

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2011

There is a lot of bird movement around Australia at the moment due to the weather, so time to go and investigate! Last weekend we drove just out of town to where the road has been flooded and observed thousands of birds that have taken advantage of the very wet “Wet&# that we have experienced and bred like crazy.

Investigation 140

Investigation Birds Cattle Ducks 140

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2012

It also used to be a rather common bird in the South of Germany, but the German population has crashed and collapsed (almost?) If it still breeds in Germany at all, which it might do, it is so rare by now that pairs do not get reported to anywhere except to the relevant nature conservation authorities. What on earth?

Cattle 118

Cattle Germany Iran Breeders 118

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2013

A Little Blue Heron/Tri-colored Heron hybrid was reported from Arizona in 1964 and a Little Blue Heron/Cattle Egret suspect was reported from California in 1989. Since then, there have been a handful of records of this rare breeding occurrence. . Birds herons and egrets hybrids'

Florida 171

Florida Arizona Cattle California 171

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

Birds are supposed to have feathers and birds without feathers look incomplete, like they left home with shaving cream on their ear and toothpaste spots on their shirt. The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. T urkey Vulture, photo by Dawn Puliafico.

California Condor 180

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 180

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Grey Hypocolius is a Holy Grail of Middle Eastern birding. Part of its attraction lies in it being a monotypic bird in the family Hypocoliidae – there are no other bird species in its genus and family. No, birds are way too smart for that stupid trick. But I have never seen any bird with anything like it!

India 218

India Iran Pakistan Afghanistan 218

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2014

Since I have started to bird by kayak, it took me a lot of time to realise that paddling is not the synonym for birding and that I can bird without a paddle, although I cannot paddle without a pair of binoculars. Which birds can be seen there? But, more than just quantity, this spot offers some quality birding, too.

Serbia 240

Serbia Stray Dog Protection Botswana 240

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

It didn’t take too long after the big rain event at the end of January for Roebuck Plains to flood and the birds to arrive. The highway out of Broome towards Derby has also become great for bird-watching. Sadly, one of the first birds that we saw was a recently deceased Barn Owl. Intermediate Egret in breeding plumage.

Barn Owls 185

Barn Owls Cattle Ducks Reptiles 185

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2012

Jersey has always gotten a bad rap in general (the smells of the turnpike, the Jersey shore, the governor), and in the world of birding, the state often seems to be symbolized by two words: Cape May. The New Jersey Bird Records Committee (NJBRC) documents 465 species of natural origin. Press, 2003). It does so with authority and style.

New Jersey 191

New Jersey Birds 2009 Bald Eagle 191

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

Nick Sly, a friend of 10,000 Birds who writes intermittently at the thoroughly-recommended Biological Ramblings , is an ornithologist who graduated not so long ago from Cornell only to be cast out into the real world where he keeps a wry eye on all things biological! The youngest bird in this clutch is only two or three days old.

Eggs 268

Eggs Venezuela Porcupines 2008 268

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

Kazakhstan – May 2009 After our excellent time at the Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve we bid a fond farewell to its gorgeous grassy terrain and made our way to a location where Sociable Lapwing were known to breed. Well, that is almost too much to ask for!

Kazakhstan 128

Kazakhstan Cows 2009 Endangered Species 128