10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

For several years I lived and birded in the south of Africa , and still have my battered second edition (1997) of the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa, the most trusted local field guide. This region is so far from the northern breeding grounds that there are no migratory corridors to show.

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Swaziland Lesotho 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2021

Fortunately, the waters have long since subsided and I was able to make the trip this past weekend to participate in the Cano Negro Bird Count. Always a fun time, this count involves boat trips, an abundance of Anhingas , and many other birds. It was a treat to see several wintering members of the esteemed Parulidae family.

Costa Rica 234

Costa Rica Wildlife Tennessee Owls 234

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2020

Those of us in the United States are celebrating Memorial Day Weekend, normally a time to gather with friends and family for barbecues, beach outings, and other fun group activities. Perhaps for those of us in the northeastern United States the number of birds this weekend has been a bit of a disappoint though. How about you?

2020 164

2020 United States Breeders Birds 164

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2020

In the era of digital cameras and social media, images of birds are easy to come by. Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of bird species that are no longer with us. Species like the Gyrfalcon , the aerial powerhouse of the tundra, of stunning, breeding-plumaged May warblers.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Birds Species Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

It has been twelve weeks now since the first pair of Pied Oystercatchers attempted to breed along the stretch of beach that we survey and as with each year there have been setbacks. There was a long stretch of beach that did not have a breeding pair, but it was in amongst the vehicles and nudists that frequent the area at this time of year.

Family 192

Family Eggs 2007 2008 192

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

I am still tired from the long drive, but it was great to play with the very best toys for birders, to be able to share experiences and to ask the factory staff all sorts of silly questions. At the end of the workshop we all went birding, to further test the glasses of our choice. impressive for Central Europe.

Austria 298

Austria Factory Asia Battery 298

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

It is near a river, attracting some birds that like to eat wet food. As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The birds I asked about this pretended not to be related to anyone though.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

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

DECEMBER 6, 2022

At the end of 2022, let us celebrate the local field guide, a sub-genre that many of us feared would die, the victim of technology, development, and globalization, but which still shines bright, fewer in number but brilliant in quality, thanks to birders and birding organizations that believe in knowing your patch and your state.

Los Angeles 207

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 207

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.

North Dakota 145

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 145

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2015

Just like we did last year my family spent this past weekend camping at North Lake State Park, up in New York’s gorgeous Catskill Mountains. And, not surprisingly, the breeding birds present were largely the same species as last year which was not a problem at all! It’s about birds! That’s my boy!

Birds 162

Birds New York Family Sparrows 162

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In September, I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to an increasingly popular destination for birding: Honduras. Chris Lotz, the owner of the international bird tour company Birding Ecotours , invited me to join him on a familiarization trip that included several highland sites as well as Pico Bonito Lodge.

Honduras 223

Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 223

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. There are many dusty side roads in this area, many of which offer productive birding.

Mexico 199

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 199

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2020

Sure, they’re always a dependable, can’t-miss tick whenever you need them to be there, whether it’s the first day of the year, or the first few minutes of a Big Day or Christmas Bird Count. But there’s no getting around the fact that the starling is likely the most detested bird on the continent – as far as birders are concerned, anyway.

Farming 195

Farming New York Breeding Unwanted 195

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

But, sometimes an appreciation of birds and birding requires more than a reference book with images of birds and facts about their identifying field marks. There are large avian handbooks and small ‘how-to bird’ guides, and quite a few excellent books of both types have been published.

Birds 115

Birds North America Breeding America 115

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

Hannah Buschert was first exposed to birds and birding during a required ornithology course at Oregon State University and she quickly caught the birding bug. This is Hannah’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Hannah and Erik ready to see some birds! I love to go on cruises.

South Africa 264

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2015

I am within one of Florida’s sub-tropical zones, and my birding experiences have expanded, with life birds galore. Almost every lunch break I head out onto the beach, looking for birds along the sand. I know what everyone is thinking: “Erika, you are birding at absolutely the worst time of day. Why bother?”

Florida 157

Florida Birds Mice Breeding 157

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2013

But why on earth would you want to go to some sewage ponds when there are so many ways to experience debauchery and dissolution in Las Vegas itself? Birds, of course! ( Avocets, Black-necked Stilts , and Spotted Sandpipers breed at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. As Clare well knows! ) One lifer down and one to go.

Las Vegas 211

Las Vegas Nevada Birds Blackbirds 211

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

Hey, in 1959 Walt Disney set up a studio on the island and filmed Swiss Family Robinson there! Little Tobago, formerly known as Bird-of-Paradise Island (long story) is home to important colonies of numerous seabirds. Both Brown and Red-footed Boobies actively breed on Little Tobago as well as Saint Giles.

Fish 226

Fish Rights Species Birds 226

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2012

The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes, Bonkro, Ghana.

Sierra Leone 271

Sierra Leone Ghana Cameroon Equatorial Guinea 271

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

There are many charismatic endangered birds that capture people’s hearts and imaginations: the colossal California Condor , the evocative Red-crowned Crane , and the adorable Spoon-billed Sandpiper come to mind. This is a short series that brings attention to these incredible birds, and my various adventures to try and see them.

Brazil 222

Brazil California Condor Parrots Texas 222

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

That’s right, I, along with my family and some really good friends, was camping. And one that I have written about before when I was pleased to find Blackburnian Warblers like the one above breeding.). Here a fledgling Chipping Sparrow , which is one of those confusing, streaky, brown birds, gets stuffed by an adult.

New York 175

New York Cooking Chipmunks Owls 175

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2021

This has always been a wish of mine, since many of my favorite birds here stand out as much for their songs as for their appearance. And while the the gully-loving White-tipped Dove is a bird that is almost never seen, you had better know its ubiquitous song if you’re going to go birding in Michoacán. Thanks, Clare!

Trinidad 189

Trinidad Emotional Transported Mexico 189

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

This place is such an epic birding location that one cannot possibly do the city and its surrounds justice in one post. These birds, and their closely-related counterparts, the Drakensberg Rockjumper, constantly find themselves on the most-wanted list of pretty much every visiting birder. And rightly so. But by George is it worth it!

South Africa 249

South Africa Penguins Birds Africa 249

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2019

Getting to actually see four species, in the last two weeks, and to hear two more is almost unheard of in my experience. Last week, a good friend, Dan Weisz gave me a tip on the location of a family of Burrowing Owls that were extremely easy to access. I counted a total of 9 owls, with 4 being mature adults and 5 juvenile birds.

Owls 159

Owls Arizona Tucson South Africa 159

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Lots of people would prefer other birds. ” Landfill often made me wander off into some half-forgotten gulling experience of mine. In one of the first of Dee’s observations about gullers he calls them: “men leaving their homes and their families to spend time peering at arsey birds in some of the arseholes of the world.”.

Angola 193

Angola United Kingdom Mozambique Botswana 193

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2015

Birds are a subset of dinosaurs (See: Honey, I Shrunk the Dinosaurs. Prior to the extinction of all of the other dinosaurs, resulting from a cosmic impact event about 65 million years ago, the ancestors of modern birds were different from modern birds in many ways, but also similar in many ways. So how did beaks evolve?

Alligators 221

Alligators Chickens Research Birds 221

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 24, 2015

I was upstate again this past weekend, collecting Desi from his week with his grandparents, and took a couple of hours early Sunday morning to visit my favorite Saugerties birding spot, the Great Vly. As is to be expected in late August there were many young birds around getting the hang of living life on their own.

Tennessee 157

Tennessee Experience Experiments Collecting 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2011

The next seven days, today until the fourteenth, are hereby declared Wood-Warbler Week on 10,000 Birds! Parulidae is just too great a family of birds and our only debate here was whether we would have Wood-Warbler Week or Wood-Warbler Month! Read about them here but also get out and experience them.

United States 188

United States South America Cooking Family 188

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

There were three profound questions my birding group discussed while we birded Trinidad and Tobago, back in December 2012: (1) How many Bananaquits could fit on a banana? (2) 3) What was the best guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago? The bird guide question was a conundrum.

Trinidad 203

Trinidad Birds South America Research 203

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Most of these birds are small, finch-like species with thick, conical bills for cracking seeds or eating insects. Writing in the Journal of Avian Biology in 2003, Van Remsen theorized: [T]he bill may exert more influence on our cognitive perception because of its proximity to the bird’s face.

2003 220

2003 Sparrows Family South America 220

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2011

And, as a bonus question, from what blog post on 10,000 Birds is the picture taken? Good luck and may you see a flock of wood-warblers today! ———————————————————————————————————————————————— This week, 8 May – 14 May 2011, is Wood-Warbler Week on 10,000 Birds! Read about them here but also get out and experience them.

United States 155

United States South America 2011 2012 155

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2011

Anyone who has gone bird watching in North America, however, knows another kind of phoebe, a bold little genus that turns up with remarkable frequency from the arctic circle to the equator. Phoebes are proud members (at least they seem so) of the Family Tyrannidae , the tyrant flycatchers. with its eastern cousin.

Argentina 230

Argentina United States North America America 230

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2017

When Daisy started talking about a family trip to Maine for the long Memorial Day Weekend I had one thing on my mind: puffins! It was the first seabird colony to be restored and when Atlantic Puffins starting breeding on the island again in 1977 it was the first time since 1885 that puffins had bred on Eastern Egg Rock.

Puffins 100

Puffins Eggs Hunters United States 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Brown Pelicans , and the northernmost Brown Booby breeding colony on this side of the Pacific. And, the birds are awesome. Ringer Anhingas and darters , cormorants and shags , frigatebirds , gannets and boobies , pelicans , and the tropicbirds all share a characteristic found in no other living bird: Their feet are totipalmate.

2011 155

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 155

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2018

The sight of the large bird, so awkward on the ground, trying to launch itself with the coaching of an indefatigable parent, was funny, charming, and amazing in its uniqueness. We didn’t know much about migration routes, foraging away from the breeding colony, and feeding during migration, in the water and in the air.

Albatross 114

Albatross Penguins Research Breeding 114

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2016

British birders are very serious about birding and their birds. This is a very good thing; it means they publish a lot of books about birds (probably more at this point than U.S. This is a very good thing; it means they publish a lot of books about birds (probably more at this point than U.S.

Ireland 149

Ireland Birds Groups Falcons 149