10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2015

We assume natural selection has shaped birds to avoid predators. Noticing predators, reacting to them perhaps with an alarm call, and escaping them, as well as other behaviors, keep the bird alive and thus allow it to reproduce. We would expect, then, that natural selection favors birds that are good at these things.

Birds 119

Birds Research Humane Pets 119

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

In some ways the the flowering of the antelopes as an evolutionary group mirrors our own story, as they benefited and spread widely as the world’s forests gave way to savannah and plains, just like humans. The crest on the back becomes erect during breeding displays. The delicate markings if two male Nyala.

Africa 165

Africa Hunters Goats Wolves 165

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2017

For nearly a hundred years, after the eggers, meat-hunters, plume-hunters, and a human-influenced gull population boom, puffins were absent from the island. Though I had seen guillemots a couple of times before I had never seen one in breeding attire and I was smitten. Or perhaps it’s just a bird with cold feet?

Puffins 100

Puffins Eggs Hunters United States 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

The Green-winged Teal ( Anas crecca carolinensis ) is North America’s smallest dabbling duck and taken by hunters second only to the Mallard. Luckily for them, even though they nest on the ground, they usually breed far from human habitation, under heavy vegetative cover. Click on photos for full sized images.

Ducks 173

Ducks North America Hunters California 173

Critter News

AUGUST 22, 2010

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, one of the world's most threatened birds, is rapidly heading towards extinction because young birds are being targeted for human consumption. In 2000, around 1,000 breeding pairs were known, but by 2009, the number had plummeted to just 120-220 pairs, a decline of 88%. Really sad.

Species 100

Species Myanmar Endangered Species Russia 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2016

A guy is curious what am I doing; watching birds; which birds; these, see that green-and-blue one (a European Bee-eater conveniently sitting on a wire); are you a cop; no, I’m not a cop (laughing at a guy who drives a way too expensive car for this neighbourhood); you’re suspicious, he concludes.

Abandon 143

Abandon Abandoning Abandonment Serbia 143

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge : Open to migratory bird hunting (youth only). The Refuge is now home to nearly 200 species of birds, over 50 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of insects, fish and plants. This is an Urban Refuge ! Why would you open it up to hunting?

Fish 143

Fish Wildlife Hunting Game 143

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2014

While many people were saying, “OMG COOL” others were thinking “that’s too Big Brother-ish for me” and a few said, “Oh hey, wait, what about birds?” And if you do a bit more searching you can all sorts of people who don’t know anything about birds checking them out and getting too close.

Bald Eagle 194

Bald Eagle Mississippi Eagles Ducks 194

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2011

The little stiff-tails are almost year-round at Jamaica Bay though almost all leave to breed in the summer and in the depths of winter, when the ponds are almost completely frozen, they tend to head for open water. Leucism “is a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals and humans.&# Get yours today!

Ducks 151

Ducks 2011 Jamaica Deer 151

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2022

As you have probably realized by now, in my posts on 10,000 Birds, I generally scrupulously avoid giving any practical hints for birding at the specified location. However, if you mostly just want to see photos of birds such as this Black-throated Bushtit , you might as well stay here. Or at least like birds.

Birds 147

Birds Humane Family Germany 147

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Having come back to the blog in whatever form and persistency, the overarching subject of language in birding seemed to be a suitable and deserving theme since bird names were part of my original beat. How have birds infiltrated our everyday language, even of non-birders? No birds required.

Germany 180

Germany Birds Hunters Owls 180

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

“ There is, perhaps, no better place in the world for birds than this country. The land was of course already occupied by San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers for millennia and more recently Bantu tribes of the Nguni branch (most notably Zulus and Xhosas). Wahlberg travelled even more extensively and amassed a huge bird collection.

Mozambique 186

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 186

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Sandhill Crane Hunt in Kentucky?! If you wrote to Tennessee in the 10,000 Birds campaign this winter, you can cut and paste your letter, changing “Tennessee&# to “Kentucky.&# Kentucky Dept.

2011 245

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 245

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2016

In her book, “ On a Wing and a Prayer, “ Sarah Woods describes the bird that captured her interest when she first visited Panama: “At more than one metre tall and able to kill a monkey with a single swipe of its powerful, knife-like talons, [H]arpy [E]agles are incredibly hard to find.” ”

Panama 100

Panama Grizzly Bear Porcupines Eagles 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

Nineteenth and early twentieth century naturalists collected birds on long and arduous exploratory expeditions in the New World. A large and striking bird like this would be hard to neglect in a museum collection. There were subsequent expeditions to the region in search of Guans, but none yielded evidence of the bird.

Collecting 268

Collecting Peru Neglecting Hunting 268

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2011

As part of the Wildlife Conservation Society Birds of Brazil giveaway we asked readers of 10,000 Birds to name the bird in Brazil that they would like to see more than any other species. It is a really neat bird that I have not seen before. It would mean that I was birding in a really cool place! Come quickly!”

Brazil 203

Brazil 2011 Birds Wildlife 203

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

So, one might surmise, it’s OK if they get shot by hunters thinking they’re sandhill cranes? Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. What could motivate gunmen (I cannot call them hunters) in two states to deliberately kill North America’s tallest and most critically endangered bird?

2011 242

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 242

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

The descriptions of the territory’s birds, seals, whales, introduced mammals, invertebrates, and plants are written within the framework of the conversationist, so it is more than a field guide, it is a record of endangered wildlife and the efforts being made to protect it.

Georgia 173

Georgia Penguins Wildlife Whales 173

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

This is in addition to the many articles and exhibits and even film devoted to the bird, one of the few species whose death was witnessed and noted down to the exact day, Tuesday, September 1, 1914 (though there is some question about the exact time). We have a lot of source material. It’s an effective introduction.

2014 160

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 160

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

How when he needed a dissertation topic in 2005 (studying at the University of Minnesota), it was either Hooded Crane or Blakiston’s Fish Owl, both iconic birds of the area. We learn about their unique vocalizations, a duet in which they are in such harmony they sound like one bird. So, Blakiston’s Fish Owl it was.

Owls 134

Owls Russia Fish Research 134

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

At Sea With the Marine Birds of the Raincoast opens with the unexpected appearance of a Laysan Albatross. Having shown us the bird, the boat, and the water, Fox then introduces herself: “Albatrosses, petrels, fulmars, puffins and gulls live out their lives along these transect lines; my job is to count them all.”.

Fox 100

Fox Albatross Geese Bald Eagle 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

Animal rights is concerned with preventing the suffering or even use of animals by humans. But you can take solace in the results at the end of the breeding year, when loafing around the intertidal are a shiny new cohort of finely plumage grey youngsters, all ready to carry on Western Gull line into the future. Western Gull chick.

Animal Rights 262

Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 262

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2011

To a birder, migration means that you can live in Minnesota, New York, Paris or Moscow and see exotic tropical birds such as Piranga olivacea and Icterus galbula on a regular basis without buying a plane ticket. The birds do the flying for you. But what is migration, why do birds do it, and how is it accomplished? Image source.

Research 191

Research Humane Compassion New York 191

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2023

February 2023 was a slow month for birding in Shanghai, at least for me – so slow that I almost put the Spotted Dove , possibly my least favorite bird here, on the cover. Not a cover species The Black Kite is not actually black, but of course, misleading bird names are not exactly rare. Maybe those should be protected too?

Birds 130

Birds Iraq China Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Australia is a vast country with a very small human population, which mostly clings to the edge of the continent. The lack of people does not mean we have any less extinct or threatened bird species than other countries. Handbook to The Birds of Australia, 1865. Preface,p.xxiv.

Species 174

Species Australia Birds Parrots 174

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Larger, denser with avian information than your typical field guide, a Crossley Guide bursts with bird images, photographic plates that verge on the surreal of birds in all plumages and poses against real-life habitats, informing, sometimes overwhelming us with visual and, if you can take your eyes off the images, textual information.

Ducks 117

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 117