10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Happy New Year, 10,000 Birds readers and writers! Everyone is looking back on their best birds of 2019, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a book that looks back a little further: Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City , by P. The Bronx also has a special place in birding history.

New York City 149

New York City New York Birds Breeding 149

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 211

Livestock Ducks ALA illegal 211

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2012

I know it sounds strange, especially when the folks at Mission San Juan Capistrano are trying to coax them back by playing recordings of the bird’s mating calls. Because I am a local Audubon board member, I was recently contacted by a bird lover who witnessed Cliff Swallow nests being destroyed at the marina where they dock their boat.

San Diego 165

San Diego illegal California South America 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

The survival of songbirds depends in part upon eliminating illegal hunting. If you are a migratory bird in Europe and western Asia, this is your sweet spot. This grim scenario is a fact of life for millions of migrating songbirds, raptors, and other birds each year. Photo by David Guttenfelder, courtesy of National Geographic ).

Cambodia 143

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 143

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2015

You (or your child/friend/etc) have just found a seemingly parentless baby bird. Here with the answer(s) is Maureen Eiger, a bird rehabilitator in Roanoke, VA: . Wild bird rehabilitators want bird parents to feed their own babies. Putting a baby bird back in its nest is not always the right thing to do.

Wounded 255

Wounded Rescue Medical Cats 255

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2019

In mid-December, I was birding along the Beljarica levee (Beh-LYAH-ritza), my local patch north of Belgrade, when something other than birds attracted my attention: three wild boars , appearing all black because they had just swam through the swamp to reach the bottom of the levee. I barely started when some sulphur (a.k.a.

Serbia 244

Serbia Otters Boars Eagles 244

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

Marshes are the habitats with the greatest species richness in moderate zones, also significant as breeding, wintering and migratory stopover sites for birds; it therefore comes as no surprise that this one is among the 10,000 Important Bird Areas of the World (one per each bird species?). Saxicola rubetra.

Greece 189

Greece Serbia Hunters Cows 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2013

Believe me, after hiking up a mountain in the middle of the night just to catch a glimpse of this bird, I have mixed feelings about whether we even need it in a world with abundant Gray-cheeked Thrush , its more copious counterpart. But, to paraphrase Monty Python, every species is sacred.

Dominican Republic 172

Dominican Republic Haiti Pythons illegal 172

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! Reasons for this situation are numerous.

Sudan 224

Sudan Macedonia Botswana Serbia 224

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2015

Birds included common species such as Black Drongos , Jungle Babblers and a Hoopoe. According to IUCN , because of illegal hunting and habitat degradation across most of Indochina, ungulates occur at levels well below natural. Even in protected areas of north-east India, prey densities are very low.

Tigers 237

Tigers Dogs India Snow Leopard 237

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2011

Migrating warblers typically pass through Cyprus from March until May every Spring – a fact that is sadly taken advantage of by illegal poachers. Sadly I didn’t make it out birding though, much to my loss. Their migration typically peaks about a week before the end of April however. Too good to pass up! 2 Hippolais sp.,

Cyprus 153

Cyprus illegal 2011 Breeding 153

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, 2013

These vociferous little birds can usually be heard throughout the freshwater and saltwater marshes in North America. According to Birds of North America Online , there may be several reasons. Back in the 2010 breeding season, I was able to observe a male building a nest at this exact same time of year.

Sacramento 161

Sacramento North America Wildlife Defenders Of Wildlife 161

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

under the 1969 Endangered Species Conservation Act and later transferred to the 1973 Endangered Species Act; then protected with other birds of prey under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act through agreement with Mexico, but not Canada, in 1972 1. They were officially listed as Endangered in 1970 in the U.S. Don’t miss it!

Falcons 134

Falcons Wildlife Sacramento Endangered Species 134

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2024

When not climbing, he collected species, and thus a number of birds are named after him. Three of them can be found on Mount Kinabalu, and local bird guides speak admiringly of colleagues who have seen all three of them on one day (we only managed two). Like the broadbill, Whitehead’s Spiderhunter is a Borneo endemic.

Birds 223

Birds Indonesia Breeding Charlotte 223

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

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

” But of course, with this slight adaptation, it also works for blog posts and their writers, and allows me to plug another nice song by this underrated artist, before switching to birds. Maybe a source more focused on birds than the HBW might have provided more accurate information.

Birds 174

Birds China Woodpeckers Breeding 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2024

A first-winter Red-breasted Goose at Cley, North Norfolk As a general rule, geese are birds of subtle, even dull, plumage. With its deep chestnut-red breast, exquisite head pattern and black and white body it’s an exceedingly handsome bird, and one that never fails to attract admirers when one turns up in Britain.

Bulgaria 130

Bulgaria Geese Romania Estonia 130

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

“A reading of recent research shows that Australian birds are more likely than most to eat sweet foods, live in complex societies, lead long lives, attack other birds, and be intelligent and loud.” When going to Australia, one of the two birds I wanted to see most was the Tawny Frogmouth.

Birds 226

Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 226

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2023

Apparently, she supported the research of a Romanian team on ectoparasites of birds from Meghalaya (India) – and for her troubles, the team thanked her by naming a species of feather mite newly discovered on Large Niltava after her. If I can give you some advice: Better not be a bird in China. Why are people always thinking about sex?

China 147

China Hunting Birds illegal 147

Animal Ethics

MARCH 29, 2008

Earlier this month, NASA released new satellite photographs showing continued illegal cutting of the Mexican fir forests where virtually all of eastern North America’s monarch butterflies spend the winter. Migratory birds protect forests and crops from insect pests; butterflies, bats and other migratory species are important pollinators.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York United States illegal 40

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2019

Its crown was so thick, I could spot the movement, but only rarely the bird itself and never the whole bird, once it would be only its back, once its head, once just legs… slowly, I was putting this puzzle together. The first birds to spot from the boat were Common Terns furiously defending their newly built nests on floating logs.

Greece 193

Greece Pelicans Buffalo Fish 193

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Another item they feed on is hunting edible bird nest swiftlets, which are quite common in edible swiftlet houses in Sabah, Malaysia ( source ). Another paper reviews information on Oriental Pied Hornbills raiding the nests of various bird species in Singapore and even pet bird cages.

Rhinoceros 126

Rhinoceros Singapore Transported Hunting 126

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2016

Out of just under 200 bird species I observed this year in SE Europe, there are 6 threatened species. Some of them were always uncommon in the region, others are highly localised, some are hard to notice among thousands of similar birds, but others were abundant recently and one of them still is, despite the decrease in numbers.

Serbia 201

Serbia Greece Montenegro Bulgaria 201

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, experts have determined that the current rate of bird extinction is somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 times the background rate. Globally, 1,313 bird species of a total of count of 10,064 are threatened, a frightening 13% of the total.

Endangered Species 188

Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 188

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2022

The Eurasian Wryneck is the woodpecker that doesn’t look like a woodpecker, the bird with the portmanteau name that is also a medical condition (and which may remind some people of a Nora Ephron essay). They are slim and small-headed birds and their bills are fine, not strong and dynamic.

Woodpeckers 232

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand 2014 232

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

I’ve never been to the Indonesian Archipelago, but I really like the birds there. Lynx Edicions, the ornithological (and now mammal) publisher that gave us the Handbook of the Birds of the World , has now published Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea , by James A. So, this is no ordinary bird guide.

Indonesia 125

Indonesia Brunei Birds Malaysia 125

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2024

According to the eBird description, it is everything I am not: a “neon-colored, noisy, highly social bird” Shudder to think (not the bird part though). Next, this post has a long section on babblers, a very ill-defined category of birds. But some of them look pretty interesting.

Burma 189

Burma Birds Vietnam Laos 189

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2012

When songbirds endeavor to head hundreds or thousands of miles south they are risking everything in order to find a place that they can winter and hopefully survive in order to head back north and breed. Migration is the single most dangerous thing that birds do and many don’t survive as Greg pointed out in his recent post.

Feral Cats 183

Feral Cats Cats Killing North America 183

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2020

The proprietor of our ecolodge guides my small group of birders up a steep slope where we see, just at the point where a scope view deteriorates into pixels, a huge bird—a Chaco Eagle, also known as a Crowned Eagle—on a huge nest. The post The Falcon Thief: A Book Review appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

Falcons 208

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 208

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2011

But, as with so many other species, these birds have been left to do their own whistle blowing. The global population is now estimated at 15,000 birds and, even on islands where it is relatively common, its distribution remains severely fragmented. So he began to put out extra feed for the birds.

Antigua and Barbuda 220

Antigua and Barbuda Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Jamaica 220

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

I must admit that I was astonished as I had never considered Ghana a potential birding destination, nor knew of any birders who had ever been there. My clients insisted that they wanted to go to Ghana as they had heard that the birding was great. We also knew we had discovered Africa’s next hot birding destination.

Ghana 191

Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 191

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012

Birding can be a double-edged sword, getting out birding, seeing, hearing and ‘doing’ birding is as we all know incredibly good for the soul and simply the best way to spend time. It can be difficult not to feel impotent and under attack from all sides.

Morocco 172

Morocco Turtles Protest Protesting 172

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

I did not find much about this bird online except for a paper with the exciting title “A new quill mite Torotrogla emberizae sp. Hopefully, the winter time in Shanghai gives the Black-faced Buntings some time to relax from the challenges of the breeding season. Maybe there is some justice in this world after all.

Birds 205

Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 205

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2023

The Great Egret was in breeding plumage and courtship posture–bright lime green lores, head bending down and then snapping up, long, impossibly delicate plumes waving over its body as if possessed by independent spirits. Congress and Senate who recognized the need to protect the birds. ©2023, Donna L.

Connecticut 147

Connecticut Washington Legislation Hunting 147