10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

The danger of reviewing a field guide to the birds of an exotic country you’ve never been to is that you become obsessed with visiting that country, no matter how far away and how expensive it may be. Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? I’m already looking up birding tours of Borneo and pricing airfares.

Brunei 174

Brunei Birds Asia China 174

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

We now have a much better idea of which birds belong in the bombycillid clade, thanks to a paper called Clarifying the systematics of an enigmatic avian lineage: What is a bombycillid? First, we turn to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, where dwells a dusky, streaky, sociable bird called the Palmchat ( Dulus dominicus ). Hypocolius.

Saudi Arabia 214

Saudi Arabia 2008 Indonesia Groups 214

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 224

Birds Indonesia Breeding Charlotte 224

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2023

I visited Tengchong in late 2020 and wrote about it – but I also went there earlier, in 2017, and this post shows some photos I took during that trip, along with the usual comments that seem to be much more about ridiculing my fellow humans (especially ornithologists and the like) than providing useful information on birds.

China 181

China 2017 Birds Indonesia 181

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 126

Indonesia Brunei Birds Malaysia 126

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with.

Congo 264

Congo Africa South Africa Madagascar 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2022

And in my customary environmentally friendly approach to recycling bird photos, I have collected some of them in this post. The falcon breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China but winters in Southern and East Africa. It is not a bird I am ever likely to find boring, though. Still as impressed as before?

Falcons 241

Falcons Japan China South Africa 241

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2013

In celebration of the upcoming I and the Bird look at the heron family I invite you to consider the White-faced Heron ! New Zealand, where I live, am the 10,000 Birds Beat Writer of, and of which I very occasionally actually write about, is home to several species of heron. It wasn’t always this way.

New Zealand 148

New Zealand Indonesia Cattle Guinea 148

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2023

For birders, the Wolongshan area is like a poorer cousin of Balangshan – due to the lower elevation, the bird species here are more common and thus less interesting. Some Chinese Babax waste part of their lives feeding chicks of Large Hawk Cuckoos, which parasitize the babax species.

Hamburgers 207

Hamburgers Birds Science China 207

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

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? It may be as sick as deliberately targeting an endangered species for death. It flies on.

2011 242

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 242

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

The person who named this bird apparently cleverly chose the name Yellow-rumped Flycatcher to distinguish the bird from the Narcissus Flycatcher, which is also yellow-rumped. In Chinese, this bird is called White-browed Flycatcher, which introduces some (possibly undesirable) logic into the world of bird names.

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2017

The year 2016 was not a particularly birdy year for me, mostly because I didn’t get to go on business trips to Indonesia or Kazakhstan, as was frequently the case during the last few years. I therefore finished the year on a high note, seeing quite a few species I scarcely got to see during the previous years.

2016 101

2016 Germany Italy Netherlands 101

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Well – I only saw two species, the most common ones at Sepilok, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. One study found that there seems to be some work sharing among the breeding adults – the male had a higher visitation rate of the nest while the female was the only one that brooded. Not that they need many words anyway.

Ghana 130

Ghana Malaysia Indonesia Singapore 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2012

As 2012 draws to a close we here at 10,000 Birds thought that it would be a great idea if we, like we did in 2010 and 2011 , shared our Best Birds of the Year. We also want to know what YOUR Best Bird of the Year was. Now on to the Best Birds of the Year for those who write on 10,000 Birds! Sound good?

2012 147

2012 Birds Guatemala Florida 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Given the complexity of the research, the result feels like a bit of a letdown – “northern populations start migration earlier than southern populations, especially in autumn” The species name of the Chestnut-eared Bunting is fucata , from the Latin “fucare”, to paint red.

Birds 206

Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 206