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Cypriot Delights: Part I

10,000 Birds

I’ve been a regular visitor to the island of Cyprus for over 25 years, making around a dozen trips during this period, every one in search of birds. I made my most recent visit earlier this month, arriving with my three birding companions, Martin, Mike and Chris, on a warm spring evening. It was strange to hear it here in Cyprus.

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A guide to the birds of St Helena and Ascension Island – An archetype of extinction and introduction

10,000 Birds

Birds and insects, as might have been expected, are very few in number; indeed I believe all the birds have been introduced within late years” – Charles Darwin , Naturalist’s voyage around the world I wonder if Napoleon went birdwatching during his final years in exile on the volcanic island of St Helena.

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Madagascar’s Lost and Found

10,000 Birds

This is particularly poignant if the bird has disappeared during the course of my birding days or “on my watch” as I like to think of it. Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!). The lost paradise, Lake Bemanevika.

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“Peacocks and Picathartes: Reflections on Africa’s Birdlife”

10,000 Birds

This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with. A few years ago, in the American Birding Association FB group I posted a question: Where would you go if funds weren’t a problem? Some are incredibly rare and hard to find.

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Birding Greece: Black and white world

10,000 Birds

The bird is gone into the pines, about to land in some tree crown. Birding is either black or white – there are no gray tones. Then, I go birding. Above that steep section, a bird hanging in the air on a strong wind… Should I stop the car? Madagascar must have separated from Africa long before they evolved.

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The Bee-eaters of Africa

10,000 Birds

These charismatic, colorful and finely formed birds are favorites amongst birders from experts to novices, and lie within the group of birds whose beauty even non-birders really appreciate. Besides being colorful and energetic, another plus of these lovely birds is that they are relatively easy to track down.

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When birds attack!

10,000 Birds

It seems that my article last week on the dangers posed by birds struck a chord with the readers, many of whom posted their own stories of terror at the hand of this avian menace. One commenter actually said their were rooting for the birds, and, well, no offence but I’m not sure I want to go birding with you.