10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

There’s something wonderfully primeval about the Northern Bald Ibis: it has the look of a bird that really ought to be extinct. The fact that it’s not is quite surprising, as this curious bird has come very close to the brink. Sadly, they no longer breed in Algeria, while in Turkey no free-flying birds remain. (In

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Morocco Austria Algeria Germany 217

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2022

Most of the usual birds seem present, a frog or two call from a small wetland, and a few other expected animals are there too. Even so, in the short term, it can be hard to accept that hundreds of species are close to being extinguished from this irreplaceble tapestry of life, that hundreds more are headed for the same eventual abysmal stop.

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Costa Rica Parrots Albatross Birds 251

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

It feels good to start a post with some truly attractive birds – such as two species of broadbills. If you like cute birds, you will probably like the Black-and-yellow Broadbill. Homework assignment: Is the bird in this video a male or a female? Strangely, there do not seem to be many papers on this species.

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Sri Lanka Birds Taiwan Cats 205

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2014

Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the “Rufa” population of Red Knot ( Calidris canutus rufa ) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia. Birds in Delaware Bay.

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Endangered Species Protection Delaware Species 160

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2019

In the birding world, May is the beautiful time. With birds bedecked in their breeding best and filling the air with song, this is migration at its loveliest. A wonderful variety of bird species are waiting to be seen and among them are many a birder’s favorite avian group, the wood-warblers.

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Costa Rica Species Belize New Jersey 176

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Sukau birding essentially means staying in a more-or-less comfortable lodge on the banks of the Kinatabagan river, and taking boat tours on more-or-less rickety boats on the river. This is how it looks like: Or at sunset: A species I did not come for from Shanghai is the Black-crowned Night Heron.

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Birds Eagles Elephants Rhinoceros 209

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. 140 birds). My name is Nikos Gallios. and up to 9000 pairs forms in the north of the lake.

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Greece Wildlife Boars Otters 262

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The poster bird of this area is the near-threatened Black-necked Crane. The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area.

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China Mongolia Birds Russia 169

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2022

It has been more than 5 years since I last went to Australia, and I was even less of a qualified bird photographer then than I am now. So, the basic idea is to show 15 species of Australian birds in each post and give you the usual trivia about them. The female looks a bit duller but I was assured it has a beautiful soul.

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Australia Birds Koalas Parrots 181

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2016

In Costa Rica, June is breeding bird count season. That said, I wish we had more counts because so much of the country needs to be surveyed for birds. Protected area or not, there has been change in the air, and we need to see how the birds are responding. Finch a la yellow thighs.

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Breeding Costa Rica Birds Panama 101

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2020

Part of the Labudovo okno Ramsar Wetland and protected within the Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve , this section of the Danube, downriver from Belgrade, Serbia, is unique for its wide shallows, before the river narrows downstream from the village of Ram. When to visit: best during winter and migration season, but also breeding season.

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Mali Serbia Eagles Birds 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2020

The coronavirus has locked us all in, literally, doing something that was totally unthinkable only a few months ago: it has prevented us from birding abroad! I am talking of the very heart of the Balkans and the final birding frontier of Europe: Serbia. Birding overview. Belgrade – weekend birding break. Top-20 birds.

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Serbia Sanctuary Birds Bosnia 317

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2021

Early August is a bit of a dead time for birding in Shanghai unless you like your birds as little white spots at the far end of a telescope. So, I asked around and was told that Qinghai is the place to go to for birds in China in August. Going to Qinghai usually starts with a flight to Xining, the capital. But it is not.

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Birds North Korea China Woodpeckers 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

This is a bit of a dilemma for local authorities – on the one hand, they would presumably like to protect the birds, on the other hand, they also want to draw as many tourists to the place as possible. Still, it is a good place for birds, and given the gregarious nature of most of the Chinese tourists (similar to shorebirds?),

China 266

China Birds Fish Asia 266

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2020

Don`t worry – after having written about birding Shanghai in April a few weeks ago, I will not continue this theme for longer – not that much to write about in June and July. But May is a good time for birding here, and thus worth a post. Little Ringed Plovers are fiercely protective of their cute chicks.

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Birds Tigers Farming Eggs 161

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Most of the estuaries of Puget Sound in Washington State have been developed, but one of the few that remain is the Nisqually River Delta, which was protected as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1974. Nisqually NWR) is one of Washington’s finest and most popular birding locations. It is on my list as one of the Top 25 NWRs for Birding. (As

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Washington Portland Birds Geese 229

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Not too many highlights, not too many species … hard to say whether this is just the usual nostalgia for a better but probably nonexistent past or a real phenomenon. The latter is possible, as the undisturbed areas of Nanhui keep shrinking, leaving less and less space for birds. Somehow, for this bird it is ok.

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Birds Humane Japan Ducks 227

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2017

Over the past few months there have been a lot of birds breeding around Broome with the excellent rain events that we have been having and the vegetation is at long last revived. The grass is green, the wildflowers are spectacular and now we have numerous species of dragonfly to enjoy as the season starts to change.

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Breeding Eggs Protection Cows 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2018

Thankfully due to the long life span of this bird species the population appears to be somewhat stable at the moment. It is not unusual for only one Pied Oystercatcher chick to survive throughout the whole breeding season despite in excess of sixty eggs being laid by sixteen pairs. Pied Oystercatcher nest. Eggs in the nest.

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Breeding 2018 Eggs 2016 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 14, 2020

I recently drove from my home in Portland to Conboy Lake NWR in southern Washington for a birding day-trip. Adams, the refuge is one of the few breeding locations for Sandhill Cranes in Washington. According to eBird , just over 200 species have been observed at the refuge and just under 1,000 checklists have been submitted.

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Washington Portland Birds Deer 159

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2022

So, the next blog post on Shanghai birds may turn out to be a lot more interesting, though of course with regard to bird migration, May is more interesting than June … As I am unlikely to see a live gannet any time soon, I might as well point you to the song “Nigel the gannet” by The Burning Hell now.

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Birds Sparrows China Abandon 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2019

Bird migration! Our big month of bird movements in Costa Rica, the 10th month of the year, is when most of the swallows, Scarlet Tanagers , thrushes, and other species on the South American express push through. The bulk of birds, though, move along the coast and through the northern lowlands. What do they eat?

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Costa Rica Nicaragua Birds Panama 258

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

In the more normal years, I would spend January visiting the very best wildfowling spots along the Danube and seeing the best birds there are, so in February I would be well saturated with birds and feeling: Still winter? I observed White-tailed Eagles likely a few thousand times, and this didn’t strike me as the dark young bird.

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Otters Croatia Eagles Protection 254

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2022

Habitats: Check Birds… well, more presumed what the possibilities are, than actually checked… Sleeping: Check Getting around: Check I will come back to these topics in a while. Nevertheless, I left gifts behind, two dozen copies of a common bird guide (which I wrote and published) for local wardens. It sounded birdy and I was game.

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Serbia Birds Woodpeckers Romania 236

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

This is the last post covering my time birding the Kruger Park in November 2018. A study on the diet of the African Harrier-Hawk starts rather pompously: “Feeding is an indispensable activity in the life of birds. I guess blushing is easier if you have a bald face like this species. No clue what it is though.

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South Africa Niger Birds Mice 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2020

That does not make it sound like a very promising or important bird habitat. This means that every year, millions of birds fly by the city on their way between their breeding grounds in Northern Asia and their wintering spots in Southeast Asia and Australia. And yet it is. So, there is some hope.

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Wildlife Reserve Asia China Birds 163

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2022

For some reason that I do not quite understand myself – given that I really rather dislike children and am not too positive about the rest of humanity either – I recently put up a little display of bird photos inside my Shanghai compound, which I share (as the only foreigner) with about 1700 Chinese. Some Birds of Shanghai.

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Birds Fish Germany China 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2021

This is the second post in the Birding crème de la crème series (the first, focused on southern Asia, is here ). The bird-richest region of Africa is its equatorial East: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi (unlike the rest, the last one, Burundi, is politically unstable and not recommendable). SERVIR Africa Workshop.

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Africa Kenya Uganda Tanzania 193

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2019

The striking Golden-cheeked Warbler nests only in the hills of central Texas near Austin but a substantial part of those breeding grounds have leveled in favor of development. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared the Golden-cheeked Warbler “ endangered ” under the Endangered Species Act. On December 27, 1990 , the U.S.

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Austin Texas Endangered Species Birds 167

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.

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Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

The islands of the Caribbean are home to 176 species of endemic birds unevenly distributed across the region. Some islands host one or two species, others more than twenty. For some species, conservation actions are well underway and we are seeing some measure of positive impact as a result. Vincent Parrot !

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Grenada Parrots Trinidad 2010 130

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

This is Liz’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. The rise in drone popularity over the past few years has been meteoric — and in our typical human arrogance, we’ve once again ignored the fact that for the past 150 million years, the sky has belonged to the birds.

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Birds Protection Idaho Bears 181

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2023

After Jason recently asked ChatGPT for birding advice, the management consultant in me – constantly thriving for efficiency improvements – immediately thought of the next step. The Seasonal Spectacles: Shanghai’s birding scene comes alive during the spring and autumn migration seasons.

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China Endangered Species Sanctuary Protection 160

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.

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South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 262

10,000 Birds

MARCH 26, 2020

LABUDOVO OKNO Ramsar Site and an Important Bird Area represents a section of the Danube floodplain downriver from Belgrade, Serbia, and situated in the south of the Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve. Dubovacki Rit (Dubovac Wetland) is a part of the Labudovo okno Ramsar Wetland and protected within the Deliblato Sands Reserve.

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Turtles 2002 Serbia Eagles 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

Yes, cute little Skylarks were all well and good, but what Kiwis really wanted were birds they could shoot and fish they could, uh, fish. New Zealand had, once upon a time, some fairly spectacular game birds, including massive flightless geese, massive flightles rails, and really enormous moa. Or so it was assumed.

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Species New Zealand Ducks Game 165

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2020

These migratory shorebirds crowd together for protection when they roost at high tide. The flocks are getting smaller day by day as they migrate to the northern hemisphere to breed. The shorebirds will then spread out across the tundra to breed and they will no longer be close to each other. Safety in numbers!

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Australia Breeding Falcons Eagles 158