10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2024

Birding Shanghai has its own specific annoyances apart from birds not showing up. Finally, there are specific restrictions for foreigners – I guess we might steal some vital state secrets that have some kind of relationship with the local birds. Tianmashan had two interesting birds in March. One, a Ryukyu Minivet.

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Chicago Birds Asia China 142

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

MARCH 5, 2015

We drove for about 290 km through the 400 square kilometres expanse of Pancevacki Rit and found 8 breeding colonies with 252 occupied nests, or a density of 1.6 The best counting season is April, but I will accept late March and early May reports, too (actually, I already have a few early reports – the birds have occupied the nests by now).

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Experience Experiments Science Serbia 237

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2023

But then, birdwatching is boring most of the time, too – all the periods when there are no birds … As by now usual for me, the trip was done with Alpinebirding , which helped reduce the time spent not seeing any birds. Humans are not always bad for birds, only about 95% of the time.

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Birds Science Humane Species 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

This is the second part of a post showing some birds seen at Nonggang in December 2022, along with the usual (mostly irrelevant) comments. The poor bird’s Latin species name is macgrigoriae , apparently (HBW) named after Jane Grant McGrigor, the daughter of Maj. This included recording a total of 77,760 minutes of video.

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China Birds Pythons Eagles 220

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2024

The chapter titles of Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds represent both ends of the spectrum: “A World Full of Poisons,” “Malaria,” “Forest Intruders,” “Lead Shock,” “Shot.” Conservation. It’s not easy.

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California Condor Falcons California Birds 171

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? Maybe the birds I saw were not real. You can see why here.

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Birds Sri Lanka Taiwan Cats 205

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2023

In June 2023, I again went to Balangshan, a mountain about 3 hour’s drive from Sichuan’s capital Chengdu – and again with Alpinebirding , fortunately no longer for them to partly deal with confusing covid restrictions but only to help me find birds that I am too incompetent a birder to find on my own. ” Full iteration!

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Birds China Science Research 130

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2023

Fortunately, there are a few more such breeding species than most Shanghainese are aware of. While the HBW states that it breeds at 300 – 2450 meters, in Shanghai – where such elevations are not available outside of the upper floors of a few highrises – it makes to with an altitude of about 0 meters as well.

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10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2021

While Mike and Corey – fitting for being real celebrities in birding cycles – get invited to far-flung places such as Uganda, minor local birders sometimes at least get invited to places nearby. The birding life. But now back to birds … Little Ringed Plovers also seem to like to breed directly on the road.

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Birds Uganda Breeding Rats 207

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.

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China 2017 Birds Indonesia 177

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 27, 2022

When you think of the best birding in the south of Asia, it is Malaysia that comes to mind, although you are likely not to even think of the country as such: you are dreaming of the (Malaysian) province of Sabah, in the north of the island of Borneo. And yet, it easily fits the largest pocket of my reporter’s vest.

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Malaysia Singapore Asia Birds 232

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

I truly do hope I am not tiring 10,000 Birds’ readers too much with my obsession with Michoacán’s ongoing drought, the disappearance of Lake Cuitzeo (Mexico’s 2nd largest lake, in normal years), and our own micro-endemic Black-polled Yellowthroat. But obsessed I am. Had I thrown a rock, I would undoubtedly have hit one.

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Mexico Investigation Science Experience 208

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

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Empire Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) are the largest living penguin species, almost four feet tall (taller when they stretch), and the least likely to be seen on birding or nature trips. I was surprised to find out that the Penguins studied by Kooyman at the Ross Sea have no need to do a march since they breed so close to the water.)

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Penguins Seals Leopards Research 152

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.

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Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 220

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.

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Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 199

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2023

A rather small black bird moved about, making short hops to and fro until finally it stopped for a couple of seconds, lowering its head to the side watching us inquisitively. That’s how it is with most smaller Amazonian birds. The post The Cocha Antshrike first appeared on 10,000 Birds. Finally the species was complete.

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Solomon Islands Ecuador Colombia Brazil 209

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2024

a handful of times, only to realize how important it is to have a resource that will help birders differentiate amongst these very similar looking birds. Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a seven-page bird, partly because the account includes a vagrancy chart (another new feature). Introductory Material Sixteen species, 190 pages.

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Los Angeles North America Species America 171

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2023

Flight Paths is a splendid but risky title for a book about bird migration. It could easily be mistaken for a book about aviation or space navigation or even a flight simulator game if you don’t read the long, adjective-filled subtitle: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration.

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Science Illinois Investigation Research 182

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2022

Some more photos of Australian birds mixed with irrelevant facts and mediocre half-jokes, as a way to pass away the time while being under lockdown in Shanghai (note: it is over now but this post was written during the lockdown). It must be a bit frustrating for a flower to be less colorful than the bird visiting it though.

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Australia Birds Feral Cats Kangaroos 189

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

In retrospect, this weekend at Wuyuan was not exactly my finest hour as a bird photographer – hopefully, I could do better now, and perhaps one day I will, should normal traveling ever be possible again in China. I’d rather see yellow birds than yellow plants. Such a cute bird deserves a better representation.

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China Birds Breeders Zoos 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

Not professionally – these people come in SUVs and probably never recapture their gas money from the fish they catch (though come to think of it, neither do I with my bird photos). This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). One strange thing about Chongming is the inevitable presence of people fishing. End of side note.

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Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2023

I recently asked ChatGPT some questions about the best birding locations in the United States and the results were decidedly mixed. Here are the queries and the ChatGPT responses are below: What is birding? What is a “nemesis bird” in birding? What is a “big year” in birding?

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United States North America Birds America 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2022

According to Tim Low (in “Where Song began”), “so easy were they to breed that by 1859 they cost less to buy in London than in Sydney.” ” Funny how the difficulty of breeding a species can be illustrated in simple monetary terms. We even had some chicks – not that this was a big achievement.

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Birds Australia Sheep Zebras 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

Another paper on Taiwanese birds found that “the urban Crested Goshawk bred 34 days earlier on average than the rural population with significantly higher nesting success”, concluding that “the urban Crested Goshawk population benefits from high food supply and low predation risk.”

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Birds China Eggs Breeding 147

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?

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Birds Iraq China Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2022

I usually do not write much about traveling to and from birding places but my friend and I arrived in Malelane in the afternoon. Fortunately, we were there for the birds, not for the room. The Lilac-breasted Roller is the national bird of Kenya, but of course, this does not help it pay its bills in South Africa.

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Swaziland Landlord Birds Sweden 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. …because cooperative breeding facilitates defense against brood parasites.

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Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 196

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

Well, they mainly feed on birds, which may explain their low popularity. For the White-throated Rock Thrush , Wikipedia gives the slightly puzzling statement “The bird’s population is unknown, but is not increasing or declining.” Even if they look as charming as this Northern Boobook. Unfortunately, it is true though.

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Birds China Eggs Owls 192

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

(Boring bureaucratic note to dissuade casual readers: This post covers birds seen in Shanghai in January 2023, except for those seen at Tianmashan – these are shown in a separate post. End of note) Probably the most interesting bird in Shanghai this month was a Barred Cuckoo-Dove choosing a small downtown park to feed on berries.

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Birds Geese Fish Industry 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Sometimes I feel a bit like this about winter birding on Shanghai’s Tianmashan hill. The call of this bulbul seems quite similar to that of the Collared Finchbill to me, though given that I grew up listening to alternative and independent music rather than to bird song, this is not a very meaningful observation.

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Birds China Killing Reptiles 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2021

The latter is possible, as the undisturbed areas of Nanhui keep shrinking, leaving less and less space for birds. Bramblings at Nanhui enjoy staring vacantly into space … … and accusing bird watchers of not paying enough attention to them. Somehow, for this bird it is ok. They are just too attractive.

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Birds Humane Japan Ducks 226

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2022

I came back from a Monday birding trip and told my wife, prior to reviewing my photos, that I saw a bird that was either 1) interesting, or 2) historic. And the bird in question even allowed me some great photos! So yes, this appears to be a breeding population.]. I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now.

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Mexico 2018 Ducks Breeding 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2022

It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. It goes like this: While fishing, the bird tucks its head down and uses its wings to create a shady area. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

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South Africa Africa Birds Research 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2023

I asked my Tibetan bird guide, Philip from Alpinebirding, whether the Grandala has any specific symbolic meaning or associated mythology in Tibetan culture – surprisingly, it does not. Unlike me but like most Chinese, this is a very social bird – gregarious being the slightly more high-brow term used by the HBW.

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Science Breeding Species Research 119

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Take birds. With climate change appearing to expand the skeeters’ range, according to recent research in Science Advances , the birds have fewer safe places to hide. With climate change appearing to expand the skeeters’ range, according to recent research in Science Advances , the birds have fewer safe places to hide.

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