10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2024

Given that according to the HBW, the species prefers dense primary and secondary montane forests, the note that the bird also forages among kitchen waste (in the same HBW entry) seems somewhat incongruous. George Rippon (1861-1927), a member of the British Army in India and Burma.

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Burma India Birds Indonesia 214

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SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

While these birds are very much liked by Chinese birders, the species could unfortunately not be named the National Bird of China as the Latin species name of the bird is Grus Japonicus. it would not be the national bird of the USA either. Incompetent photographers can always blame the bird.

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Birds Eggs Bald Eagle Owls 216

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

The main attraction for birders here are the hornbills – I have written about them before , so this post will be more on the other birds I saw there in 2017. Anyway, it is a very cute-looking bird if you are big enough not to be among its prey of (mostly) insects. I have written about the hornbills of this area before.

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Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Chinese Penduline T**s are not particularly woke birds. White’s Thrush is described as “burly” on eBird – not entirely unjustified, I guess, but this description fails to capture the way the intricate patterns of the bird make for great camouflage and also for its own kind of beauty. Maybe the grandparents help.

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Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 212

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

While I am still not so sure about China’s sense of humor – though admittedly, the issue is mostly a mismatch between what I think is funny and what the average Chinese thinks is funny, an issue that I have had in other countries as well – the country sure has its fair share of Laughingthrushes. This post shows some of them.

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San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 219

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2023

Their migration is quite fast compared to many other larger birds – in one study , several birds flew 4000 km within 5–7 days while one individual even flew 5600 km non-stop. That includes breeding birds, as indicated by the presence of some rather cute chicks ( video ). Also as video. Bye, bye, Lesser Coucal.

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Birds Eggs Breeders Breeding 130

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 200

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

With the lockdown lasting until the end of May (ironically thus pretty much including the whole spring migration – the divine sense of humor is a rather malign one, I am afraid), June still had the freedom of birding anywhere in Shanghai, not just inside a smallish compound. Accessorizing for birds.

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Singapore Birds Mountain Goats Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2014

Big news about a small bird broke earlier this month when bird researchers from several nations announced that the species formerly known as Spotted Wren-Babbler ( Spelaeornis formosus ) — a tiny, secretive bird of montane forests from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China — is not a Spelaeornis wren-babbler at all.

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Family Comoros Asia Birds 271

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. Sir James McGrigor (1771-1858) Director Gen.

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China Birds Pythons Eagles 242

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

APRIL 13, 2016

That’s what a group of researchers suggest in a paper recently published in Behavioral Ecology. The scientists, who studied bird populations in Europe and China , speculate that urban areas may have some appeal for passerines that rural areas otherwise lack. Smaller birds are much more likely to tolerate a human presence.

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China Europe Research Falcons 101

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 Species 147

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. The Bar-backed Partridge is a species of partridge found in southwestern China and Southeast Asia.

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China Hunting Birds illegal 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2021

And it is a great place for birding. In fact, indeed one or two of the Japanese-language bird books I own have this species on their cover. Somewhat predictably, the female rarely makes it on the cover of bird books. Siberian Rubythroat (Nanhui, Shanghai, China). This is the second part. What do you think?

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China Birds Species Raised 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2014

There are a variety of websites to the north of Broome where people can upload their photographs of individually marked birds as they make a stopover on their journey. Some of the migratory shorebirds will make a stopover in the Mai Po Nature Reserve and the Deep Bay area of Hong Kong, China. Another useful website in China is here.

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Belarus Cameroon Taiwan China 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2013

Years ago it was pointed out by somebody, probably Tinbergen or Lack or Wynn-Edwards or one of the other great bird-savvy ethologists of the day, that young Pelicans would blackmail their parents by biting their own wings, a very self defeating activity for a bird with a huge and powerful beak.

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South Africa Fowl Africa China 187

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2015

The pygmy wren-babbler is a tiny babbler that looks like a wren, making it a bird well named. Seriously, it is much nicer to blog about a brown bird with a descriptive name than some other bird whose common name references an ancient ornithologist none of us have ever met. Very, at 7.5 to 9 cm (around 3 inches).

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Vietnam Timor Myanmar Asia 161

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 193

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 10, 2015

In the Old World, Horned (Slavonian) Grebe breeds in a wide belt stretching from Scandinavia to Kamchatka and it spends winters along sea coasts, from Japan to China and from Norway to France, plus the Adriatic and the Black Sea (west and east of the Balkans, respectively). Here is one example. But I said I’ve dipped it? Photos (2) by S.

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Serbia Norway France Japan 176

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2014

The majority of the individually marked birds in Broome are birds that have been marked locally with either a plain yellow flag, an engraved yellow flag or colour bands and a flag. There are many site faithful birds, but also shorebirds that pass through the area before they head off to the north again.

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Japan 2012 2013 China 173

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

It is listed as Vulnerable, as its range is rather restricted, though it has been found outside of China as well, e.g., in Vietnam, though the HBW does not seem to have read that paper yet. Some ornithologists are so desperate to add papers to their resumes that they write about new records of Black-crested Bulbul subspecies within China.

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China Vietnam Birds Monkeys 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2018

As you know, I started to bird from a canoe, exploring the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia. When inundated, in spring, it is exciting to paddle through the trees, yet birds that often forage on the ground will be pushed away. Perhaps the best example of such habitats may be the Central Beljarica floodplain hotspot.

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Beavers Serbia Eagles Hungary 127

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

His second book on migration is a tale of many birds and many research studies all connected by the theme of migration and by his thoughtful narrative voice. His second book on migration is a tale of many birds and many research studies all connected by the theme of migration and by his thoughtful narrative voice.

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Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 259

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

OCTOBER 18, 2021

However, this is not what this post is about (though you could do worse than to search for the Larson cartoon “Stupid birds” online). Instead, I want to talk about those bird species that look like being drawn by a talented cartoonist even when in fact it is just me having taken a photograph. They were made by Wang Jing.

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Birds China Penguins Asia 245

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Most of the books about extinction, including Fuller’s Extinct Birds (now, ironically, out of print), describe what was lost and look for explanations, scientifically and historically. The idea of Lost Animals was conceived after the publication of Extinct Birds (2001), a 400-page, four-pound book on 75 extinct species.

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Animal Mammals Hawaii Dolphins 270

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

MARCH 6, 2023

The last time I birded Longcanggou, a national forest park in China’s Sichuan province, was in November 2021. Now, 14 months later, the place has changed – unfortunately, for the worse, at least as birding is concerned. Shame on the researchers. But haven’t we all done these things?

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Eggs China Birds Mammals 175

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2022

Strangely, one of the easiest birds to see on Chongming recently is the non-native Black Swan. ” This should make the bird somewhat unpopular with the socially rather conservative Chinese government – maybe the birds in China do not show this behavior in order to adapt to local customs? Homophobia?

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Birds China Pythons Breeding 222

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2023

As you probably are aware, male Lady Amherst’s Pheasants regularly get into fights with other birds. The typical scene is something like this: the pheasant enters a bird bar and orders a beer. Some other bird in the bar asks for its name, and it gives an honest answer: Lady Amherst’s Pheasant. Judge for yourself.

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China Research India Zoos 245

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 209

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

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 252

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2022

In Europe, most of them winter south of the Sahara but an increasing share winters north of it – which sounds like an interesting research topic for people who, ahem, find such topics interesting. It is rumored that one of the researchers later became a software developer.

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Cattle Portugal Buffalo Humane 147

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?

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Falcons Japan China South Africa 253

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2021

So, once you have paid the 10 RMB entrance fee, showed your green health code on your mobile phone, given your phone number and showed your passport at the entrance (after all, this is China during Covid-19), what is there to see in February? So, the birds on Tianmashan may well be the descendants of captive birds. A woodpecker!

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China Hawaii Asia Hunting 166