10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2022

It was a cold afternoon in Maine, and I was looking at the Steller’s Sea-Eagle perched on a tall coniferous tree across Boothbay Harbor, having arrived at the harbor area seven minutes earlier (I know! Thank you, goddess of birding luck and text group people).* “How did that bird get here?” It has wings.

Birds 263

Birds Compassion Eagles Science 263

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2020

Avoid windy days – the birds will be looking for cover. Since no-one lives here, there is no organised rubbish collecting. Birds of prey include European Honey-buzzard , Long-legged Buzzard , Short-toed Eagle , Booted Eagle , Montagu’s Harrier , etc. The reserve authorities do not seem to care about it.

Mali 264

Mali Serbia Eagles Birds 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

While New Zealand is famous for its endemic oddities, once upon a time New Zealand also had many birds from groups and families that are no longer found here. And eagles. New Zealand had eagles. This massive eagle, with a wingspan on up to 2.6 metres, was the largest eagle to grace the world, alive or dead.

Eagles 102

Eagles New Zealand Bald Eagle Collecting 102

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2019

There are a lot of birds in Washington, DC. Oh sure, you can go to Rock Creek Park or the Tidal Basin to seek out living avian species, or visitors can head to the Smithsonian museums for a dose of past and present bird lore from all over the world. In early June, I took note of each museum bird I spotted. An original John J.

DC 164

DC Washington Bald Eagle Ostriches 164

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.

California Condor 190

California Condor Falcons California Birds 190

Critter News

MARCH 19, 2012

A federal government decision to allow a Wyoming tribe to kill two bald eagles for a religious ceremony is a victory for American Indian sovereignty as well as for long-suppressed religious freedoms, the tribe says. The Northern Arapaho decline to say specifically what they will do with the eagles the federal permit allows them to kill.

Eagles 100

Eagles Bald Eagle Killing Wyoming 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2017

As far back as the late ’70s he’s been entertaining and enlightening birders with his essays and books on the hows and why of birding. The latest from his pen is Birds of Prey , a hybrid between an identification guide and an essay collection, a book of lore that provides a comprehensive overview of the raptors of North America.

North America 103

North America Falcons America Eagles 103

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2017

If there’s one common theme to this week’s bird news items, it’s their collective bizarreness: The eagle has landed—on the drone, as France trains birds to take out drones that stray into restricted airspace. Scientists ponder the feasibility of genetically engineering chickens to lay the eggs of endangered bird species.

Penguins 100

Penguins Argentina France Stray 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2017

There should be thousands of birds at this time of the year, Dimitris Michalakis from the Karla Lake management authority told me. In the northern section, the water was deep, interspersed by reed-islets, but the only birds were a few Little Egrets and Black-headed Gulls. Lesser Kestrel. These two were only the first of several I saw.

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Greece Killing Pelicans Eagles 198

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2018

I hope everyone participated in at least one day of the four day Great Backyard Bird Count of 2018. As I walked out on my back porch on Friday morning, the first day of the count, it was a cool, clear day and the birds were very active at the feeders. Fun birding! Here is a male Lesser Goldfinch taking his turn.

2018 100

2018 Bald Eagle Woodpeckers Turkey 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Don’t you hate it when you cannot communicate while birding overseas? Having mobility issues, I still remember birding from a van along a rather productive dirt road in Costa Rica ( Broad-billed Motmot , Lineated Woodpecker , Cocoa Woodcreeper , etc.), The post Foreign Languages on a Birding Trip appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

Bears 148

Bears San Jose Greece Costa Rica 148

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It took me a while to wrap my mind around the concept of Birds and People , Mark Cocker and David Tipling’s book that, in 592 pages, explores the intersection of just that—birds and us. Nor have I overlooked “sightings” of birds in movies mouthing other birds’ calls. I’m not sure why.

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Birds Egypt Family Eagles 224

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2022

And here is a photo from that birding trip, at Tualatin River NWR near Portland, Oregon. Also, I’ve been teaching myself web development so RainCrow was a practical way to practice skills and concepts I was learning while also making something useful for myself and the birding community.

Research 290

Research Wyoming Portland Oregon 290

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2012

There are plenty of stories about all the awful things that happen to birds, like getting covered in oil or smuggled n some dude’s underpants into another country, and about the things we should be doing about it. But what about the things that the birds are doing about it. Which led me to wonder, just how dangerous are birds?

New Zealand 174

New Zealand Birds Goats Gorillas 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Audubon guides to birds have been around since 1946. The first guide bearing the National Audubon Society imprint was Audubon Bird Guide; Eastern Land Birds , written by Richard Hooper Pough, and illustrated by Don Eckelberry. Plate 28 from Audubon Bird Guide, Eastern Land Birds, by Richard H. Knopf, 1994/97.

North America 279

North America America Birds California Condor 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2021

Another October Big Day has come and gone and thus made its way into the sacred birding archives. Similar to 2020, more than 32,000 people participated, 78,000 checklists were submitted, and more than 7,200 bird species were identified. Nothing like getting as many people to bird at the same time as possible and see what they find!

Costa Rica 262

Costa Rica Species 2020 Falcons 262

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2013

Some of those mysterious creatures were birds. The most obvious place that cryptozoology and ornithology overlap is in the area of Lazarus taxa and would-be Lazarus taxa — the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Eskimo Curlew, Pink-headed Duck , and the like — birds that no one doubts existed once, whether or not they exist today.

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Apes Birds Woodpeckers Primates 161

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2019

But when both birds approached an eagle, it attacked: the hawk was able to evade the eagle, but not so the crow, which was killed instantly. The story is part of a chapter on “Birds Attacking Predators,” one of an hundred chapters in Birder’s Break, each two or three pages long. and the Buffalo native Fred Szatkowki.

Buffalo 100

Buffalo 2018 Eagles Sanctuary 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Do you wish you could tell an eagle from a hawk? Like Sibley’s Backyard Birds poster Sibley’s Raptors of North America measures two feet by three feet and will be a welcome addition to the collection of anyone who likes birds. But don’t take my word for it – check it out yourself! … a.

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North America America United States Eagles 240

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2013

We’re passing the Dasada village where shop owners and artisans are opening their doors, collecting rubbish in the street and burning it, while standing around those small fires and warming themselves up. Rao Travel, and the post-conference bird tour by Arpit Deomurari. and another thermophile species, the Long-legged Buzzard.

India 235

India Birds Eagles Boars 235

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2011

Birds evacuate waste in many ways. Birds will barf them back up out of their mouths. Many are familiar with dissecting owl pellets, but several birds will caste a pellet including hawks, eagles, gulls, herons and heck, I once witnessed a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher hack up a small one. They’ve got it coming and going!

Bats 214

Bats Dissection Owls Minnesota 214

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2012

The water this Northern Pintail is in has human poo in it, which completely ruins the experience of seeing this bird. The majority of diehard birders do not care where they get their birds. There is a caste of birders, however, that do not subscribe to this way of birding…no. Oh wait, it doesn’t. Portland, Oregon.

San Francisco 221

San Francisco Birds North Dakota Oakland 221

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2013

This week, a new study was published about Sparrows in Nebraska, that in some ways resembles the study by Bumpus and may well be a better example of Natural Selection in birds. House Sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) are introduced birds over most of their very large range. As you know, a lot of birds are killed in the U.S.

Killing 204

Killing South Africa Nebraska Collecting 204

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Its great diversity of habitats hosts an incredible bird count of over 900 species, including Africa’s 2nd highest list of endemics and near-endemics (after South Africa).

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Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 249

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

But, sometimes an appreciation of birds and birding requires more than a reference book with images of birds and facts about their identifying field marks. There are large avian handbooks and small ‘how-to bird’ guides, and quite a few excellent books of both types have been published.

Birds 115

Birds North America Breeding America 115

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2015

While February offers some good birding (wintering waterbirds, gulls), it is a kind of an anticlimax after the intensive and hectic schedule of the January IWC counts – the International Waterbird Census, that is. Yet birding is slim, songbirds, such as the first Northern Wheatears , haven’t arrived yet. It is similar with eBirding.

Serbia 223

Serbia ALA Protection Collecting 223

10,000 Birds

MAY 26, 2015

Timothy Barksdale is a birder/biologist turned filmmaker , passionately pursuing birds with a television camera for the last 24 years. His work is the foundation of the Macaulay Library video collection. Tim’s involvement with birds began very early and has led him to his passion for conservation through television. “No

South Dakota 266

South Dakota Nebraska Missouri Killing 266

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2014

There were opportunities to go to far flung places like the islands of the Pacific or the coast of Canada or the Yorkshire Dales… Anyway, as I was obsessed by Africa at the time, I leapt at the opportunity to go to Namibia to collect samples of bat DNA for a biogeography project. And the guano from a million Wrinkle-lipped Bats.

Bats 155

Bats Birds Vanuatu Namibia 155

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2013

The Spring Wings Festival , held this past weekend, was the perfect way for a birding-festival newbie like me to get into the swing of things. Its small size, laid-back nature, and ample opportunities to get up close and personal with birds make it a good fit for experienced birders, but also for people looking to get their feet wet.

Nevada 182

Nevada Birds Barn Owls Cows 182

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2012

There are probably more identification guides about raptors than there are for any other bird group. Third, Hawks in Flight was primarily illustrated by David Sibley’s excellent black-and-white drawings, supplemented with a collection of black-and-white photographs in the back of the book. Yes, I saw the bird and it was incredible.)

North America 234

North America Bald Eagle Birds Eagles 234

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

Owls and eagles and ducks and hummingbirds and parrots and woodpeckers are all things that a regular nonbirding joe or jane can, with time and a few color photographs, see the appeal of. Aesthetic charm is probably a big part of making a bird interesting to outsiders, and unfortunately most gulls fall fairly short in both form and voice.

Seals 231

Seals Lifestyle Turtles Parrots 231

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2018

As you know, I started to bird from a canoe, exploring the Danube backwaters in Belgrade, Serbia. It is a fascinating world of swampy forests of willow and poplar, inhabited by Black Storks , White-tailed Eagles , Eastern Olivaceous and Icterine Warblers (above), among more than 200 other species.

Beavers 127

Beavers Serbia Eagles Hungary 127

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2016

British birders are very serious about birding and their birds. This is a very good thing; it means they publish a lot of books about birds (probably more at this point than U.S. This is a very good thing; it means they publish a lot of books about birds (probably more at this point than U.S.

Ireland 150

Ireland Birds Groups Falcons 150

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2017

If you are a birder and can’t help but put most or all of your results into eBird , then you are no doubt birding somewhere today, May 13th. In South America, some countries have organized their birding ranks to try and catch the coveted top spot for bird species identified on Global Big Day.

Costa Rica 124

Costa Rica Colombia Owls South America 124

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

“ There is, perhaps, no better place in the world for birds than this country. Despite discovering dozens of bird species, he is however not remembered in any English names of birds. Wahlberg travelled even more extensively and amassed a huge bird collection. Image by Hugh Chittenden. Image by Adam Riley.

Mozambique 195

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 195

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2011

Be warned, The Atlas of Birds is not a map book, though it does contain maps, lovely orange and purple and green bird distribution maps. It is not an encyclopedia, though it does summarize research, explain basic concepts, and ends with a section on bird statistics. Intriguing, isn’t it?

Albatross 205

Albatross Birds Campaign Protection 205

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2013

Not because you generally see many birds while diving, although the experience of seeing shearwaters flying underwater while cage diving, as I once did, was one I think most birders would enjoy. Diving has taken me to places like Belize, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Egypt, places that coincidentally are fun to bird. Nudibranch.

New Zealand 162

New Zealand Goats Vanuatu Fiji 162