10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 234

Dissection Birds Research Europe 234

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

Nick Sly, a friend of 10,000 Birds who writes intermittently at the thoroughly-recommended Biological Ramblings , is an ornithologist who graduated not so long ago from Cornell only to be cast out into the real world where he keeps a wry eye on all things biological! The youngest bird in this clutch is only two or three days old.

Eggs 269

Eggs Venezuela Porcupines 2008 269

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. However, the lockdown forces me to go deeper and deeper into my photo collection, if I want to write anything at all. I guess it is a bird though. Admittedly, it is mostly grey.

Australia 198

Australia Birds Koalas Parrots 198

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2024

From the border check station, you can turn to the right and go to the “Highest Bar in Africa” or continue into the unknown. Birding was tougher. There are no trees throughout the landscape, so it is either looking up for birds passing overhead or stomping through the scrub to flush hiding birds.

Lesotho 235

Lesotho Sheep South Africa Africa 235

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 17, 2022

According to a local African superstition that I just made up, it is not harmful to eat toxically colored birds if you eat them in the dark. Colonial history reflected in bird names. Unfortunately, the Fork-tailed Drongo is not the honest and god-fearing bird one could wish for. She also laid eggs in Melba Finch nests.

South Africa 197

South Africa Africa Birds Cape Verde 197

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.

North America 279

North America America Birds California Condor 279

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2020

The proprietor of our ecolodge guides my small group of birders up a steep slope where we see, just at the point where a scope view deteriorates into pixels, a huge bird—a Chaco Eagle, also known as a Crowned Eagle—on a huge nest. McWilliam realizes he’s dealing someone special, a career falcon egg-thief. Author Joshua Hammer.

Falcons 224

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 224

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2022

The Eurasian Wryneck is the woodpecker that doesn’t look like a woodpecker, the bird with the portmanteau name that is also a medical condition (and which may remind some people of a Nora Ephron essay). They are slim and small-headed birds and their bills are fine, not strong and dynamic. copyright © 2022 Gerard Gorman.

Woodpeckers 247

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand 2014 247

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 25, 2022

With the end of the year approaching you could consider where you would like to go birding in Australia in 2023. As you well know we are a huge continent with many outlying islands and a huge variety of bird-life. Wherever you dare to go in Australia you won’t be disappointed by the birds that you encounter.

Australia 147

Australia Singapore Birds Battery 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2022

I can’t resist loving my first week of birding each year. Just today (Saturday) I got to celebrate a Cooper’s Hawk, Berylline Hummingbird, and Lesser Goldfinch — common birds all, but still great when they are FOY. We had a nice collection of birds of prey for the day. Was it practicing?

Falcons 194

Falcons Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 194

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Producing a book about birds and nesting is a dangerous business. The truth is that there are few images cuter than baby birds in the nest opening their mouths and begging for food, but there are curmudgeons amongst us, myself included, who don’t like to admit this. And of birds courting and mating. We simply refuse to squee.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2015

Egg harvesting to sell as food was intensive then, with thousands taken annually from the breeding colonies in Chile. Egg collection for local consumption still continues at lower scale. Andean Flamingoes and Chilean Flamingo (far right) (Photo: Ron Knight – Flickr). Photo: Marcio Cabral de Mora – Flickr).

Chile 155

Chile Endangered Species Eggs Argentina 155

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

– Birds are indeed dinosaurs, yet, are indubitably not. Knowledge is knowing that a bird is a dinosaur. Therefore, humans are fish with feet, right? That strategy determined the fact that all mammals would have the risk of somatic mutations that accumulate over time affecting their eggs. Think about it.

Monkeys 144

Monkeys Gorillas Whales Whaling 144

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

The lack of people does not mean we have any less extinct or threatened bird species than other countries. Even the first explorers to Australia documented there was a risk of extinction of birds and animals into the future and subsequently decided to collect as many specimens as possible! Preface,p.xxiv.

Species 176

Species Australia Birds Parrots 176

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2017

Are there birders out there who do not dream of birding Australia? Possibly birders who have already birded Australia (but, wouldn’t you want to go back?) or birders who live there (but, how can you bird it all?). So, I welcomed the opportunity to review The Australian Bird Guide.

Australia 109

Australia Birds Penguins 2015 109

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Acrocephalus palustris is the old world Marsh Warbler, and is one of the birds in the Chernobyl area. Alternatively, imagine I set the dial to produce simple heat, like the kind that comes out of your stove to cook your scrambled eggs. A recent study, Chernobyl Birds Have Smaller Brains , looks at this in birds at Chernobyl.

Mammals 244

Mammals Birds Fish Cooking 244

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

With populations plunging dramatically over the last decade, researchers from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Birds Russia, and a number of other conservation organizations made the always-controversial call to pluck eggs from the imperiled wild population and establish a captive breeding program as a final hedge against extinction.

Eggs 163

Eggs Russia Research Breeding 163

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2016

His love for birds and photography started at a young age. After collecting nearly 70K bird photos, he felt that it was time to share them, so he now has his bird blog in order to do just that! Once the nest was done, she began sitting on it, preparing to lay her eggs. Mom on nest.

San Diego 180

San Diego Seattle Eggs California 180

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2011

I often find myself searching my memory as far back as I can go for the spark that started me birding. I go further back into the origins of my interest in birds, how I knew that a Kingfisher was a Kingfisher even though I hadn’t picked up a bird book for many years. Perhaps my earliest bird memories.

Birds 154

Birds Blackbirds Eggs Collecting 154

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2018

The idea behind is simple, some birds may move and if counted within a week or a month, double counting is almost guaranteed. Mechanisation (ploughing and harvesting in particular), chemical fertilisers and pesticides, fire and predation all contribute to high mortality of eggs, chicks, juveniles and incubating females. Snowing rain?

Hungary 157

Hungary Serbia Austria Eggs 157

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2013

Especially happily that the meeting was held at the Palmer House Hilton, right near my office, so that I was able to spend my morning volunteering and still put in a full day at work.). Other hardy souls signed up for an early morning “Ostrich Run” 5k, with the prizes beinging–you guessed it–actual ostrich eggs.

San Diego 182

San Diego Ostriches Chicago Colorado 182

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2012

After 28 days of sharing the duty of sitting on three eggs we finally had the arrival of our first Pied Oystercatcher chicks for 2012 on Friday August 3rd. It is unusual for three eggs to be laid here in Broome and many eggs do not even hatch due to predation each season.

Eggs 177

Eggs Dogs Shelters Family 177

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2012

He’d like to thank his mom, his agent, and of course the Birding Academy. This bred both indifference, and on the flip side a tendency to overly pester the few charismatic birds they did come in contact with. ” This weekend, remember a bird you love.

Montana 166

Montana Geese Blackbirds Canada 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2011

I was looking out a car window the other day and noticed that of all the wildlife most of it was bird. A squirrel skittered by … a squirrel is not a bird. So the thought occurred to me that there is a lot of bird on the landscape, in terms of numbers of individuals as well as sheer biomass. Paul islands, studied by Darwin.

Mammals 179

Mammals Rodents Birds Reptiles 179

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

There were three profound questions my birding group discussed while we birded Trinidad and Tobago, back in December 2012: (1) How many Bananaquits could fit on a banana? (2) 3) What was the best guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago? The bird guide question was a conundrum.

Trinidad 205

Trinidad Birds South America Research 205

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2013

Peripatetic ornithologist Nick Sly has long been a friend of the blog here and has contributed such classics as Green-rumped Parrotlets from Egg to Adult and Forpus passerinus and the Ornithologists of Masaguaral. Would you support research on birds with just a click on Facebook? To win, we need your votes! Thanks for your support!

Panama 220

Panama Research Investigation Chickens 220

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

I spent the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the usual post-hurricane activities—looking for storm birds, making sure my loved ones were o.k., trying to grasp the enormity of what had just happened, and reading this book, The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds by Daniel Lewis. And, draw birds.

Collecting 153

Collecting Illinois United States Science 153

10,000 Birds

MAY 29, 2011

Most of the breeding birds returning here will arrive within the next 10 days to two weeks. Right now it is almost all male birds, staking out territories, filling the tundra with song. Breeding is well underway and everywhere you look the Glaucous Gulls are, ahem, engaged or collecting grasses and sedges for nests.

Bald Eagle 126

Bald Eagle Iceland Owls North America 126

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2012

We now interrupt all talk about birds and migration to consider dragonflies. Together they comprise Ondonata, an order of insects that, like birds, are beautiful in flight and challenging in identification. Unlike birds, they do not vocalize; unlike butterflies, they are totally predatory, not a vegetarian amongst them.

United States 241

United States Costa Rica Massachusetts North America 241

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2014

I enjoy collecting children’s books about birds and nature that I come across in the expected (book stores) and unexpected (academic library conference reports) places. The Taínos named the birds Iguacas, after their call. Spanish settlers arrived in 1493 and called the birds Coterras. The birds thrive.

Puerto Rico 241

Puerto Rico Parrots New York City 2013 241

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2013

We can bird all over the world, and although we are not guaranteed a field guide to every single region and country in the world, there are a whole lot more of them than in the mid-1970’s, when world birders like Phoebe Snetsinger often had to put together their own checklists and guides. I couldn’t wait to give names to all my new species.

Ireland 180

Ireland France Breeding Eggs 180

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2015

Well, a New Year has arrived and of course that means a new list for birds! It makes you aware of how a “common bird” can elude you for days or weeks! The adult Pied Oystercatchers were still at their non-breeding site at Gantheaume Point and will no doubt lay their first eggs for 2015 in the first week of July.

2015 191

2015 2014 Ducks Ponies 191

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2011

This involves the sighting of these birds both here and overseas resulting in some incredible life stories. She hopes to spread the word about the dangers the shorebirds face as they migrate north each year and the changing bird seasons experienced throughout the year. Get yours today! Renato-yes…plenty of diversity here!

Australia 153

Australia 2011 Sharks Deer 153

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Weavers are truly magical birds, combining bright plumages with ingenious weaving talents and cheerful, noisy social lives. This blogpost will introduce you to the various genera of birds that are considered to be weavers. Image taken by Markus Lilje/Rockjumper Birding Tours in Cameroon. Image taken by Adam Riley in Ghana.

Tanzania 232

Tanzania Buffalo Kenya Namibia 232

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, experts have determined that the current rate of bird extinction is somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 times the background rate. Globally, 1,313 bird species of a total of count of 10,064 are threatened, a frightening 13% of the total.

Endangered Species 200

Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 200

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Larger, denser with avian information than your typical field guide, a Crossley Guide bursts with bird images, photographic plates that verge on the surreal of birds in all plumages and poses against real-life habitats, informing, sometimes overwhelming us with visual and, if you can take your eyes off the images, textual information.

Ducks 124

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 124