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. And that seems to be the only vaguely satisfying thing left to do at the moment.

Australia 192

Australia Birds Koalas Parrots 192

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 226

Dissection Birds Research Europe 226

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

FEBRUARY 25, 2024

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. Rock Hyrax Stuart provided a wonderful field lunch alongside a stream with samosas, a field-standard hard-boiled egg, and other snacks.

Lesotho 230

Lesotho Sheep South Africa Africa 230

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 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. This is the most intense, tragic section.

California Condor 183

California Condor Falcons California Birds 183

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2022

At some point, my stock of memories of birds seen outside of China will be used up, I am afraid. It is a relatively small hornbill, and not very shy – some photos below were taken on the campgrounds of Kruger Park, which more or less seem to be the species’ natural habitat by now. I’ll always have Paris”, I guess.

South Africa 214

South Africa Africa China Seals 214

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

One good thing about birding during a pandemic–the forced restrictions on place and time translate into more time to observe what birds do. Bird behavior–endlessly fascinating, but so much still hidden and unknown. Extreme behaviors also push scientists to look at birds in new ways.

Research 230

Research Birds Science Costa Rica 230

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

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

AUGUST 11, 2019

On Sunday morning, I was just lazily working on another post for 10,000 Birds – the (probably not much anticipated) part two of the most common birds in Shanghai. The birds had been blown in by typhoon Lekima along with a larger number of Greater Crested Tern, with which they like to associate.

2000 129

2000 Eggs Collecting Breeding 129

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. The Andean Flamingo is now protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Photo: Marcio Cabral de Mora – Flickr).

Chile 154

Chile Endangered Species Eggs Argentina 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

As of 27 August 2013 the California Bird Records Committee has voted to add the introduced Nutmeg Mannikin to the state checklist. Or, as Seagull Steve puts it : The dreaded Nutmeg Mannikin has been added to California’s official state list by the California Bird Records Committee (aka Bird Police).

California 201

California Los Angeles 2013 Eggs 201

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 21, 2015

Isla Rasa was declared a sanctuary in 1964, and egg-collecting and disturbance during the breeding season are discouraged. With the breeding colony concentrated on one small island this species is vulnerable to a catastrophic weather event. These factors have caused the IUCN to rate this bird as “Near Threatened” 2.

San Francisco 159

San Francisco North America Seals Sanctuary 159

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

A breeding bird atlas is a special kind of book. For birders, it’s the extremely large book, shelved in a place where it can’t crush the field guides, used to research the history of a bird in their area. It included surveys of nocturnal and marsh birds, and a point count survey of songbirds.

Pennsylvania 233

Pennsylvania Breeding Birds Sparrows 233

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 199

Trinidad Birds South America Research 199

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2019

I like observing them, reading about them, grappling with species and subspecies identification, and even—on a good day—talking about sparrow taxonomy. Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.

North America 152

North America Sparrows America United States 152

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2013

Like so many trips this one is more about the journey than the destination which brings us to why they have a guest post (hopefully the first of several) on 10,000 Birds. We hope that our journey will provide important information about many Neotropical bird species as well as inform conservation.” We were ecstatic!

South America 187

South America San Diego Mexico America 187

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 175

San Diego Seattle Eggs California 175

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2013

The Inaccessible Island Rail is perhaps the coolest bird that neither I nor anyone I will ever meet will ever see. BirdLife International believes that this might be maximum population the species can reach, as it seems to completely saturate its range. The bird will therefore now be known as. Atlantisia Rogersi.

Science 209

Science Transported Shelters South Africa 209

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 214

Panama Research Investigation Chickens 214

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

It depicted a Common Loon ( Gavia immer ) sitting on eggs on a seemingly crude nest. It seemed to draw you in and I could easily imagine standing beside him, staring as he did at the bird, watching it curve its neck downwards. The title read “Birds of the Northern Forest”, paintings by J.F. tridactylus).

Birds 222

Birds Woodpeckers Canada Collecting 222

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

Of course, I jest a bit in the above paragraph because as a sometime New Jersey birder I have birded the Delaware Bay and seen sights such as the memorable image below, in which thousands of Red Knots, Dunlins, and Short-billed Dowitchers fly up as if connected telepathically. million in the late 1990’s.

Delaware 181

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 181

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 150

Collecting Illinois United States Science 150

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2019

The trend at this time of year is a downturn in shared lists and birds reported, nevertheless, 12 (is this a record?) beats have still managed to share 82 checklists and accounted for 737 species. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh.

2019 121

2019 Jamaica Eggs Woodpeckers 121

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. Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). Sir James McGrigor (1771-1858) Director Gen.

China 234

China Birds Pythons Eagles 234

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

I’ve been fortunate to encounter many owls in my birding life, sometimes because I’m looking for them, sometimes happily by happenstance. It’s also about human-owl interaction on an individual level and a wider sociocultural level, and ultimately how we can use all this for habitat and bird conservation.

Owls 217

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 217

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. And battles.

Bald Eagle 126

Bald Eagle Iceland Owls North America 126

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2015

The species was in the news because some scientists had finally managed (or bothered – it’s much the same thing) to locate the population high in the mountains of the Solomon Islands, and catch and photograph one. I’m not going to rehash the arguments for scientific collecting here. Box after box of egg.

Collecting 225

Collecting Solomon Islands New Zealand Fiji 225

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2024

When not climbing, he collected species, and thus a number of birds are named after him. Three of them can be found on Mount Kinabalu, and local bird guides speak admiringly of colleagues who have seen all three of them on one day (we only managed two). Of course, only chemists have a rough idea what that might mean.

Birds 230

Birds Indonesia Breeding Charlotte 230

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2011

The most common species we see are the Stoke’s Sea Snake Astrotia stokesii , Dubois’ Sea Snake Aipysurus duboisii and the Olive Sea Snake Aipysurus laevis. This involves the sighting of these birds both here and overseas resulting in some incredible life stories. Get yours today! Renato-yes…plenty of diversity here!

Australia 151

Australia 2011 Sharks Deer 151

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. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

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Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 194

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2012

Oil begins to wash up on the beaches throughout May and June of 2010 May 6, 2010 Oil washes ashore on the Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, an important nesting and breeding area for many bird species. The babies that hatched from these eggs were released on Florida’s east coast.

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2010 Louisiana 2012 2011 239

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2022

Strangely, one of the easiest birds to see on Chongming recently is the non-native Black Swan. Once the egg has been laid, the female is chased away and the males hatch it.” A juvenile, if I am correct – and a rather rare bird in Shanghai, this being rather at the southern end of the wintering breeding range.

Birds 213

Birds China Pythons Breeding 213

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 216

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 216

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. An equally close Crested Caracara.

Falcons 188

Falcons Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 188

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. They are ant specialists.

Woodpeckers 240

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand 2014 240