10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2017

I just returned from a glorious birding trip all over Cuba, so I am just going to ignore the pile of spring bird books on my dining room table (most of which arrived while I was gone), and write a bit about my favorite Cuban birds. Like flycatchers, the bird continuously forages for insects.

Cuba 174

Cuba Birds 2015 Bahamas 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2013

You may not realize it when you look at those bizarre looking waders with the massive bills and the vacant expression, but you’re looking at a group of birds that has inspired humankind for literal centuries. The group has a worldwide distribution; 28 species living and two additional extinct. Biblical tales?

Birds 223

Birds North America Charlotte New Jersey 223

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2012

Known at the time as ‘ terms of venery’ , we know them today as collective nouns. Most of the collective nouns would have been used to describe animals that were hunted for sport which is disturbing when one considers a Parliament of Owls for example, a Herd of Wrens or a Stand of Flamingos. Might an Autumn of American Woodcock be apt?

Hunting 152

Hunting Collecting Groups Fox 152

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

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

a sea gull.''” Of course, that raises an important question – what is the most interesting gull in the world? My first instinct was that the rarest gull would rank high on the ‘most interesting’ scale, but that’s a lister’s instinct – a sort of stamp-collecting bias, at best. What say you?

Seals 231

Seals Lifestyle Turtles Parrots 231

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

JANUARY 2, 2014

Three owls have already had the devices attached and some pretty interesting data is being collected. So they are raising money to buy more. We at 10,000 Birds figured that you, our readers, are getting so much enjoyment out of the Snowy Owls that you would be more than willing to pitch in some money. That is not cheap.

Owls 219

Owls Research Science Collecting 219

Critter News

MARCH 19, 2012

While no one questions the religious sincerity of Northern Arapaho tribal members, spokesmen for some conservation and animal rights groups question why the tribe can't meet its religious needs without killing wild eagles. The Northern Arapaho share the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.

Eagles 100

Eagles Bald Eagle Killing Wyoming 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Hawk watchers and birders who look at hawks (not always the same group!) There are probably more identification guides about raptors than there are for any other bird group. This is a second edition that has been rewritten, updated, and re-invented, and it will doubtlessly become the hawk identification bible of our birding era.

North America 234

North America Bald Eagle Birds Eagles 234

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

JUNE 7, 2016

Crotty is a birder and lawyer living in Portland, Oregon who has been sharing some thought-provoking pieces with 10,000 Birds readers. Wind energy is an alternative to burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, but there are consequences to the environment and, in particular, to birds.

Oregon 101

Oregon Portland Laws Groups 101

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2016

” The Task Group issued its final report on September 15, 2015. ” The Task Group issued its final report on September 15, 2015. b) Recommendation : Work with all groups to identify synergistic opportunities for promoting broad conservation benefits of the Duck Stamp. 1) Action : U.S.

Ducks 100

Ducks Hunters Hunting Wildlife 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2021

On April 16, 2021, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), had a “ Community Congress on English Bird Names ” to discuss whether certain bird names should be changed and, if so, how quickly. Moreover, bird names exist within a larger culture, so changing them might have limited impact.

Birds 264

Birds Russia Hawaii Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

They looked out their windows and across their patios and up from their apartment terraces and saw–birds. And they were intrigued and they had questions, lots of questions, more questions than could be answered by a field guide or a social media group. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley.

2020 264

2020 Birds Groups North America 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with. A few years ago, in the American Birding Association FB group I posted a question: Where would you go if funds weren’t a problem? Some are incredibly rare and hard to find.

Congo 264

Congo Africa South Africa Madagascar 264

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 224

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

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). Like the broadbill, Whitehead’s Spiderhunter is a Borneo endemic.

Birds 235

Birds Indonesia Breeding Charlotte 235

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2011

Okay, this post will provide fair warning: If torment, torture, and terror in birding aren’t your thing, or if you are underage and your parents are watching, just take a last glance at this artistic rendering of a flying Great Tit in low light and then click this post away. And you might live to bird another day.

North America 145

North America Europe America Asia 145

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. In the latter, three or more adult individuals contribute to the raising of offspring.

Breeders 210

Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 210

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Counting the Birds I was in my teens when I undertook my first bird-survey: it was field work for the British Trust for Ornithology’s The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. The breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland. Published in 1976, The Atlas was, I believe, the very first work of its kind.

Ireland 231

Ireland Turtles Geese Farming 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Unfortunately, these features that make island ecosystems so unique have also lead to a disproportionate number of extinct island birds relative to continental ecosystems. This bird was in serious trouble by the mid-19th century due to the adults being killed for food and young being taken for pets. Nests were in hollows in palm trees.

Cuba 252

Cuba Parrots Collecting Columbus 252

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

As the growing season wanes and summer gives way to autumn, winemakers in Spain – and across the Northern Hemisphere – will be watchful for that perfect moment when the fruit is at its absolute peak – a sign that the hectic work to collect a year’s worth of product in just a few days can finally begin. Good birding and happy drinking!

2017 114

2017 Spain California Condor California 114

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

One of these clades holds a diversity of Old World species in several distinct groups, including an Australasian clade, the green-pigeons, the emerald- and wood-doves, the imperial-pigeons and fruit-doves (favorites of mine), and the subjects of our investigation today, the 15 known members of the Raphini. ” Beehler et al.’s

Solomon Islands 278

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 278

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

Rightly or wrongly, there’s an hierarchy of extinct birds in North America, in the United States in particular. Bachman’s Charleston into the 60s when a solitary male in 1962 sang for no one but a group of incredibly fortunate birders. we are hosting Extinction Week here on 10,000 Birds from 7 September to 13 September.

South Carolina 181

South Carolina Cuba Missouri Mississippi 181

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2012

South American seriemas also belong with this newly recognized group, as explained in my earlier post. But as I and others have said before, it does raise a very practical question about what field guides, which have for the most part been slavishly devoted to taxonomic order, are going to do. I wrote about this last year.

Falcons 174

Falcons Parrots California Breeding 174

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

APRIL 30, 2011

Each year 120,000 birds visit the island to breed from March through August in burrows that riddle the landscape. A pair of birds in a nesting burrow share the parental responsiblities and change shifts under the cover of darkness. While one bird sits, its mate feeds out at sea for a week or so.

United Kingdom 161

United Kingdom Brazil Eggs Abandon 161

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2011

The genus is Cyanoramphus , and they are sometimes known collectively as the kakariki (literally little kaka). The kakariki are an odd group of parakeets, particularly in terms of their distribution. Compared to that of say the Collared Kingfisher , for example, it would hardly raise an eyebrow.

New Zealand 148

New Zealand Fiji Parrots Tonga 148

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 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.

South Africa 197

South Africa Africa Birds Cape Verde 197

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2022

To be precise, “Birding Shanghai from June 10 to June 30, 2022” – but that is even less of an exciting title than the one above. The reason for this post only covering the period from June 10 being that an earlier post, “Revenge Birding”, was about the first 9 days of June. You should try it too.

Birds 197

Birds Sparrows Protection Humane 197

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2015

Raised in the Galapagos, she’s been exposed to penguins her whole life. These were not easy journeys, and we can only guess how much time was spent making contacts and raising funds to go to the ends of the earth or the middle of nowhere, where the penguins live. That’s a lot of books about a bird family that cannot fly.

Penguins 209

Penguins New Zealand South Africa Albatross 209