10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2012

Colombia is not only home to nearly 20% of all avian life on the planet but this birding mecca also accommodates an incredibly high percentage of highly sought after species. Nearly 80 species are endemic and found nowhere else in the world. But we just could not ignore the plentiful antpitta species too.

Colombia 252

Colombia Ecuador South America North America 252

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

One of these days, Jeopardy will feature a category called “Field Guides” and the first clue will be: “This landlocked South American country finally got its own bird field guide in 2016, but it wasn’t available in the United State until 2019.” Bolivia doesn’t come up much in discussions of birding travel.

Bolivia 178

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 178

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

This week I find myself writing about Colombia again. But this should not come as a surprise as the country really is almost fathomless when it comes to delicious bird content. The piculets are a distinctive and unique sub-family of woodpeckers that are best represented in South America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhg7HoI1XOM

Colombia 175

Colombia Woodpeckers South America Family 175

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2019

Barbets are odd, chunky birds with large beaks. There’s so much more that can be said about this group of birds but that’s the first description that comes to mind. The two families of New World barbets, the Capitonidae and the Semnornithidae, are actually more related to toucans. and the Prong-billed Barbet.

Costa Rica 175

Costa Rica Colombia South America Ecuador 175

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

However, no matter how one enjoys or takes in interest in the avian side of life, an official list of the birds for a given area is of vital importance. With the rise in birding tourism, bird lists for entire countries have also become increasingly important. Not every list has Great Tinamou on it. Juvenile Gray Hawk.

Costa Rica 202

Costa Rica Birds Owls South America 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. A Great Argus in full call, this species’ tail consists of the longest feather in the bird world. Image by Cuan Rush/Rockjumper Birding Tours. Widowbirds.

Papua New Guinea 245

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 245

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2011

Founded by Roberto Chavarro and his family in the early eighties, this little reserve has been dropped slap-bang into the birding spotlight by the recent claims of the rediscovery of the Bogota Sunangel Heliangelus zusii , a species that is known from one record – a skin from 1909! returned to the USA. An amateur at best.

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Colombia Family 2011 Species 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

If you had your choice of one bird family to pursue, to seek out and observe and photograph and kvell over, which one would you choose? A passion for one bird family is also very useful. It provides goals and a definite direction for your birding travels and thoughts; sometimes it even becomes the basis of a book!

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Ecuador Bolivia 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Adam Riley, owner and managing director of Rockjumper Birding Tours , is a world birder if ever there was one, but has a special place in his heart for his home continent. Adam will be leading 10,000 Birds readers on an amazing odyssey into Africa starting… now! And Africa is the ONLY continent without an extinct bird to boot!

Papua New Guinea 227

Papua New Guinea Madagascar Africa Equatorial Guinea 227

10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2018

In addition to Spanish, several other languages continue to be spoken, the pines and cypress trees of the Guatemalan highlands only occur as introduced species once you travel south of Nicaragua, and dozens of bird species that occur in Costa Rica and Panama don’t even make it to Nicaragua.

Costa Rica 118

Costa Rica Guatemala Birds Nicaragua 118

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

This group — dubbed the bombycillids , from the waxwing genus and family name — appears to fall near kinglets and a large group containing thrushes and muscicapids (Old World flycatchers and chats) in the passerine tree. The Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds has more on the Palmchat. Spellman et al.

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Saudi Arabia 2008 Indonesia Groups 222

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

But you are here for the birds. The curse of forest birding - a bird drought. Maybe the birds will come to you. They are the only birds able to fly backwards and the 340-odd species come in many different forms. Fantastic caterpillars, otherworldly insects, ghoulish spiders, tiny scattering creatures.

Colombia 279

Colombia Ecuador Bolivia Peru 279