10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

Check out this bird: Now look at this one: And finally, this one: Which of these birds, if any, are Mallards? Answers will be forthcoming, but for now, I can tell you that they are all members of the mallard complex , a roster of about 20 closely-related Anas -species ducks around the world. The Hawaiian Duck ( A.

Purebred 162

Purebred Ducks New Zealand 2011 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Birding tends to be an extremely freeform activity, demanding only we pursue our bliss to the best of our means and ability. This, the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count , is one of those times: tell us how you contributed to citizen science. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

2013 177

2013 Science Ducks Birds 177

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2013

To all you hardy naturalists who have already logged Christmas Bird Count hours in service to citizen science, I salute you! Those of you willing to eschew creature comforts to tally birds across your ice-rimed count circles are my heroes. What was your best bird of the weekend? Birding best bird weekend'

2013 180

2013 Shelters Birds Science 180

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

Zamorano University may be regarded as one of the crown jewels of Latin American higher education, particularly in the areas of agriculture, environmental management, and food science, but this idyllic campus excels for more reasons than simply academics. Add bins and coffee, shake well, and you have the recipe for bird watching nirvana!

Honduras 171

Honduras Birds Kentucky Research 171

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2013

It is easy to tell when some species become extinct — a Martha or a Lonesome George dies and there are no more, not now, not ever (until science fiction kicks in.) Such is the case with the Pink-headed Duck , Rhodonessa caryophyllacea , a native of India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. For this duck was (is?) Is it extinct?

Myanmar 222

Myanmar Bangladesh Ducks Wisconsin 222

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

JUNE 24, 2016

It is a bird, and it is indeed black, so that part of the tag is accurate enough. The blackbird wasn’t Audubon’s only venture into naming things for the guy; there was also a Brewer’s Duck, but that proved to be a hybrid resulting from the notoriously incontinent habits of Mallards , and it fell by the wayside.

Blackbirds 190

Blackbirds Boston Science Sparrows 190

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Birding for the Curious: The Easiest Way for Anyone to Explore the Incredible World of Birds by Nate Swick brings birding back to its roots—a simple, joyous way to enjoy nature using our eyes, ears, hands (for sketching), and brain. There are now no excuses except a lack of curiosity. And, nobody wants to admit that.

Birds 263

Birds North Carolina North America Owls 263

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.

Apes 167

Apes Birds Woodpeckers Primates 167

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2018

I would wake up in darkness, gather my camera and binoculars and drive to Alabama for a birding tour along a river. A few Great Blue Heron blended in with the reeds from afar, and a flock of mystery ducks made a bee-line for open water over our heads. That my data would be used in a global citizen science event?

Florida 113

Florida Alabama Kansas Pelicans 113

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 215

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 215

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2019

During the decade, I submitted 1,219 checklists and observed 555 bird species, all in the U.S. I started eBirding about the same time I started birding, and I made an early executive decision (a very good one) that any pre-eBird observations simply did not count. Birding trips to Florida , New Mexico , and Texas are obvious too.

Puerto Rico 180

Puerto Rico Virgin Islands Michigan Washington 180

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

The task of wrestling this topic down into something that the human mind can manage, without losing sight of the big picture because it’s snowing in Buffalo, is likely to be the task of a lifetime for many science communicators. If I have any complaints, they lie not in the information but in the way the information is presented.

Netherlands 162

Netherlands Birds Buffalo Science 162

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2020

Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) releases a survey called “ Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis.”. The report stated that there were 45 million “birders,” of which 39 million were “around-the-home birders” and 16 million were more active “away-from-home” birders who traveled at least a mile to see birds.

2016 264

2016 North America 2020 2019 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2024

My aunt Greet gave me a book in 1975 that featured the 60 most endangered birds in Europe. Amazingly and quite contrary to what you would believe from the gloomy news most of these birds have since recovered and are doing well. In the book, one picture stood out in particular: the White-headed Duck.

Spain 246

Spain Ducks Morocco Europe 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2014

I’m not going to rehash that war here, seeing as how it is a bird blog and not one about foreign policy, but it is perhaps appropriate to note the maelstrom of violence that has been pretty much ongoing since the neocons went in to make everything better. I’m not a fan of some of the cuts to science, but National came in in 2008.

Rhinos 186

Rhinos Hunting New Zealand Science 186

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2011

O beautiful for whistling ducks! Even in the Brazilian Amazon, I’ve never seen this many whistling ducks together–there were sixty at a manmade lake behind the Brevard Community College near Titusville, Florida. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. What an oddly proportioned bird! the marvelous birds that await.

Florida 145

Florida Tail Banding Ducks Ohio 145

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2012

As I’ve switched over to paid corporate birding (doing bird surveys for companies that want to put up wind farms or transmission lines), I’ve been fascinated by the world that has been opened to me and differences from the bird feeding world. Clearly the money is in dissuading birds.

Industry 183

Industry Wildlife Coyotes Battery 183

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2016

Maybe it’s not soon to be a major motion picture, but the 10,000 Birds audience will enjoy it anyway. So yes, this summer, give this book a shot. Audubon: America’s Greatest Naturalist and His Voyage of Discovery to Labrador by Peter B. Logan, $40.00.

Emotional 178

Emotional Fox Sparrows Washington 178

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2011

.&# Traditionally, of course, falcons have been classified with other diurnal raptors, parrots have been positioned between doves and cuckoos, and seriemas have been lumped with cranes, rails, and other birds in the order Gruiformes. (If Separating ducks and coots is one thing, but separating hawks and falcons? I like this one too.)

Parrots 257

Parrots Falcons Costa Rica South America 257

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2016

Jason’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds tackled the importance of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Fish & Wildlife Service released “ Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis.” That’s a lot of birding. Note that the FWS birding report is an addendum to a larger survey not directed to birding.

Wildlife 189

Wildlife Portland 2002 Collecting 189

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Hello my birding sons and daughters. Not since the advent of the field guide (thanks Roger) have we seen such rapid change in the world of birding. 1) Rare bird reporting has come a long way. I saw the bird the next day, where it was reported to other birders via text messages, cellular phone calls, and more listserv messages.

San Diego 191

San Diego California Condor California Bald Eagle 191

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2018

Therefore, I am jumping at every opportunity to explore a new area, and subsequent birds that might be there. My wife and I have had our boat up in that area many times, and I knew that there would be a good shot to add a few new birds from the far northwest end of the US. Here is one of them standing in the kelp.

Oregon 100

Oregon Bald Eagle Owls Groups 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

I particularly recommend this book to students minoring in biology, ecology, environmental and veterinary sciences: Putnam’s clearly written and easy to understand style is sure to explain the complex concepts without relying on hard to decipher terminology. Mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos. Hen harrier, Circus cyaneus.

Animal 118

Animal Bears Stray Dog Blackbirds 118

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

“A reading of recent research shows that Australian birds are more likely than most to eat sweet foods, live in complex societies, lead long lives, attack other birds, and be intelligent and loud.” When going to Australia, one of the two birds I wanted to see most was the Tawny Frogmouth.

Birds 263

Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 263

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Every year, Ducks Unlimited of Mexico, A.C. Since I go birding every Monday, I decided that perhaps it was a sign, and asked if I could participate. The various national versions of Ducks Unlimited are mostly an outgrowth of sports hunting. On the other hand, a college degree does not guarantee the ability to ID birds.

Pelicans 260

Pelicans Blackbirds Ducks Hunting 260

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2011

I know at 10,000 Birds, we’re not only supposed to wow you with blog articles, but we’re also supposed show you some awesome photos. I’m in the middle of three different bird surveys for work and it’s been a fantastic way to watch the changes in fall migration in Minnesota.

Mississippi 247

Mississippi Ducks Minnesota Science 247

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

They looked out their windows and across their patios and up from their apartment terraces and saw–birds. This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives.

2020 264

2020 Birds Groups North America 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2021

While Mike and Corey – fitting for being real celebrities in birding cycles – get invited to far-flung places such as Uganda, minor local birders sometimes at least get invited to places nearby. The birding life. But now back to birds … Little Ringed Plovers also seem to like to breed directly on the road.

Birds 260

Birds Uganda Breeding Rats 260

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2022

I recently wrote about the ABA , particularly the lack of communication regarding the search for a new president, its financial condition, and its role in the birding community. In my view, the ABA is at a crossroads and must reassess its role in the birding community. The target audience should be new birders and the birding curious.

Advocacy 258

Advocacy Wildlife Portland Science 258

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2018

He made a whirlwind tour of some of the best birding areas in the country, from the Karajukica Bunari peat bog in the extreme southwest (by the border with Montenegro) all the way to the Slano Kopovo Crane Sanctuary in the northeast. He enjoys combining his passion for birds with computer science background to model nocturnal bird migration.

Serbia 171

Serbia Switzerland Farming Birds 171

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2013

And now we enter into a family of birds more or less unknown to non-birders. To know a grebe is to take your bird awareness to another level. To cast your eyes to the cattails on the edges of the pond or the raft of birds at the lake’s center and to know what you are likely to find. Not enough for you?

Jordan 229

Jordan Guatemala Birds South America 229

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The magnificent history and diversity of birds on Earth came into sharper focus this month with the publication of 28 new scientific papers in Science and other journals. One of the central papers, Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds (Jarvis et al. Open Jarvis et al.’s

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2012

NARITA, JAPAN, DECEMBER 2012 – The art and science of layover birding deserves more rigorous study and perhaps a federal grant. While planning a much-needed escape from the Western Hemisphere to Singapore, I had to explore the layover birding potential of Narita International Airport, one of two airports serving Tokyo.

Japan 134

Japan Birds Stud Ducks 134

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2015

This is not the first time that I have pointed out the perfidy of Republicans in United States government as it relates to birds or conservation. But this attempt by Congressmen Duncan of South Carolina to completely prevent any enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act is beyond the pale, even for bird-hating Republicans.

Protection 268

Protection Bald Eagle United States South Carolina 268

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2019

Blue-billed Duck – Oxyura australis. Musk Duck – Biziura lobata. Falcated Duck – Mareca falcata. Yellow-billed Duck – Anas undulata. Tufted Duck – Aythya fuligula. White-faced Whistling-Duck – Dendrocygna viduata. Fulvous Whistling-Duck – Dendrocygna bicolor.

2019 160

2019 Farming Sparrows Charlotte 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2011

My birding adventures this week, while Western, were far from Interior (three words for you: Black-bellied Whistling Duck ). As the title implies, it is the casual to very casual birder, and by extension the gardener, walker-in-parks, or general noticer-of-things who is curious about the birds s/he encounters in everyday life.

North America 160

North America America Dissection Birds 160