10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. Birding Experiences is a Costa Rican company owned and run by enthusiastic birdwatchers from Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Experience Experiments Nicaragua 261

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2020

Do you want to help endangered birds? How about helping with conservation of cool tropical birds by listening to innovative electronic music? The brainchild of music producer, bird lover, and environmentalist Robin Perkins, this digital album is his second guide to birdsong.

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Costa Rica Nicaragua Cuba Mexico 256

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Since then he has traveled the globe, his passion for birds growing with each new encounter. I had just ended my ten-day birding adventure in Ecuador (which is a story for another time) when I decided, since I had an amazing time, to prolong my trip a bit longer before heading back to Europe. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

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Colombia Birds Raised Ecuador 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2015

Birders head to Costa Rica to see stunners like Resplendent Quetzal , Three-wattled Bellbird , Orange-collared Manakin , fancy hummingbirds , tanagers, and literally hundreds of other birds. These and several other species might end up being armchair ticks if and when we take a closer look at their evolutionary history.

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Costa Rica Species South America America 229

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

In any case, screech-owls are birds of the Megascops genus, small nocturnal owls found in wooded habitats from southern Alaska to northern Argentina. More than 20 species are recognized, many look similar and to throw a bit more challenging flavored sauce into the Megascops mix, there might be a few more species awaiting description.

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Costa Rica Owls Panama Argentina 216

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

White-tailed Kite in action- a classic airport species in Costa Rica. Odd habitats attract odd birds. Or rather, I should say that out of place habitats attract lost birds. Turf farms in wooded regions are wide open oases for grasspipers and other species adapted to natural lawns. I wonder where they come from?

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Costa Rica Ecuador North America Peru 162

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.

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Costa Rica Birds Owls South America 203

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2019

“Target birds” The term can foster excitement but is easily contentious. It would be uber cool to lay eyes on a rare lifer, on species that only seem to live on the pages of a field guide but isn’t that somewhat discriminatory? Aren’t all birds worth watching? Looking for Bare-necked Umbrellabird ?

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Costa Rica Panama Birds Eagles 203

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2011

Bird watching Recinto 23 de Junio is always a great experience. There are not many places in Ecuador, or for that matter in the world, where you can see these all these birds in the same area. This could change their life and start not only thinking but also benefiting from sustainable economic activities such as bird watching.

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Ecuador Birds Industry Farming 167

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2021

Last year there was a spate of books specifically about bird “behavior” – though one might well say that every book about birds, from field guides on up, is about behavior in some way or another. It’s the behavior that makes them fascinating to us. Well, purely physical attributes play a part, too: they’re pretty good looking.).

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Alaska Breeding Kenya Africa 230

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2014

What happens when you visit one of the best birdwatching sites in the region with the highest number of endemic bird species in the Americas in the world’s birdiest country? The area is known for a military base, the legendary Montezuma Lodge, and a boatload of birds. Your mind gets blown.

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Colombia Birds South America America 267

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.

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Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 187

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. Like many other barbets, both are clownish birds in terms of plumage and song; the Red-headed Barbet. and the Prong-billed Barbet.

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Costa Rica Colombia South America Ecuador 184

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Ringer Hummingbirds are one of the most distinctive and immediately recognizable groups of birds on earth. They’re also one of the most diverse, with approximately 330 species, all in the Western Hemisphere. In any case, this is a small but spectacular group of birds. You know, maybe a millennium or two. And this one.

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Family Ecuador Costa Rica United States 214

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

(This photo is actually of a TK seen a few days later, but it was at our favorite birding gas station pit stop that we also stopped at on our first day. Excellent 10,000 Birds posts have been written about Pico Bonito and Honduras by Corey and Carlos , so I’m going to focus on some of my most memorable experiences.

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Honduras Birds Costa Rica Groups 259

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2020

Daniel Cadena — “The Origin and Future of a Tropical Diversity Hotspot” Beyond that, I primarily limited myself to the subject matter of hurricane impacts on birds and anything about Puerto Rico. He modeled likely future suitable habitats in a climate change scenario for a number of bird species of conservation concern.

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Puerto Rico Parrots Protection Ecuador 262

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 25, 2015

A new paper out this month attempts to paint the most comprehensive picture yet of the origins and diversification of the American sparrows, wood-warblers, blackbirds, cardinals, tanagers, and their kin, an enormous group of birds more than 800 species strong. Birds genetics taxonomy and systematics'

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Sparrows North America South America Blackbirds 268

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2011

These enchanting nectar feeders have truly mastered the art of flight like no other bird. But what is really remarkable about hummingbirds is the way that each particular species has filled its own niche in the constant battle for nectar. This is the story of the nectar wars from Tandayapa Lodge in north-west Ecuador.

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Ecuador Giraffes ALA Species 248

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2014

It has been awhile since we here at 10,000 Birds announced a new Beat Writer. But we are pleased as punch to share the news that Patrick O’Donnell is going to be writing here on 10,000 Birds. Patrick became a birder at the age of seven after seeing books about birds in the Niagara Falls, New York public library.

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Costa Rica Ecuador Peru Colorado 154

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2015

” these brown, long-tailed, noisy birds are small enough to hitch rides on backs of the real deal. This spectacular, turkey-like bird roams the floor of tropical forests from eastern Mexico south to northwestern Ecuador. It also ranges widely from Mexico south to western Ecuador. Ain’t I great?

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Costa Rica Turkey Ecuador Hunting 184

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2016

The proximity of both slopes also facilitates seeing a lot of different species in a short span because the montane barrier has resulted in differences in terms of species and habitats. But, if you want to go further afield, fear not, there is some wonderful lowland forest birding up near Nicaragua and down south by Panama as well.

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Costa Rica San Jose Panama Birds 166

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.

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Colombia Ecuador South America North America 257

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2012

Here is my contribution to Bird Love Week from the tropics. In Ecuador it is found mostly in the tropical and sub-tropical forest of the east and west slopes. The place of this Bird Love action is the Sumaco National Bioreserve located on the east slope of the Ecuador in the legendary Loreto Road.

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Ecuador South America Parrots America 153

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

And where all those birds are? This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. And it raises a question: if all the birds are having a party over there, am I in the wrong spot? I am talking 600 or 700+ bird species.

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Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 257

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2011

I enjoy fishing almost as much as I enjoy birding. The one exception would be the thrill that birding brings. You see for me, birding is all about the quest. The quest to see a particularly challenging species is something I dream about, plan for, study and rave about. I love bird hides more than I love chocolate.

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Ecuador South Africa United States Hunting 150

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2012

And while I’ve seen a number of different toucan species, every one is a thrill, even the toucanets! The Crimson-rumped Toucanets ( Aulacorhynchus haematopygus ) I was privileged to observe at Refugio Paz de Las Aves in Ecuador were absolute cripplers, as the parlance goes. Is this a beautiful bird or what?

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Kansas Ecuador 2010 Species 183

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

Tropical birding demands tropical birds, those families and genera unique to their latitudes rather than shared via migration across various climate zones. Sometimes, they even have the same species… I’m looking at you, House Wren ! So why is this bird called the Red-ruffed Fruitcrow? Any questions?

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Colombia South America Argentina Ecuador 206

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2015

More species of jays can be found here than in any other country on earth. Sixteen resident species to be exact. This species is also called Dickey’s Jay in reference to Donald Dickey who had a life-long fascination with the birds of north-west Mexico. Mexico is the best country in the world for jays.

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Mexico Ecuador Peru Science 164

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2011

These are just a few of the questions that come to mind when watching these bizarre little birds. On a recent filming trip with Tropical Birding in Ecuador I had the awesome experience of getting up close and personal with two bizarre manakin species. Take the Club-winged Manakin for example.

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Ecuador Colombia Research Birds 245

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 31, 2015

” Without diminishing the importance of any local Big Days, although Big Day birding has been popular and reaching new heights in North America for more than a decade, major attempts at truly breaking the world record have only taken place the past few years. Yep, those two guys identified 331 species in one small area, sans vehicle.

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Costa Rica South Africa Kenya Ecuador 170

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2015

On the series “North American birds with Neotropical Counterparts”, this time I introduce the Andean Gull. This gull inhabits the high Andean plateau of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina at elevations ranging from 3300 to 4400 m (10827 to 14436 feet). A few vagrant birds are reported at coastal lagoons and estuaries.

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Chile Bolivia Peru Argentina 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2012

Corey was lucky enough to meet Carlos while birding in Ecuador , where Carlos was dragooned into accompanying the horde of Queens birders for the day, an encounter that somehow didn’t turn him off of all things New York. If you have been out birding in southeast Florida there is a good chance that you have run into him in the field.

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Miami Florida Birds Pelicans 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2013

In early December we had the privilege of filming the inaugural Peru Birding Rally Challenge , a six day, five night event where teams from around the world compete to see the most species of birds. The bears hung around the next day too and some of the birding teams risked losing a few species to enjoy the sighting.

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Bears Mammals Peru South America 180

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2011

Here are the clues: 1. Some references indicate that this country has nearly 900 different species of birds. 2. It is at the top of my list of countries to visit specifically for birding. 3. Corey has written about one of the species, which I will most likely see when I go. No plans yet, sigh.

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2011 Myanmar Bolivia Venezuela 150

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2019

We chase birds, so we carry bird guides – in many ways, not too different from tourist guides. To paraphrase Keith Barnes, who wrote on world birding in 2008 ABA’s Birding magazine, if you can afford only one big tropical bird tour, let it be Ecuador. Still, is it hefty? Both “yes” and “no” apply.

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Ecuador South America 2006 Birds 165

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2011

Birding the High Andes is no joke. So, having been to Ecuador before, I knew that a few days in Quito and surrounds would be good for the old lungs before embarking on our quest for Seedsnipe. The upper Andes is stupendously beautiful Seedsnipes are some of the world’s oddest birds. Their exact taxonomy is uncertain.

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Ecuador Florida Australia Birds 223

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2017

In 2009, I traveled from New York City to the tropical rainforest of Ecuador. The American Birding Association translated it into Spanish as part of its Birders Exchange Program, distributing copies to students and scientists in Central and South America and also making it available free in PDF format.

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South America Ecuador Reptiles America 168