10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2019

When did birding become so intimately intertwined with technology? But beyond space age gear and technical fabrics, birding also seems to demand a strong, unbroken connection to the internet. For once in a long while, Corey and I share the same Best Bird of the Weekend. What was your best bird of the weekend?

2019 164

2019 Uganda Birds Science 164

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2019

This last year of the twenty-teens was a monumental birding year for me. I saw 863 species of birds, bringing my life list to 1,820. I birded Uganda, which was my first time on the continent of Africa. Such travel brings a lot of birds and the 863 species I saw this year is the most species I have ever seen.

2019 140

2019 Barbados Uganda Costa Rica 140

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2021

Fortunately, China still has lots of interesting birding locations left for me. But of course, it is also nice to remember past birding trips. One in November 2018 included a one-day birding trip in the Drakensberg area, a mountain range in the border area between South Africa and Lesotho. That does not make much sense, I know.

South Africa 239

South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 239

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

This, 2022, has been a curious year for books about birds and birding. Dragan]: Europe’s Birds: An Identification Guide , by Hume, Still, Swash, and Harrop is a photographic guide. The artwork of “Europe’s Birds” is dazzling, the text condensed and comprehensive, and the layout and design are without peer.

Sri Lanka 233

Sri Lanka Malaysia Birds Suriname 233

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2016

and dreaming of a place where the heat is moderate, beer snake-cold and birds innumerable… Let’s say, where the average annual maximum varies from 22 to 24 degrees Celsius / 72 to 75 Fahrenheit and where some 700+ bird species – 24 of them endemic – are waiting for an intrepid birder… Answer to the riddle?

Africa 134

Africa Uganda Gorillas Rwanda 134

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2014

My third trip was six months spend working on a monkey project in the jungles of Uganda. I bring this up not to boast (well, not much) but because I think that this approach to wildlife travel is somewhat neglected in birding circles. Volunteering provides a very different experience to tourism though. Amazing stuff.

Uganda 161

Uganda Sharks Africa New Zealand 161

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. Why am I here?

Sri Lanka 257

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 257

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. Further to the east, Asian Openbill displays the same special feature but is mostly a white plumaged bird.

Africa 243

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 243

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Its great diversity of habitats hosts an incredible bird count of over 900 species, including Africa’s 2nd highest list of endemics and near-endemics (after South Africa).

Ethiopia 245

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 245

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2021

We here at 10,000 Birds dedicated the month of February to highlighting a variety of birding tourism companies, destinations, and guides. It was a fun month with posts from places as varied as Greece and Uganda, Costa Rica and India. After all, there are a lot more birding tourism operators who we haven’t posted about yet!

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Uganda Greece Ghana 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

As visitors’ and the public’s interests expanded from the Big Five, and an appreciation for lesser mammals, birds and smaller wildlife has became more widespread, the term Little Five was coined. Prime destinations for seeing African Elephant in the wild include Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda.

Buffalo 207

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 207

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2015

Danum Valley is the finest birding location I have ever been to. And places I have seen more birds. But a a package, if I had to rate the best places I’ve ever been birding, the only place I can think that comes close is Mweya, in Uganda, or maybe Tikal, in Guatemala.

Lemurs 159

Lemurs Family Rhinoceros Fish 159

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2014

He introduces ideas and slowly builds on them, staring with the outbreak of Hendra in people and horses in Queensland before moving the story to his own experiences of great ape die-off when he was covering Michael Fay’s Megatransect in the Congo Basin. The disease had killed a tourist like ourselves.

Humane 162

Humane Animal Africa Ukraine 162

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 222

Birds Uganda Breeding Rats 222

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2019

Some of those “statistical errors” came as surprises to me, e.g. Cuba, Bolivia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Thailand (this is also a clear message to their tourism boards to invest more into promoting avitourism). Interestingly, the respondents felt no need to further elaborate why, presuming that everyone knows why they should bird Costa Rica.

Papua New Guinea 214

Papua New Guinea America Costa Rica Sri Lanka 214

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

It’s my fantasy and it’s yours: Quit the job, say good-bye to the family, and bird. British birder Chris Gooddie, my new birding hero, not only dreamed the fantasy, he lived it. That’s Pitta, people, not Antpitta, which is what I foolishly first envisioned, having never birded beyond the Americas.)

Hunters 196

Hunters Sri Lanka Asia Solomon Islands 196

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2011

You start hearing and catching glimpses of birds as soon as you land, particularly the fast moving Tui. One bird I apparently heard at the landing (although it didn’t register to me) was the Fernbird , New Zealand’s only Old World warbler (or more accurately megalurid warbler ). Get yours today!

New Zealand 148

New Zealand 2011 Deer Cats 148

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 225

Papua New Guinea Madagascar Africa Equatorial Guinea 225

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2020

Will bird tour agencies, guides, eco-lodges survive? Will the threatened species make it through if there are no birding tourists to make those birds and their habitats valuable to local people just the way they are (as opposed to tropical timber)? What will be left of birding tourism? Colombia 1959 bird species 2.

Uganda 253

Uganda Bolivia Ecuador Indonesia 253

10,000 Birds

JUNE 30, 2022

In addition, it has over 450 bird species and more than 30 in-country endemics, of which it is possible to see every single species! Where to look for the birds? Birding agencies seem to stick to their announced plans and no news of cancelled tours had reached the bird tourism market.

Sri Lanka 147

Sri Lanka Ghana Uganda Eagles 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2013

Sometimes the birds we see take a lot of work. It’s exhausting, and after I’ve read these accounts, well, it’s enough to put you off ever birding again. Now me, I like knowing about the rare birds, but its also really nice to know about what’s really common at a site too. One of those, for sure.

Uganda 150

Uganda Congo Birds Africa 150