10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 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. The post Visit Guatemala with Birding Expeditions appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

Guatemala 262

Guatemala El Salvador Belize Honduras 262

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2015

I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much from a card game about birding. I mean, birding is about being outside, enjoying nature, the thrill of the chase. Birding is most emphatically not about sitting around a table playing cards. A bird from each habitat group – I particularly like the Varied Thrush card.

Game 215

Game Family Birds Groups 215

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2022

As is my self-declared tradition of speaking of groups of birds within the species gamut of Trinidad & Tobago, allow me to introduce you to yet another group of three. While the entire Tyrannidae family of Tyrant Flycatchers is massive, the Myiarchus group of those recorded on these two islands comprises just three species.

Trinidad 239

Trinidad ALA Groups Species 239

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2024

Operating in the sphere of ecotourism, I understand the undeniable appeal of luxury birding – sipping coffee in flip-flops behind a tripod, binoculars within comfortable reach as multitudes of multicoloured birds descend upon the mossiest of perches at eye level to gorge on ripe bananas and papaya.

Guyana 245

Guyana Parrots Family Birds 245

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2021

Birding in the Caribbean is about islands, beautiful beaches, extra special endemics, rum, and smiles. It could also be much more, maybe less, it all depends on how you want to rock an international birding trip. Go to Costa Rica and you will be looking at other birds but you can still get in some Caribbean slope birding.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Puerto Rico Birds Owls 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2012

What is up with the birding community in the northern part of the US recently? Buying a bunch of votes and dropping it like a big crap bomb at an annual meeting may get you what you want but boy howdy, I can’t imagine people lining up to join that group. I digiscoped the above bird after waiting for 15 minutes.

Family 175

Family Beavers Minnesota Sparrows 175

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

For many North American birders, wood warblers represent everything exciting, compelling, and immediate about birding. That fallacious family name seems to have encouraged all manner of knaves, dunderheads, and miscreants when time came to label species. Consider some examples: NAMED FOR OTHER BIRDS. NAMED FOR PEOPLE.

Rights 113

Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2020

In the era of digital cameras and social media, images of birds are easy to come by. Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of bird species that are no longer with us. In Costa Rica, lately, I have been enjoying the class and elegance of bird poster art produced by CaraCara.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Birds Species Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2020

The April arrival of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, Second Edition was a supremely happy moment in a very difficult, sad month. A companion regional guide, Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America was published in 1941; its fifth edition will be coming out in early September.

North America 236

North America America Hawaii Birds 236

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2024

Curlews are birds of serious conservation concern in the UK, with numbers falling sharply this century. Curlews are long-lived birds, so their decline is not always apparent, with pairs returning annually to their favoured nesting area, despite not having fledged any chicks for years. Males have noticeably shorter beaks.)

Fox 224

Fox Finland Badgers Eggs 224

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

OCTOBER 29, 2022

In the world of birding, we have our stars, the birds that lift our spirits and provoke oohs, aahs, and admiration. These are the birds that make us race to the nearest park, scan refuge headquarter trees with anxious eyes, and turn some of us into temporary paparazzi.

Costa Rica 288

Costa Rica Nashville Tennessee Turtles 288

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2019

Those of us north of the Equator should be enjoying our summer weekends no matter how boring the birding might be. Better, though, is finding a way to raise the quality of your bird sightings and enjoyment of them. Somehow, we managed to flip the script on that by spotting all kinds of birds that the whole group could enjoy.

2019 127

2019 Birds California Raised 127

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

At the end of 2022, let us celebrate the local field guide, a sub-genre that many of us feared would die, the victim of technology, development, and globalization, but which still shines bright, fewer in number but brilliant in quality, thanks to birders and birding organizations that believe in knowing your patch and your state.

Los Angeles 223

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 223

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 25, 2021

To be honest, this is because the birding has been a bit slow of late. And our rainy season, which to my relief continues to be abundant, does mean that birds no longer concentrate around sources of water. These birds, however, were seen at “only” 2300 m (7550 ft). As was this Green-striped Brushfinch in el Temascal.

Louisiana 264

Louisiana 2000 Mexico Groups 264

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 147

2019 Barbados Uganda Costa Rica 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2023

Our resident shorebirds have started to breed in the last few weeks and there are numerous Pied Oystercatcher nests along our shores right now. We knew that she may well not be right at the nest when we initially noticed her movement and moved slowly forward making sure that we found her footprints and therefore the nest.

Eggs 199

Eggs 2011 Breeding Protection 199

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2019

Watching birds, birding, is inexorably tied to autonomous motivation. Maybe that’s why birders just might be obsessive about it or at least, very much into the hobby, the birding way of life. We get serious about quality optics and spend hours studying field guides about birds because we really really want to.

Costa Rica 231

Costa Rica Cooking Birds Chickens 231

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

That was the first thing we–our New Jersey Audubon group of 11 birders, led by Scott Barnes–noted as we exited the airport. 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. There was no snow. And lots of greenery.

Honduras 261

Honduras Birds Costa Rica Groups 261

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 191

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 191

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2021

“Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago: Greater Sundas and Wallacea” by James A. kg could be, do keep in mind that this guide covers 4,400 km / 2,750 mi of the Earth’s circumference, or 11% of the length of the Equator, and describes 13% of global bird diversity. Eaton, Bas van Balen, Nick W. Brickle and Frank E. Rheindt is a big book.

Indonesia 264

Indonesia Timor Brunei Guinea 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2016

I purchased my first Sibley— The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America —in 2003. Am I willing to give up the field guide which bears the mud and dirt of so many falls on so many birding trips? Am I willing to give up the field guide which bears the mud and dirt of so many falls on so many birding trips?

North America 179

North America 2003 Birds America 179

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

I am shocked to be writing this post already, and doubly shocked that I’ve seen six new species for Queens since I guessed what my next five Queens birds would be just eight months ago, back in March. It’s been a good year for birding in Queens! Fortunately, there are birds to help. I’d like to be the one to find it.

New York City 154

New York City Birds New York Blackbirds 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. There are many dusty side roads in this area, many of which offer productive birding.

Mexico 211

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 211

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

If you like birds on posts, if seeing “little brown jobs” posing nicely in the distance as you drive or walk along a dirt road only to have it fly away as you approach makes you deliriously happy, then North Dakota is the place for you. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Scott Barnes, N.J.

North Dakota 156

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 156

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2018

The birding around Lago de Yojoa in Honduras is frankly phenomenal, as I learned during a June 2018 birding junket organized by the Instituto Hondureño de Turismo. But our adventurous group, led by Oliver Komar and Yobani A. Bang, bang, bang… just like that, we had three killer birds offering stunning views.

Honduras 158

Honduras Birds Farming America 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical description of the family is that of “a tropical African and Asian songbird that typically has a melodious voice and drab plumage”, another is “small, dull-colored passerine birds of Asia and Africa”, yet another states that they are “often rather plain” Individual species get even harsher reviews.

South Africa 253

South Africa Malaysia Africa China 253

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2022

On that glorious day, I observed ten critically endangered birds, representing 8% of their Costa Rican, or 2% of their global population!! In my previous post , I dealt with Rancho Naturalista Lodge itself and birding within their private reserve. A group (maybe 4-5 ex.) A group (maybe 4-5 ex.)

Costa Rica 256

Costa Rica Nicaragua 2019 Farming 256

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

I was laid out with a bad back last week, which didn’t really affect my birding as I wasn’t planning any at the time. And it did so in spectacular fashion, in the form of a mixed-species feeding flock, or a bird wave. Bird waves are a feature of birds all around the world. Cardinal Woodpecker. Blue Waxbill.

South Africa 145

South Africa Tortoises Woodpeckers Birds 145

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2016

So, I birded India, land of Indian Peafowl , Saag Paneer (my favorite Indian dish) and Tigers. Neither are birds, but both involved a lot of birding.). Once we donned our booties and took the brief tour of the tomb, we climbed up to a terrace overlooking the Yamuna River and started birding in earnest.

India 189

India Tigers Birds Owls 189

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2015

There is GISS and there is Birding by Impression and they are not the same. Birding by Impression is a conscious, deliberate method of identifying and recognizing birds based on the study and evaluation of “distinctive structural features and behavioral movements” and comparison with nearby and similar species. So say Kevin T.

Birds 176

Birds New Jersey Science Groups 176

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

I took a tour out to Presa Buena Mujer with the idea that I would find a certain group of birds, ones that had frequented that area just 24 hours before. I am pretty sure the birds didn’t get the memo! Now don’t get me wrong, I am very fond of the entire warbler family, bright, colorful birds that they are.

Groups 161

Groups Family Rights Birds 161

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2019

The Great Horned Owls that live in the palm trees right above our RV have returned and brought with them a pair of fledglings. Last week, a good friend, Dan Weisz gave me a tip on the location of a family of Burrowing Owls that were extremely easy to access. I counted a total of 9 owls, with 4 being mature adults and 5 juvenile birds.

Owls 171

Owls Arizona Tucson South Africa 171

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

If birders say they love birds ostensibly because they can fly and we cannot, then there must be no more beloved group of birds than the swallows. These aerial acrobats are among the most impressive flyers in the bird world, darting this way and that over open country in pursuit of flying insects.

Jordan 201

Jordan Iowa Birds Africa 201

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2015

You’d think that dressing in green to hide from predators inside a dense rainforest is as a strategy as plain as day, yet only a surprisingly limited number of bird species on Borneo have ventured down that evolutionary road. I am equally certain this picture contains birds. Again, it was right in the centre of the picture.

Indonesia 182

Indonesia Birds Asia Groups 182

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2019

It’s never too late or too early to buy a children’s book about birds. It’s been a few years since my last roundup of children’s bird books, and children’s book writers, illustrators and publishers continue to produce picture books that feature avian protagonists. First, the board books.

New York City 169

New York City Pelicans Birds New York 169

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2014

I thought I would talk about our team’s performance in the World Birding Rally Challenge in Northern Peru and the side attractions along the route. Hugh made things easier on me, as now I will only talk about other nature and cultural sites along the route covered in the Northern Peru World Birding Rally Challenge.

Peru 206

Peru Birds Experience Experiments 206