10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Birds can be enjoyed in a wide variety of ways. Those of us who chase rare birds for our counties, states, or other human-made geographical distinctions watch birds for more reasons than the twitch. For example, we might just enjoy the calls and antics of those White-throated Sparrows while searching for a Harris’s.

Costa Rica 185

Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 185

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

When looking for birds in Costa Rica, the Central Valley isn’t the first place that comes to mind. Tongues and patches of green space host birds but most birders leave as soon as they can. Why linger when you can go where the birding is better? I can’t blame them, I would too.

Costa Rica 255

Costa Rica Sparrows Birds Rodents 255

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2023

It is home to four diverse forest ecosystems (deciduous, mixed, boreal, and lowlands), experiences seasonal weather systems ranging from cold dry Arctic winters to humid, thunder-storm filled summers, and, according to the latest official checklist, hosts four professional sports teams with bird names.* state and Canadian provinces.

North America 213

North America Birds Owls Canada 213

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Louisiana is a magical place to bird. At the same time I was ogling Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Upland Sandpipers, Marybeth Lima was also birding Louisiana. Chapter Two is a potpourri of stories about nemesis birds, birding by ear, birding for science, under the rubric of birding ‘for the love of it.’

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 28, 2024

By Hannah Buschert Hannah Buschert started birding in college thanks to a required Biology of Birds course and a professor who included Sir David Attenborough’s Life of Birds to punctuate lessons. Next step: find a bird guide. It was on a whim that our most recent adventure took us to Oaxaca.

Mexico 189

Mexico Birds Oregon Groups 189

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2011

I never would have thought that a film that focused entirely on North American sparrows could be so delightful. After all, there is only so much sparrow that non-birders can take and this film is chock full of sparrows! How exactly are the birds presented? As such, it is neither for the faint of heart nor the non-birder.

Sparrows 171

Sparrows North America United States America 171

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The poster bird of this area is the near-threatened Black-necked Crane. The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area.

China 174

China Mongolia Birds Russia 174

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

It is near a river, attracting some birds that like to eat wet food. As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The birds I asked about this pretended not to be related to anyone though.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

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 198

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 198

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2011

In response to the decline last year saw the first ever World Sparrow Day and tomorrow, 20 March, is the second annual World Sparrow Day. Hes only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasnt working as a union representative or spending time with his family.

Sparrows 201

Sparrows 2011 Deer New York 201

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

That circular, uninviting body of water marks the main crater of Poas Volcano, a mountain that hosts the most accessible and nearest area of quality bird habitat to the Juan Santamaria airport. Recently, while guiding on the slopes of Poas, without too much effort, we had more than a hundred species. Two hundred?

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2020

As I simply saw too many interesting birds during my short Delhi birding trip in 2019, I decided to cover the trip in two separate posts. There is no ornithological rationale for which birds are featured in part 1 and 2 – it is merely a question of following the alphabet wherever it led me. One of my favorite bird species.

Birds 165

Birds India Zoos 2019 165

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2013

For those of us in the Americas, nine-primaried oscines are among our most familiar and beloved birds: finches; sparrows, juncos, and towhees; warblers; blackbirds, meadowlarks, and orioles; cardinals and grosbeaks; and tanagers. Some scientists have lumped them all into one enormous family (e.g., Keith Barker, et al.,

Family 178

Family Blackbirds Groups Sparrows 178

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2020

Over the years I’ve seen a variety of open-country birds there, including Bobolinks , Vesper Sparrow , and American Kestrel. Over the years birding Willow Lake I had added nearly eighty eBird checklists at the preserve and netted myself 127 species, good for number two on the eBird hotspot list. I really hope so.

Bald Eagle 186

Bald Eagle New York City Birds New York 186

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 234

South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 234

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2020

In Costa Rica, our July birding news usually consists of interesting sightings during the mid-summer tours. Where can I see Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow followed by a fantastic meal ? These and other important birding related questions come to mind and during a normal July, I would be personally and actively helping answer them.

Costa Rica 215

Costa Rica Birds Thailand Family 215

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2019

Lots of birds, a lot of really cool birds! Some local populations of birds and animals couldn’t adapt to the radical ecosystem-wide changes and just died out but a fair percentage did survive and continue to persist where green space lingers. This is one heck of a sweet urban bird. Lesson’s Motmot.

Costa Rica 196

Costa Rica Birds Parrots Sparrows 196

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

There was a time when I thought each bird species had its own individual song. Then I found out that there was this vocalization called a ‘call,’ so I thought each bird species had its own individual song (but just the males) and individual call. Bird communication is a complex and evolving science.

North America 278

North America Research Birds Groups 278

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

It’s mid-July, which among other things means that those of us in North America are starting to check local mudflats for returning shorebird migrants and waiting impatiently for the AOU to hurry up and create five species from the Clapper-King rail complex (the reasons for which we covered last year ). Birds still are dinosaurs.

New Zealand 198

New Zealand Elephants Sparrows Ostriches 198

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2022

Towhees are large, ground-hugging sparrows that occur only in North America. Just to complicate things more, four members of the Melozone genus are called Ground-Sparrows rather than Towhees.). Earlier this month, I came across a family of Spotted Towhees (Olive-backed) with a couple of other strange aspects. They are spotless.

Mexico 210

Mexico North America 2015 Sparrows 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Nothing much tops birding in autumn. There are more birds in autumn than at any other time of year. Sparrows predominate but there are a host of other species to find and identify. Nice weather, lots of birds, and the potential for rarity. Young White-crowned Sparrows don’t have white crowns.

New York City 141

New York City Birds New York Sparrows 141

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2022

One of the reasons that I usually start each year’s species list with a visit to the wetlands of Lake Cuitzeo is that the site offers so many species that I can find nowhere else. So it is odd that this rather drab landscape would host some of our most colorful birds. Not all the colorful species have feathers.

Eagles 216

Eagles Falcons Sparrows Species 216

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

JUNE 23, 2019

This is the same history of conquest and despoliation which now puts many of these very species in danger of extinction. Most of the white people birds are named after are not directly culpable in settler colonial genocide and militarized white supremacy, or certainly not as culpable as McCown. McCown is an extraordinary case.

Birds 260

Birds North America Cooking Campaign 260

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2012

Ourselves, for instance; just consider how many sweet or gritty stories you’ve seen about Olympic athletes’ family backgrounds over the last few weeks. Well, the American Birding Association’s Bird of the Year — the Evening Grosbeak – deserves no less. But what is a finch? And back to finches.

Family 177

Family Guatemala Stray Groups 177

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 140

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 140

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Still, the outing did not produce any new species for the year, or enough good photos for a post here. Instead, I have chosen to write about an idea I’ve had percolating for a while: to tell you what the most common species are down here. I’ll take the most common native species in taxonomic order.

Woodpeckers 330

Woodpeckers Mexico Cattle Species 330

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 200

Costa Rica Birds Owls South America 200

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 25, 2021

To be honest, this is because the birding has been a bit slow of late. We are too far into the year for many FOY sightings, but not quite far enough for most migratory species to make their return appearances. No surprise to that; these two species always initiate the migratory season here. Does one ever?)

Louisiana 262

Louisiana 2000 Mexico Groups 262

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2023

Down here at the southern end of so many birds’ annual migrations, spring can be a melancholy time. Between March and May, we say goodbye to more than half our duck and wood warbler species, as well as about half of all our shorebirds, vireos, hummingbirds, buntings, sparrows, and orioles, and many members of other avian families.

South America 170

South America Pigs Mexico Species 170

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2022

For some reason that I do not quite understand myself – given that I really rather dislike children and am not too positive about the rest of humanity either – I recently put up a little display of bird photos inside my Shanghai compound, which I share (as the only foreigner) with about 1700 Chinese. Some Birds of Shanghai.

Birds 162

Birds Fish Germany China 162

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 227

South Africa Malaysia Africa China 227

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 162

North America 2003 Birds America 162

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’ll make it three!

New York City 151

New York City Birds New York Blackbirds 151

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2022

But when April came around, and I had not yet gone to see the birds that are specific to my highest site (3,000 m/10,000 ft), I drove one hour each way for a very successful visit there. So I didn’t really expect to see many new species on this visit. Still, both the Tropical and the Western Kingbirds would have been FOY birds.

Mexico 216

Mexico Sparrows Species Family 216

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 174

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 174

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 10, 2020

November and early December can be a frustrating time here at Nanhui – on the one hand, there are fewer and fewer birds as migration slows down. On the other hand, it seems there is a better chance of getting some strays and really rare birds, such as the Ryukyu Minivet described in my last post. Here is a Little Bunting.

Stray 243

Stray Asia Industry Family 243