10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2012

SUPER STARLINGS Tanzania plays host to a wide variety of Starlings, over twenty species in fact. This is the Ruppell’s Long-tailed Starling , a glimmering blue-black bird with a creamy white eye, reminiscent of the Brewers Blackbird but comparatively a little more scarce. It is a showstopper, and for many, a car-stopper.

Tanzania 176

Tanzania Chickens Blackbirds California 176

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 202

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 202

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Tanzania is without a doubt the quintessential African safari nation. Despite being a proud South African, my honest answer is Tanzania. Highly recommended birding and wildlife sites include Selous Game Reserve, the Eastern Arc Mountains, Pemba and Zanzibar Islands and Arusha National Park.

Tanzania 216

Tanzania Africa Stud Leopards 216

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

“ There is, perhaps, no better place in the world for birds than this country. Despite discovering dozens of bird species, he is however not remembered in any English names of birds. Wahlberg travelled even more extensively and amassed a huge bird collection. Image by Hugh Chittenden.

Mozambique 187

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 187

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

These were the sounds I heard as I walked around a small pond in Amherst, Massachusetts last week, looking for dragonflies, listening for birds. Or, one of the 145 species of Glass frogs living in the Cental and South American rainforests, I could look through the transparent skin on their undersides and see their internal organs.

Reptiles 184

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 184

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2015

Conservation is concerned about protecting populations, species, habitats, ecosystems. That conservation uses the death of the species it is trying to save is both paradoxical and not. If tourists are too dim to tell Sierra Leone from Botswana or Tanzania, do we really want to rely on them to save Africa’s species?

Lions 207

Lions Hunting Sierra Leone Buffalo 207

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. This bird is represented in an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. Can’t say that it is a particularly obvious name from seeing the bird.

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with.

Congo 264

Congo Africa South Africa Madagascar 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Gabon Uganda 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 27, 2015

This time it is the Old World that has misnamed a group of birds, or in fact several groups. It all comes back to a split in one of the great bird families, the Turdidae, or thrushes. Once upon a time, when I started birding, this great family included a wide range of species collectively known as the robins and chats.

Mozambique 164

Mozambique Zambia Zimbabwe Namibia 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Weavers are truly magical birds, combining bright plumages with ingenious weaving talents and cheerful, noisy social lives. The IOC world birdlist recognizes 90 species that bear the name “weaver” or “malimbe” Not all of these are true weavers as we will discuss below. Image taken by Adam Riley in Ghana.

Tanzania 221

Tanzania Buffalo Kenya Namibia 221

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 219

Papua New Guinea Madagascar Africa Equatorial Guinea 219

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2012

Barbets are a group of medium sized, chunky, generally colorful, frugivorous, hole-nesting near-passerines, that are popular targets for anyone birding in the tropics. Originally they were all placed in the family Capitonidae , but over time taxonomists have determined that actual relationships between these barbets are far more complex.

Ethiopia 230

Ethiopia Tanzania Africa Uganda 230