10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

As introductions to tropical Pacific birding go, you could do a lot worse than Fiji. Throw in some good beaches and great diving and you have a popular place to visit for a lot of tourists, and also birders wanting to start their Pacific birding lists. It was just such a layover that landed me in Fiji a few years ago.

Fiji 166

Fiji Solomon Islands Parrots Los Angeles 166

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2012

There cannot be many ABA area breeding birds harder to get than those that only breed on the remotest tips of the north of North America and then fly off to places that aren’t on the major continental flyways. You can encounter them from Hawaii across to French Polynesia and Fiji.

North America 177

North America Fiji Hawaii America 177

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2013

Not because you generally see many birds while diving, although the experience of seeing shearwaters flying underwater while cage diving, as I once did, was one I think most birders would enjoy. Diving has taken me to places like Belize, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Egypt, places that coincidentally are fun to bird. Nudibranch.

New Zealand 160

New Zealand Goats Vanuatu Fiji 160

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

I often poke fun at listers I perceive as being more interested in ticks than birds. But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families. Getting entirely new families is easy when you start birding.

Family 162

Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I worked with an enormous collection of bird skins in the collection of Te Papa (The National Museum of New Zealand) during my (unfinished) PhD. Shelf after shelf after shelf of trays of dead birds, most with their original archaic Victorian era label written in spindly cursive attached to a leg. Box after box of egg.

Collecting 214

Collecting Solomon Islands New Zealand Fiji 214

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Sometimes, when I’m writing trip reports about far off places (relative to most of my readers) I wonder what exactly people make of some of the birds I mention seeing. Is a Coua a bird or a city in Brazil? Is a saw-wing a bird or an engine part? Is a logrunner a bird or a black market timber trader? What a treat!

Australia 170

Australia Fiji Hunters Family 170