article thumbnail

Birding Kadavu and Nadi in Fiji

10,000 Birds

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 169
article thumbnail

Armchair Splits in the Pacific

10,000 Birds

Of course, I have seen many more birds than this, but between having terrible notes, really awful notes, or entirely lost notes, eBird doesn’t represent my total life list at all. It comes down to the other reason why eBird doesn’t have all the birds I’ve seen. It was a split. An armchair split, no less.

Tonga 176
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

Bristle-thighed Curlew

10,000 Birds

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.

article thumbnail

Diving New Zealand – Goat Island

10,000 Birds

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. Kina, or Sea Urchin.

article thumbnail

History repeating itself

10,000 Birds

How many species there were is probably lost to history, but there were certainly many hundreds. Sadly, as I’ve explained before , most of these species became extinct as humans arrived on the islands, and with it one of the most astonishing radiations of birds imaginable. But here’s the thing.

Tonga 166
article thumbnail

Big Ticks; What Was Your Last New Family?

10,000 Birds

I often poke fun at listers I perceive as being more interested in ticks than birds. Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. Getting entirely new families is easy when you start birding.

Family 163
article thumbnail

Lords of the Forest

10,000 Birds

Although the only pine forests found in New Zealand are recent plantations of Northern Hemisphere Pinus species like the Monterey pine, the country does have native conifers. Some of these are found throughout the country, but the most impressive species is found in the north of the island, around the Coromandel and in Northland.