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Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Bird Day is a lovely, little jewel of a book. The idea is to portray one bird for each hour of the day in words and art, presenting the diversity, beauty, and wonder of avian life. Angell’s black-and-white illustrations bring sparks of energy and visual clarity to the fascinating bird behaviors described by Huber.

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Snow-fronted Geese

10,000 Birds

We were at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, of course, which is not only home to Falcated Duck, but many other birds. There are hordes of fowl here (fowl of the water) in winter, with geese having the most prominent presence. Along with Snows, Greater White-fronted Goose are one of the most abundant species here.

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Avian influenza H5N2 in the Mississippi and Pacific Flyways

10,000 Birds

H5N2 is a bird influenza virus that is making news. This mainly affects domestic fowl, and in this sense is not a topic central to 10,000 Birds. But, wild birds are part of the story, and the virus itself has changed and has been known to make wild birds ill. What is H5N2 Avian Influenza? Or, even, many of them.

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Feed me or I’ll die, and possibly take you with me!

10,000 Birds

Years ago it was pointed out by somebody, probably Tinbergen or Lack or Wynn-Edwards or one of the other great bird-savvy ethologists of the day, that young Pelicans would blackmail their parents by biting their own wings, a very self defeating activity for a bird with a huge and powerful beak.

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Stolpman Vineyards: Para Maria de los Tecolotes (2017)

10,000 Birds

Owling on Christmas Bird Counts is a peculiar business. Some counters are unfailingly resolute in their dedication to this thankless graveyard shift of the birding world, marching headlong year after year into the bleak winter landscape in search of their heard-only, nocturnal quarry. There’s the whole role of chance in owling, too.

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The Domestic Turkey and the First Thanksgiving

10,000 Birds

The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. This is not entirely unknown among domestic animals, but many domesticates have no living wild version.

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Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean: A Book Review by a Lover of Parliaments

10,000 Birds

Here are some things I’ve learned from the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean by Scott Weidensaul: The Burrowing Owl is the only North American owl species where the male is larger than the female, albeit, only slightly larger. The 39 owls include five endemic Caribbean species.