10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

May is a busy month for birds migrating through Shanghai – and of course, last May was completely missed due to the lockdown. So, I spent a lot of time birding this month, and to keep this post at a manageable length, it mostly only covers the first half of May. The video is notable for the bird basically refusing to move at all.

Birds 130

Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

APRIL 14, 2023

In the human psyche, owls can be cuddly signs of good luck and benificence (as they are in Japan, and Harry Potter movies) and, at the same time, eerie and unsettling. Either way, they are perhaps more central to our stories and lore than other birds, a familiar example, as Darlington reminds us, being Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Barn Owls 113

Barn Owls Owls Serbia Finland 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2019

While the hunting of game with trained birds of prey can be a controversial topic among birders , falconry was a valuable early source of information on birds, and its history, culture, and imagery continue to fascinate bird lovers, as we shall see.

2016 130

2016 Portugal Falcons Japan 130

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2020

The Ural Owl inhabits old and undisturbed boreal forests, in an unbroken belt from Sweden and Finland across Russia to Japan, and is rarely seen to the south, only here and there, in the Carpathians (Slovakia/Ukraine/Romania/eastern Serbia) and Dinaric Alps (Croatia/Bosnia/western Serbia). Absolutely thrilled!

Serbia 246

Serbia Owls Slovakia Bosnia 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2016

While birding the fir forests of the Greek island of Kefallonia , I noted: Coal T**s move here in about dozen or (likely) more strong groups, chitchatting all the time. According to the new study by Toshitaka Suzuki and others, birds do talk (and possibly laugh, too). Don’t you hate those people who say “I told you so”?

Sweden 182

Sweden Research Japan Germany 182

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It took me a while to wrap my mind around the concept of Birds and People , Mark Cocker and David Tipling’s book that, in 592 pages, explores the intersection of just that—birds and us. Nor have I overlooked “sightings” of birds in movies mouthing other birds’ calls. I’m not sure why.

Birds 220

Birds Egypt Family Eagles 220

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2013

You may not realize it when you look at those bizarre looking waders with the massive bills and the vacant expression, but you’re looking at a group of birds that has inspired humankind for literal centuries. It’s clear that ibis have been part of human civilization for as long as there has been civilization of which to be part.

Birds 218

Birds North America Charlotte New Jersey 218

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

Will Raup is a birder from upstate New York who helped Corey learn a lot about birds when Corey was first starting out as a birder. When you think of invasives, you think of the birds that have been helped by human beings to get where they are, such as House Sparrow or European Starling. ibis and the eastern B. coromandus.

Cattle 170

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 170

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

I’ve been fortunate to encounter many owls in my birding life, sometimes because I’m looking for them, sometimes happily by happenstance. It’s also about human-owl interaction on an individual level and a wider sociocultural level, and ultimately how we can use all this for habitat and bird conservation.

Owls 219

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 219

4 The Love Of Animals

MAY 8, 2011

Gazing at Cathy Conheim, a psychotherapist raised to hate cats because they ate birds, and Donna Brooks, a retired physician and sculptor who had never had a cat, but always reached out to heal anyone who was hurting, the kitten eyed them hopefully. Over the past six years, Henry has received almost 50,000 letters from humans and critters.

San Diego 100

San Diego Kittens Emotional Cats 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2022

The bird is easy to identify – if it is small, cute, and black, white, and brown, you have found it (though admittedly, a more qualified description can be found at Shanghaibirding ). Sometimes I do not understand the attraction of bird photography either. A female on Chongming Island gave me a very skeptical look.

Birds 221

Birds Chickens Mammals Japan 221

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

Well, they mainly feed on birds, which may explain their low popularity. For the White-throated Rock Thrush , Wikipedia gives the slightly puzzling statement “The bird’s population is unknown, but is not increasing or declining.” Even if they look as charming as this Northern Boobook. Unfortunately, it is true though.

Birds 203

Birds China Eggs Owls 203

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2022

And in my customary environmentally friendly approach to recycling bird photos, I have collected some of them in this post. It is not a bird I am ever likely to find boring, though. If you ever need help with bird id, make sure to ask him, not me. Still, coming here often guarantees to see some of them eventually.

Falcons 249

Falcons Japan China South Africa 249

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

How when he needed a dissertation topic in 2005 (studying at the University of Minnesota), it was either Hooded Crane or Blakiston’s Fish Owl, both iconic birds of the area. It is also native to Japan, where it is protected and protectively studied to the point where Slaght had trouble getting any information.).

Owls 139

Owls Russia Fish Research 139

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

birds that we are lucky to have with us today, species that seem to have beat the odds and have been migrating on the long and bumpy road to recovery. They bred on a number of islands near Japan and Taiwan, and ranged widely and abundantly from the Aleutian Islands south through California. Here are some U.S.

Albatross 210

Albatross Endangered Species Geese Alaska 210

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

At Sea With the Marine Birds of the Raincoast opens with the unexpected appearance of a Laysan Albatross. Having shown us the bird, the boat, and the water, Fox then introduces herself: “Albatrosses, petrels, fulmars, puffins and gulls live out their lives along these transect lines; my job is to count them all.”.

Fox 100

Fox Albatross Geese Bald Eagle 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Acrocephalus palustris is the old world Marsh Warbler, and is one of the birds in the Chernobyl area. And, of course, of all the tissues that make up a bird or a mammal, neural tissue is the most demanding of oxygen. A recent study, Chernobyl Birds Have Smaller Brains , looks at this in birds at Chernobyl.

Mammals 239

Mammals Birds Fish Cooking 239

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2024

Similar to humans, they are “believed to pair for life” though the reality is a bit more complex: “study in China found that 40% of broods contained young resulting from extra-pair couplings” (HBW). According to the HBW, the species is one of Japan’s three most popular cagebirds. Or built a wall around it.

North Korea 198

North Korea Japan China 2012 198

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2023

One study in Korea found that 37% of injuries and deaths were caused by predation by natural enemies, another 37% (a worryingly high number) by window strikes, 10% by traffic accidents, 7% each by flooding and dehydration, and 3% by human disturbance. I think the photo shows a male bird, as certain parts of the head seem more black than grey.

Birds 130

Birds China Research Tenant 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

Picidae, Woodpecker, is one of those charismatic bird families that everybody gets excited about. He was also an early social media adapter, and currently maintains eight nature and birding web sites, including one based on this book. The poetry is in the words themselves and the photographs.

Woodpeckers 248

Woodpeckers 2002 Europe Research 248

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

I did not find much about this bird online except for a paper with the exciting title “A new quill mite Torotrogla emberizae sp. Acariformes: Syringophilidae) from the Chestnut-eared Bunting (Passeriformes: Emberizidae) in Japan (morphology and DNA barcode data)” Ah, to be a scientist.

Birds 215

Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 215