10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

The main attraction for birders here are the hornbills – I have written about them before , so this post will be more on the other birds I saw there in 2017. The Blue Whistling Thrush is presumably named for its loud human-like whistling, and possibly for being blue.

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Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2024

The chapter titles of Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds represent both ends of the spectrum: “A World Full of Poisons,” “Malaria,” “Forest Intruders,” “Lead Shock,” “Shot.” Conservation. It’s not easy. This is the most intense, tragic section.

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California Condor Falcons California Birds 224

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2024

On the other hand, their white color and their considerable size made me see them as somewhat arrogant birds – the white Golf convertible of the bird world. And now we get to the part of the post in which I briefly and unscientifically mention a few research papers on the species to have a reason to post a few more of my photos.

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China Iceland Whales Whaling 244

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2022

In 2007 I was working in a university building that was just begging for bird feeders. This was where I set up my bird feeders, just one at first, then expanding as everyone expressed delight in seeing the Carolina Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Downy Woodpeckers. There were no dead birds for weeks. I hoped it was an anomaly.

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New York City Birds Illinois Science 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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Dissection Birds Research Europe 259

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.

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Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

I asked a group of wildlife rehabilitators: “What are some of the Worst Bird Myths? Rehabbers are very responsive, although constantly living under the gun makes us sometimes vent about species that aren’t necessarily the ones in question. Bats just love to fly into human hair!” million-year-old early human. s, “Gaaahh!”s

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Porcupines Raccoons Birds 189

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2016

Mark Gamin, a Cleveland lawyer, likes cats and birds both. This is Mark’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Agonizing quandaries concerning invasive species are well-known to wildlife biologists. In Oregon, the Barred Owl is taking over Northern Spotted Owl territory and threatening that smaller bird’s survival.

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Feral Cats Cats Tnr Feral 268

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2015

I look at the photo, and am enraged by how cruel and callous human beings can be. I have been a wild bird rehabilitator for 25 years. I have received countless numbers of wild birds mangled and/or killed by outdoor/feral cats, such as the Orange-crowned Warbler pictured here. Can your hearts be so species-specific?

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Feral Cats Feral Cats Rescue 255

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2015

This is what we need for birds, whose rights as government-protected species are violated every day by free-roaming cats. What birds need is their own SWAT team. Neighbor A’s private property and peace of mind are both suffering because of the cats, which are killing government-protected species. What can she do?

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Feral Cats Feral Cats Wildlife Rehabilitation 259

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2015

She runs Birds of Texas Rehabilitation Center in Austin County, Texas. He said the federal government’s and Alaska’s state rules were, for the most part, okay; they were consistent and generally made sense for the safety of both humans and wildlife, and in many respects, coincided with his own views of protecting the native environment.

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Collecting Wildlife Rehabilitation Solomon Islands Texas 240

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2016

They get a bad rap due to their dependence on carrion to survive, but I look at it a different way: these species do not have to kill in order to thrive! Most humans cannot say that. Columbia has chosen one of the world’s most massive flying species as its national bird: the Andean Condor.

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California Condor Livestock Endangered Species Killing 101

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

Not bad given that the 5 families in the inner circle of the laughingthrush family have a combined number of about 68 species. Presumably, in the early days of ornithology, some scientists spent most of their time transcribing bird calls. This post shows some of them. And of course, I would have been wrong.

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San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 252

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.

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Barn Owls Owls Serbia Finland 113

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) are among the most polarizing birds. They fulfill and important ecological and sanitary role by consuming dead, often diseased animals, as well as human generated organic waste. But as their numbers increase, so are the instances where human and Black vultures come in conflict.

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Killing Humane Birds Rights 167

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2012

A while back I asked the question, How much bird is there, anyway? I had noted that if you took a quick look around you’d think there were a lot of birds and very few mammals. And some of them would be hiding behind bushes waiting for a chance to jump on some of the birds. 3) Some of these birds were going to die anyway.

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Cats Boston Ferrets Killing 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2015

But the fact is nature has little to do with most problems facing native birds. Consider this: ninety percent of birds treated at wildlife centers are admitted as a result of human interactions that have nothing to do with “nature.” A personal encounter with a wild species changes one’s perspective.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 190

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

Hannah Buschert was first exposed to birds and birding during a required ornithology course at Oregon State University and she quickly caught the birding bug. This is Hannah’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Hannah and Erik ready to see some birds! I love to go on cruises.

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South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

You get three or four books in one with Jonathan Meiburg’s A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey. Meiburg doesn’t say it in so many words, but it’s almost as if he believes he and the birds are in telepathic converse. And it’s more than the sum of the parts.

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Guyana South America Washington DC 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 14, 2011

Dirt hawking is a form of falconry that involves hunting rabbits and other small game with Harris Hawks (other hawk species also qualify). One of the primary reasons that these hawks make such excellent falconry birds is because they are one of only two raptor species (the other is the Galapagos Hawk ) that hunt cooperatively.

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League Against Cruel Sports Rabbits Falcons Hunting 270

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2019

But I insisted he try the blood and violence guy, and he humored me, only to send me, later, a longish email, pointing out the flaws in my judgment and in the book and the author, and closing with this: “Since I didn’t care for any of his characters, I really didn’t care who killed whom.”. Fair enough.

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Humane 2018 Laws Science 168

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2018

Major extinction events that are geologically instantaneous have been followed by periods of time with reduction of species or unstable habitats that last for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Readers of 10,000 Birds know that diversity is one of the great hallmarks of modern day birds. More recently, Kelly J.

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2018 Science Humane Species 104

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2013

This week, a new study was published about Sparrows in Nebraska, that in some ways resembles the study by Bumpus and may well be a better example of Natural Selection in birds. House Sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) are introduced birds over most of their very large range. As you know, a lot of birds are killed in the U.S.

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Killing South Africa Nebraska Collecting 229

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.

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Birds North America Charlotte New Jersey 244

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2015

I was going to have something for you this month about the dinosaur-bird thing, but I never got to it. The potpourri covers some interesting bird related science of the last few weeks, and the promise is this: I’ll get to that other stuff soon, I promise! One of the birds most affected by this is Cassin’s Auklets.

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Science Iraq Research Birds 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

Robert Gallardo is well-known to many readers of 10,000 Birds as an outstanding Neotropical nature guide, author, and manager of La Chorcha Lodge. Everyone talks about human rights and there exists so many groups that are either governmental or non-governmental who work toward that cause. How many institutions exist who speak for them?

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Honduras illegal Parrots Birds 202

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 28, 2015

The previous set up made sure that you discounted 20 years of working in difficult jungle in remote countries to better understand and conserve rare and interesting species, and gets you ready to treat him like the truly arrogant monster he undoubtedly is. You see, the bird was collected for scientific study. Or how gracefully it flew?

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Collecting Papua New Guinea Science Birds 182

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2011

When climate changes, causing habitats to move, birds can get up and fly away to a new habitat, so really, they’ll be fine. I’ve been working on climate change lately (not causing it, but reading and writing about it) and birds have come up in a few places. Similar things happen to both fish and birds.

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Penguins Birds Cooking Fish 235

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2015

You (or your child/friend/etc) have just found a seemingly parentless baby bird. Here with the answer(s) is Maureen Eiger, a bird rehabilitator in Roanoke, VA: . Wild bird rehabilitators want bird parents to feed their own babies. Putting a baby bird back in its nest is not always the right thing to do.

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Wounded Rescue Medical Cats 257

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

Birds are supposed to have feathers and birds without feathers look incomplete, like they left home with shaving cream on their ear and toothpaste spots on their shirt. The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. Griffon Vulture , photo by Alan Tilmouth.

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California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 215

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2013

She has lived in Maine, California, France, New York, and currently makes her home in Virginia Beach Always bringing her camera along, Erika is building her life-list by trying to check off at least one new species each week in her field guide. She previously wrote on 10,000 Birds about birding in the Washington DC cherry blossoms.

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Florida DC Washington Birds 191

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Most of the books about extinction, including Fuller’s Extinct Birds (now, ironically, out of print), describe what was lost and look for explanations, scientifically and historically. The idea of Lost Animals was conceived after the publication of Extinct Birds (2001), a 400-page, four-pound book on 75 extinct species.

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Animal Mammals Hawaii Dolphins 270

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

I fully realize that my last post was not a bird post in the strictest sense. That’s why I won’t talk too much this time – just the birds. Instead, the species distinguises itself as one of the worst ambassadors of conservation there are in the avian world. Aspect one is feeding when humans are not around.

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Germany Russia Iceland India 192

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2013

The birds were observed crashing into the rocks high in the Andean mountains near a hydroelectric power plant. Other birds were seen crash landing. As Chilean officials and volunteers rescued 17 birds they noticed the birds were foaming from the beak. It is estimated that only a few thousand birds remain in the wild.

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Livestock Chile Colombia Ecuador 199

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 17, 2014

Developed in the post-frontier era, the NAMWC helped put a stop to wanton wildlife destruction in an era where many species were being hunted and trapped ruthlessly to the brink of extinction. ” This leads to obvious conflicts with the NAMWC prohibition against the frivolous killing and waste of wildlife.

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Wildlife Coyotes Hunters Wolves 254

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2018

Owls are mystical beasts that are well loved by both birders and those who casually look at birds. There are many species that captivate those looking at them: Burrowing Owls , Barn Owls , a variety of fishing-owls, Stygian Owl , Elf Owl , the list goes on and on. Clearly, Snowy Owls are much more murderous and macabre.

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Owls Barn Owls Woodpeckers Bahamas 186

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2015

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. Or, even, many of them. Should we be concerned about H5N2?

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Mississippi Fowl Turkey Minnesota 186