10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2023

February 2023 was a slow month for birding in Shanghai, at least for me – so slow that I almost put the Spotted Dove , possibly my least favorite bird here, on the cover. Not a cover species The Black Kite is not actually black, but of course, misleading bird names are not exactly rare.

Birds 130

Birds Iraq China Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2024

Most serious bird photographers dislike taking pictures of birds wearing rings (or what on the other side of the Atlantic you call bands). I can sympathise, as a shiny new ring, clamped to a bird’s leg, rarely enhances its portrait. The information I received didn’t indicate the age of the bird.

Lithuania 130

Lithuania Morocco Iceland Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2024

Bohemian Waxwings are the rock stars of the bird world. No other bird on the British list has quite the same allure, or ability to tempt people to travel long distances to see them. For a start, they are extraordinarily beautiful birds, and there’s nothing else quite like them. It’s not difficult to see why.

Finland 225

Finland Estonia Bears Ireland 225

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2023

In short, it was the perfect day to go birding, so I grabbed my binoculars and camera and set off for the forest. The trouble with mature pine forest is that it isn’t really very good for birds, and in winter there’s little to be found there apart from Goldcrests and Coal T**s.

Barn Owls 226

Barn Owls Rats Japan Owls 226

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: After going on hiatus last year, Birds and Booze’s Whiskey Month at 10,000 Birds is back and setting its sights on whiskeys all month long this February. I must admit that this isn’t the bottle I had planned for the final installment of this year’s edition of Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze.

Eagles 221

Eagles Ireland Oregon Protection 221

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: After going on hiatus last year, Birds and Booze’s Whiskey Month at 10,000 Birds is back and setting its sights on whiskeys all month long this February. Illustration of a Short-eared Owl from The Birds of Great Britain (1873) by English ornithologist John Gould (1804-1881).

Owls 222

Owls New York New York City Cuba 222

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2020

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskeys all month long. In the above preface to Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze, we’re promised “rugged Celtic landscapes of Scotland and Ireland and the birds that inhabit them”.

Ireland 206

Ireland Branding Species Industry 206

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2017

It’s Christmas Bird Count season, and if you know Christmas Bird Counts you have probably heard the tale of how Frank Chapman invented this winter tradition to replace the older and considerably less optimal for birds tradition of the Christmas side hunt. And in Ireland, well… In Ireland they killed Wrens.

Ireland 134

Ireland New Zealand Hunting Cooking 134

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2020

Whisky Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskies all month long. An excellent whisky selection for any Burns Supper is the The Famous Grouse, which is not only the best-selling brand of whisky in Scotland but also features the best-known bird in the world of whisky.

Sheep 211

Sheep Branding Ireland Fowl 211

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2013

We can bird all over the world, and although we are not guaranteed a field guide to every single region and country in the world, there are a whole lot more of them than in the mid-1970’s, when world birders like Phoebe Snetsinger often had to put together their own checklists and guides. I couldn’t wait to give names to all my new species.

Ireland 180

Ireland France Breeding Eggs 180

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2020

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskeys all month long. But for such a cheery and spritely little bird, the robin’s long list of roles in legend and literature takes some dark and unexpected turns. Robins aren’t really quite red though.

Ireland 168

Ireland Branding Spain Compassion 168

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: After going on hiatus last year, Birds and Booze’s Whiskey Week at 10,000 Birds is back and setting its sights on whiskeys all month long this February. How else could a bird as fragile and dainty as a little kinglet make such a perilous journey? 1710/12-1775).

Owls 232

Owls Ireland United States Birds 232

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2012

On this final day of 2012 it is time, just like it was on the final days of 2010 and 2011 , to share your Best Birds of the Year. Well, actually, your Best Bird of the Year will only be shared here if you took the time to respond to the post in which we here at 10,000 Birds shared our Best Birds of the Year.

2012 133

2012 Ghana Ireland Birds 133

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2011

Picus viridis , the European Green Woodpecker is a bird that I longed to see during my early days as a feeder watcher. They range across most of Europe and into the southern parts of Scandinavia, but, like all other woodpeckers have shunned Ireland (Ireland does however have Guinness and the Irish, so there is some justice in the world).

Woodpeckers 169

Woodpeckers Ireland 2011 2010 169

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. This species is primarily an insectivore.

Cattle 170

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 170

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2015

It is probably a safe bet that readers at 10,000 Birds relish field guides irrespective of their subject. Steve Falk gives authoritative accounts and Richard Lewington provides the detailed illustrations in the Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland (a British Wildlife Guide published by Bloomsbury ).

Ireland 101

Ireland United States Game Species 101

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2016

Of course this is self-evident as you can never have enough gulls on a bird blog, but this blog here is in an especially dire need of more gull posts for the simple reason that I have a few nice pictures of gulls that would make for a few nice posts. It has come to my attention that this blog needs more gulls.

Europe 129

Europe Spain Italy Ireland 129

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. What is surprising is quite how many species did end up here, and how economically unimportant they were.

New Zealand 162

New Zealand Possums Rabbits Ferrets 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2020

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskeys all month long. Luckily, we needn’t wander into such whimsical territory to find Scotland’s putative national bird.

Eagles 164

Eagles Lions Hunting Lamb 164

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

I am a birder, and I love birds. I don’t mind that they share the world with other creatures, and I have even developed an appreciation for mammals, reptiles and amphibians – but only so long as watching them doesn’t collide with my finding birds. For Europe, only very few books exist that cover the topic at all.

Europe 166

Europe Mammals Animal Birds 166

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Perhaps the biggest event of this winter has been the late winter occurrence of hundreds of ‘white-winged gulls’ from Shetland to Dover and seemingly at all points in between we, in Britain & Ireland, have been inundated with Iceland Gulls and Glaucous Gulls in recent weeks. Till then good birding.

Ireland 156

Ireland Iceland Endangered Species Japan 156

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Larger, denser with avian information than your typical field guide, a Crossley Guide bursts with bird images, photographic plates that verge on the surreal of birds in all plumages and poses against real-life habitats, informing, sometimes overwhelming us with visual and, if you can take your eyes off the images, textual information.

Ducks 124

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 124

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2013

But no, Jim’s eyes only light up when I talk about the Red-tailed Hawk that observes feeder birds from the top of the pine tree behind our building, or the Northern Harriers that in fall kettle over that grasslands preserve. Sometimes, I’ll reply with a story about the sparrows found in a local grasslands preserve.

North America 222

North America Bald Eagle Falcons Owls 222

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

ForestPuffin was targeting this species as it is very habitat dependent and, unbeknownst to me, such habitat exists within a big stone’s throw of my house. During this time the chrysalis is constantly attended by the ants and it is thought unlikely that the species would be able to survive without the ants’ ministration.

Rabbits 156

Rabbits Ireland 2002 Sheep 156

10,000 Birds

MARCH 16, 2018

James’s Gate in Dublin has featured toucans in its colorful vintage advertisements, you don’t need me to remind you to drink Guinness on Saint Patrick’s Day – even when the world’s most iconic Irish beer occasionally replaces its Trinity College harp logo with a large-billed Neotropical bird best known in cartoon form. Sorry, Patrick.

Blackbirds 107

Blackbirds Wounded Stray 2013 107

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2019

In publishing the most current thinking, eBird have become the month’s biggest contributor to the life list, expanding it by 7 brand new species and pushing it to 3774. 7 species were added to the life list in the time-honoured fashion of actually identifying the birds in the field. I just live for this stuff!

2019 118

2019 Arizona Ghana Tucson 118