10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2018

Birders follow different patterns of bird migration and their local activities and travel accordingly. It illustrates the bird richness per country. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands. 1101-1200 sp: Mexico; Argentina; DR Congo (Kinshasa), Tanzania, Kenya; India.

Equatorial Guinea 194

Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Guyana Central African Republic 194

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2014

The Steller’s Jay ( Cyanocitta stelleri ) is one of the ubiquitous birds seen at Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. They are a non-migratory species found in western coniferous and mixed-coniferous forests, breeding from Alaska, western Canada, and the United States south through western Mexico to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua 171

Nicaragua Alaska United States Canada 171

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

Birds know habitat. They don’t read treaties or draw maps or build walls and, as far as we can tell (since we can’t talk to birds, yet), they have no concept of political boundaries. Robert Gallardo’s self-published Guide to the Birds of Honduras came out in 2015, and is the first bird field guide dedicated to that country.

El Salvador 232

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 232

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2016

Birders concerned with ticking off bird species from a list in North America already know all about the AOU Supplement. For folks who don’t put much emphasis on taxonomic issues and classification of the birds they see, let’s start by saying that we aren’t talking about something that adds extra vitamins to your diet.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica 2016 South America Panama 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2015

Mountains are a boon for birding. The montane forests of Costa Rica and western Panama are home to at least 50 species of birds that live nowhere else except for one or two that also occur in northwestern Colombia. Bird the high elevation habitats of the Talamancan Mountain Range and the regional endemics rule.

Costa Rica 150

Costa Rica Panama Nicaragua Honduras 150

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2015

Quetzal is THE beloved, sacred bird of Guatemala and they do live there (and in southern Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) BUT are more accessible in Costa Rica. If the birds are feeding along the road, you can just as easily find them yourself. These people feed birds. Yes, the R.

Costa Rica 150

Costa Rica Panama Nicaragua Honduras 150

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2017

Unless those non-birding folks happen to be duck hunters or love to go fishing, they tend to stay away from the marshes, the riparian zones, the bottom lands. See the birds? There are two main wetland areas in Costa Rica, one in the Tempisque River floodplain, and the other in wetland areas associated with Lake Nicaragua.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica Birds Ducks Pelicans 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Which, naturally, got me to thinking about the newly erected order Suliformes, a development I mentioned in my December column, 2010′s Top 10 Developments in Bird Taxonomy and Systematics , but which I thought deserved further examination, for it’s one of those stories that defines the era in which we are living and birding.

2011 152

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 152

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. It is the first bird field guide to every country of Central America (plus the islands governed by those countries).

America 213

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 213

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2021

I’ll be honest: As much as I enjoy writing for 10,000 Birds, there is an element of anxiety to the commitment. Every plant is blooming, and hummingbirds, our most colorful birds, are everywhere. I’m quite fond of the Black-headed Siskin , a tropical finch found from Mexico to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua 236

Nicaragua Mexico Guatemala Nashville 236

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2021

The first words describing this species in Wikipedia are “poorly-documented” Before 2015, when I first saw it in Paso Ancho, it had only been reported twice on eBird outside of its Sierra Madre Occidental breeding range: once from Taxco, Mexico, and another report from Nicaragua. Are those enough Orange-breasted Buntings ?

2016 262

2016 2015 Nicaragua Mexico 262

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

And, for all our complaints about brown and gray plumages, gulls can be beautiful birds (well, some more beautiful than others, and Heermann’s Gull is one of my favorites, with one N at the end or two). In a birding world that celebrates identification, there are surprisingly few articles and books on gull identification.**

North America 199

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 199

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

But you are here for the birds. The curse of forest birding - a bird drought. Maybe the birds will come to you. They are the only birds able to fly backwards and the 340-odd species come in many different forms. Fantastic caterpillars, otherworldly insects, ghoulish spiders, tiny scattering creatures.

Colombia 279

Colombia Ecuador Bolivia Peru 279