10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2015

On a recent afternoon’s visit to Forest Park’s famed waterhole the birds were coming in frequently and in abundance. In the one hundred and six minutes I spent at the waterhole seventeen species of wood-warbler stopped by for a drink or a bath. That’s just nuts!

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New York City New York Connecticut Nashville 181

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2021

Not only have we completed Birding Tourism February , but we’ve also collectively made it through what is usually one of the least exciting birding months of the calendar year. This is not to say that fantastic birds cannot be found in February, but rather that we’re mostly picking through the remainders of the last season.

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New York City Charlotte New York Jamaica 257

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2020

With hope, this was a memorable one for you, even if the birds weren’t particularly rare. However, many of the bird’s field marks were obscured because it flew far below me as I walked across the bridge I’ll always know as the Tappan Zee. What was your best bird of the weekend? Another weekend is in the books.

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2020 New York City Whales Whaling 249

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2011

Of course, that is just my perspective and I have been known to think that birds that don’t show up until May are late if they aren’t here by mid-April. I tend to get angry when I have not seen the number of birds I think I should have and when I am angry I type fast and crazily. Besides, suffering brings birds, right?

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New York City New York Walruses Birds 166

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2020

The last weekend lived up to my meager expectations of delivering only common species, but I did enjoy the Carolina Wrens in my yard chattering away, undoubtedly in delight that their aggressive House cousins were occupied elsewhere. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

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2020 New York City New York Birds 166

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 27, 2020

The birds we encountered up on the lake this weekend could only be described as mundane. Corey enjoyed a foul-weather seawatch on Saturday morning and birded a couple of locations Sunday morning before leading a walk for New York City Audubon in Forest Park. How about you?

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2020 New York City New York Birds 171

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

If you followed Dorian’s adventures on his Big Year blog, Biking for Birds , you are familiar with many of these stories, but not the major one, the internal journey that was going on inside Dorian’s mind as he pedaled and birded: his history and multi-year struggle with alcoholism and related addictions.

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Birds Los Angeles Massachusetts New York City 228

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2021

July in New York City is generally an unpleasant experience. This is why New Yorkers in summer have fled the city for the mountains upstate, the beaches on Long Island, or, really, anywhere, for as long as New York has been a metropolis. Not only that, but the birding is typically not great either.

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Jamaica Birds New York City New York 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2012

The New York Times has the story of this most improbable of discoveries.

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New York City New York New York Times Species 159

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Imagine for a moment that you are a bird. The trees are of one species and nearly devoid of insect life, the only plants are ornamental or lawn, and the amount of cover at ground level is virtually nil. Sometimes they are a very surprising species. It was a fun time even though, as usual, the species count was relatively low.

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New York City New York Birds Sparrows 225

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2020

New York City is the hottest of hot spots, and not in the fun, eBird meaning of the term but in the “holy moly our health system is going to collapse” meaning of the term. Over the years I’ve seen a variety of open-country birds there, including Bobolinks , Vesper Sparrow , and American Kestrel.

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Bald Eagle New York City Birds New York 196

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2021

Jim Wright is an author and birding columnist. Jim’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds was A Rare Caribbean Parrot on the Brink. In 2021, the American Ornithological Society announced that it has now classified the Bahama Nuthatch as a distinct species, Sitta insularis. There’s just one problem.

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Bahamas Philadelphia 2004 United States 344

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

I am shocked to be writing this post already, and doubly shocked that I’ve seen six new species for Queens since I guessed what my next five Queens birds would be just eight months ago, back in March. It’s been a good year for birding in Queens! Fortunately, there are birds to help. I’ll make it three!

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New York City Birds New York Blackbirds 153

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 261

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2019

On one gray, drizzly morning this week, I set out to bird my local patch in Albany, New York, and found 56 species in a few hours of aimless, unhurried traipsing. This is the third fall migration for which Kings County Brewers Collective has brewed Safe Flight IPA to benefit New York City Audubon’s Project Safe Flight.

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Collecting New York City New York Sparrows 123

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2019

A hot weekend doesn’t necessarily make for hot birding, but things may be warming up on that front. One truth you learn in the birding business is that birds are always moving in one direction or another. I definitely didn’t see much, but sometimes the usual species satisfy well enough. How about you?

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2019 New York City Virginia New York 142

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2021

As sad as I am to say it, I must: 2021 was one of my worst years for birding since I started looking at feathered creatures with intent in 2006. COVID kept me from traveling internationally, and my only major domestic trip of the year was to California where I have birded quite a bit already. All that said, 2021 was not a total loss.

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New York Birds California Owls 262

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Last week here at 10,000 Birds we did a theme week called “ Extinction Week.” His topic was the report recently issued by the Audubon Society where the organization claimed 314 species of birds in the United States and Canada are threatened by climate change. We only have one planet and about 10,000 species of bird.

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New York City New York United States Canada 227

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2018

Without any real birding or outdoor activity during what was a gorgeous New York weekend, I still observed plenty of birds. What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. Did your weekend feature any fall migrants?

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2018 New York City New York Birds 124

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

But for some poorly (or not-at-all) understood reason, its spread across North America has shown a very northwesterly orientation, so while birders as far away from the epicenter of the North American introduction in Florida as British Columbia get to see Eurasian Collared-Doves regularly we New Yorkers and other northeasterners are deprived.

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New York New York City North America Bahamas 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

At the end of 2022, let us celebrate the local field guide, a sub-genre that many of us feared would die, the victim of technology, development, and globalization, but which still shines bright, fewer in number but brilliant in quality, thanks to birders and birding organizations that believe in knowing your patch and your state.

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Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2019

This pocket park is well known by New York City birders as a migrant trap and this fall has been no exception. What finally got me to lug my camera for a before work birding outing this morning was reports of a Prothonotary Warbler yesterday, a bird that was last reported in 2010 in Bryant Park and one which I never mind seeing.

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New York City Birds Sparrows New York 125

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

Many birders have places they return to year after year, special pilgrimages promising scenes and species they see nowhere else. Enjoying these locations over time allows us to experience our beloved birding sites in all their multifaceted glory, even when those facets aren’t exactly glorious. How about you?

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2018 Ponies New York City Tennessee 124

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2019

Fortunately, I was able to spot one extremely quiet and still bird… I think it was frozen! Corey enjoyed leading a New York City Audubon bird walk at Forest Park on Saturday morning and visiting Breezy Point on Sunday. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

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2019 New York City New York Birds 113

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2022

The American Birding Association has declared that 2022 is the year of the Burrowing Owl, but if Rosemary Mosco has her way, it will also be the year of the Rock Pigeon. Yes, sure, Rock Pigeons are not a vulnerable species, unless you count the number of times they have been mocked, scorned, and shooed away. Watcha looking at, human?”

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2018 New York City Birds Abandon 229

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Perhaps most known throughout New York City for mafia ties and a couple of hate crimes against African-Americans, Howard Beach was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. For most residents of the five boroughs, parrots are an anomalous sight in New York City. But once it does the idea is pretty popular.

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Parrots New York City New York New Jersey 237

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Nothing much tops birding in autumn. There are more birds in autumn than at any other time of year. Sparrows predominate but there are a host of other species to find and identify. Nice weather, lots of birds, and the potential for rarity. There’s something to be said for a bird that sticks out the tough weather.

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New York City Birds New York Sparrows 141

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.

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Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2020

There are owls in New York City. The NYC owls have little to do with the book in front of me except that it too is about birds and people. The 26 essays in When Birds Are Near are all about the real-life and emotional spaces where people overlap with birds.

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New York City Birds Owls Fox 198

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).

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Owls New York New York City Cuba 222

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In this post, we’ll share the most positive of the positives, at least for those who write for 10,000 Birds who decided to share. For a birder every year is a blank slate on which to write a new list. Of all the birds that make the list for a given year one of those birds must be the Best Bird of the Year.

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2020 Birds Costa Rica Germany 245

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2014

Assuming that your over-worked eyes are as blurry as mine at the moment, we should get right down to business and talk birds… The best of the many warblers I uncovered at Cobbs Hill this weekend was an entirely improbable Kentucky Warbler. What was your best bird of the weekend? Birding best bird weekend'

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New York City 2014 Kentucky New York 199

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2015

At least that means winter birds are on their way. Corey had a huge number of birds to choose from this weekend as northwest winds were continuous through New York City all weekend long. After all, the two birds doubled his total number of Grasshopper Sparrow sightings in his home borough! How about you?

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New York City 2015 New York Sparrows 150

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2018

This crazy climate change must be wreaking havoc on birds. Well, maybe I was confused at the appearance of this unexpected bird, but it was definitely noisy. Corey spent all weekend searching across Queens for birds to add to his year list. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

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New York City 2018 New York Birds 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2018

The question isn’t whether you went birding this weekend, because everyone who wasn’t part of the Royal Wedding was out chasing birds. Not only did I bag the beautiful bird I expected, but I also encountered a tasty species I never expect there until I see it every year: Olive-sided Flycatcher. How about you?

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New York City 2018 Jamaica New York 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2016

I opened the year in California and even though I flew out in the evening on New Year’s Day I did see some species out there that I would otherwise not have seen for the year. Winter birding around New York City was just so-so but I did add one species to my Queens list. Aaaarrrgghhhh!

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2016 Puerto Rico New York City New York 139

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 28, 2018

Corey had a wonderful weekend of birding, hitting a variety of spots across Queens on Saturday and then leading a New York City Audubon field trip looking for ducks in central Queens on Sunday. It was his first in Queens in two years and easily his Best Bird of the Weekend. What was your best bird of the weekend?

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2018 New York City New York Birds 100