10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

Isn’t it a Eurasian bird?… No, I’d remember that, I didn’t see that many birds in France. Our Target Bird . Had the bird moved to a different area? I drove up to where now only two cars were parked, and saw Steve and Isaac, two New York birding friends, stood in the middle of the median.

New York 150

New York North America France Feral Cats 150

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2012

Disbelief probably seems like the proper response to the idea that there are woodpeckers in New York City. But Gotham’s many parks have some very suitable habitat for birds from the family Picidae and a birder in any borough of New York will generally find at least a couple of species during an average morning’s birding.

New York City 240

New York City New York Woodpeckers New Jersey 240

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2014

We talked about past trips, birds we wanted to see, and birders who were not on board the boat. There were three birds I really wanted to see. They were: Audubon’s Shearwater – This is the last regularly occurring shearwater in New York State that I had yet to ever lay eyes on. And what birds!

New York 178

New York Sea Turtles Whales Whaling 178

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2012

Of course, on my ride I had been texting and calling other birders, both with the hope of finding more information and to let others know about the bird. The bird that featured prominently in the four-word text message I had received: “Grace’s Warbler point lookout.” But enough about the birders, where was the bird?

New York 195

New York New York City North America America 195

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2013

The first weekend in November will see birders from all over the Empire State descend on Long Island for the 66th Annual Meeting of the New York State Ornithological Association ( NYSOA ). Right now ! Birding New York' So sign up ! Don’t delay !

New York 136

New York Family Rights Birds 136

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2015

We have had days of northwest winds in New York and the birds have taken full advantage of the favorable conditions to hightail it south. Though sparrows tend to be the main focus of mid-to-late October birding here in New York City there are still plenty of other birds to see like the Eastern Phoebe up above.

New York City 152

New York City New York Sparrows Eggs 152

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

The first weekend in November will see birders from all over the Empire State descend on Long Island for the 66th Annual Meeting of the New York State Ornithological Association ( NYSOA ). Concerned about climate change and birds? Interested in local bird status and distribution? Right now ! Birding New York'

New York 163

New York Family Birds Rights 163

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2021

May is a time for birding. We have the slow weeks and months for reading, writing, and dreaming about the birds we’d rather be seeing. Right now, though, we can watch and listen and enjoy. Corey enjoyed getting out early and birding both days this weekend, and has the lists to back him up. How about you?

New York 252

New York Sparrows Birds Breeding 252

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

February feels like a step forward to our next season, but we’ll still be as mired in winter or summer, depending on your hemisphere, at month’s end as we are right now. Corey enjoyed a long weekend in Narrowsburg, New York, along the Delaware River at the New York-Pennsylvania border. How about you?

Bald Eagle 195

Bald Eagle Delaware New York Pennsylvania 195

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2012

It was something like his fifth attempt at the bird. That made me wonder why someone would put so much energy into a species that is regular in New York and not a lifer. Birders are confused – is Anthony doing a big year or is he just a birding machine?

New York 171

New York Stray Vermont Marine Life 171

10,000 Birds

MAY 9, 2016

Gray Kingbirds are rarely seen in New York State and when they are they usually are only seen by the person or people who find them or those in the immediate vicinity. That made the Gray Kingbird that was found way up in Livingston County on Monday, 2 May, such an intriguing bird. Such fluffy cuteness!

New York 101

New York Bald Eagle McDonalds Fast Food 101

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2014

On Sunday morning I was out birding across several Queens hotspots with my friend Seth. He’s a big fan of the grasshoppers and crickets that swarm over the landfill in autumn and he actually was talking about how he wanted to see birds too. Not a bad bird for number 306 on the Queens list. Then, a discovery!

New York 174

New York New York City Rights Family 174

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2021

Fortunately, we have birds to look at, so let’s focus on them right now. Fortunately, we have an expansive view of weekends here at 10,000 Birds so I can choose one of the birds I saw in California on Friday before I flew out as my Best Bird of the Weekend. So that will be my Best Bird of the Weekend.

Alaska 216

Alaska California Birds New York 216

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2012

That changed when I got on the computer and learned that a birder way up in northern New York, on the Tug Hill Plateau, had reported a heck of a bird coming to her feeder. Nancy Loomis had a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch , New York’s second* record, and I was not going to miss this bird again.

New York 176

New York New York City New Mexico Mexico 176

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

That’s right, I, along with my family and some really good friends, was camping. Our campsite was gorgeous North Lake State Park in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, where the air is crisp, the forests are largely intact, and the bears force you to be careful about leaving food out when you go to sleep.

New York 174

New York Cooking Chipmunks Owls 174

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2022

I’m not quite sure where I was at the time, probably working, and it was six more years till I got my state Henslow’s Sparrow at Shawangunk NWR (a shorter drive and a more cooperative bird). She frames her story with first a Doonesbury comic strip (remember Dick Davenport, the bird watcher?)

Birds 261

Birds Sparrows Connecticut New York 261

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

I plan on spending most of this morning far away from any shopping mall, cruising around the farmland roads of northern Franklin County in New York’s North Country in search of birds. So, it was a real surprise to find that Right Brain Brewery of Traverse City, Michigan, makes an amber ale named Northern Hawk Owl.

Owls 153

Owls Rights Michigan Farming 153

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2023

You might think that birds don’t change the world, birds are the world – but by his odd title, Ten Birds That Changed the World, author Stephen Moss means, he says, that birds have, in various ways, led to “paradigm shifts” in human history. Maybe Moss is right, and birds have changed history. CAN $38.00.

Bald Eagle 149

Bald Eagle Montenegro Campaign Turkey 149

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

When I heard back on 12 November that a Harris’s Sparrow was frequenting a feeder in Loudonville, New York, up where I learned to be a birder, in Albany County, I really wanted to go on the twitch. Not only did the bird come out into the open, but it stayed there, foraging until we had our fill. White-throated?

New York 101

New York Sparrows New York City Woodpeckers 101

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Around about the middle of last week there were various and sundry birders from the great state of New York spending a seemingly inordinate amount of time paying attention to the weekend weather forecasts, particularly those that pertained to the marine forecast. A study in gray, the Northern Fulmar.

New York 201

New York Iceland New York City Suffering 201

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2013

My parents made the drive down to New York City to visit Daisy, Desi, and me in Queens on Sunday and I had a great plan for the day. This may come as somewhat of a surprise to those who don’t know about it but the waters just off of Queens can apparently be pretty good for whales at the right time of year. Year bird !

New York City 159

New York City New York Whales Whaling 159

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2014

Reports abounded of a huge variety of birds, from thrushes to nightjars, terns to vireos. Despite the amount of time spent birding I did not neglect my family at all, enjoying an outing to the Bronx Zoo on Saturday afternoon and a hike at Doodletown Road in Bear Mountain State Park on Sunday. And was it ever!

New York City 172

New York City New York Kentucky Abandon 172

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2011

Melanerpes lewis is, to put it simply, a really cool bird. Second of all, Lewis’s Woodpeckers are birds of the west and they rarely stray to New York State. In fact, the bird is the fifth recorded in the history of the state,* and the first spotted in the Empire State since 2001. What a bird!

New York 186

New York Woodpeckers Jordan 2011 186

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2020

During the rest of the year, when the birding is a bit quieter, I always try to find something interesting to write about each week at Birds and Booze – perhaps a beer with a species we haven’t seen before, or a wine label with an especially striking depiction of a bird, maybe something with a good story or a seasonal connection, and so on.

New York 253

New York North America America Rights 253

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2017

After all, exposing a child to nature is important in their development, right? Now, those of you familiar with my tendency to chase birds in New York and knowledgeable of the spate of Great Gray Owls we have had in 2017 might question why it took me to nearly the end of March to make a trip upstate to see one.

New York 101

New York Owls Beavers Puerto Rico 101

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2021

“This beautiful and singular bird, although a constant resident in the southern extremities of the peninsula of Florida, seldom extends its journeys in an eastern direction beyond the State of North Carolina.

New York 262

New York South Carolina North Carolina Massachusetts 262

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2015

Numerous times the birds came so close that I could not focus. Is this bird intent or what? I think Pine Warblers have just the right amount of color for an early wood-warbler. … Birds Forest Park Pine Warbler Queens wood-warblers' Today was one of those days. I hope the results speak for themselves. Pine Warbler!

New York 210

New York Rights Birds 210

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. That means that as of right now the yardstick I am holding does not exist because there are no yard sticks that are zero long. That will be much better, right?

New York City 162

New York City New York Walruses Birds 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2013

Pelagic birding is one of my favorite ways to bird. Being out on the open water looking for good birds and enjoying the camaraderie of fellow birders is, to put it simply, fun. Except, of course, for seeing lots of good birds. Sadly, lots of good birds were lacking on our 2 March 2013 trip out of Freeport, New York.

New York 146

New York Iceland Puffins Ducks 146

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

You want to find a Cave Swallow in New York, huh? Even if the birds are silhouetted you may be able to pick them out by their more flappy flight style. (At But what’s the big deal about seeing Cave Swallows in New York anyway? After all, it’s just another swallow, right?

New York 105

New York Florida Texas Breeding 105

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

But when a second hummingbird was reported at Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers, New York, it seemed worth checking out, especially because the second bird, unlike the first, which is a Rufous Hummingbird (at left), wasn’t identified to species in the email to the state listserv that alerted birders to its presence.

New York 182

New York Connecticut United States Rights 182

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

This year has been bountiful in books about bird behavior (reference and otherwise) from the likes of David Allen Sibley , Helen Macdonald, Jennifer Ackerman , Wenfei Tong, and others. The latest is the encyclopedic and delightful Peterson Reference Guide to Bird Behavior , by John Kricher. What do we mean, anyway, by bird “behavior”?

Bald Eagle 258

Bald Eagle Puffins 2001 Boston 258

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2021

Luckily for us, the gull featured on Rebuke, a Helles-style lager from Brown’s Brewing Company of Troy, New York, is depicted in silhouette, which gets us off the hook ID-wise, as far as I’m concerned. Good birding and happy drinking! The post Brown’s Brewing Company – Helles Rebuke appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

Germany 256

Germany New York Bears Rights 256

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Birds of Belize by Steve N. Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. Howell joined the field guide roster this spring, very welcome in a year sadly sparse in new titles. Dale Dyer put in years working on his paintings for Birds of Central America , both in the field and in the museum.

Costa Rica 205

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 205

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2022

Last week, Corey opened the “Top Ten Birds for 2021” season here at 10,000 Birds. He lamented that he had barely been able to travel during the year — only one trip from New York to California, poor boy — and then went on to give an impressive list of vagrants and first-of-state birds.

Mexico 211

Mexico Birds Virginia Barn Owls 211

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.

2020 223

2020 Birds Germany Costa Rica 223

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2023

Christian Cooper comes on screen about two-and-a-half minutes into The Central Park Effect , appreciating a Prothonotary Warbler at ‘the Point’ while telephoning a friend with the news (this is pre-text group), a nice hint of the collegial networks that underlie Central Park birding. Memoirs are rare in the birding world.

Emotional 220

Emotional Birds Minneapolis Nepal 220