10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2023

The (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record – which is the book’s full title, or Arjan Dwarshuis’s Big Year, as I prefer to call it shortly, is a highly anticipated and a long awaited travelogue of the author’s 2016 race against time across 40 countries in his attempt to break the world birding record.

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Papua New Guinea Guinea Suriname South America 263

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Breezy Point, the westernmost tip of the barrier islands that protect Long Island’s south shore, is also the southwestern most portion of Queens and one of my favorite locations to look for birds. Five Field Sparrows in February in Queens is unprecedented for me but that’s how many I counted in that one flock.

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Birds Sparrows Ducks Fish 202

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The poster bird of this area is the near-threatened Black-necked Crane. Not sure how I (or the bird itself) feel about the bird being named after a bird collector, though. A beautiful bird, but a disastrous name, if even some of the accusations against Przevalski of him being a massive racist are true. .”

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China Mongolia Birds Russia 196

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

It is near a river, attracting some birds that like to eat wet food. As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The birds I asked about this pretended not to be related to anyone though.

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Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

If you like birds on posts, if seeing “little brown jobs” posing nicely in the distance as you drive or walk along a dirt road only to have it fly away as you approach makes you deliriously happy, then North Dakota is the place for you. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Scott Barnes, N.J.

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North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 160

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2019

Costa Rica is well known for national parks and other protected areas than offer access to tropical ecosystems dripping with biodiversity. Lots of birds, a lot of really cool birds! Our birding was particularly productive for the Central Valley but still gives an idea of what can be found in and near urban areas of Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Birds Parrots Sparrows 203

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2020

That could certainly change at any time but for the moment, the distancing is paying off and although there are some driving curfews and restrictions, members of the birding community could still head out to watch birds. Based on eBird and Facebook reports, it looks like most local birders are sticking to yard birding.

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Costa Rica Birds Mississippi Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2021

I am so happy to be back on 10,000 birds – I have missed Mike and Corey and my fellow Beat Writers! Normally I rant about environmental dangers and describe heartwarming/mind-boggling/headscratching wild bird rescues. Five hatchling House Sparrows in a Happy Meal box,” said Johanna Walton, also in Connecticut.

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Transported Wildlife Rehabilitation Bats Opossums 279

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

It stops those thousands of migrating birds flying across the Gulf of Mexico and directs them right onto the trees, fields, sanctuaries, beaches along the Bolivar Peninsula, where they hopefully find food and fresh water. And us, the birders who travel here from March to May to worship the birds as they seek to survive.

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Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 244

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2015

Now this is only a personal suspicion, but I reckon that the birds of the Sonoran Desert have set up candid cameras and are getting their Youtube footage by enticing birders close enough to the cholla bushes for the spiked fruit to make the leap onto their innocent carriers. Birding Arizona Cactus Wren Sonoran Desert'

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Phoenix Arizona Kittens Birds 185

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2022

For some reason that I do not quite understand myself – given that I really rather dislike children and am not too positive about the rest of humanity either – I recently put up a little display of bird photos inside my Shanghai compound, which I share (as the only foreigner) with about 1700 Chinese. Some Birds of Shanghai.

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Birds Fish Germany China 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 25, 2019

I’m hardly the first person to observe that it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed by bad environmental news, and the title Endangered and Disappearing Birds of the Midwest sounds like a pretty major downer. Endangered and Disappearing Birds of the Midwest by Matt Williams – Indiana University Press, $29.00.

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Indiana Downers Iowa Illinois 142

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

I had set aside the morning of Sunday, June 10th to cross the San Francisco Peninsula to the Pacific Ocean town of Half Moon Bay, a mere 25 minute drive away, for a few hours of birding. My camera and binoculars, protected by the light coat I had packed, were wet but fully functional. The Song Sparrows were wet.

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San Francisco San Jose California Battery 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2013

and you’ve got good weather forecast this weekend, you’re probably looking forward to some birding. Disclosure: the White-throated Sparrows and Brown Creepers have started invading Chicago this week, and on my morning rounds I spotted a first-of-season Dark-eyed Junco. If you’re in the U.S. Good times, huh?

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Eagles Chicago Protection 183

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

However, no matter how one enjoys or takes in interest in the avian side of life, an official list of the birds for a given area is of vital importance. With the rise in birding tourism, bird lists for entire countries have also become increasingly important. Not every list has Great Tinamou on it. Juvenile Gray Hawk.

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Costa Rica Birds Owls South America 203

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2018

It’s busy on the birding side of things as well. Migrant species are around, rarities are waiting to be found (such as, believe it or not, Lincoln’s Sparrow ), and, most of all, we have Christmas Counts to attend to. The counts act as our end of the year birding festivities and 2018 brings us more than ever.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Falcons 196

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

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. He noted that this new bird had longer bills and “darker loral and auricular regions” than the mainland Brown-headed Nuthatch, and collected two of them for science.

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Bahamas Philadelphia 2004 United States 344

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Colorado is unique in many respects, so it comes as no surprise that its residents went in a different direction when selecting their state bird. Unlike many other official birds, the Lark Bunting is not a year-round resident. Lark Buntings are prairie birds, and breed in open meadow, sagebrush, and plains.

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Colorado Legislature North America New Mexico 104

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Carara National Park isn’t just any old protected area. It’s one of the top birding hotspots in Costa Rica and Central America. That’s alright because given the wealth of bird species all over, you can begin with the binos wherever you want and always see a lot. But back to the birds.

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Costa Rica Birds Malaysia Protection 173

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2018

This year, the one now coming to a close, has been “The Year of the Bird,” as declared by National Geographic (as well as the National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and BirdLife International). It takes into its lens context and surroundings and makes them as important as the central bird (or other animal) subject.

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Birds Minnesota Protest Protesting 130

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2016

There is very little fresh water, at least to be found year round, but the bird populations all seem to do just fine. Exploring one of the rugged, 4×4 side roads, my wife and I ran across a very nicely treed little valley that ended up against some steep protective rocks.

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Zebras Birds Sparrows Mexico 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

Despite all this red tape stuff, I am still making some time for birding. This refuge came up as #4 on a recent list of the top 25 National Wildlife Refuges that were featured in a great story here by 10000 Birds own Jason Crotty. Over 200 species of birds can be found on the refuge, depending on the time of year. Nisqually NWR.

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Fox Washington Geese Sparrows 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2011

Being a New Yorker, I had never birded the refuge before. After all, why would I drive over two hours to bird in habitat that is very similar to much closer locations? The remnant of this once vast tidal marsh is protected by the refuge. At that time, the tidal marshes measured over 5,700 acres. Tell them I sent you.

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Wildlife Philadelphia Bald Eagle Pennsylvania 247

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2013

It’s that special time of year when birds begin to move north and people see a migrant during a snow storm and ask, “Can that bird survive??” As long as the birds can find some open water and reliable fish, they should be fine. And a lot of birds that you see in colder temperatures are able to survive it.

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Minnesota Coyotes Nashville Birds 225

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2019

“Target birds” The term can foster excitement but is easily contentious. Aren’t all birds worth watching? There’s nothing wrong with appreciating and watching every bird but there’s also nothing wrong about going to great efforts to see lifers only found in dreams. Fiery-throated Hummingbird.

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Costa Rica Panama Birds Eagles 203

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2013

Calilegua National Park Birding – Trip Report. … continued from: Bird Watching Laguna del los Pozuelos. We had originally planned to stay this night at Yavi but we decided to give ourselves more time to explore Calilegua where there are more birds. This bird is stunningly beautiful and has lots of contrasting colors.

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Woodpeckers Birds Parrots Argentina 182

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2019

That is because Lago de Cuitzeo receives a huge number of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, with smaller numbers of sparrows, buntings, and other migratory birds in the areas around the lake’s shore. Not only are the species numbers good, but the spectacle of so, so many individual birds can be thrilling.

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Ducks Blackbirds United States Pelicans 118

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Happy New Year, 10,000 Birds readers and writers! Everyone is looking back on their best birds of 2019, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a book that looks back a little further: Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City , by P. The Bronx also has a special place in birding history.

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New York City New York Birds Breeding 169

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2020

The potential for contagion through clicking on links has long been acknowledged and with a desire to protect our precious readers, the links have been discontinued. House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum). Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla).

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2020 Sparrows Niger Woodpeckers 158

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2018

We were heading to the Djerdap (Iron Gates) Gorge National Park, stretching along the south bank of the Danube in eastern Serbia, to do the 400 km / 250 mi bird tour interconnecting possibly the very best sites around Belgrade reachable within a day. The deep beech forest of Djerdap was still full of birds. It shows again, flying back.

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Serbia Woodpeckers Birds Bears 125

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2012

For far too long there has been a bird that North American birders have mocked, derided, persecuted, hated, and, perhaps worse of all, ignored. It is a common bird, seen in cities, suburbs, and agricultural lands. It is accused of driving native species out and it has the protection of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act withheld from it.

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Sparrows Campaign 2010 Species 172

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 28, 2017

Birds begin to filter down through this southern part of Central America by August but the biggest avian movement happens during the third and final weeks of October. While birders up north are pishing up sparrows, digging the Autumn weekend at Cape May, or twitching vagrants, we are busy with kingbird flocks during our height of migration.

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Costa Rica Birds Parrots Farming 181

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

One of these days, Jeopardy will feature a category called “Field Guides” and the first clue will be: “This landlocked South American country finally got its own bird field guide in 2016, but it wasn’t available in the United State until 2019.” Bolivia doesn’t come up much in discussions of birding travel.

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Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 196

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Beside birds, in this park you stand a chance of spotting the Eurasian Lynx , Brown Bear and Gray Wolf ! Even among the protected areas of Serbia, the Iron Gates National Park (in Serbian: Djerdap) stands out as better preserved. Well, do you really? So, yes – it is possible, but by no means easy.

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Serbia Turtles Birds Eagles 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2018

After leaving Africa, I was fearing a real let down in my birding. Probably not on most birders Top Ten list, but it was a natural layover for us, we had some great friends living there, and there is a decent list of birds to be added to any year list. Where do you go from there? Well, for us, we went to Doha, Qatar.

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Qatar Sparrows South Africa Africa 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Bird Surprises Bird Surprises By Bill • March 8, 2011 • 9 comments Tweet Share Sometimes we watchers see birds do things that surprise us—things birds are not supposed to do.

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2011 Birds Michigan Ohio 239