10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

All the way back in 2011 I wrote about the confusing taxanomic enigma that is the Collared Kingfisher , a species that ranges from the Red Sea to Tonga in a bewildering variety of forms. I’m happy to report that an analysis of the species and some relatives has found that, as suspected, it isn’t a single species.

United Arab Emirates 179

United Arab Emirates Micronesia Tonga Vanuatu 179

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2011

The world of birding is filled with challenging groups well known to all, birds like gulls , Empidonax flycatchers or cisticolas that require attention to the tiniest details in order to assign an individual to a specific species (if it can be done at all). One such bird is the Collared Kingfisher ( Todiramphus chloris ).

Samoa 170

Samoa Vanuatu United Arab Emirates Tonga 170

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2014

Of course, I have seen many more birds than this, but between having terrible notes, really awful notes, or entirely lost notes, eBird doesn’t represent my total life list at all. It comes down to the other reason why eBird doesn’t have all the birds I’ve seen. It was a split. An armchair split, no less.

Tonga 176

Tonga Fiji Samoa Vanuatu 176

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

One of these clades holds a diversity of Old World species in several distinct groups, including an Australasian clade, the green-pigeons, the emerald- and wood-doves, the imperial-pigeons and fruit-doves (favorites of mine), and the subjects of our investigation today, the 15 known members of the Raphini. ” Beehler et al.’s

Solomon Islands 277

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 277