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Out Birding to Help an Endemic Sparrow in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

Today, along with teams in a few other parts of Costa Rica and elsewhere, I will be birding for a cause, watching birds to help one that only lives in Costa Rica, the Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow. Although this endemic is high on the most wanted list of many visiting birders, unfortunately, it’s not an easy bird to see.

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Where the Sparrows Are

10,000 Birds

Like many birders, I regularly submit short lists of birds seen at my place of employment. But I also sometimes go there, specifically to bird, for hours. Specifically, the area surrounding our church is my best place to see sparrows, both residents and our (much more common) winter migratory sparrows.

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Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America: A Review by a Sparrow Fan

10,000 Birds

I like sparrows. I like observing them, reading about them, grappling with species and subspecies identification, and even—on a good day—talking about sparrow taxonomy. The book does not include House Sparrow, an Old World sparrow that belongs to a completely different bird family. Scope of Book.

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Birding Tradition: the New Year’s Day List

10,000 Birds

Starting the New Year by trying to see as many species as possible is something of a birding tradition. My diary notes that the New Year dawned grey and windy, but I rose early, walked six miles before breakfast and noted a modest 26 species of birds. The latter are great bruisers of ducks, built like a small battle ship.

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Ground-Sparrows and Brush-Finches

10,000 Birds

Double-hyphenates are birds with two hyphens in their common name, which is a characteristic that suggests a high degree of rarity or difficulty. Common birds, you see, tend to have simple names, like House Sparrow, House Finch, or House Wren. Yeah, a lot of birds like hanging around houses.)

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The Hidden Qualities of House Sparrows

10,000 Birds

Bird blogging in May always gives me the creeps. This ridiculous focus of the Birding Internet on North American wood-warblers is boring on a quiet day and highly annoying during peak migration. It visits bird feeders, making it a worthy spark bird to new birders as they may see it closely. And do they ever try so hard.

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Common Hedgerow Birds of Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

They can’t provide the same ecosystem value as natural forest and woodland but in places intensely modifed by people, hedges are vital sanctuaries for birds and other wildlife. In pastures of the hot lowlands, they tend to be lines of stunted Gumbo-Limbo trees or some other heavily pruned species. Hoffmann’s Woodpecker.