10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2020

If you read my last post, you will know that my last three weekly outings were not overly productive, as far as birds are concerned. But any birder can tell you that a bad day birding is better than a good day almost anywhere else. For me, that has a lot to do with all the beautiful places I get to be, while looking for birds.

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Turkey Birds Elephants Eggs 260

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

This is the time of year that we rightfully contemplate the noble Turkey. The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. And it isn’t.

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Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2011

What is up with all the frickin’ Wild Turkeys out there? This is the time of year when I tend to see turkeys dead on the side of the road. News stories of turkeys causing car accidents abound around the US right now. In Boston, a turkey was the cause of a 2 car accident during the morning commute.

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Turkey Hunters New Jersey Boston 230

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2023

As such, it offers some unique birding experiences. Even better, I happen to have an online birding buddy who offered to make space that Wednesday and Friday to take me to see some of Tabasco’s birds. By week’s end I had 30 new species on my life list. Good choice! 500 down, 600 to go. 500 down, 600 to go.

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Mexico Tigers Birds Cows 130

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2023

It is home to four diverse forest ecosystems (deciduous, mixed, boreal, and lowlands), experiences seasonal weather systems ranging from cold dry Arctic winters to humid, thunder-storm filled summers, and, according to the latest official checklist, hosts four professional sports teams with bird names.* state and Canadian provinces.

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North America Birds Owls America 210

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

The Great Backyard Bird Count kicked off yesterday, and will continue throughout the weekend before ending on the 15th. The idea is simple: birders from around the world count birds at least one time for at least fifteen minutes, and submit their data through eBird or the Merlin Bird ID app. The highlights? A fine start to GBBC!

Florida 251

Florida Birds Pelicans Geese 251

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2021

In common with so many other volcanoes, Poas also houses farms, people, and forests full of birds. Eastern Meadowlarks, cowbirds, grackles , and a few other birds are at peace with the cows but for most birds on Poas, the forest is where life is living large. Just like it sounds, birding in place is watching birds from one spot.

Costa Rica 259

Costa Rica Birds Cows Hunters 259

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

There’s something wonderfully primeval about the Northern Bald Ibis: it has the look of a bird that really ought to be extinct. The fact that it’s not is quite surprising, as this curious bird has come very close to the brink. Nesting is now confined to Morocco, irregularly in Boghari in Algeria and in Birecik, Turkey.” (The

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Morocco Austria Algeria Germany 223

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2021

The adult males sport that look; a bird created with crayons and an imaginative mind. The female isn’t quite so unreal but is still a cool little bird in her own right. She also makes a mark with her small size, one of the smallest birds in Costa Rica. A Garden Planted for Birds.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Farming 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2022

It has been more than 5 years since I last went to Australia, and I was even less of a qualified bird photographer then than I am now. So, the basic idea is to show 15 species of Australian birds in each post and give you the usual trivia about them. The female looks a bit duller but I was assured it has a beautiful soul.

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Australia Birds Koalas Parrots 186

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2011

I had spotted a Turkey Vulture ! Well, I had looked out the sliding glass door that leads to my balcony and spotted a large bird that seemed to have the flight pattern of a Turkey Vulture but I needed to drop the darned phone and grab the binoculars that live near the door for exactly this purpose. What had happened?

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Turkey Species Birds 145

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2024

This is not a birding trip; we are trying to deal with many logistical life issues that have accumulated over the past several years. But will I bird? A pair of ladies seemed to know more about plants and butterflies than about birds, which I enjoyed. Two other species also warmed my California-boy heart.

San Francisco 203

San Francisco California Woodpeckers Experience 203

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

Like many of you, I had plans for this year’s spring migration: to bird the very best tour of the Balkans, heading for northeastern Greece. First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38.

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Greece Bulgaria Birds Serbia 232

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2016

While the birding in the park around the pits was somewhat limited — an Audubon’s Warbler , a Northern Junco , a Black Phoebe — the birding inside was nothing short of spectacular. California Condors , La Brea Condors , and the Merriam’s Giant Condor — a magnificent bird even in death.

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California Condor Coyotes Eagles Turkey 178

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Still, the outing did not produce any new species for the year, or enough good photos for a post here. Instead, I have chosen to write about an idea I’ve had percolating for a while: to tell you what the most common species are down here. I’ll take the most common native species in taxonomic order.

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Woodpeckers Mexico Species Cattle 327

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2019

Lots of birds, a lot of really cool birds! Some local populations of birds and animals couldn’t adapt to the radical ecosystem-wide changes and just died out but a fair percentage did survive and continue to persist where green space lingers. This is one heck of a sweet urban bird. Lesson’s Motmot.

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Costa Rica Birds Parrots Sparrows 195

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

But here is the truly tragic part: I was not birding during those years! My hosts had arranged for me to stay in a beautiful private home, high on a ridge overlooking the city, and the forested area surrounding the home attracted some very noisy (and, for me, exciting) birds. The White-throated Magpie-Jay: such a beautiful bird!

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Birds 2006 Mexico Morocco 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2019

Patrick’s Day, did you stop to wonder why so few birds wear green plumage? Based on how naturally parrots and leafbirds (the real ones in Asia, not the figments that plague birders in every country) blend into foliage, I’d imagine that most arboreal avian species would want the same advantages. How about you?

2019 114

2019 Asia Turkey Parrots 114

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

Birds are supposed to have feathers and birds without feathers look incomplete, like they left home with shaving cream on their ear and toothpaste spots on their shirt. The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. Griffon Vulture , photo by Alan Tilmouth.

California Condor 180

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 180

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2018

I hope everyone participated in at least one day of the four day Great Backyard Bird Count of 2018. I submitted five checklists from four different locations yielding 44 species. As I walked out on my back porch on Friday morning, the first day of the count, it was a cool, clear day and the birds were very active at the feeders.

2018 100

2018 Bald Eagle Woodpeckers Turkey 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

One good thing about birding during a pandemic–the forced restrictions on place and time translate into more time to observe what birds do. Bird behavior–endlessly fascinating, but so much still hidden and unknown. Extreme behaviors also push scientists to look at birds in new ways.

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Research Birds Science Costa Rica 222

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2019

The first weekend of the fourth month of the year unites us all with exceptional birding opportunities. I found myself in fine company on the hawk watch platform at Braddock Bay, where streaming flocks of Turkey Vultures were infiltrated by a variety of hawk species. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

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2019 Turkey Birds Experience 114

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2019

A straight shot to my bird feeder. My yard is a birding hotspot. With forest on two sides and the expansive Eglin Air Force Base reservation just beyond, avian species have a host of hiding and eating opportunities. The feeder dangles from a clothesline between two pine trees, beckoning a range of bird varieties.

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Agenda Birds Louisiana North America 140

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2019

“Target birds” The term can foster excitement but is easily contentious. It would be uber cool to lay eyes on a rare lifer, on species that only seem to live on the pages of a field guide but isn’t that somewhat discriminatory? Aren’t all birds worth watching? Looking for Bare-necked Umbrellabird ?

Costa Rica 202

Costa Rica Panama Birds Eagles 202

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2013

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can ease up on the turkey talk. I do regret that I saw no Wild Turkeys this weekend, only subdued, succulently prepared ones. Corey had way too many birds to choose from for his Best Bird of the Weekend, with exactly 100 species for the four-day weeekend. How about you?

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2013 Turkey New York Owls 154

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2014

Northern California’s Christmas Bird Counts started out with a bang this year. Saturday, December 14th, the first day of the 114th Christmas Bird Count, 27 enthusiastic counters had unseasonably warm and sunny weather to count 21,695 birds for the Fall River Mills Christmas Bird Count. Wild Turkey.

California 167

California Blackbirds Turkey Birds 167

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2020

Having finally found a Black Vulture for my Queens list , an important tick both because it was long overdue and because it was the tenth bird since my last set of predictions, it is time, once again, to look at what might be coming to my Queens list. Black Vulture – The bird that has been reported the most in Queens that I have never seen.

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2018 2015 Birds 2019 159

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2022

On that glorious day, I observed ten critically endangered birds, representing 8% of their Costa Rican, or 2% of their global population!! In my previous post , I dealt with Rancho Naturalista Lodge itself and birding within their private reserve. But, let’s start at the beginning.

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Costa Rica Nicaragua 2019 Farming 234

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

Back in July, my fellow 10,000 Birds contributor Dragan wrote a delightful piece about birding Lake Kerkini in spring. I first visited Kerkini and this bird-rich region of northern Greece 15 years ago, and have been returning regularly ever since. My photograph below is of a captive bird).

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Greece Pelicans Geese Buffalo 209

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2021

And there were moments during the year when I thought birding was a lost cause. As the year began, I was making plans for a work-related trip which would take us to two of the world’s great flyways, with time spent near Istanbul and Gibraltar, the two greatest crossing points for migratory European birds.

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Mexico 2020 2019 Turkey 164

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2015

Yesterday, Sunday, 20 December, was the 2015 Queens County Christmas Bird Count. With the mild weather we had been experiencing we had high hopes for some good birds and we were not disappointed. I covered the western section of the Rockaways which mostly consists of trying to find birds on the ocean, the beach, and the bays.

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Bald Eagle Birds Sparrows Pelicans 102

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Clicking on most of these photos will open a new tab taking you to my 10000 Birds posts on that respective species The post on the California Scrub-Jay above is here. One of the first species I noted were a pair of Anna’s Hummingbirds. A Turkey Vulture was soaring above… And a bit later, a Red-tailed Hawk.

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Woodpeckers Turkey California Birds 101

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2020

And this doesn’t mean you are obsessed or a little bit too much into birds because keeping track of a year list actually comes with some side benefits. Yeah, many of us living the birding life do so anyways because we can’t help it. Lifers are in caps and the most outstanding species are in bold. Go birding!

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Costa Rica 2020 Morals Farming 260

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2021

If the avian realm had self-conscious, talking ambassadors, “spokebirds”, which species would partake in birding conferences? The Accipiters and other bird predators would either have to be prohibited from attending or at least need to be kept separate from the rest of the tasty looking attendees. Tubenoses suck!”).

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Costa Rica Belize Guatemala Protest 234

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2023

And since I suspect there may be others out there who, like I, feel something of a personal connection with 10,000 Birds’ regular writers, I feel the need to explain my absence. Two other countries we visited, Morocco and Turkey, have recently experienced catastrophic earthquakes. I’m sorry. My wife got to fly up for them.

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Mexico Morocco Cuba Jordan 183

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 30, 2017

Still, I felt the familiar excitement of birding a new place. dawn), afternoon naps, and quiet evenings with my husband as he goes after deer and turkey. In the mid-morning heat of August, I had already missed the best birding window in a relatively poor time of year for spotting too many species, but I didn’t care.

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Alabama Birds Deer Turkey 113

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2019

The tropical habitats of Costa Rica are home to a surprising number of raptor species. Although the country is around the same size as West Virginia, 39 species of diurnal raptors are on the list. As is often the case for tropical ecosystems, there may be hundreds of species of birds at a site, but many of them are naturally rare.

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Costa Rica Eagles West Virginia Opossums 180