10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Chinese Blackbird s are among the most common birds in the Shanghai compound where I live (and where fortunately this year I am not actually locked in, a contrast to the situation one year ago). It was my impression that they are thriving here, and a very recent (2023) paper confirms that indeed Chinese Blackbirds do well in cities.

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Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 211

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2013

For those of us in the Americas, nine-primaried oscines are among our most familiar and beloved birds: finches; sparrows, juncos, and towhees; warblers; blackbirds, meadowlarks, and orioles; cardinals and grosbeaks; and tanagers. Above is a beautiful member of this group, the Painted Redstart ( Myioborus pictus ), a warbler.

Family 184

Family Blackbirds Groups Sparrows 184

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2021

Trogons, flycatchers and most conspicuous of the lot – a group of Channel-billed Toucans. Yellow-hooded Blackbirds and Yellow-chinned Spinetails were ubiquitous as expected, along with a few shorebirds in some isolated ponds. Channel-billed Toucan. Nearby, a lone White Hawk sat motionless, surveying the ground below.

Sea Turtles 267

Sea Turtles Bats Turtles Trinidad 267

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2018

Hundreds of Black-necked Stilts were around the refuge, this group passed right by me on a short morning walk. This group of American White Pelicans were good enough to stop right where I wanted them to, to get this shot. Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge is the beneficiary of support from several groups. Now that is a first.

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Blackbirds Mules Beavers Wildlife 123

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Brown-headed Cowbirds, Red-wing Blackbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds were all flying in and out of the cattails faster than I could get a photo of. This Yellow-headed Blackbird was just slow enough, that I was able to capture him in a full dive towards the reeds! So, we have finally come to December,the last month.

Tucson 129

Tucson Arizona Blackbirds Texas 129

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2019

Just from the two roads (one toll, one free) that cross the lake, and a small part of its total shore, on a good day in December or January you can count on seeing thousands of Northern Shovelers , Northern Pintails , and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Only once did I see a large group of Canvasbacks at Cuitzeo.

Ducks 116

Ducks Blackbirds United States Pelicans 116

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2022

Nor is there any trudging through snow in search of extra hardy species or visits to feeders with the hope of finding a grackle or Red-winged Blackbird that failed to fly south. Yes, we do have warm, tropical weather and a fancy assortment of resident and wintering species.

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Costa Rica Eagles Species Blackbirds 254

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

But something happened, and it happened many times: Something has been killing our Blackbirds. We interrupt this blog post for an important message: This is the kind of Blackbird I am talking about, the Eurasian thrush that is Turdus merula, and not the American group of iconic Icterids you might have had in mind.

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Blackbirds Germany Shelters Rodents 154

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2020

Just under a fortnight ago, I saw a report on the local bird alert of a sighting of a group of approximately 20 Nacunda Nighthawks at a wetland not more than 20 minutes from where I live. Red-breasted Meadowlarks controlled the drier sections while Yellow-hooded Blackbirds occupied the more flooded areas.

Livestock 227

Livestock Ducks ALA illegal 227

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2014

A few turns around a farm field and the bird was found just hanging with some Brewer’s Blackbirds. We were with a large group of people and we didn’t want to flush the bird so we kept our distance while we enjoyed, but what fun to look for this bird among the 500 other Bald Eagles in the area.

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Bald Eagle Eagles Oregon Blackbirds 204

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2012

My life list has increased by 33 which, considering I tallied 137 species during the trip (out of the 160 that the group got), is a pretty significant total. Before I get into the nitty-gritties of my awesome birding experiences in Hungary I thought I would just share a few of the shots that I got during the trip.

Hungary 179

Hungary Hedgehogs Birds Blackbirds 179

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

The inside front covers are the start of four-page pictorial guides to bird families/groups and the pages where they can be found, a quick, easy entry to the identification process (see image above). The Species Accounts follow the ‘modern guide’ format, with illustrations clearly labeled and arranged in species groupings.

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 227

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

Audubon Associate Naturalist, have led this tour many times, through tornados, droughts, questionable restaurants, and, sadly, the advent of fracking, and every one of my friends who has participated over the years has raved about the experience and the birds (in fact, one member of our group was on his third or fourth trip, I lost count).

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North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 147

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

Less than two weeks later a Yellow-headed Blackbird was found at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and the first day’s attempts at refinding it mostly failed and I didn’t see it. Yellow-headed Blackbird is a gorgeous bird with a horrible voice. Two-for-four. It was found again the next day and this time I got it.

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New York City Birds New York Blackbirds 153

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2014

Passerida includes such familiar passerines as larks, thrushes and chats, “Old World” warblers and flycatchers, wrens, chickadees and t**s, babblers, starlings, waxwings, weavers, pipits, finches, tanagers, cardinals, sparrows, buntings, blackbirds, wood warblers, and others. An ancient lineage.

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Family Comoros Asia Birds 271

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2014

Even the late afternoon, when Cesar and I parted ways so he could try for the aforementioned House Wren after it had been missed earlier, was not without highlights as I led a trio of beginning birders around Cunningham Park and netted a flock of 78 Rusty Blackbirds. The compilation dinner was a fun affair despite everyone being rather tired.

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2005 Birds Blackbirds Branding 154

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2013

For years now, the feeders in winter at Green Cay have been home to a reliable group of these fantastic little seedeaters. Red-winged Blackbirds , within arms-reach, glisten in the morning sun and puff out their red shoulder epaulettes like proud military generals.

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North America Factory Alligators Trafficking 233

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

However, there are those species which have a hard time bringing attention to themselves such as Yellow-shouldered Blackbird , Giant Nuthatch , and Vinaceous-breasted Parrot. It was quite late in the morning when we saw a family group consisting of an adult and three nearly fully grown juveniles right on the track about 300 meters away.

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Brazil California Condor Parrots Texas 224

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

I only ran across this one Clark’s Grebe mixed in with in the groups of Westerns. This year they did not disappoint, as the first morning we sighted 17 birds in two groups. American Robins, Spotted Towhees, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Brewer’s Blackbirds and Western Tanagers like the bird below all were regulars at the apple tree.

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Oregon Owls Wildlife Barn Owls 115

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 13, 2016

After filling our water bottles at the clear mountain spring, the group splits and the majority continue on foot across the high pass to find many signs of bear presence in the area – scratching posts, scat (above), footprints; while the two of us continue by car along the very good final section of macadam prior to the village. Not at all.

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Bears Greece Europe Slovenia 271

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2013

Icterus is a wide-ranging neotropical genus consisting of the technicolor blackbirds we call orioles. The two dozen species are, nearly to an individual, long bodied and bicolored. Most make impressively woven, deep, nests, and eat insects and nectar, often coming to feeders well-stocked with oranges and jellies.

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Baltimore Broker North America Raised 182

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2013

Flocks of Bushtits made their noisy way through the bushes and a large number of Yellow-headed Blackbirds , which easily increased by ten-fold the number of Yellow-headed Blackbirds I had ever seen, flushed from one reed-bed to another. Hummingbirds buzzed past often and Verdin called with regularity from the bushes and small trees.

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Las Vegas Nevada Birds Blackbirds 213

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2017

We observed the bird on the Zapata Peninsula, first feeding on a flowering tree off of a road where we also observed Fernandina’s Flicker and Red-shouldered Blackbirds, and later in the garden of a lovely lady who has turned her backyard into a paradise of feeders and bird-friendly plants. The wren comes in! Then back again.

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Cuba Birds 2015 Bahamas 174

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2013

Yellow-headed Blackbirds singing in the reeds allowed us to get an arm’s length away. Yellow-headed Blackbird was another lifer for me, and omnipresent. A Marsh Wren came out of hiding for us. Western Grebes just went about their daily diving, seemingly not minding our presence. The best, in my opinion, was saved for last.

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Nevada Birds Barn Owls Cows 182

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2012

” The pipits and wagtails split off first within this group, then the finches, then several other families, including the longspurs, wood-warblers , icterids (New World blackbirds), emberizid buntings and sparrows, cardinals, and tanagers. And back to finches. And yes, the grosbeaks.

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Family Guatemala Stray Groups 179

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2015

With a schiffornis under our belts, we reached Los Chiles an hour before the meeting time with the group I was to guide, and headed right over to Medio Queso for a bit of scouting. Mid-day birding was predictably slow but we still picked up Red-breasted Blackbird , Snail Kite , and a few other species.

Costa Rica 179

Costa Rica Chile Nicaragua San Jose 179

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2013

When I was a young birder in Missouri, my home-town CBC saw me return again and again – with my dad and a core group of other local birders – to the same part of the count circle. To be able to have a profound understanding of a particular patch of ground, to personally witness the changes brought over time.

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North Carolina Missouri Blackbirds Sparrows 161

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2011

Many of his works include references to avifauna, specifically blackbirds and thrushes. This celebrated group included other authors of poems that celebrate nature including luminaries like William Cullen Bryant and James Russell Lowell. His poems rhapsodize about woods, water, and pastoral settings. He was also enamored of birds.

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Battery Birds Legislation Alaska 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

But, the numbers are quite large, and the birds organized in groupings that, for the most part, make it an easy process to figure out which Antwren (or Woodcreeper or Seedeater) is which. ” The book in question is Birds of Bolivia: Field Guide , edited and written by Sebastian K.

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Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 181

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

Red-breasted Blackbird is a meadowlark. Some birders are more learners than listers, others more photographers than birders. 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.

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Costa Rica Birds Owls South America 202

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2012

It is a group of people who were already interested enough in the flora and fauna of Montana to give up two evenings a week to more study, but most of them are not birders in particular: they are hikers, organic gardeners, environmental studies students. The Master Naturalist class gave me a first look at this. And that frustration was epic.

Montana 162

Montana Bald Eagle Owls Ducks 162

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

From Purple Herons to Little Grebes to Red Kites , the spot also yielded a small group of Eurasian Spoonbills for the area highlight. Well, I can say that what this American was able to see, and identify, was not the expected Blackbird, but rather a bird that may make some Americans cry: the Black Woodpecker ! I was not lead astray.

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Salamander Germany Birds Blackbirds 140

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Shorebirds, of course, are one of the groups of birds most known and loved for their social tendencies. In the case of these Tricolored Blackbirds , they are formed for DEFENSE. .” This is often true, but many other raptors do form massive flocks during migration, like the Swainson’s and Broad-winged Hawks pictured here.

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North Dakota LACS Oakland Falcons 163

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

The Red-winged Blackbirds were abundant, both the black males and the brown females. As we turned a corner in one of the reed channels, we spooked a group of Ring-necked Ducks , the male’s yellow eyes glowing even under the clouds. Turning into the reeds, we continued looking for waterfowl, warblers, and other land birds.

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Birds DC Sparrows Canada 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It’s not like I had forgotten lists created with friends of ‘songs with birds in the lyrics’, my personal favorites being Sondheim’s Green Finch and Linnet Bird and the Beatles’ Blackbird. It’s relatively easy to classify birds into family groups based on physical characteristics.

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Birds Egypt Family Eagles 224

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

I was very pleased to see several Brewer’s Blackbirds mixed in with a large group of Brown-headed Cowbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Although I would have been even happier to be in the group that sighted a Wood Stork on the lake’s eastern shore.). But their eyes are red, not white.

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Pelicans Blackbirds Ducks Hunting 231

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2019

The alarming decline of grassland species like the Upland Sandpiper ( Bartramia longicauda ) and Eastern Meadowlark ( Sturnella magna ) has been the most precipitous and extensive of any group of North American birds, and much of this decline results from changes in agricultural land management.

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Vermont Belgium Farming Europe 121