10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2020

Having observed the Cattle Egret in breeding plumage at the Derby Poo Ponds on June 19th we found ourselves at Windjana Gorge first thing the following morning. Sometimes everything appears normal, but of course it is far from normal. Green-backed Gerygones were calling and it is a species we always seek out when we visit.

2020 261

2020 Australia Cattle Groups 261

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

According to the HBW, when breeding, male birds do most of the incubation and parenting while females often leave the nest up to one week before the eggs hatch. Of course, on Chongming, the Chinese Pond Heron is very common. It concludes that human activity influences the breeding activity of the lapwing. End of side note.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2012

Have you ever enjoyed one of those brilliant birding expeditions, the outing where every target species takes its cue with machine precision? Of course we’ve all experienced the excruciating opposite of such an excursion, but when waves of new birds practically clamor for attention in quick succession, the feeling is exhilarating.

Trinidad 177

Trinidad Birds Fast Food Cattle 177

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

Kazakhstan – May 2009 After our excellent time at the Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve we bid a fond farewell to its gorgeous grassy terrain and made our way to a location where Sociable Lapwing were known to breed. Above is the area where the three pairs we observed were nesting which we were told was rather typical for the species.

Kazakhstan 128

Kazakhstan Cows 2009 Endangered Species 128

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

The population of parrotlets they studied was located on one of the many huge hatos (cattle ranches) in the Venezuelan llanos, a vast swath of flat flooded savannah in the central third of the country that drains into the Rio Orinoco. You don’t really know a bird until you’ve studied it on its breeding grounds.

Eggs 268

Eggs Venezuela Porcupines 2008 268

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

We saw sparrows–a total of 14 species–and we saw many other great prairie birds, and we often saw them perched on posts. Upland Sandpipers were seen almost daily, on posts, in tall grass, in trees, and, of course, flying away from us. . I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state.

North Dakota 138

North Dakota Birds Sparrows Blackbirds 138

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

The Great Egrets , Little Egrets and Intermediate Egrets are in breeding plumage and look quite spectacular. Intermediate Egret in breeding plumage. All of the birds are seeking out the higher ground and many appear to be making plans to breed if they have not started already. Glossy Ibis and Egrets. Whiskered Terns in flight.

Barn Owls 184

Barn Owls Cattle Ducks Reptiles 184

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2012

The New Jersey Bird Records Committee (NJBRC) documents 465 species of natural origin. Used in conjunction with the species distribution maps, this is a helpful feature in evaluating field observations. That Cattle Egret I found in Somerset County, August 2009? There are, sadly, entries for extinct species.

New Jersey 190

New Jersey Birds 2009 Bald Eagle 190

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

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. This is not entirely unknown among domestic animals, but many domesticates have no living wild version.

Turkey 201

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 201

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

Of course, this raptor pattern baldness exists for a good reason, which is another of the distasteful aspects of vulturine biology. The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. Griffon Vulture , photo by Alan Tilmouth.

California Condor 180

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 180

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Instead of going on about zip lines and other modern, adventure tourism attractions, the birding crowd talks about taking photos of Resplendent Quetzals , seeing dozens of hummingbird species, and the seemingly odd absence of raptors in Costa Rica but nope, we don’t really talk about extinction. Resplendence.

Costa Rica 217

Costa Rica Species Panama Birds 217

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2021

The fields near the Tiaozini mudflats look very much like a lunar landscape, but this does not seem to keep a number of species from breeding there, sometimes directly on dirt roads. But now back to birds … Little Ringed Plovers also seem to like to breed directly on the road. Blandness sells. Not this one.

Birds 213

Birds Uganda Breeding Rats 213

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2022

This will change over time of course and once it rains again you would need to consider if you had the right vehicle to access the area. It is of course a very popular place for waterbirds to drop by and sometimes there are large numbers of Purple Swamphens and Eurasian Coot present. Purple Swamphens. Black-necked Stork.

Geese 196

Geese Ducks Breeding 2015 196

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2013

New Zealand, where I live, am the 10,000 Birds Beat Writer of, and of which I very occasionally actually write about, is home to several species of heron. Like most of the rest of the world this species is kind of new here, having recently colonised from, well, wherever those things actually came from. It wasn’t always this way.

New Zealand 148

New Zealand Indonesia Cattle Guinea 148

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2018

Following passage of the United States Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the California Condor ( Gymnogyps californianus ) was among the first 75 species listed for protection, the so-called “Class of 1967”. With enough room for another, of course.

California Condor 104

California Condor Oregon California Zoos 104

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

The warm, sunny climate beckons a wide variety of passerines, raptors, and shorebirds to spend the winter, inflating the species diversity to the extent that Miami-Dade can go toe-to-toe with counties in Texas and Arizona during this season. Can we hit 200 ABA-countable species in four days next year?

Miami 166

Miami 2015 United States Birds 166

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2014

The second edition of the National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition has one of the longest book names in bird bookdom: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition: Now Covering More Than 1,000 Species With the Most-Detailed Information Found in a Single Volume. This volume is no exception.

North America 177

North America America Birds Family 177

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2016

Of course, I contacted Carlos Sanchez , alleged south Florida birder extraordinaire, to maximize the returns on what time I could spend. We immediately headed to an undisclosed location where Carlos had breeding Mangrove Cuckoos staked out. We needed countable species! Come on, Carlos! At least this time we saw three of them.

Florida 117

Florida Miami Birds Owls 117

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Nowhere else in Africa do the preconceived ideas of the continent really exist in such living detail; tall, red-robed Maasai herding their skinny cattle, endless grasslands studded with flat-topped Acacia trees and grazed by herds of zebras and wildebeest, and dramatic volcanic calderas brimming with big game and fierce predators!

Tanzania 215

Tanzania Africa Stud Leopards 215

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2012

It spent its visit at the Golf Course with the Masked Lapwings Vanellus miles and the previous visit by the species had been in February 2008 and prior to that September 2005. It is unclear as to whether they have all had a good breeding season or if they are dispersing to different areas this year.

2014 154

2014 Zebras 2005 2008 154

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2020

They are very similar to the Masked Lapwings in the north of Australia, but of course they have ‘black shoulders”! When I returned to the small dam where there had been so many Australian Wood Ducks earlier in the day I discovered that the eleven cows had been joined by two Cattle Egrets. Two Cattle Egrets with four cows!

Buffalo 160

Buffalo Fish Koalas Cattle 160

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2023

Like the Eastern Crowned Warbler (which eBird mysteriously calls a “boldly marked songbird” despite its similarity to about 50 other warbler species) … … and the Arctic Warbler (or maybe some other warbler looking very similar). T-shirts will be available soon.

Birds 130

Birds China Taiwan Raised 130

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2019

So, I was excited to read reports in late 2017 of a pair of Whooping Cranes being seen on a cattle farm. I easily spotted the Whooping Cranes in the cattle field. They were large and rather gawky, with a lot of ‘jewelry’ on their legs, oblivious to the cattle and to me. ” [[link]. An eBird mystery.

2018 155

2018 New Jersey Michigan North Dakota 155

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2023

It is kind of rare to see a Fairy Pitta during Shanghai’s spring migration as those passing through are all adults rather than inexperienced chicks, and they are in a rush getting to their breeding grounds – but I was lucky. This should not be a problem in Shanghai as the pitta has not been reported to breed here.

Birds 130

Birds China Research Tenant 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2018

Masked Lapwings , Straw-necked Ibis , Plumed Whistling-Ducks , Magpie-larks , Cattle Egrets and Australian Pratincoles all gather around and in the drainage channel. All of the nice green vegetation around these drainage channels is very popular with the Cattle Egrets and by November they have some beautiful breeding plumage.

Cattle 114

Cattle Geese Birds Australia 114

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

The Little Grebe is of course a very common bird that can still surprise by its beauty in its breeding plumage. Swinhoe’s White-eye was just promoted to the rank of a full species in 2018. The point is that I am sure this jacana would agree. The Common Moorhen in the below photo looks like a proud German housewife to me.

Birds 147

Birds China Eggs Breeding 147