10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

An Ashy Drongo apparently spends approximately 71% of its time scanning (what non-scientists would probably call looking around), 9% eating (less than a typical Chinese human but much more than me), calling 7%, flying 7%, and 6% preening. When Cattle Egrets go to the local discotheque, they tend to overdo their makeup a bit.

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Singapore Mountain Goats Birds Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

The bird on the photo is one of the estimated 3500-15,000 individuals still alive according to the HBW – a frightening thought given the (too) large number of humans, of which there are about 1 million times more (and of course, each of which weighs 5000 times more than the flycatcher). It is probably all downhill from here.

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Birds Raised Cattle Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

I should have known that birding High Island meant I would be 20 minutes away from a place where hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterbirds rest, feed, breed, and generally have a good time. I love American Avocets and I rarely see them in such marvelous breeding plumage, so I was in heaven. American Avocets.

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Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 222

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. ” I can see how this line of thinking leads to all kinds of sci-fi types of thought (“would I mate with an alien if I was the last human on earth”, etc.),

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Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Ironically (and personally, given that I am not particularly fond of the human race, also deservedly) this may help the spread of diseases carried by birds, such as avian influenza ( source ). The Common Pheasants in Shanghai are all wild – there is no program of supporting the wild population by releasing hand-reared birds.

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Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 208

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

In this film, we see farmers interacting with the animals they will eventually transform into food (chickens, pigs and cattle). Although the farmers can easily answer that their animals are treated more humanely whilst alive, their discomfort about being asked questions regarding the slaughter process is visually and audibly obvious.

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Farming Humane Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2011

So barren in fact it is not uncommon to find this grassland species occupying the same habitat as cattle or areas with high degree of human disturbance. I feel blessed to live in Colorado where I can see these beauties in migration and breeding. These Mountain Plovers , as you can see, are so cryptic in their environment.

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Prairie Dogs Colorado North Dakota Soreing 164

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius. The chance that this was a real Turkey are not great, and the chance that Columbus actually brought breeding stock from Honduras to Spain is not great, so maybe, maybe not.

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Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 209

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2022

Around this time of the year, the first few waders are back in Shanghai from their breeding grounds far further up north. Generally, being back here early is not a very good sign – it may indicate a failed breeding attempt, as suggested for Asian Dowitchers in a paper on their presence in Lianyungang somewhat further north of Shanghai.

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Cattle Portugal Buffalo Humane 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

In the 70s, with the survival of the species in jeopardy, the entire wild population was captured and brought into a captive breeding program in southern California. Vultures, Human Evolution, and Windmills – Greg Laden, 10,000 Birds. The California Condor has a story well-known by anyone with an interest in birds.

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California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 188

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2019

The Kerkini Lake National Park is my favourite birding area in the whole of the Balkans and while I’ve been here in April and again (migration), September (migration), October (coffee break), December and January (wintering), this was my first time in the breeding season, in May. Below legal size for humans is still legal for pelicans.

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Greece Pelicans Buffalo Fish 199

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. Also available as a set of two.

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Birds Uganda Breeding Rats 227

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Image by Adam Riley Of the 115 African species now listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered, nearly half occur on the islands surrounding Africa or are non-breeding migrants to Africa. In this blogpost I will discuss ten of the 60 endangered species that are resident on the African continent.

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Endangered Species Species Morocco South Africa 198

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2021

One of this species’ many peculiarities is that it has a digestive system unique amongst birds: Hoatzins use bacterial fermentation in the front part of the gut to break down the vegetable material they consume, much as cattle and other ruminants do. We found Black-collared Swallows breeding in cracks among the lower riverside rocks.

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Dolphins Colombia Otters Birds 263

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

Suppose someone enjoys drinking the blood of cattle and hogs. Suppose there was a breed of sheep that became very ill when the sheep’s fleece was removed; they did not function normally. If, on the other hand, the legs are produced in factory conditions, there is a moral objection.

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Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

Consider some of the victories: On November 5th, 2002, more than two and a half million Floridians voted "Yes" on Amendment 10 to amend the state constitution and prohibit the use of gestation crates , narrow metal cages where breeding pigs are kept for most of their lives. The full text of the amendment is available here.

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Factory Factory Farm Factory Farming Gestation Crates 40

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

Animal rights is concerned with preventing the suffering or even use of animals by humans. But you can take solace in the results at the end of the breeding year, when loafing around the intertidal are a shiny new cohort of finely plumage grey youngsters, all ready to carry on Western Gull line into the future. Western Gull chick.

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Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 266

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Native species have also managed to make a living in the newly created urban jungle habitat, including Northern Mockingbird , Cattle Egret , Mourning Dove , and Fish Crow. In southeast Florida, it thrives in man-made habitats, feeding on grassy meridians, on roadsides, and even among human refuse.

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Miami Fast Food Florida Birds 124

Animal Person

AUGUST 10, 2010

I'm not one of those people who thinks family is composed of only humans or humans who are biologically related. Their goal is to make a profit from the breeding and slaughter of animals. Just ask former cattle rancher Howard Lyman , who is now a vegan and animal rights activist. But so are family farms.

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Family Factory Farm Factory Farming Cows 100

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. Well, not really a bird.

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2018 New Jersey Michigan North Dakota 164

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2023

Heron/Egret medley (yes, I know medleys suck, but without the aural component, they might just be ok): Black-crowned Night-heron … … Cattle Egret … … Chinese Pond Heron. Surprisingly (at least from a biased human perspective), 97% of the deserters are female ( source ). Maybe the males were not that impressive.

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Birds China Taiwan Raised 130

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.

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Birds China Research Tenant 130