10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Such programs are somewhat inefficient anyway – in one study , the breeding success of wild male pheasants was 2-5 times higher than for hand-reared and released ones while for females, hand-reared birds were 3 times as vulnerable to predation as the wild ones. Apparently, there is a website just showing stamps depicting bird species.

Birds 211

Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2018

Unlike Barred Owls they were accompanied by no great controversy , and unlike Cattle Egrets or Eurasian Collared Doves they didn’t come as an abrupt continent-hopping surprise. There’s a certain suburbanization of the natural as well as the human world.

New York Times 140

New York Times Montana Oregon Deer 140

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.),

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2011

While we continue to decimate our short and tall grass prairies many species reach their inevitable peril. Here in Colorado many species are affected, but perhaps none more than our beautiful Mountain Plovers and Ferruginous Hawks. I feel blessed to live in Colorado where I can see these beauties in migration and breeding.

Prairie Dogs 164

Prairie Dogs Colorado North Dakota Soreing 164

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 210

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 210

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

Endangered Species 200

Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 200

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. New World Vultures.

California Condor 190

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 190

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.

Cattle 147

Cattle Portugal Buffalo Breeding 147

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.

Greece 200

Greece Pelicans Buffalo Fish 200

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 230

Birds Uganda Breeding Rats 230

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2021

From there, we entered a side tributary full of Ringed and Amazon Kingfishers , with Chestnut-fronted and Scarlet Macaws in flight… and then the noise: groans, croaks and grunts… and the smell… of this 65 million years old species, so old that the last dinosaurs must have fed on them! Black-collared Swallow by Tyler Ficker.

Dolphins 263

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.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

Animal rights is concerned with preventing the suffering or even use of animals by humans. Wildlife conservation is concerned with protecting wildlife at the level of species or perhaps population. A more problematic conflict is that fought over what to do with damaging introduced species. It’s only natural.

Animal Rights 267

Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 267

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Seeing as birds are extremely adaptable creatures as a whole, I have always found it interesting to see which bird species manage to make a living or even thrive among all the concrete, cars, and noise. In fact, several species in Miami-Dade are found exclusively in such habitats.

Miami 124

Miami Fast Food Florida Birds 124

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). Here is a mugshot of a Long-tailed Shrike. 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. Well, not really a bird.

2018 167

2018 New Jersey Michigan North Dakota 167

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