10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2013

They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of South America as their destination. The non-breeding distribution is virtually unknown, although they are suspected to winter in northern South America (Howell and Web 1995). Very little is known about this enigmatic species.

South America 179

South America San Diego Mexico America 179

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2012

Typically there are four eggs in a brood especially on good year. Once the eggs hatch the family begins the long walk down to the shoreline. Some of these birds, breeding up here at 73 degrees north will winter at the tip of South America, Tierra Del Fuego, 54 degrees south or so. This was a later nest.

South America 159

South America Eggs Family Raised 159

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2011

July, as all northern hemisphere birders appreciate, is the month when the egg timer flips and everything starts pouring back out again in a steady stream south. One of Britain’s recent colonisers the Mediterranean Gull begins to arrive in bigger numbers every year as post-breeding dispersal takes hold.

Poland 157

Poland 2009 Europe France 157

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2013

Even though the overall breeding range remains largely unchanged from that in the 1940′s, the entire coastal population has been in recent severe decline. The ecological requirements for Black Swifts to breed restrict them to a very limited supply of nesting locations. Photo from Wikipedia Commons taken by Terry Gray.

California 200

California North America Costa Rica Niger 200

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

inches, 3 pounds, 624 pages; the additional width and weight, though not that much, seem to be tipping points, making the Audubon guide look and feel more massive than it really is. Plate 28 from Audubon Bird Guide, Eastern Land Birds, by Richard H. This is a fairly large book: 907 pages; 7.38 These are all informative and current.

North America 278

North America America Birds California Condor 278

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

This is evident in the introductory material, which includes sections on The Origin and Evolution of Borneo’s Birds, Conservation in Action, Vegetation and Bird Life in Borneo, Climate, Rainfall and Bird Breeding Seasons, and Bird Migration. The plates show differing plumages as required by the individual families and species.

Brunei 172

Brunei Birds Asia China 172

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2011

She also monitors Pied Oystercatchers breeding along a 23km stretch of beach by bicycle and on foot. Speaking of pregnant snakes, do sea snakes lay their eggs ashore like sea turtles or do they keep them internally until the young are ready to hatch/ be born, like some sharks? Hat-tip to Stella. Wicked, right?

Australia 149

Australia 2011 Sharks Deer 149

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

What the Owl Knows is organized into nine chapters: introduction, adaptation (including vision and flight), research and researchers, vocalization, courtship and breeding, roosting and migration, cognition, and two chapters on owls and humans–captive owls (not zoos, educational owls) and owls in our cultural history.

Owls 199

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 199

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2022

At the start of this new trail we accidentally flushed a White-tailed Nightjar that was sitting on a lone pink egg. Part of the flock of Laughing Gulls , all in fresh breeding plumage. We made the executive decision to abandon that trail and try another – one which proved incredibly fruitful.

Trinidad 227

Trinidad Woodpeckers Species Ducks 227

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2023

One paper describes them breeding in a human settlement in abandoned clay jars. It holds the large food item at the tip of its bill and throws its head back quickly, swallowing it whole. Now pairs of hornbills feed outside this correspondent’s window”. Indeed, this species seems to be the equivalent of weeds among the hornbill species.

Rhinoceros 124

Rhinoceros Singapore Transported Hunting 124

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

I used to play Subbuteo as a kid … a kind of tip-kick football game that was named after this species (apparently, the inventors first wanted to name the game “Hobby” but that was rejected as too generic, or so the story goes). The Eurasian Hobby was another notable raptor of the month.

Birds 190

Birds China Eggs Owls 190

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

In fact, in South Africa they occurred in wetlands all the way to Cape Town at the southern tip of the continent. They are not bound to wetlands the entire year and large groups of birds will disperse to dry grassland and savanna outside of the breeding season.

Botswana 144

Botswana South Africa Africa Ethiopia 144

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2012

During the breeding season when hormones are flowing the cloaca swells and birds can get a cloacal protuberance. When the male Cassowary inserts what looks like a penis into the female, the semen ejaculates from the cloaca from the base, not the tip. Let’s look at the equipment. Most birds do not have a penis.

Buffalo 279

Buffalo Birds Ducks Eggs 279

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

The species was seemingly killed off by feather hunters, but then, after years, reappeared at the site of one of the deserted breeding colonies, Torishima Island in Japan. In the water I find a single black-tipped feather as their only trace. Snow Geese, photo courtesy of Tom Middleton.

Fox 100

Fox Albatross Geese Bald Eagle 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2011

Let us for once judge a book by its cover, and take a thorough look at a Black-headed Gull in breeding plumage. How do I know of their Gothic moods when they have hidden them so well in an egg-white shell of conformity? The tips of their fingers is where the last fragment of their former Gothic self is maintained.

2011 158

2011 Birds Deer Europe 158

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2013

It covers 63 odonate species: 44 breeding species (19 damselfly, 25 dragonfly), and, in a second part of the Species Accounts, 19 vagrant, potential vagrant and former breeding species (5 damselfly, 14 dragonfly). Sections on Behaviour, Breeding Habitat, and Population and Conservation offer brief but specific information.

Ireland 168

Ireland France Breeding Eggs 168

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2011

As I watched, it slowly moved into a patch of dried vegetation and I noticed that it was settling over a single egg. Two or three eggs may be laid and either bird may incubate. Sondra Mar 22nd, 2011 at 6:29 pm AN excellent series and how COOL to see the egg–chicks will soon be in the picture! Hat-tip to Stella.

2011 160

2011 Deer Africa Peru 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2011

Breeding behaviour and plumage was very apparent, but John Wise , an ex-pat Brit now resident in Orlando, told me that the birds’ activities had been held up for a couple of weeks during a cold snap that saw frosts in Florida. Boat-tailed Grackles count eggs and chicks as part of their diet and they were well represented here today.

2011 115

2011 Alligators Florida Deer 115

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Juvenile retrices are narrower, more pointed at the tip, and often have a ‘V’-shaped notch cut out at the tip. ” It is a relief to eventually reach the chapter on The Life of Waterfowl, written in a much more conversational style and unashamedly fascinated with waterfowl’s unique breeding behaviors. .”

Ducks 114

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 114