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Post Apocalyptic Steampunk Birding

10,000 Birds

These large parrots are popular in the pet trade, and that’s a likely source of the population of this species on Trinidad. The subtle white edging to the gape of this bird indicates it is near breeding time. Peregrine Falcon. Noisy Yellow-crowned Parrots indicated that it was time to stop the car and get out.

Trinidad 194
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The Truth Is Out There

10,000 Birds

It was not a flycatcher at all, but an exotic (and equally bizarre) from Africa, which certainly escaped from someone’s cage or perhaps even migrated from the small breeding population of escapees in southern California. Sure enough, the bird’s true identity became known the next day.

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Should Restored or Rescued Birds Count?

10,000 Birds

The reason we do not allow introduced species onto checklists until they are breeding and self sustaining for many generations is that without this rule you could go to a pet store, release a bunch of crazy colorful finches and count them all on your yard or state list. Let’s call it the California Condor exception.

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The Rose-ringed Parakeets of Heidelberg

10,000 Birds

This is what happens when people choose their pet birds on visual factors alone without taking vocalizations into account. With 7,500 birds (1,500 breeding pairs), the German population is still rather small compared to the numbers the parakeets have built up in the UK or the Netherlands, where the populations range in the 10s of thousands.

Germany 238
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15 Australian Birds (Episode 7)

10,000 Birds

The Latin species name of the Brown Falcon is berigora , which made me hope it was named for some colorful and potentially sleazy racist naturalist (you may have realized I like these stories, even though I am not a person who slows down when seeing a car crash). Unfortunately, berigora is just an Aboriginal name for this falcon.

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