10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2017

After a very good Wet Season with substantially more rain than normal over the first few months of 2017 the land was flooded and a huge variety of birds arrived in the Broome area to take advantage of the ideal conditions for breeding. The more brightly coloured female bird remained at the back of the family group as they swam to shore.

Breeding 100

Breeding Eggs Raised 2017 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2024

The proximity to the Myanmar border is reflected in the presence of Burmese Shrikes here – on the wrong side of the border, but it is well known that this species has never been particularly good at geography. This photo explains the scientific species name haemacephalus (bloodheaded).

Myanmar 168

Myanmar Sri Lanka Nepal Birds 168

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2022

Readers with a pornographic mindset will enjoy the following information about the Dusky Moorhen: “Simultaneously promiscuous, forming breeding groups of 2–7 apparently unrelated birds; individuals sometimes switch groups between seasons. Within group, all males copulate with all females.” ” (HBW).

Australia 186

Australia Birds Feral Cats Kangaroos 186

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2012

Their rather nondescript winter nature conceals some fascinating secrets, not the least of which is that they and their closest relatives, the three golden-plover species, are among the planet’s greatest flyers. The four Pluvialis plovers are sometimes called “tundra plovers” because of their breeding range.

Family 182

Family 2007 Iceland Louisiana 182

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Thus, this study on the feeding ecology of African Harrier-hawk is imperative for understanding the species adaptation to environments and also a crucial factor to be considered while examining their economic status.” I guess blushing is easier if you have a bald face like this species.

South Africa 147

South Africa Niger Birds Mice 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2019

During our three weeks in Singapore we encountered many a family of Red Junglefowl- Gallus gallus in various locations. Red Junglefowl are under threat in Singapore due to habitat loss and inter-breeding, but we observed them most days on our hiking trips around the island and also on Pulau Ubin.

Singapore 113

Singapore Chickens Litter Squirrels 113

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area. The raptors of Ruoergai deserve a separate post.

China 167

China Mongolia Birds Russia 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2022

Wood-Wrens , birds of the family Henicorhina , are very small wrens of Central and South America that like to live very close to the ground, in dense forest underbrush or elfin forests. It’s a long drive, at least an hour of steadily climbing twists and turns; but there are high-altitude species I can only see there.

Mexico 182

Mexico South America Species America 182

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2022

Now we were in Finca Tres Equis, a family cocoa farm (if I understood well, it translates as Triple X Farm) and a private reserve of over 300 hectares, of which more than 70 percent is a forest, representing part of a Jaguar corridor. A group (maybe 4-5 ex.) Next goal: 1100 species, to cover about 10% of the total.

Costa Rica 223

Costa Rica Nicaragua 2019 Farming 223

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2020

Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of bird species that are no longer with us. Species like the Gyrfalcon , the aerial powerhouse of the tundra, of stunning, breeding-plumaged May warblers. Posters of three groups of birds are currently available; toucans, trogons, and hummingbirds.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Birds Species Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2020

A Field Guide to the Birds: Giving Field Marks of All Species Found in Eastern North America was published in 1934 by Houghton Mifflin (note–Peterson was 26 years old), after being rejected by four publishers. Adding the 76 new species in the Hawaii section, this makes coverage of approximately 884 species.

North America 198

North America America Hawaii Birds 198

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2021

Still, how many birders visit this region and could be seen as the target group for this, already a second edition? Just last year, 5 new bird species and 5 new subspecies were discovered in a few short weeks of fieldwork on the islands of Taliabu, Peleng and Batudaka. The rest of the region remains fairly undervisited.

Indonesia 263

Indonesia Timor Brunei Guinea 263

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2016

But I did visit it, and saw many of the incredible species he described, one of which, my major target of the day, was the Drakensberg Rockjumper. They are closely related to the oddball Rockfowl of Western Africa, and live in family groups, led by a breeding pair, in Southern Africa. Drakensberg Rockjumper.

South Africa 102

South Africa Africa Family Groups 102

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. By this I mean applying the term antelope to cover all of the family Bovidae, which would include the sheep, goats and ox.

Africa 161

Africa Hunters Goats Wolves 161

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Pough “with illustrations in color of every species” by Don Eckelberry, Doubleday, 1946. The National Audubon Society Birds of North America covers all species seen in mainland United States, Canada and Baja California. The press material says it covers over 800 species, so you know I had to do a count.

North America 278

North America America Birds California Condor 278

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

Apparently, Longcanggou is a great place to see a variety of parrotbill species. I can only partly confirm this, with my sightings restricted to two species. Like many of the largest species within bird families, the Great Parrotbill looks somewhat plain, at least in the weather I encountered it.

Pandas 196

Pandas Birds Mammals China 196

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

A family motel and passion for responsible ecotourism brought her home to the Oregon Coast where she and her husband, Erik, adventure and record a podcast ( Hannah and Erik Go Birding ), created in an effort to inspire others to get out and bird. About half of all breeding Wandering Albatross nest on the Prince Edward Islands.

South Africa 261

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 261

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Waxwings and their relatives are a small, interesting group of songbirds that have seen some interesting taxonomic changes in the last few years. 2008), but how the bombycillid lineages are related to each other, and whether the various subgroups deserve family, subfamily, or tribe status, all still remains to be seen. Spellman et al.

Saudi Arabia 206

Saudi Arabia 2008 Indonesia Groups 206

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

But genetic and morphological data both point to this conclusion, and additional evidence places tubenoses and penguins within a group recently dubbed Aequornithes, or “higher waterbirds.” Within Procellariformes, the arrangement of major groups of tubenoses is not entirely settled.

Albatross 176

Albatross Penguins Groups New Zealand 176

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

To us on the traditional side of the Atlantic, they’ll always belong to the family Iznogoudae , the birds who want to become warblers instead of the warblers. The genus Passer has several well-recognized and recognizable species in Europe, and still holds several enigmas. And do they ever try so hard.

Sparrows 208

Sparrows Italy Asia Austria 208

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

However, there are those species which have a hard time bringing attention to themselves such as Yellow-shouldered Blackbird , Giant Nuthatch , and Vinaceous-breasted Parrot. Regardless of their popularity, these species and the threatened ecosystems they inhabit are equally spectacular. Curassows are such stately birds.

Brazil 205

Brazil California Condor Parrots Texas 205

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2012

The Edwards’s Pheasant is a rather smart blue-black member of the pheasant family and it may be on the edge of extinction. It has recently been reclassified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; this category is reserved for only the most threatened species in the world.

Vietnam 153

Vietnam 2000 Germany Asia 153

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2015

Another cool fact was learning that the Barn Swallows has started to breed in South America since the 80s. This is quite a remarkable fact if one thinks that this is the only (and first to do this) migratory bird to change its breeding and migratory habits. Swallows have migrated north to south along the Americas for millennia.

South Dakota 167

South Dakota South America North America America 167

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

Colorful bills and heads seem quite popular among Letaba’s bird species – see the African Jacana (blue and black) … … the Striated Heron (yellow and blue) … … and the Yellow-billed Stork (yellow and red). The Latin species name vermiculatus (worm-like) refers to the markings on the upperparts.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2017

Spring is in the air, and all around the Baja desert I am seeing a plethora of species, all looking for love, in what appears to the right places. Last Sunday, it was never as obvious as it was with the small group of Phainopepla , Phainopepla nitens. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them swoop erratically from tree to tree to cactus.

Costa Rica 104

Costa Rica Panama Nevada Guatemala 104

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

we learn) that are home to coveted boreal species, breeding wood-warblers, and two species of Grouse. There are 461 species on the Maine checklist. This field guide covers 265 species, the ones most likely to be seen–residential and migratory, almost all nesting birds, many wintering birds.

Los Angeles 184

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 184

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2013

Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. Its mostly found on the ground in thickets or the edges of dense vegetation and usually in small family parties. Another not very pink species is the Pink-footed Puffback.

Africa 201

Africa Somalia Pelicans Mozambique 201

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Recently, a group of nature photographers were spotted using live fish to bait a family of Grey-headed Fish Eagles in Singapore, where the species is listed as Critically Endangered, with only about 12-18 breeding individuals left in the wild. A Grey-headed Fish Eagle photographed ethically.

Eagles 269

Eagles Singapore Fish Ethics 269

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Yet, as I was slowly running out of other bird groups that I knew nothing about, I had no other choice but to start learning what I was always running away from: those abominable shorebirds. Illustrated by Chandler’s mainly excellent photos, the book shows about 180 species, or some 80 % of the total. What is it, then?

Botswana 114

Botswana 2017 Groups Europe 114

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2019

Getting to actually see four species, in the last two weeks, and to hear two more is almost unheard of in my experience. Last week, a good friend, Dan Weisz gave me a tip on the location of a family of Burrowing Owls that were extremely easy to access. It all started in getting to photograph the Northern Pygmy-owls in Madera Canyon.

Owls 144

Owls Arizona Tucson South Africa 144

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

When you monitor a species of birds over many years you learn a lot from your observations and you soon become aware of the fact that some birds are just better at parenting than others. Some of the young from this pair of Pied Oystercatchers have gone north to join a non-breeding flock and others have flown south.

Eggs 165

Eggs Raised Breeding Family 165

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2021

(The White-tipped Dove is actually called, in Spanish, the Paloma Arroyera , or “Gully Dove” And sorry, I have yet to get a photo of this shy species. Like most of the species on this list, this tiny highland bird prefers to make its presence know by singing, rather than by being seen.

Trinidad 172

Trinidad Emotional Transported Mexico 172

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Spoonbills and ibises are stocky, colorful wading birds with distinctive bills: downcurved and pointed in the case of ibises, flat and paddle shaped in the spoonbills (above is my shot of Roseate Spoonbills ( Platalea ajaja ) near a breeding colony in Louisiana). A cryptic species? White-faced and Glossy ibises ( Plegadis chihi and P.

Louisiana 191

Louisiana Mississippi America Pelicans 191

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

That’s pretty amazing–Bolivia has more bird species than India! The source of this ranking, BirdLife International, lists Bolivia as currently having 1,439 bird species, including 18 breeding endemics. The guide covers 1,433 species, the number of birds documented at the end of 2014, the cutoff point for the book.

Bolivia 167

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 167

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Both the male and female of the species have a bright red crown. Most Acorn Woodpeckers are cooperative breeders and live in family groups of up to a dozen or more individuals. Within a group, 1–7 male co-breeders compete for matings with 1–3 joint-nesting females who lay their eggs in the same nest cavity.

Woodpeckers 183

Woodpeckers Breeders Groups North America 183

10,000 Birds

MARCH 24, 2013

They will only breed if the conditions are good and the male will be responsible for nest building and incubating the 6-12 eggs for approximately 60 days. There had been good rains the previous year and as a result of that there were numerous family groups. Emu family on the other side of the fence.

Australia 177

Australia Investigation Family Groups 177

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

These arid hills, cloaked in a mosaic of deciduous scrub and desert vegetation, form a northern outpost for several Neotropical species while also harboring several key endemics and southwestern Nearctic species. This poorly documented swallow is a breeding endemic to these high mountains. Photo by Andrew Spencer.

Mexico 185

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 185