10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2017

At first I dismissed them for some hybrid geese, until I recognized their JIZZ. In my homeland, some 800 km / 500 mi further north, these ducks are common on migration but very rare in the breeding season and I realized that these are my first young birds – ever. Spring (migrants and breeding species) and winter (wintering waterbirds).

Greece 203

Greece Killing Pelicans Eagles 203

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2014

You can take in views of waterfowl including Eurasian Wigeon , Barnacle Geese , Trumpeter Swan , and a plethora of ducks and gulls. The birds however, weren’t as plentiful in the walk-able area in and around the city, but I still got to glimpse some thrush, t**s, sparrows, swallows, Jackdaws and the familiar Hooded Crow.

Finland 177

Finland Estonia Birds Europe 177

10,000 Birds

MAY 26, 2014

And did I mention Magnolia Warblers , Chestnut-sided Warblers , Common Yellowthroats , and Lincoln’s Sparrows ? In one of the few areas with a decent amount of open water I was surprised to see Canada Geese with young. Shows what I know about when birds breed. Aaaawwww…the cutesy wootsy widdle goswings.

New York City 164

New York City New York Canada Woodpeckers 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2018

It is the largest woodpecker in Europe (to describe its size, I’ll tell you that Goldeneyes breed in the holes this pecker makes). The birds include one Eurasian Wigeon male, Great and Little Egrets , Syrian and another Black Woodpecker , one very late Barn Swallow , and an Ortolan Bunting among the House Sparrows on the roof.

Serbia 122

Serbia Woodpeckers Birds Bears 122

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

I had a beautifull view on 5 horned grebe here (one in breeding plumage), in Ann Arbor Michigan, for the 3 seconds it lasted, until I heard a huge “CRRACK&# , and I fell through the ice. On Sunday at Kissena Park I saw five species of sparrows. Also present in other parts of the park were fox and white-throated sparrows.

2011 157

2011 New York Deer Birds 157

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 16, 2012

Already I had dodged the pack of wild dogs (seriously), spotted a flock of American Pipits , sorted through a huge flock of Snow Geese , and flushed four Eastern Meadowlarks and a Wilson’s Snipe. Then, while walking along a phragmite-lined ditch, a small sparrow flushed, flew a few feet, and dropped back down.

Sparrows 146

Sparrows Dogs Rights New York 146

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Counting the Birds I was in my teens when I undertook my first bird-survey: it was field work for the British Trust for Ornithology’s The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. The breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland. Published in 1976, The Atlas was, I believe, the very first work of its kind.

Ireland 236

Ireland Turtles Geese Farming 236

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

New Zealand had, once upon a time, some fairly spectacular game birds, including massive flightless geese, massive flightles rails, and really enormous moa. Using ministerial connections he obtained 100 mallard eggs from the US and began to breed and distribute them. Female Mallard, photo by Corey.

Species 170

Species New Zealand Ducks Game 170

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

As the Hooded Cranes know that I am a consultant, they sometimes ask me whether they should forage together with geese or preferably seek areas in which geese are not present. Seek geese in meadows and mudflats, but avoid them in paddy fields ( source ). I am giving them the typical consultant answer: It depends.

Birds 147

Birds Geese Fish Industry 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Brown Pelicans , and the northernmost Brown Booby breeding colony on this side of the Pacific. Other birds with webbed feet, including ducks and geese, have only three webbed toes; the hallux (which in birds is usually the “hind toe&# and in humans, the “big toe&# ) is free. Make up your mind, Ringer!

2011 157

2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 157

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2017

Shallows provide an ideal spawning ground for almost 50 fish species and submerged islands breeding ground for more than 100 bird species. Looking at the river, I cannot believe my memories of the same place this January – frozen solid, with just a small opening in the ice – and 26,000 geese in it! We observed some 15 birds here.

Romania 131

Romania Serbia Turtles Blackbirds 131

10,000 Birds

MARCH 16, 2012

The longspurs proved more elusive: though we found both Horned Larks and Snow Buntings , to say nothing of an “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow we failed to find a single longspur. She was lucky to get a breeding-plumaged male as a first look ( not like me ) which makes the moniker “harlequin” quite easy to understand.

New York 160

New York Butcher Birds Geese 160

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Ferruginous Hawks breed in the grasslands of eastern Montana, but they are rare in the mountains and in winter, so this bird was certainly a surprise. We concluded the days by unsuccessfully scanning a golf course flock of Canada Geese for Cackling Geese , then returned to Missoula chilly but triumphant.

Bald Eagle 183

Bald Eagle Falcons Geese Montana 183

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Swan : “any of various large heavy-bodied long-necked mostly pure white aquatic birds (family Anatidae, especially genus Cygnus ) that have webbed feet and are related to but larger than the geese.”. Many individual species get an entry too, though they are generally not capitalized. Is it really “found on” Laysan and adjacent islands?

Albatross 107

Albatross Bears Ducks Bald Eagle 107

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

They reach breeding maturity at four to seven years of age, produce only one chick per nesting season, and only one in three offspring survive to fledging age. Ohio has tracked two families of their state-endangered breeding sandhill cranes and found them to have wintered over in Tennessee in 2010. Isn’t that neat?

2011 258

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 258

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

Outside of the breeding season a few birds may join together in a loose flock if the feeding is good. Share Your Thoughts « A long way from nowhere Domestic or Ganky Geese » To learn more about 10,000 Birds, Mike, Corey, or the many marvelous Beat Writers, please click here. Take a look at the link below.

2011 197

2011 Deer India New York 197

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2017

The two-page spread on Parts of a Bird provides diagrams for the topographical terms used in the Species Accounts, including hummingbird, shorebird, gull, passerine, and every feather on the upper wing of an adult Lark Sparrow. Most of the species are described in the Species Accounts, arranged taxonomically into 86 family chapters.

North America 188

North America America 2017 Birds 188

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Black-capped Chickadees , Song Sparrows , and Dark-eyed Juncos start testing their breeding songs as well, though they have a longer wait before things get serious. A pair of Bald Eagles scopes out the Clark Fork for likely snags. And that season is coming to meet them.

Bald Eagle 158

Bald Eagle Montana Owls Dogs 158

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2016

Why else would I have chosen a nice breeding plumaged Magnolia Warbler as my feature image in December if not to lure you in?] Well look, it’s a nice species – but visually that’s nothing you wouldn’t get by repeateldy crossing Canada with Barnacle Geese. American birders, on the other hand, obviously are.

Hawaii 167

Hawaii Albatross Europe America 167

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2020

There are newly determined species resulting from a decade of splits: Ridgway’s Rail, Sagebrush and Bell’s Sparrows, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay and California Scrub-Jay, Scripps’s Murrelet, Cassia Crossbill, and Morrelet’s Seedeater. These are the species that immediately come to my mind, and I probably missed some.

North America 241

North America America 2020 Hawaii 241

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2014

In Sibley Two, the in-flight images literally fly across the page in slight diagonals, with the full-bodied images are presented below in a parallel order (meaning we see the same bird–fresh juvenile, worn juvenile, 1st year, Adult breeding, Adult nonbreeding–in the same part of the page for each species).

North America 251

North America Birds Species America 251