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Highs and Lows from the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race in Eilat, Israel

10,000 Birds

Today, I am writing about another very birdy place and an event that I was very fortunate to have experienced, the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race in Eilat, Israel. Migrants will be around but their hormone driven urges to get back to the breeding grounds for procreation make them less than reliable on count day.

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Birding Hluhluwe, South Africa

10,000 Birds

In terms of breeding behavior, starlings are a diversified group – some use helpers, others do not. Superb Starlings avoid this when using helpers, much like rich people presumably reducing the stress of raising kids by hiring a couple of nannies. But that is the environment they survive in, get grants, get professorships, etc.

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Birding Shanghai in February 2023

10,000 Birds

I am not sure about the security situation in Iraq these days but at least some people do ornithological research there – resulting in papers such as one titled “Breeding observations of the Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus (Desfontaines , 1789) in Iraq” Impressive.

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