10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Ackerman’s new book is about owls and owl research–the knowledge recently and currently being discovered through DNA analysis, new-tech tracking and monitoring, and old-fashioned fieldwork under the auspices of organizations like the Global Owl Project and the Owl Research Institute.

Owls 224

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2023

Unfortunately, the folk myth associating male nose size with the size of certain reproductive organs seems to be less well-known in China. The Latin species name alphonsiana refers to Prof. While the Buffy Laughingthrush is a nice-looking bird, its Latin species name berthemyi is quite unfortunate. What a pity.)

Italy 200

Italy Birds China France 200

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2023

The Majestic Wetlands: Within Shanghai’s boundaries lie several pristine wetland habitats that serve as vital sanctuaries for a plethora of bird species. This expansive marshland is home to rare and endangered species such as the charismatic Black-faced Spoonbill, Saunders’s Gull, and the elegant Oriental Stork.

China 176

China Endangered Species Sanctuary Protection 176

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

I have written about the interesting sex life of these jacanas a few times already (short version: female mates with male, lays a bunch of eggs for him to incubate and raise the chicks, leaves him, finds another male, repeat). The Little Grebe is of course a very common bird that can still surprise by its beauty in its breeding plumage.

Birds 147

Birds China Eggs Breeding 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

I tried to get a better idea of what exactly the definition of cuckoo-dove is but am still not very clear about it – Wikipedia only offers the rather formal definition “any of several species of bird in the genera Macropygia , Reinwardtoena, and Turacoena of the pigeon family.” But I may well be wrong.

Birds 147

Birds Geese Fish Industry 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2016

Unlike other bird races where participants keep tight-lipped about bird species as mundane as a House Sparrow , this event gives a prize to the team that helps the most. But isn’t all of that data sharing counterproductive for a bird race where the team with the most species wins?

Costa Rica 181

Costa Rica Eagles Birds 181

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Pough “with illustrations in color of every species” by Don Eckelberry, Doubleday, 1946. They were different from previous guides, notably Peterson’s, utilizing photographs instead of artwork, and organizing the photographs by habitat, bird shape, and bird color rather than taxonomy. The grand total is 817 species!

North America 279

North America America Birds California Condor 279

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

The species that manage to colonize these islands evolve in competition with relatively few other species, developing survival strategies based on interdependence, co-evolution, and mutualism rather than adapting to deal with a broad range of predators and competitors. A species, wiped off the earth, never to exist again.

Cuba 252

Cuba Parrots Collecting Columbus 252

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2022

It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. Great White Pelican is not just the name of a non-existent glam-rock band but also of a bird species. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

South Africa 147

South Africa Africa Birds Research 147

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 181

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 181

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2023

Not a cover species The Black Kite is not actually black, but of course, misleading bird names are not exactly rare. It is mostly a question of economics – raising just one is troublesome enough given the resources required to feed and educate the chick. No surprise then that the species is listed as Vulnerable.

Birds 130

Birds Iraq China Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

The story of the White-winged Guan , in some ways resembles the re-discovery of some species thought to be extinct. The decades of storage in a museum came after it was regarded as an extinct species. This flock is composed of about 54 birds including nine breeding pair. A species, wiped off the earth, never to exist again.

Collecting 270

Collecting Peru Neglecting Hunting 270

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

For mankind to snatch away a species’ very existence is wrong on so many levels that I can’t begin to explain them. However, despite our best efforts to wipe them off the face of the earth, some of the more vulnerable species have managed to hang on. this species breeds. this species breeds.

Albatross 215

Albatross Endangered Species Geese Alaska 215

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2011

Eagle Lake, Lake Almanor and Clear Lake have all been identified as Audubon California Important Bird Areas (IBA), meaning that they provide essential habitat for breeding, wintering, and migrating birds. Like the breeding activity of many species this spring, the grebes were late, probably due to the unseasonable weather.

California 231

California Eagles North America Breeding 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Then a little later there was a spot of bother with DDT, but we pulled out of that one ok, with a toolbox that would surely stand us in good stead if we only had the will to use it – legislation and literature, captive breeding programs, nest platforms. A species, wiped off the earth, never to exist again. We could do it!

California Condor 205

California Condor United States Guam Whales 205

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Back in 2009, Tai Haku sent us a fascinating post exploring a question that ecologists worldwide grapple with: can the translocation of rare species into niches left empty by extinction be successful or justified? It persists in captivity at a breeding facility on Guam and in a number of American zoos. It is extinct.

Puerto Rico 195

Puerto Rico Guam Virgin Islands Feral 195

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

There aren’t many solutions proferred—the article is really about consciousness-raising—but it’s well worth a read. The organization dismantled nearly 9,000 traps on Cyprus last year. Fearing that a natural disaster, introduced species, or disease could wipe this fragile population out, the U.S.

Cambodia 145

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 145

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives. His field guides are known for images that simultaneously portray notable field marks and also the ‘personality’ of a bird species.

2020 264

2020 Birds Groups North America 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2019

Raised in and around the West Texas steppe country where temperatures reached 100 degrees with regularity, he began life as the Dust Bowl and Great Depression converged. ” By 1970 the man who championed Peregrines had convinced Cornell University to build a Hawk Barn for captive breeding of these birds. He came for the hawks.

Falcons 190

Falcons California Condor Alaska Texas 190

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2016

Over 3,200 photographs have been used, most showing species in their habitats. There is also text, distribution maps, a dark red bar “warning” about similar looking rare species, and conservation symbols. The book’s organization reflects the authors’ goal of making this a guide accessible to birders of all levels and skill.

Ireland 150

Ireland Birds Groups Falcons 150

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Third, observing and photographing breeding birds and their young have become acts of ethical confusion as birders, photographers, and organizational representatives debate the impact of our human presence on the nesting process. Some chapters focus on one species (Yellow Warbler), some on several related species (Chickadees and Nuthatches).

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

The hope and claim is that transferring this process to gull identification works more easily and just as accurately (at least for species) as an examination of plumage and molt patterns. Species Accounts. Gulls Simplified covers 25 species. From the Laughing Gull species account.

North America 208

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 208

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. It may be as sick as deliberately targeting an endangered species for death. Birders know that the light’s not always perfect or even particularly good when you’re trying to tell one species from another. The big white one. It flies on.

2011 243

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 243

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I knew I would not be seeing the bird in its rosy-breasted breeding plumage, but somehow seeing the bird in all its forms helped crystallize its appearance in my head. or birds that look very different in their breeding and non-breeding plumages (Shorebirds! I studied it. Sadly, I still did not see the bird.

Ireland 173

Ireland 2013 Breeders Ducks 173

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2016

It was organized to boost eBird use, raise funds for bird conservation, and just get more people out birding. How can we say that magic is a farce when the May blossoms are backdropping bright, breeding plumaged Canadas , Magnolias , Chestnut-sideds , chocolate Bay-breasteds , and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks ?

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica 2016 2001 Battery 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

Hunting sandhill cranes in Kentucky is a bad idea from a public relations standpoint, considering the growing cadre of birders and nature enthusiasts for whom cranes are a touchstone species. Initiating a hunting season on a large, charismatic species like a crane is no way to resuscitate hunting.

2011 254

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 254

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2017

As the title plainly says, this is a guide to the sounds birds create—their songs, calls, chatters, chitters, barks, drills, raps, claps, pops; some made with syrinx (a bird’s vocal organ), some with bills, wings, feathers, feet, or air sacs (it seems that there is not a body part that some bird doesn’t use to make sound).

North America 178

North America America Birds New York 178

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

It is the 100th Anniversary of the extinction of the species known as the Passenger Pigeon and writers are paying attention. Errol Fuller’s The Passenger Pigeon is a beautifully illustrated, elegantly written “celebration” of the passenger pigeon and the artists who illustrated and photographed the species. It is a hodgepodge.

2014 161

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 161

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.

Delaware 183

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 183

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2011

Even if you don’t live in the summer range of a particular species, you may have opportunities to observe it while it passes through, especailly if you live in an active flyway, like I happen to. Another question this raises has to do with migration itself. The birds do the flying for you. Why migrate? Well, not really.

Research 201

Research Humane Compassion New York 201