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Birding Kota Kinabalu, Borneo: Rice Paddies

10,000 Birds

As a bird mainly feeding on seeds, it is regarded as a threat to crops (in fact, the Latin species name of oryzivora combines the words for rice, “oryza”, and eating, “vorus”). He is the great ascetic, the master of fertility, the master of poison and medicine, and Lord of Cattle.

Zebras 188
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The Blood Pheasant

10,000 Birds

The Latin species name cruentus , “blood-stained” has the same background Blood Pheasants mainly feed on mosses – not many bird species do this as mosses are not very nutritious. One paper identified the number of flocks in their research area “by tracing their tracks in the snow” Very Cowboys and Indians.

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Birding Shanghai in May 2023 – Part 2

10,000 Birds

The Fairy Pitta is listed as Vulnerable, with the HBW that the species is “rare; global population probably no more than a few thousand individuals” While the sexes are alike, my guess is that the Fairy Pitta in the photo is a male given its early arrival date in Shanghai.

Birds 130
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Return of the Waders

10,000 Birds

In Europe, most of them winter south of the Sahara but an increasing share winters north of it – which sounds like an interesting research topic for people who, ahem, find such topics interesting. It is rumored that one of the researchers later became a software developer. No need to remind us all the time.

Cattle 147
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Birding Shanghai in June 2023

10,000 Birds

This leaves Shanghai in June with basically just the year-round species and the summer breeders, maybe with a few added ultra-lazy individuals of migratory species. Fortunately, there are a few more such breeding species than most Shanghainese are aware of. Such as the Black-winged Cuckooshrike.

Birds 130
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Rancho Naturalista Lodge, Costa Rica, or in the Land of Coffee and Chocolate

10,000 Birds

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks , Muscovy Ducks and Blue-winged Teals were around us, together with Green , Great and Little Blue Herons , Cattle and Great White Egrets , Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons , plus one locally rare Pinnated Bittern in the floating vegetation, as well as several dozen Neotropical Cormorants.

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Revenge Birding (Shanghai, early June 2022)

10,000 Birds

If I was an ornithologist aiming for a grant, I would now definitely highlight the need for more research on this topic. The Grey-Streaked Flycatcher looks only marginally more interesting, and while the Latin species name griseisticta sounds vaguely mysterious, it only means grey-spotted. It is sometimes necessary to find food though.

Singapore 147