10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

The first thing to appear was its yellow bill – a locally rare Cattle Egret ! The local levee warden sometimes shepherds his cows here, and the eagle would stand right above him, giving him no second glance. This was only my seventh observation of this species in Europe (3 in Greece, 4 in Serbia). I am a stranger in his realm.

Greece 235

Greece Bulgaria Birds Serbia 235

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2023

A low branch is decorated by a Green Bee-eater and a tree top above it holds several Cattle Egrets. We have almost forgotten that Manoj has promised us some creatures of the night, when he raised his hand to point at three Mottled Wood Owls right above us (cover photo), beautiful large Strix owls slightly amused by us.

India 147

India Lions Boars Mammals 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2014

They have only a brief window to find the right spot to send down roots – a spot with the combination of moisture, sunlight, and fine silty soil they need. Despite this, they are in some ways quite fragile. Those seeds, borne aloft on a tenuous parachute of white fibers, are of necessity small and delicate.

Montana 165

Montana Cattle Deer Humane 165

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2012

.” Which roughly translates to “Stationary in the area of the cattle pasture and the surrounding bushes and adjacent reed bed” This was going to be easy. Cattle is mostly kept in housings in Germany (sadly), and cattle out on a pasture is a rare sight in our landscape. I found the grid cell – no problem.

Cattle 118

Cattle Germany Iran Breeders 118

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2021

Then, I was not sure whether this was the right thing to do. Cattle Egrets have perfected that smudgy look. It looked truly terrifying – so terrifying that after taking just a few photos I got out of the car (which they had totally ignored) and walked towards them until they separated. A happier shrike. But do we really care?

Birds 231

Birds LACS France Japan 231

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

That honor goes to the Gray-crowned Crane , a very sexy species in its own right. Unfortunately, the world cares little for weavers, no matter how rare or range-restricted. Nor is the Shoebill the national bird of Uganda.

Uganda 264

Uganda Africa Birds Penguins 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2022

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.

Costa Rica 237

Costa Rica Nicaragua 2019 Farming 237

Critter News

JANUARY 11, 2012

Animal rights activists are behind the burning of cattle trucks at Harris Farms in western Fresno County early Sunday, according to a statement released by a clearinghouse for activists. Full story here at the Fresno Bee.

Farming 100

Farming Fresno Animal Liberation Front Animal Liberation 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2015

Driving north along the Ionian seacoast through the city of Igoumenitsa, there is a place where the main artery takes you right, further away from the sea – follow it for 150 metres (500 ft) and then turn left just before a small stadium. The rest of the road follows the sea for some 3.5 Could they possibly be…?

Greece 233

Greece Dogs Pelicans Fish 233

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

All the tracks onto the station property were underwater and all of the Brahman Cattle have moved to the highest ground that they can find. In fact it is not just the cattle, but all of the creatures have moved into bushes and trees. Black-winged Stilt holding their ground! Another flooded track onto the station.

Barn Owls 162

Barn Owls Seals Birds Cattle 162

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

This actually benefits our local wildlife, because the rainwater then gets trapped in the borrow pit and in some instances it will sustain the wildlife right through our dry months when there is no rainfall at all. This particular borrow pit is right beside the highway around seventy kilometres from Broome and is always worth stopping at.

Cattle 212

Cattle Birds Zebras Wildlife 212

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2011

It didn’t take much imagination to name Cowbirds or Cattle Egrets or Cattle Tyrants , but there’s more fantasy, even more wit, involved in the naming of other bovine birds. Wicked, right? They’re all named for livestock. The genus Bucephala includes three familiar ducks with big heads. Hat-tip to Stella.

Cows 142

Cows Cattle 2011 Birds 142

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 10, 2020

In Costa Rica, a lot of those birds fly right overhead. No sparrows or migrant juncos nor hardly any Yellow-rumpeds and forget about Orange-crowned (a serious mega around here!) but there are other birds, many stopping to stay, many others moving to South America.

Costa Rica 269

Costa Rica South America Colombia Paraguay 269

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2014

There were grumpy old fishermen, fishing through the closed season when the fish enter the backwaters to spawn, but also carrying handguns on their belts and assuming that, being armed and dangerous, they have every right to the area. Hence, I had the be equally grumpy to explain to them that I had an equal right to be there (equal right?

Serbia 242

Serbia Stray Dog Protection Botswana 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2017

Although a lot of beautiful rainforest was replaced by bananas, cattle pasture, and other ag-lands many years ago, at least we can still enjoy great birding at a number of sites, most of which are easily accessible including Sarapiqui, the most visited site in the lowlands north of San Jose.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica San Jose Bats Birds 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2011

I made a suggestion of cutting off one corner a bit as it looked quite shallow-yes, right! There had been cattle in the area and we kept coming across bizarre butterfly circles. All we can think is that they were attracted to an area where there had been cattle urine and they were getting the natural salts.

Cattle 160

Cattle Birds 2003 Geese 160

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

It stops those thousands of migrating birds flying across the Gulf of Mexico and directs them right onto the trees, fields, sanctuaries, beaches along the Bolivar Peninsula, where they hopefully find food and fresh water. I imagined walking right up to them. High Island in April requires Weather, so I was told. American Avocets.

Houston 213

Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 213

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2019

Similarly when the Hoopoe and Cattle Egret were split, these are widespread birds with huge ranges even after the split. We here at 10,000 Birds have decided to right some wrongs and improve the birding world by renaming birds the way they should have been named from Linnaeus to the present. (Or, But the Blue Tit was different.

Iran 129

Iran Barn Owls New Zealand Europe 129

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2020

A few paddle strokes down the river and on the right bank there were four Impala antelopes ( Aepyceros melampus ). The gentleman living on a farm by the Ngotwane Dam said ‘A croc took my dog, right there!’. or a croc was swimming right under the bottom of the kayak…. Cattle Egret 16. How can I not be? Grey Heron 4.

Botswana 189

Botswana Africa 2001 Fish 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Heading south on a good surfaced road, we made slow progress through the herds of cattle, donkeys and goats that thronged the highway, until we finally reached the land of the Konso. Quality time was spent with a friendly Hamar family at their homestead of grass huts surrounding their cattle corral.

Ethiopia 243

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Game 243

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

This Cattle Egret has just read a paper stating that it would be 3.6 The paper is titled “ Breeding of black-winged stilt Himantopus himantopus in muddy sites of a wastewater treatment plant “ As far as I can tell, the paper does not have any interesting results, but that is not the point, right? meters instead of 0.7

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2017

Again, there were lots of new birds here, and I was not even surprised to have a large group of white herons fly right over my head. The real shock came, when at the last minute, I realized that they were not Greater Egrets , nor the smaller Snowy Egrets , but Cattle Egrets – Bubulcus ibis.

Cattle 100

Cattle Mexico Cows Game 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2018

The mighty rhino along with the Cattle Egret. It is incredibly hard to pick a highlight, but the Lilac-breasted Rollers, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills, Green Wood Hoopoe and the Kori Bustard are all right up there. The best I could do to mix both the birds and the animals was in the picture at the top of this story.

South Africa 113

South Africa Africa Rhinos Mongoose 113

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 25, 2018

Check out this image of a Great Egret ( Ardea alba ), Snowy Egret ( Egretta thula ) and Cattle Egret ( Bubulcus ibis ) together. This Belted Kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon ) was perched over the pond right next to the SNWR visitor center. Now, there have been some rare birds found at these incredibly diverse refuges.

Wildlife 101

Wildlife Sacramento Bald Eagle Falcons 101

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2012

You do need to be careful of cattle wandering across the highway, as the grass always looks greener on the other side! The puddles right against the highway had Glossy Ibis on them and they were unconcerned about the traffic-though there really isn’t much in the outback!

Investigation 168

Investigation Cattle Australia Humane 168

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

When there are no animals around to sit on, Cattle Egrets sometimes sit on trees, even though they frequently b h about the trees’ low speed and inability to stir up insects. When Cattle Egrets go to the local discotheque, they tend to overdo their makeup a bit. It is sometimes necessary to find food though.

Singapore 147

Singapore Mountain Goats Birds Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2016

Costa Rica is situated right between two oceans. The pair of seas are close enough for the occasional adventurous frigatebird to just soar way up and right over to the other salty basin. You can also expect solid birding right around the lodge and on the entrance road. In the other direction, the Pacific.

Costa Rica 165

Costa Rica San Jose Panama Birds 165

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2013

A low branch is decorated by a Green Bee-eater (above) and a tree top above it holds several Cattle Egrets. We have almost forgotten that Manoj has promised us some creatures of the night, when he raised his hand to point at three Mottled Wood Owls right above us, beautiful large Strix owls slightly amused by us.

Lions 227

Lions India Mammals Boars 227

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2015

Loess bluff with numerous bee-eaters and one Northern Wheatear and, cut into a low grassy ridge, the set of tracks veers right. There were loads of the first, but none of the second – and I came specifically for the pipits (to make matters worse, I had a fleeting glimpse of a possible suspect). The Danube shallows are waterless.

Factory 228

Factory Stray Dog Turtles Serbia 228

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Human-created habitats like road edges, pastures, and railroad right-of-ways suit them to a tee, so it hardly seems fair to call them the locusts when we are the ones who have expanded explosively and stripped the land bare. Cattle Egrets might well get them when they leap out of the way of our domestic replacement bison.

Montana 167

Montana Cooking Texas Cattle 167

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

It seems that they especially enjoy being around cattle, which helps lead to the number one cause of nest failure, trampling (the number two reason is predation). I know, I know, another horrible shot, right? Often, nests are near villages, though sometimes they are found on the shores of salt lakes or on hills.

Kazakhstan 128

Kazakhstan Cows 2009 Endangered Species 128

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

They were busy feeding around the cattle water trough that the cattle can’t get to unless they want wet hooves! A Red-backed Fairywren was calling from the top of a bush and to the right a dragonfly clung to a branch. Whiskered Terns in flight. Goanna on its hind legs.

Barn Owls 187

Barn Owls Cattle Ducks Reptiles 187

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2016

This property is also a site with vernal pools and uses cattle grazing for vegetation control. Returning to the Tuscan Preserve within weeks of the installation I observed one owl at the entrance to one of the original burrows… And one at the new installation you can see on the far right of this long distance photo.

Owls 101

Owls California 2010 Colorado 101

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2016

Then, we became birders again, noting Common Mynas and Eastern Cattle Egrets on the terraced lawns, Yellow-footed Pigeons, European-collared and Red-collared Doves in the trees bordering the garden squares. A few seconds to stare and take a photograph before being run over by breathless tourists in search of the perfect Taj selfie.

India 189

India Tigers Birds Owls 189

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2012

Little Blue and Tricolored Herons , Snowy , Great , and Cattle Egrets , a Laughing Falcon , Black Vultures, Blue-winged Teal , a Wood Stork , a nesting tree of Montezuma Oropendulas , and Ruddy Ground-Doves were just some of the species we saw on our short train ride into the refuge. Howler monkeys! Golden-mantled Howlers ! Monkeys!!!!!

Honduras 158

Honduras Wildlife Monkeys Transported 158

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2011

It actually looked like the station owner was breeding birds rather than cattle! Juvenile Black-winged Stilt The water is still right to the edge of the road and it may well stay like that for quite some time. The land is so lush and green it would trick any unsuspecting visitor into thinking it was great grazing country.

Investigation 140

Investigation Birds Cattle Ducks 140

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

So right now I’m feeling pretty good about Eurasian Collared-doves. We remember starlings not skylarks, House Sparrows not Eurasian Tree Sparrows , Cattle Egrets not… well, whatever we’ve forgotten because it didn’t do as well as the Cattle Egrets. Wicked, right? Hat-tip to Stella.

Montana 135

Montana 2011 New York Bahamas 135