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In defence of museum collections

10,000 Birds

But as Bill Bryson notes, he did make one great contribution to the world (beyond his anatomical contributions of course), his reconceptualisation of museums from places only of research to places of research and public entertainment and education. Dale Thomas plant collection. Creative Commons).

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Linda Hufford: A Rehabber Comments on “Collecting” Rare Birds

10,000 Birds

But, he continued, some – but not all – of the researchers drove him nuts. Their attitude was “the rules don’t apply to me, I’m a researcher.” The newest find of this extremely scarce bird was a male, and was “collected” (an innocent-sounding euphemism for “killed”) for the American Museum of Natural History.

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COMMENTS ON COLLECTING BIRDS: A Reply

10,000 Birds

After my post about collecting two weeks ago I received a bit of feedback, some positive, some negative, and I’ve been mulling it over with the intention of writing about some of the issues that could be considered the root cause of the disagreement. You see, the bird was collected for scientific study. Or how gracefully it flew?

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Costa Rica on a relaxed birding pace

10,000 Birds

Few places boast so many different bird species in such a small area — over 900 species (more than Europe, or all of the United States and Canada combined), including 75 different families, like 51 species of hummingbirds, 48 warblers, and 45 tanagers. It was close to 5 a.m., the best time for city traffic to eat me alive.

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Birding Hongbenghe, Yunnan (Part 1)

10,000 Birds

Given that according to the HBW, the species prefers dense primary and secondary montane forests, the note that the bird also forages among kitchen waste (in the same HBW entry) seems somewhat incongruous. Fish & Wildlife Service has a web page for this species – but it contains absolutely no information.

Burma 198
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Adventures of a Louisiana Birder: One Year, Two Wings, Three Hundred Species–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

’ “Is this going to be a collection of essays?” Marybeth Lima’s ‘real life’ work is academic, she is a professor of biological and agricultural engineering as Louisiana State University with research interests in community-based design and service-learning in engineering. ” I wondered.

Louisiana 264
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Out Birding to Help an Endemic Sparrow in Costa Rica

10,000 Birds

Listed as Near Threatened, this charismatic species has a tiny distribution restricted to central Costa Rica, especially in the Central Valley. Over a few years, I have already seen several places where I watched this species, even showed this species to visiting birders, bulldozed and prepared for housing.