10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2011

Fluttering Shearwater ( Puffinus gavia ) Flesh-footed Shearwater ( Puffinus carneipes ) Buller’s Shearwater ( Puffinus bulleri ) Along with these three were Two further species, also both familiar to North American birders, Sooty Shearwaters and Short-tailed Shearwaters. It is also restricted as a breeder to the north of North Island.

New Zealand 174

New Zealand Albatross 2011 Cooking 174

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2011

The kakariki are an odd group of parakeets, particularly in terms of their distribution. In addition to this tight clustering of related parakeets, the genus also had two species in the far-flung Society Islands (now in French Polynesia). He lists four extant species, along with the two extinct species.

New Zealand 146

New Zealand Fiji Parrots Tonga 146

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2011

I mentioned last week, while talking about rails and the Pacific, that Tonga is not a particularly birdy birding destination. A combination of extinctions and proximity to Fiji means that a trip to that island group would net you pretty much all the same birds plus a whole raft of others.

Tonga 162

Tonga Fiji New Zealand Parrots 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2011

The world of birding is filled with challenging groups well known to all, birds like gulls , Empidonax flycatchers or cisticolas that require attention to the tiniest details in order to assign an individual to a specific species (if it can be done at all). Above we have an example of the species. Subspecies humii , Thailand.

Samoa 168

Samoa Vanuatu United Arab Emirates Tonga 168