10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

That was definitely my best sighting. Corey got his Best Bird of the Weekend early this weekend as while he and his family were making their way home from a week-long vacation in Cape Cod on Friday a Black-throated Gray Warbler was found in Queens at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

2020 158

2020 Jamaica Birds Family 158

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2023

Lake Kerkini National Park in the north of Greece is the very best birding area in the Balkan Peninsula and definitely among the top ten hotspots of Europe. Last but not least, there were three species of shrikes, Red-backed , Lesser Grey and at least 2 Masked Shrikes , possibly 2 more, an entire family (not all were showing so well).

Greece 237

Greece Pelicans Birds Stray Dog 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2015

You will notice a definite west coast bias: Mountain Chickadee , Varied Thrush , Black Oystercatcher , and Townsend’s Warbler should give you the idea. I put up $35 so I could get two sets: one to keep and one to give as a present to an undetermined person. The prototype doesn’t have all of the artwork yet.).

Game 205

Game Family Birds Groups 205

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2022

It also summarizes the vagrancy status of every bird family in the whole wide world, which makes it fun to read as well as superbly educational. But it’s a very fluid definition, as the book makes very clear. The Family Accounts are the fun part of the book. Is the ship-assisted vagrant a ‘true’ vagrant?

Birds 263

Birds Compassion Eagles Science 263

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2021

The Pheasant Coucal family have moved on from the last place that we observed them. The bird-life has definitely benefitted by the recent outbreak of locusts. There have been literally thousands of Whiskered Terns feeding close to the highway as you can see by all of the tiny dots in the header photos.

Cattle 263

Cattle Breeding Family Birds 263

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2021

So I contacted him for the exact location, which turned out to be a beautiful 14-acre property that belongs to his family, and he kindly invited me over. In other words, they were definitely lifers. Which it was! We didn’t manage to make it happen the first Monday, but on the 28th of June, we birded his property together.

Barn Owls 262

Barn Owls Owls Mexico Leopards 262

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

But Swarovski Optik is a family-owned business, so the then CEO, Mr. Swarovski, categorically rejected the advice and decided: factory stays in Austria, and the prices will only go up! You know that classical definition of what separates men from boys? The next day we had an outdoor workshop and a chance to test the toys.

Austria 298

Austria Factory Asia Battery 298

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2021

Wood-Wrens, which like to live close to the ground in deep brush, definitely follow this rule; they are not at all colorful, but their song sure does ring. It is not that close of a relative of the Northern Mockingbird , being in the same family, but a different genus. That is because it is, well, a Mockingbird.

Trinidad 189

Trinidad Emotional Transported Mexico 189

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2024

The rooms are floating in a pond and the pond provides a home for a Eurasian Beaver family. Definitely, lack of songbirds. Yes, that’s where I was going – the Oostvaardersplassen – and the hotel has a little bridge straight into the National Park. Skeins of Greylag Geese completed the picture.

Beavers 145

Beavers Netherlands Eagles Geese 145

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2017

The figures show the order of bird families in the four field guides mentioned above. For easier reference, I have given the order of families in the oldest field guide (on the left) a spectral colour pattern and used the same colour for the respective families in the other guides. Order of bird families, non-songbirds.

Brunei 162

Brunei 2009 2016 2014 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2023

Pied Oystercatcher eggs It is Winter here in Northern Australia which means plenty of cloud-free blue sky and there are definitely worst places to be sitting for twenty eight days watching the world go by! I could observe where the family had come down to the ocean at night on the big tides. One large Pied Oystercatcher family !

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Eggs Australia Protection Breeding 130

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

Corey finished up his family trip to Costa Rica on Saturday and his Best Bird of the Weekend should be a Pacific Screech-Owl outside of his hotel on Friday night, a lifer!

2019 124

2019 Costa Rica Pelicans Birds 124

10,000 Birds

MAY 26, 2014

While I saw some pretty special species this weekend, the most special was the Gray Catbird because my sweet 7-year niece totally got into finding one; I think I’ve found the next generation birder in the family! But watching a Northern Goshawk rip through the sky over Bloomingdale Bog in the Adirondacks was definitely a BBOTW moment.

2014 212

2014 Birds Experience Experiments 212

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2020

But if you really want to rack up the numbers on each and every outing, you should definitely come here in the winter. Once I moved beyond the reservoir area, it was once again the hummingbird family that gave me the best photos. Four Least Grebes at once! That’s a personal best.

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Game Lions Africa Family 160

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

It is definitely a nest with a view! I observed the whole Pied Oystercatcher family at the water’s edge and the chicks were exposed and vulnerable. The pair closer to Gantheaume Point are still incubating their second clutch of two eggs and have chosen to nest in exactly the same place as the first clutch.

Eggs 225

Eggs Breeding Australia Family 225

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

The answers involve phylogenies, evolutionary family trees, derived from DNA studies combined with fossil records, and geological concepts of how the continents and oceans were formed from super land masses. These words and others are listed in the Index, with page numbers given for their definitions.

Science 225

Science Albatross Research Birds 225

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2019

If you’re not finding mid-June birding all that exciting, you’re definitely not alone. Worry not, though, because you’ll find plenty of avian-themed excitement in our Bird Renaming Week extravaganza, which you’ll be pleased to know has already begun.

2019 113

2019 Virginia New York Birds 113

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

The Groove-billed Ani is an odd-looking member of the Cuckoo family. You will definitely see it, everywhere except in dense woods. In contrast, it is always a nice surprise for me to see Mourning Doves down here. They are residents, but not common ones. Inca Doves , in my garden. Its characteristic “pee-HOOey!”

Woodpeckers 339

Woodpeckers Mexico Cattle Species 339

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2019

Last week I introduced you to a family of Radjah Shelducks taking advantage of the channel. These Egrets and Little Black Cormorants are definitely using this structure to their advantage. We also make sure we visit Hidden Valley National Park and sometimes Lake Argyle if time allows.

Cattle 105

Cattle Research Family Rights 105

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2019

Over the two weeks since I first introduced you to this family of Pied Oystercatchers there has been a lot of walking. This family of Pied Oystercatchers have not only walked in and out with the tides, which are big in Broome, but also moved about two kilometres north. Pied Oystercatcher family.

Eggs 126

Eggs Feral Cats Shelters Feral 126

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

The family Ardeidae consists on long-legged, long-necked, long-beaked, water birds called waders in North America or maybe just herons, egrets, and bitterns everywhere else. It’s a massive family with worldwide distribution, so I’ll be expecting a tsunami of submissions for this one.

North America 164

North America America Birds Family 164

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2021

And Giant Otters are still common in the rivers around Karanambu Ranch, home of the late “otter lady”, Diane McTurck, who used to rehabilitate orphaned otters and whose family still runs the lodge. These are the purple-colored skittles, not quite as tasty as the red ones, but definitely firm fan favorites.

Guyana 278

Guyana Otters South America Colombia 278

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

There are several definitions of the wider southern African region, but the one accepted within the region and by the authors of this guide is that Southern Africa represents that part of the continent laying south of the Kunene and Zambezi rivers. Before that, while you all know what South Africa is, what exactly is Southern Africa?

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Swaziland Lesotho 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2017

The Home Place is definitely solid, and it also sparkles. In some ways his story is familiar to a lot of birders: the outdoors was both recreation and refuge for him, his family imbued him with a love of learning and an appreciation for the earth. And sure, some stinkers make it out there between the covers. Drew Lanham is a black man.

South Carolina 134

South Carolina Stray Cows 2012 134

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

The third weekend of January, I travelled to the coastal city of Acapulco to give a seminar on family finances at a church there. And my one lifer for the trip was a family of Rufous-naped Wrens that apparently live in the same garden. I would definitely say that it is. Is Acapulco a worthwhile birding destination?

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Birds 2006 Mexico Morocco 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

Red-billed Curassow ( Crax blumenbachii ), a large, ground-dwelling bird belonging to the same family as the more familiar Plain Chachalaca of southern Texas, was never a very widespread species. Having a family of endangered Red-billed Curassow willingly approach me to within such a short distance is definitely one of them!

Brazil 222

Brazil California Condor Parrots Texas 222

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2012

Speaking of July, every year around this time an assemblage of my family and friends gather in a remote part of Pennsylvania for food, fun, and flaming chickens. However, while there will definitely be a chicken this year (probably Jackson Pollock-themed), an inferno might be ill-advised considering the tinder-dry condition of the area.

Chickens 164

Chickens 2012 Pennsylvania 2011 164

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

Hey, in 1959 Walt Disney set up a studio on the island and filmed Swiss Family Robinson there! It was this post right here on 10,000 Birds I ended up bookmarking as the definitive source for ID’ing these two species. The island of Tobago in the southern Caribbean is much wilder than one could imagine.

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Fish Rights Species Birds 226

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2013

They are usually in a group and our garden regularly has a family group of eight visit it. They have listed under “Other names” in one of our field guides “Happy Family & Yahoo”! It could then re-join the family group and continue to enjoy the insects and grubs that our garden has to offer.

Australia 157

Australia Groups Family Experience 157

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

North of the equator, schools will be letting out for the summer and families will be packing up for adventure. Travel is definitely on my mind because Corey and I are both off to explore new parts of the world this weekend. Exotic locales make for exotic birding and even the most mundane territory can astound the first time visitor.

Botswana 162

Botswana 2012 Birds Fish 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2020

For those of you who are wondering why I’m talking about self-isolation and using “we”; my party consists of myself and my wife – who insists she is definitely not a birder. This extremely vocal member of the vireo family utters its rich warble incessantly from sun-up to sun-down but it rarely makes itself visible.

Trinidad 229

Trinidad Battery Industry Bats 229

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2019

Geographic appellations definitely have their place; if you have Andean Teal on your life list, you almost certainly visited the Andes. fuligula is most definitely a Tufted Duck. Common bird names should be about the bird. Too many birds are named for people or locations only loosely associated with a species. Well, no more!

Birds 113

Birds Woodpeckers Ducks Suffering 113

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2013

My best bird this weekend was hardly rare, but spotting a Great Blue Heron in a suburban yard far from water definitely caught my attention.

St. Louis 170

St. Louis 2013 United States Arizona 170

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Using the icons to locate specific bird families takes a little getting used to, but if you do it often it works well as a finding tool. The topics range from basic concepts like “Molt” to essays on specific species and bird families: “Plunge-Diving Behavior in Seabirds” to “Corvid Intelligence.”

North America 279

North America America Birds California Condor 279

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2020

It’s impossible to think of him being bothered by the wet, cold ground when there’s some count to be made definite after years of thinking about it, some esoteric puzzle to be finally solved. Like he does, say, for the Canyon wren.

Virginia 252

Virginia Boston North America 2020 252

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Once the family of Pied Oystercatchers get to the reef they are easily able to hide the chicks and it does not take you long to become familiar with the communication between the adults and young. Family of five Pied Oystercatchers- quite well disguised-also in the header photo! Family of five-adult Pied Oystercatchers on the right.

Eggs 165

Eggs Raised Breeding Family 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2018

Taking advantage of my son, Desmond, having this past Friday off from school our small family decided to do a three-day trip somewhere. Eventually, around midafternoon, the rain slowed down to the point where it was hardly even coming down and the family took a nature walk. Nonetheless, it was nice to see a second endemic species.

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Family Monkeys Deer Pelicans 100