10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2023

The Majestic Wetlands: Within Shanghai’s boundaries lie several pristine wetland habitats that serve as vital sanctuaries for a plethora of bird species. This expansive marshland is home to rare and endangered species such as the charismatic Black-faced Spoonbill, Saunders’s Gull, and the elegant Oriental Stork.

China 165

China Endangered Species Sanctuary Protection 165

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2016

For example, years ago, Eiton Tchenrov postulated that the wild progenitor of the domestic dog, some subspecies or another of wolf, could benefit from overlapping its breeding territory with human hunters. The humans tended to keep away a range of predators that might take the pups as a form of interference competition.

Alligators 116

Alligators Protection Leopards Birds 116

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Why are these issues?

Costa Rica 213

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 213

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2022

I was surprised that this species is named for its vocalization – which sounds like laughter. For example, the Diamond Dove is the world’s second-smallest species of the columbidae order ( source ). The Latin species name haematonotus (“blood-backed”) sounds a bit more exciting but not necessarily more accurate.

Australia 147

Australia Birds Parrots Ostriches 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2018

Invasive species , particularly rodents, have long been a problem on the Hawaiian archipelago. Mice are also detrimental to the island’s habitat for other reasons, including their consumption of plants and invertebrates, often competing with native species. Implementing mitigation measures identified for selected species.

Mice 102

Mice Albatross Honolulu Rats 102

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 219

Dissection Birds Research Europe 219

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

I saw two Pitta species at Hongbenghe, both among the slightly less glamourous among the pitta family: The Blue-naped Pitta … … and the closely related Rusty-naped Pitta. The Blue Whistling Thrush is presumably named for its loud human-like whistling, and possibly for being blue.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

After writing this last sentence, I looked up the species in the HBW and found the sentence “Song poorly documented” in the appropriate section, while with regard to calls, the description is that “call is a two-note raspy nasal ‘ryeeh-reh’”. The Hair-crested Drongo is a bit more common here.

Singapore 147

Singapore Mountain Goats Birds Giraffes 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2018

Major extinction events that are geologically instantaneous have been followed by periods of time with reduction of species or unstable habitats that last for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. There are about 10,000 species of them, after all, which is a lot for a vertebrate. But, that is also a naive view.

2018 101

2018 Science Humane Species 101

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It’s very hard to organize the many ways in which human beings relate to avian beings into comprehensible text. Additional back of the book material includes a Glossary, Biographical Details, a Select Bibliography, Notes, Credits, an Index to Species and a General Index. Eagles are national symbols of the U.S.,

Birds 213

Birds Egypt Family Eagles 213

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2015

Many of the great debates over human behavior, those related to things such as race or gender, are muddled and messy because plasticity is ignored. Plasticity in humans is probably modulated primarily through experience and enculturation. Presumably the humans keep away the predators.

Birds 120

Birds Research Humane Pets 120

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

Above, a Merlin sits through a few quick documentation pics before… …heading off into the sunset. You never know how each shot will turn out which is one of the reasons I love documenting these moments. This moment of human/bird interaction is a beautiful and fleeting occurrence. Another Sharpie back to the wild.

Research 205

Research Welfare Rights Humane 205

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2014

I was chatting with Gordon about this and we discussed how drones could be a safer way to get photos of birds or document birds for breeding surveys, but he was quick to point out, “You and I already have an idea of what a safe distance would be to test that out with an active bald eagle nest. Here’s a guy harassing Osprey.

Bald Eagle 194

Bald Eagle Mississippi Eagles Ducks 194

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

I know humans as a whole are a powerful species, but really, we do not have that much control over hummingbird migration ( Trumpeter Swans , maybe, but not hummingbirds). It is a myth, an old wives’ tale and completely not true that if you leave your hummingbird feeder outside that you will prevent them from migrating south.

Arizona 249

Arizona Minnesota Compassion Welfare 249

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2020

One of the world’s most handsome and successfully introduced gamebirds, the Common Pheasant has been well-established for centuries — thanks to human trade — far outside of its original range in the Balkans and the foothills of the Caucasus, first in Roman times across most of Europe, and later in North America (beginning in 1773).

2015 156

2015 Portugal France Europe 156

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2014

I’m fairly certain that there’s no other place in the United States where one can walk out the door pushing a stroller and pretty easily rack up at least 30 species without trying very hard. The possibility of finding a gator of a size that could due any human beyond a toddler any harm is slim in a place like this.

Florida 167

Florida Alligators Birds United States 167

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

The book is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Avifaunal Overview,” and “Species Accounts.” Not all habitat change is due to humans; there is Chestnut Blight destroying American Chestnuts in the early 1900s, and the more recent Dutch Elm disease. Most birders will go straight to the “Species Accounts.”

New York City 149

New York City New York Birds Breeding 149

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

In its natural old-world range, the House Sparrow offers an interesting identification challenge and has vagrant potential since it is a polytypic species with a highly complex taxonomy. The genus Passer has several well-recognized and recognizable species in Europe, and still holds several enigmas.

Sparrows 216

Sparrows Italy Asia Austria 216

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? Kinabalu (at 13,455 feet the highest peak in southeast Asia), and human development that has resulted in freshwater rice fields, secondary forest, and oil palm plantations, this means that Borneo offers an incredibly high degree of biodiversity. Now, I’m not so sure.

Brunei 175

Brunei Birds Asia China 175

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2015

If this was America, we might not be concerned because starlings are an invasive species, at least in North America. That means crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhibiting advanced relational thinking, according to the research. So, here we go… Fighting in Iraq has been affecting starlings.

Science 151

Science Iraq Research Birds 151

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

The idea of Lost Animals was conceived after the publication of Extinct Birds (2001), a 400-page, four-pound book on 75 extinct species. Lost Birds looks at photographic representations of 28 species, 21 of which are birds. Some document one of the last views of the species, others are of the last representative of the species.

Animal 267

Animal Mammals Hawaii Dolphins 267

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2018

I have to try to document this… oh. Bob Dieterich arrived and we enjoyed a look at a second Lesser Black-backed Gull before we walked up the beach to the edge of our circle, slowly adding a few species here and there. As in a dead human being. We managed to net ourselves 26,859 birds of 113 species.

2018 113

2018 Birds Bald Eagle Falcons 113

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2011

You’d think, then, that applying science to philosophy by studying the evolutionary underpinnings of thought and behavior across species would be right up my alley. I would have liked to see far more examples of moral structures that would not look good or bad to the audience’s eyes but completely orthogonal to human morality.

Morals 110

Morals Animal Humane Research 110

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 12, 2013

Nearly 70 species of parrots have been recorded flying free at some stage or another in Miami, including Hyacinth Macaws. Dozens of other introduced bird species, largely escapees from pet owners, now call Miami home. But I couldn’t help but get more excited about the countable species as opposed to the uncountable ones.

Miami 134

Miami Parrots Research Birds 134

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

So, for example, Essay #15, “Individual Variation,” uses Herring Gulls to introduce the concept that one species, even one species at a specific age, can vary widely in appearance. The Checklist is more than a taxonomic listing of species and chapter number and title; it also contains useful notes on each bird family.

Birds 115

Birds North America Breeding America 115

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

Recently it has also been documented as breeding in Wisconsin, Ontario, and the Upper Michigan Peninsula, but those birds are few and not always accessible. It’s the warbler that is often the last unchecked species on birders’ life lists and, whether you list or not, for most of us observing it is a once in a lifetime experience.

Michigan 229

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 229

Animal Person

MAY 10, 2009

Latimer refers to his previous two posts where he has "documented the ethical and moral shallowness of the 'animal rights' credo itself, which is based more on an anti-human self hatred, taking the form of a 'moral' squeamishness concerned more with stamping out human 'cruelty,' no matter what the social or economic costs might be.

Animal Rights 100

Animal Rights Rights Broiler Chicken Animal 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. This is not entirely unknown among domestic animals, but many domesticates have no living wild version.

Turkey 202

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 202

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

It’s also about human-owl interaction on an individual level and a wider sociocultural level, and ultimately how we can use all this for habitat and bird conservation. The species are taxonomically divided into two families: Tytonidae, Barn-Owls, and Strigidae, Owls, encompassed in one order, Strigiformes.

Owls 211

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 211

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2012

As you read the below timeline and see the below images, don’t ever forget the perils that walk hand-in-hand with human greed. Oil begins to wash up on the beaches throughout May and June of 2010 May 6, 2010 Oil washes ashore on the Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, an important nesting and breeding area for many bird species.

2010 233

2010 Louisiana 2012 2011 233

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2018

There is also a major section on 180 bird species that is 123 pages long, about 1/3 of the book. The section is dominated by large portraits of the 180 birds that have been documented by Project FeederWatch as visiting feeders across North America (most of which do not come to my feeders, so reading it made me a little sad and jealous).

Birds 173

Birds New York City Squirrels New York 173

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

. … The ordinance would allow Minneapolis residents to establish cat “colonies” where abandoned and wild cats can be fed but also vaccinated, neutered and identified in an effort to humanely cut their population and control disease. The ordinance requires caretakers to “educate” people in their neighborhoods. Mole hills!

Feral Cats 208

Feral Cats Feral Cats Minneapolis 208

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY.

2014 188

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 188

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2022

He describes the change model he was using as follows: From my orientation, background, and bias, scholarly work must come first to document and establish a need for change. There’s a lot more, of course, and it all makes you wonder if we should have bird feeders or urban green spaces or fountains or windows.

New York City 254

New York City Birds Illinois Science 254

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

The field site I am assigned to is located in one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and home to a particularly rich avifauna that numbers well over 500 species. Hundreds of riotously colored birds representing 14 species of macaws and parrots flock and frolic together in less than fifty meters of forest canopy.

Peru 255

Peru Parrots 2011 Research Center 255

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

In 2012, I reviewed The Jewel Hunter , an absorbing narrative in which author Chris Goodie travelled throughout Asia, Africa, and Australasia to observe and photograph every Pitta species in the world. Hummingbird species, on the other hand, number in the hundreds.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Ecuador Bolivia 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). The eBird description of the Small Niltava starts with the surprisingly dull statement that “size distinguishes this species from other niltavas” Who would have thought.

China 228

China Birds Pythons Eagles 228