10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2020

It’s January and another year list begins. This is what many of us birders do, we start another list. And this doesn’t mean you are obsessed or a little bit too much into birds because keeping track of a year list actually comes with some side benefits. The prospect of identifying a certain number of species in a given amount of time pushes us to pay more attention to birds no matter what the circumstances (although I suggest keeping the exclamations about species identifications to

Costa Rica 259

Costa Rica 2020 Morals Farming 259

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2020

The Ural Owl inhabits old and undisturbed boreal forests, in an unbroken belt from Sweden and Finland across Russia to Japan, and is rarely seen to the south, only here and there, in the Carpathians (Slovakia/Ukraine/Romania/eastern Serbia) and Dinaric Alps (Croatia/Bosnia/western Serbia). Large and round-headed, smartly-striped, with a gentle gaze of mysterious black eyes, in the European south of its range this species chooses preserved mountain forests, preferably mixed deciduous and conifers

Serbia 245

Serbia Owls Slovakia Bosnia 245

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2020

I’m guessing that most people these days communicate on social media through one or more chats. I myself am on several. But only birders know that you can communicate on a chat about… Chats. Back in 2013, as I was gradually getting back into birding, I found myself trying to ID a tiny bird that had visited my garden. (It turned out that my ancient Aves de México guide, by Roger Tory Peterson, only showed what was then considered the eastern race of the White-collared Seedeater, and m

Mexico 245

Mexico United States 2019 2013 245

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2020

Last week, I wrote about my best birds of last year. Fortunately, by the time I wrote that post, I had already seen what is sure to be one of my best birds for this year. The Sparkling-tailed Woodstar is a hummingbird as beautiful as its name suggests. For several years, I had seen photos of this species posted by my friend Julio Álvarez, from the state of Jalisco, just to the west of my state of Michoacán.

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2020 Birds Mexico Species 219

Speaker: Steve Romanco

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2020

Is there nothing more inviting than a fresh canvas, an unbroken expanse fraught with possibilities just waiting to be filled? That is the state of our 2020 year lists and general birding experience. Some of us have already enjoyed some New Year’s day bio-blitzing, but the first weekend of the year offers so much potential to become reacquainted with the species you haven’t seen since 2019.

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2020 2019 Birds Experience 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2020

I feel that like most bird families (with the obvious exception of pheasants), buntings are somewhat underrated. They lack both the flashiness larger birds and the “I am more of an expert birder than you” appeal of warblers. In other words, they are my kind of birds. At my regular birding spot at Nanhui, Shanghai, five or six species of buntings can be seen fairly regularly, and about the same number very occasionally.

South Africa 176

South Africa China Germany Family 176

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2020

Luis Gonzalez is a Miami resident and IT major who was originally born and raised in Cuba. He has been an avid lover of the natural world since he was a kid, with a strong love for paleontology when he was younger, but he only took up birding in his last year of high school and hasn’t looked back since. The bird family that got his attention was originally the herons, egrets and other wading birds, but as time went on New World warblers, woodpeckers and ducks fueled the passion further.

Canada 165

Canada Cuba Miami Florida 165

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2020

They came home exhausted. For lack of shields, they were carried on their “Helm field guides to the Birds of East Africa” 429 species were seen by The Management in Uganda and may I commend Corey for his very concientious Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) that he noted during a quick transit stop at Brussels Airport; Belgium being a place previously unbirded by the 10,000 Birds beats.

2019 165

2019 Chile Texas Sanctuary 165

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 27, 2020

The first month of the current year is all but over. Happy with your year list to date? Don’t worry… we’ve got 11 months to go! The birds we encountered up on the lake this weekend could only be described as mundane. Luckily, while White-winged Scoter may be common around here in winter, it’s never boring. Corey enjoyed a foul-weather seawatch on Saturday morning and birded a couple of locations Sunday morning before leading a walk for New York City Audubon in Forest Park

2020 163

2020 New York City New York Birds 163

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2020

As a month, January is like March for birding, coming in like a lion as everyone tears into a fresh, new year list, but going out like a lamb as we gradually recognize how little bird movement really takes place this time of year. Try to overcome the urge to wait until the next migration; get outside this weekend! I’ll be working mornings this weekend but hope to hustle up an owl or two if the weather permits.

2020 163

2020 Lamb Lions Birds 163

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

During the period from 1994 through 2006, I mostly dedicated myself to itinerant ministry. In other words, I travelled, sometimes every weekend. Most of this travel was in Mexico, but I also visited different regions of the U.S., Cuba (twice), South America (twice), Europe and Morocco (once) and Bali (once). But here is the truly tragic part: I was not birding during those years!

Birds 160

Birds 2006 Mexico Morocco 160

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2020

Mid-January may not count as midwinter in the Northern Hemisphere, but the Arctic effect has definitely settled in! A busy, snowy, chilly weekend kept me and birds equally unable or unwilling to meet, so instead I’ll take this opportunity to show respect to American Crows ; these birds gather in massive winter flocks around here, which makes them the true spirit animal of this frigid season.

2020 160

2020 Birds Falcons Experience 160

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2020

Whiskey Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskeys all month long. The cold and dreary dead of winter is as good a reason as any to warm up with a restorative dram of uisce, especially after a blustery morning spent scanning flocks of gulls on an icy shore, trudging through woodland snowdrifts in search of new year-birds, or any other half-crazed birding one does in January.

Eagles 158

Eagles Lions Hunting Lamb 158

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2020

Since you won’t be seeing any cardinals, eagles, falcons, ravens, or seahawks in the Super Bowl this weekend, you’ll have to search for them outdoors instead. Maybe we’ll all score looks at a Superb Owl or two. Obviously, I’ll be watching the big game, but one weekend is big enough for both birding and sports entertainment. Hopefully some birds show up this time!

2020 156

2020 Game Falcons Birds 156

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2020

Thank the gods it’s Friday! For many, the end of the week heralds a cessation of paid labor, which often occasions equally strenuous but infinitely more enjoyable efforts. This is to say that you may find the search for interesting avifauna hard work this weekend or any other, so be sure to have fun along the way! I’ll do my best to rustle up some fancy winter birds amidst the weekend rains.

2020 154

2020 Birds 154

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2020

Deary me. What with all the excitement, The Management forgot to call up the beats for their Best Bird of The Year ! It usually starts around mid-November with a thinly veiled threat, building to outright menace by the second week of December if drafts have not been submitted. This year however, The Menacement were chalking up ticks that are likely to be included on shortlists as Best Bird of Life.

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Rhinos Rhinoceros South Africa 2019 153

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Happy New Year, 10,000 Birds readers and writers! Everyone is looking back on their best birds of 2019, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a book that looks back a little further: Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City , by P. A. Buckley, Walter Sedwitz, William J. Norse, and John Kieran. Because, as this book demonstrates so well, it is sometimes important to look back in order to move forward.

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New York City New York Birds Breeding 148

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2020

When it comes to one’s most exciting bird sightings, of course, it all comes down to context. I wouldn’t change my central Mexican endemics for any other region’s birds. But… Been there, done most of those. So my favorites for 2019 includes a good number of birds that are rather common elsewhere, but were firsts for me. Plus a few truly difficult species. 12.

Austria 145

Austria Spain 2019 Birds 145

Speaker: Gabriel Wagner Presenter

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2020

When I was much younger, as a student, I sometimes made mixtapes of favorite music. This was in the time before streaming, even before CDs … when cassettes for a while competed with LPs for market share (ask your grandfather about it). The mixtape covering the year 2019 would be a rather boring affair, including mostly songs by The National, with one or two by Craig Finn and Hold Steady added, as well as Avant Gardener (almost none of which were released in 2019, showing how far behind I am thes

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2019 China Industry Birds 145

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2020

One down, just fifty-one more to go… did you make that first weekend of the year count? One of the things Corey most enjoys about a new year is the way it resets your year list, giving you an excuse to pay a little more attention to the common species as you check them off your year list. In that spirit, Corey chose the lowly feral Rock Pigeon as his Best Bird of the Weekend.

2020 142

2020 Feral Sparrows Birds 142

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2020

Shallow person that I am, I do care about that Top 100 button on the eBird menu. I am also very susceptible to that once-a-year thrill of a House Sparrow or a Eurasian Collared Dove actually meaning something. So on January 1st, or as close to it as I can get, I always head a half hour north to the one site of mine that offers more species than any other: Lago de Cuitzeo (Cuitzeo Lake).

Mexico 141

Mexico South America Ducks Groups 141

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2020

Though it is January, often the coldest month for those of us in the northeastern United States, this weekend is forecast to be exceptionally mild.It will be much more cloudy than the sky in the photo above, taken at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Not that such parochial concerns bother Mike, who will be gallivanting around Florida seeing all kinds of warm-weather birds.

2020 133

2020 Nevada United States Florida 133

Speaker: Steve Romanco

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2020

Whisky Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskies all month long. The cold and dreary dead of winter is as good a reason as any to warm up with a restorative dram of uisce , especially after a blustery morning spent scanning flocks of gulls on an icy shore, trudging through woodland snowdrifts in search of new year-birds, or any other half-crazed birding one does in January.

Sheep 194

Sheep Branding Ireland Fowl 194

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2020

I write this on the final day of the year, the last bit of 2019. The point of orbit for which the Earth starts and completes its merry-go-round the Sun is subjective but according to eBird, now is the time. If birders still fancied adding that Purple Finch, Ivory Gull, or Three-wattled Bellbird in 2019, December 31st would have been their final chance.

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Costa Rica 2019 San Jose Eagles 185

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2020

Now that we’re a little further into this new year, we might have a sense of how birdy this season will be. Factors like temperature, weather, and availability of food sources drive avian distribution, but the single most influential factor regarding how many species you might see this month is YOU. My business trip to Florida to host the Tests and the Rest Winter Conference 2020 was more than just a professional success.

2020 152

2020 Florida Ducks Birds 152

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2020

It has been strange being away from our home in Broome, Western Australia, at this time of year. There are so many differences in both the weather and the birds. We usually start our bird list for the year from home, but this year it was different. Incidentally, we didn’t stay up until midnight chasing any nocturnal birds to end the year! We woke to a New Year in Fish Creek , Victoria and our birding year began.

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Fish Australia Ducks Japan 136

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2020

Over recent weeks I have been able to share some of my observations along the Great Southern Rail Trail in Victoria, Australia. I have introduced you to the sections from Foster to Fish Creek and also Foster to Toora. This week I will introduce you to the section from Fish Creek to Buffalo. This section is around ten kilometres/six miles long and it is quite windy with a few steady inclines and declines, but only as much as a train could handle!

Buffalo 160

Buffalo Fish Koalas Cattle 160

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2020

Last week I introduced you to a section of the Great Southern Rail Trail in Victoria from Foster to Fish Creek. This week I will introduce you to another section from Foster to Toora. This section of the trail is very flat and only just over ten kilometres long. It is another enjoyable section with a variety of habitat. When you first leave the old Foster railway station you go through dense bush with a swampy area below the trail.

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Fox Feral Ducks Horses 153

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2020

It’s the festive season and I am holding the new Lynx Edicions’s Birds of Japan, thinking what a perfect gift to any international birder this book represents. Its waterproof fold-able covers bring back childhood memories… I must have had some illustrated children book with similar covers – my fingertips remember the experience. Birds of Japan is a lavishly illustrated field guide with maps neatly packed among the paintings, and QR codes packed into text.

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Japan Asia Birds 2000 220

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2020

Whisky Month at Birds and Booze: This January, Birds and Booze at 10,000 Birds is setting its sights on whiskies all month long. The cold and dreary dead of winter is as good a reason as any to warm up with a restorative dram of uisce , especially after a blustery morning spent scanning flocks of gulls on an icy shore, trudging through woodland snowdrifts in search of new year-birds, or any other half-crazed birding one does in January.

Geese 155

Geese Ireland Branding 2016 155

Speaker: cha cha dwyer

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