10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

This is “the deep cradle of Western ornithology: the birthplace of bird study,” he tells us as he writes about gazing at the 8,000-year old depictions of “flamingos, herons, raptors, avocets and many other species” (p. Birkhead knows that these are sensitive topics.

Dissection 208

Dissection Birds Research Europe 208

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. And it raises a question: if all the birds are having a party over there, am I in the wrong spot? And a mere 120 bird species would be a good reason not to take Polynesia as an option.

Sri Lanka 256

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 256

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2021

Once I observed a man walking his two small dogs here, passing by a perched White-tailed Eagle but looking down at grass and not noticing the largest raptor in Europe at all. The eagle seemed well-used to people and paid no attention either. Photo by Branislav Dencic.

Otters 257

Otters Protest Protesting Protesters 257

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Its mood is not helped by the ambiguous review on eBird: “Although not actually pale, this brownish songbird is one of the plainer thrushes in its range” The Latin species name of the Dusky Thrush is eunomos (I guess that is Greek, but whatever) – meaning well-ordered.

Birds 185

Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 185

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2016

Today is the United Nations World Wildlife Day, a time to celebrate and raise awareness of the living world around us. Europe: The sun is scorching the area, and the birds are nowhere to be seen. Raising and lowering its head, like stretching. I already have a history of searches for this species.

Wildlife 171

Wildlife Tigers Asia Europe 171

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2013

Serbia holds 13 per cent of the European breeding population of this “electrified” species which is not only Endangered in Europe but also listed as Globally Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Raising the binoculars to teary eyes, I am trying to see the bird in the nest on a nearby pylon.

Falcons 215

Falcons Serbia 2007 Europe 215

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2014

There’s no way around it as the various species are reasonably common, and you will surely want to identify them. No, seriously, a brown warbler with stripes in central Europe really means you are either looking at a Grasshopper Warbler or a Sedge Warbler. Sedge Warbler (left) and Grasshopper Warbler (right – duh!).

Europe 205

Europe Kazakhstan Sparrows Abandon 205

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2015

It resembled a Hooded Crow of east europe, only the grey parts were white – the Pied Crow , as it turned out to be. (Statistics would go in favour of the Cape Glossy Starling , as I later learned.). The next bird was some crow-like UFO observed from the shuttle bus. Crow-like has to be a crow, doesn’t it? Umm, yes, the bird?” “The

Africa 202

Africa Botswana Birds Europe 202

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2018

Checking my annual list, I am where I usually am at this time of year: several species short of 200. Still, this way or another, the year is ending with some glorious species, e.g. a rare Greater Spotted Eagle. But through binoculars I noticed small raised crests and supercilia joining on hindneck – Woodlarks ! The search is on.

Moldova 117

Moldova Birds Serbia Greece 117

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2017

Perch are a fresh water species of fish that are native to Europe and N. The dorsal fin has stiff spines which can pierce a clumsy angler’s palm, but when raised they can be a defensive mechanism to avoid being swallowed. Now, the Great Crested Grebe and the perch. Asia, but have been introduced elsewhere.

Fish 100

Fish Asia America Suffering 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2013

The two dozen species are, nearly to an individual, long bodied and bicolored. Unlike most of its cogeners, Venezuelan Troupial does not build one of those hanging bag nests so well known by the other Icterus species, it’s a nest parasite.

Baltimore 174

Baltimore Broker North America Raised 174

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 197

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 197

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Pough “with illustrations in color of every species” by Don Eckelberry, Doubleday, 1946. If you remember that the first edition of Sibley was published with “National Audubon Society” on the cover, raise your hand. The press material says it covers over 800 species, so you know I had to do a count.

North America 278

North America America Birds California Condor 278

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2012

They have been a crucial part of the culture of the islands and forests where they are found for the last 50,000 years, and were amongst the first animals of the East to make it back to Europe with the earliest Portugese and Spanish explorations. There are, however, two species that are more accesible than the rest of the family.

Indonesia 184

Indonesia Birds Australia Guinea 184

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2013

If you are a migratory bird in Europe and western Asia, this is your sweet spot. There aren’t many solutions proferred—the article is really about consciousness-raising—but it’s well worth a read. Fearing that a natural disaster, introduced species, or disease could wipe this fragile population out, the U.S.

Cambodia 142

Cambodia Slaughter Slaughtered Cyprus 142

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2011

If you are mildly interested, proceed and read the caption. Despite being taken in Europe, this image exemplifies why forest birding in North America might soon be rated NC-17. There are currently 10 species of Treecreepers that form the family Certhiidae, nine in the genus Certhia and an additional oddball in another genus, Salpornis.

North America 145

North America Europe Asia America 145

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2013

They belong to the same species like those found back in Europe, Sus scrofa – which inhabits a belt stretching from northern Africa and Europe all the way to Indonesia, but a different subspecies, S.s. The next two species are the Southern Grey Shrike and the Tawny Pipit , also characteristic for this habitat type.

India 215

India Birds Eagles Boars 215

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2011

Mating pairs are faithful for life and share the tasks of raising the young. Hyacinth Macaw © Roger Leguen / WWF-Canon Hyacinth Macaws feed mainly on the kernels of the fruits of two species of palm tree: the Acuri or Urucuri Palm ( Attalea phalerata ) and the Bocaiuva or Macaw Palm ( Acrocomia aculeata ).

Protection 183

Protection Brazil Parrots Paraguay 183

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2016

I am not entirely sure whether most birders outside Germany know or realize that Germany still has a decent population of one of Europe’s most attractive and desired bird species: the Great Bustard Otis tarda. And fly they surely can… …although they do look suspiciously happy when landing.

Germany 101

Germany Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 101

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2013

This park protects the largest remaining tract of dry deciduous forest in the west of India, offering visitors 37 species of reptiles, 38 species of mammals and, not to be forgotten – almost 300 bird species. It belongs to the same species as those in Europe, but a smaller subspecies ( Sus scrofa davidi ).

Lions 217

Lions India Mammals Boars 217

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2016

Over 3,200 photographs have been used, most showing species in their habitats. There is also text, distribution maps, a dark red bar “warning” about similar looking rare species, and conservation symbols. So, how do you find the species account for Kestrel if falcons are not placed between woodpeckers and parakeet?

Ireland 140

Ireland Birds Groups Falcons 140

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 9, 2011

Wood Storks are an exceptionally old species, and its existence predates the last Ice Age, around 15,000 years ago, by tens of thousands of years more. That’s only based on the physical evidence, taking into account more circumstantial stuff, the species is probably even older still. This is a bird with some pedigree.

Pedigree 170

Pedigree North America South Carolina Brazil 170

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

That was a wild cat, a wild Wildcat, the cat that lives in the wild because that is where it is from and where it belongs, at the southern end of its pan-African range that extended at one time well into Europe and Asia. I once knew a guy who kept and raised cats. They are invasive species. But they don’t live in North America.

Feral Cats 252

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 252

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. The African Spoonbill is one of the six global spoonbill species, and the main African one (there are also some Eurasian Spoonbills in Africa).

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

I tried to get a better idea of what exactly the definition of cuckoo-dove is but am still not very clear about it – Wikipedia only offers the rather formal definition “any of several species of bird in the genera Macropygia , Reinwardtoena, and Turacoena of the pigeon family.” But I may well be wrong.

Birds 147

Birds Geese Fish Industry 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

” Writing about owls means writing about roughly 250 species (I counted 245 on the 2022 Clements spreadsheet, but I might have missed a few, and we all know that each classification system is different). These are behaviors that are most likely to vary across species and topics that make for compelling stories.

Owls 199

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 199

4 The Love Of Animals

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Understanding a pointed finger may seem easy, but consider this: while humans and canines can do it naturally, no other known species in the animal kingdom can. It’s no coincidence that the two species that pass Hare’s pointing test also share a profound cross-species bond. and Europe.

Wolves 100

Wolves Fox Dogs Puppies 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2020

Like all other “Red Grouse”, Gilbert is a member of a subspecies of Willow Ptarmigan found in the heather moorland of Great Britain and Ireland, a population that’s treated by some authorities as a separate species. Red Grouse by English ornithologist and artist John Gould (1804-1881), from The Birds of Europe.

Sheep 188

Sheep Branding Ireland Fowl 188

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

Having come back to Mexico from Europe, I chose to make my first home outing to my local lake, Lake Cuitzeo. Fortunately, the very abundant 2018 rains raised the water level to heights I had never seen, and so far, that seems to be making up for this year’s poor rains. Each species is possible, but not common. All Wigeons.

Ducks 130

Ducks 2018 Pelicans Europe 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

The hope and claim is that transferring this process to gull identification works more easily and just as accurately (at least for species) as an examination of plumage and molt patterns. Species Accounts. Gulls Simplified covers 25 species. From the Laughing Gull species account.

North America 192

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 192

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

We nature lovers, celebrants of life in all its exquisite multiformity, feel more keenly than most the loss of even the most undifferentiated species. The prehistoric extinctions most famously include the megafaunal assemblages of Europe, the Americas, Australia and Madagascar. Australia’s extinct and threatened bird species.

Marsupials 165

Marsupials Costa Rica Elephants Cuba 165

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

If they can spare a glance upward, the busy grape-pickers might also be treated to another portent of the changing seasons in the Iberian skies overhead: the sight of flocks of White Storks ( Ciconia ciconia ) heading south from their summer breeding grounds in Europe to Africa, where they spend the winter on the warm savannas.

2017 114

2017 Spain California Condor California 114

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

It is the 100th Anniversary of the extinction of the species known as the Passenger Pigeon and writers are paying attention. Errol Fuller’s The Passenger Pigeon is a beautifully illustrated, elegantly written “celebration” of the passenger pigeon and the artists who illustrated and photographed the species. It is a hodgepodge.

2014 159

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 159

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2017

Is Belgrade the New Berlin is a question recently raised in Vogue by Marry Holland. I am a birder and I can claim that out of Serbia’s total of 350+ bird species, highly urbanised inner city areas of Belgrade hold almost 100 birds, while the outskirts have more than 200 species. The question is, where to see them?

Birds 199

Birds 2017 Eagles Otters 199

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2018

Following passage of the United States Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the California Condor ( Gymnogyps californianus ) was among the first 75 species listed for protection, the so-called “Class of 1967”.

California Condor 103

California Condor Oregon California Zoos 103

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2013

In other words, this globally threatened species barely made it in Serbia. These large birds need secluded spots to raise their young, and Serbia seems to be lacking such places. Birds eagles Europe Fruska Gora Serbia' In the same period, neighbouring Hungary had more than 60 pairs of them. We must be doing something wrong?

Serbia 195

Serbia Eagles Hungary Cooking 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2015

They are typically easy places to reach, easy to get about in, safe, and serve as a natural primer for many of the species you’re going to be seeing on a trip. To me they are quintessentially African, but these days the goose is well on the way to being and established native to Europe and guineafowl have been domesticated everywhere.

Africa 181

Africa Birds South Africa Mongoose 181