10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!). This bird was kept in captivity until it died a year later.

Madagascar 239

Madagascar Lemurs 2006 Owls 239

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Take Madagascar, for example, one of the world’s highest-priority Biodiversity Hotspots: that island-continent is most famous for its penguins. Well, sort of, as there are no penguins in Madagascar, indigenous or otherwise. Still, there should be no problem with larger species that allow for longer observation time (e.g.

Madagascar 243

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 243

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2011

I have thoroughly explored vast parts of the continent as well as neighboring Madagascar, in the process seeing over 2,000 birds on the continent and all but one Malagasy endemic. Approximately 2,300 bird species inhabit Africa, however as impressive as that sounds, much smaller South America boasts nearly 1,000 species more.

Papua New Guinea 220

Papua New Guinea Madagascar Africa Equatorial Guinea 220