10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2015

Since we’ve covered some generalities already, once a month I’ll be exploring how a species, genus, or family of birds got its name, and how those names fit in with our larger understanding of, and relationship with, birds. At the request of blog management, I’m embarking on a series of posts on the names of birds.

Falcons 259

Falcons Eagles Meat Geese 259

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

A few spots manage to persist and welcome them in this human-dominated landscape. Some call them trash, tours might not visit, but they can host more than the expected and common species. Some such vegetated spots can also attract oddball birds, species that wander to find a home in urban circumstances.

Costa Rica 249

Costa Rica Sparrows Birds Rodents 249

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

A generalist raptor that can keep on living in a human dominated landscape. Granted, the more urban, the less likely that a raptor can make it (except for maybe pigeon connoisseur Peregrine Falcons or garbage disposal Black Kites and vultures) but allow enough green space to persist and some raptor will usually find its place.

Costa Rica 287

Costa Rica Mice Arizona Squirrels 287

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 206

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 206

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2022

They are places where we invest most of our birding time and rightly so; mature tropical forests are where we find the highest number of species. Additional bird species prefer the sun-drenched vegetation of open fields and other edge habitats. Find a brushy field during the winter months and you might also find these colorful species.

Costa Rica 259

Costa Rica Farming Sparrows Birds 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 14, 2023

In the human psyche, owls can be cuddly signs of good luck and benificence (as they are in Japan, and Harry Potter movies) and, at the same time, eerie and unsettling. An Englishwoman, she thought, originally, that she would stay within the British Isles, to see the five or six native species.

Barn Owls 113

Barn Owls Owls Serbia Finland 113

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

These large parrots are popular in the pet trade, and that’s a likely source of the population of this species on Trinidad. I had never seen a Peregrine Falcon soaring with Black Vultures before – interestingly enough I would later see the very same occurrence two days later on another part of the island. Peregrine Falcon.

Trinidad 197

Trinidad Birds Parrots Falcons 197

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2021

In the final bits and pieces of green space that dot a typical human dominated landscape? Brown Jays also flutter by and those are just a few of the species that still occur. This morning, the surprise was the call of Laughing Falcon. That makes sense. I mean, who comes to Costa Rica to bird on city streets?

Costa Rica 263

Costa Rica Falcons Farming Woodpeckers 263

10,000 Birds

JUNE 14, 2011

Dirt hawking is a form of falconry that involves hunting rabbits and other small game with Harris Hawks (other hawk species also qualify). One of the primary reasons that these hawks make such excellent falconry birds is because they are one of only two raptor species (the other is the Galapagos Hawk ) that hunt cooperatively.

League Against Cruel Sports 269

League Against Cruel Sports Rabbits Falcons Hunting 269

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Immediately at the start of the book, Meiburg infects the reader with his delight in one caracara species, the Striated, a resident of the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego, and the southernmost bird of prey in the world. As Meiburg puts it, Peregrines love solitude, crave routine, and avoid mistakes.

Guyana 234

Guyana South America Washington DC 234

10,000 Birds

MARCH 28, 2014

Fortunately, it seems that many species of birds are willing to at least consider city life, if we’ll meet them halfway. Cliff-dwellers like the Rock Pigeon and Peregrine Falcon have obvious success adapting to skyscrapers, while creatures who prefer a bit of greenery are flocking to rooftop gardens and pocket parks.

DC 165

DC Birds Falcons Humane 165

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2016

The oldest known Golden Eagle was over 30 years old, and as a species they prefer open and semi-open landscapes. Unfortunately, “ humans are still Golden Eagles’ greatest threat: it’s estimated that more than 70 percent of recorded Golden Eagle deaths are attributable to human impact, either intentional or inadvertent.”

Albania 101

Albania Mexico Eagles Kazakhstan 101

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Second, reading about birds courting and parenting brings out the tendency to identify, which leads directly to anthropomorphism, the tendency to assign birds human emotions and thoughts. Think of birds too much as humans and you lose the specialness that makes them birds. Peregrine Falcon nests. Yellow Warbler fledgling.

Eggs 263

Eggs Family 2006 New York 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2018

A falcon-like bird coursing through the wave-troughs? It’s not falcon-like. It’s a falcon. 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.

2018 113

2018 Birds Bald Eagle Falcons 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2017

In keeping with high diversity in other aspects of the avian kingdom, including falcons and excluding owls, this small country has a raptor list that tops fifty species. There might be a lot of species, but competition and other factors result in fewer individuals of each species. and Short-tailed Hawk.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica West Virginia Eagles Monkeys 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2018

The others (in order of publication and story-line, A Siege of Bitterns , A Pitying of Doves , and A Cast of Falcons ) are all now available here in new editions, according to the publisher. The latest, A Shimmer of Hummingbirds , is the first to be widely distributed in the United States.

Collecting 113

Collecting Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 113

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 212

Dissection Birds Research Europe 212

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2015

And, of course, the reputation of certain species of birds as troublemakers for humans is a problem in bird conservation, so this is worth watching. H5N2 is a subtype of Influenza A, and infects many species of birds including those mentioned as well as ducks (domestic and wild).

Mississippi 174

Mississippi Fowl Turkey Minnesota 174

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Surely they couldn’t be the same species, across a continent. Human-created habitats like road edges, pastures, and railroad right-of-ways suit them to a tee, so it hardly seems fair to call them the locusts when we are the ones who have expanded explosively and stripped the land bare. They can carry parasites to humans.

Montana 164

Montana Cooking Texas Cattle 164

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 114

Birds North America Breeding America 114

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2012

Also in attendance were a few Peregrine Falcons and the ubiquitous ospreys. They were everywhere and we were lucky to nail down some nice species including Prothonotary Warbler and a very confiding Kentucky Warbler. Now that’s probably the equivalent of humans trying to eat bark to survive.

Florida 241

Florida Kentucky France North America 241

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 173

Brunei Birds Asia China 173

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. New World Vultures.

California Condor 177

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 177

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2012

The World Center for Birds of Prey ( The Peregrine Fund ) in Boise, Idaho, most famous for its Peregrine Falcons , also has a vital population of California condors. Condors, like all New World vultures, can disturb the human psyche. Of course, there are those things to consider. And they continue to ingest lead.

California Condor 204

California Condor California Idaho North America 204

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 184

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 184

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Falcons are now known to be related to parrots; vultures to be cousins of storks. We have more California Condors , Bald Eagles , and Peregrine Falcons , but there seem to be less Spotted Owls , Burrowing Owls , Sooty Shearwaters. Consequently, we now live in an age of splitting.

San Diego 169

San Diego California Condor California Bald Eagle 169

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2022

Should you be impressed by this list and the underlying ambitions, take a look at the migration route of the Amur Falcon ( Wikipedia ). The falcon breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China but winters in Southern and East Africa. ” If in doubt, just classify species as LC? Still as impressed as before?

Falcons 235

Falcons Japan China South Africa 235

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2021

With that logic those trees, if left to grow, should produce something of use to at least one or two species of birds. It’s been some years since I’ve seen any Short-tailed Hawks as the entire valley is now overrun with concrete – but I’m trying my best to create some sort of oasis for any species.

Opossums 264

Opossums Barn Owls Hunting Reptiles 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2024

Familiar, but beautiful regardless: Blue-headed Parrot Another small parrot species landed on a tree in the distance. It was a Black-headed Parrot , a species that I had meagrely attempted to see in Trinidad once without success. A couple bends along the trail and it seemed as if we were out of human contact by a thousand miles.

Guyana 202

Guyana Parrots Trinidad Woodpeckers 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

This is the hook that draws us into reading about and caring about migrant birds, that and the charisma of birds like Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Kirtland’s Warbler, Snowy Owl, and Amur Falcon. This is big, global-level stuff with amazing findings but worrisome data.

Cyprus 246

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

Anyway, so I started checking my bird photo collection for photos of species starting with an A (after all, this is a bird photo blog, though I sometimes tend to forget this). Maybe there was a time in the history of ornithology when some bird named Ashy was very popular, resulting in more species named in the same way.

South Africa 313

South Africa China Nevada Africa 313

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

For mankind to snatch away a species’ very existence is wrong on so many levels that I can’t begin to explain them. However, despite our best efforts to wipe them off the face of the earth, some of the more vulnerable species have managed to hang on. this species breeds. Here are some U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Albatross 199

Albatross Endangered Species Geese Alaska 199

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

A Peregrine Falcon was seen in the distance, one of the day’s few species I could also have seen in Mexico. White Storks (the classic “baby-bringers” of legend) are increasingly common in Spain, as they have learned to use human disturbance, especially landfills, to their advantage. Go if you possibly can.

Spain 147

Spain Birds Mexico Eagles 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2021

From there, we entered a side tributary full of Ringed and Amazon Kingfishers , with Chestnut-fronted and Scarlet Macaws in flight… and then the noise: groans, croaks and grunts… and the smell… of this 65 million years old species, so old that the last dinosaurs must have fed on them!

Dolphins 258

Dolphins Colombia Otters Birds 258

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

The longer Introduction lists and briefly summarizes topics covered in the Portfolio (evolution feathers, coloration, variation, senses, movement, physiology, migration, food and foraging, survival, social behavior, birds and humans, threats). 167, Meadowlark line of sight–not p.67). copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley. (I

2020 263

2020 Birds Groups North America 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. Now we move on to the Neognathae , which also has two very deep branches that lead to all the other living species of birds. So do parrots, some songbirds, humans, and a few other mammals. Jarvis et al. This is why.

Family 279

Family Parrots Birds 2014 279

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2011

Peregrine Falcon is certainly more elegant than Duck Hawk. Gray Jay : This drab but charismatic species demonstrates that the more a bird interacts with humans, the more colloquial names it will tend to pick up. In order to avert that, I’d like to sing the praises of a few local common names of some Rocky Mountain birds.

Hunters 179

Hunters Falcons Ducks Montana 179