10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

Colorful bills and heads seem quite popular among Letaba’s bird species – see the African Jacana (blue and black) … … the Striated Heron (yellow and blue) … … and the Yellow-billed Stork (yellow and red). The Latin species name vermiculatus (worm-like) refers to the markings on the upperparts.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

A family motel and passion for responsible ecotourism brought her home to the Oregon Coast where she and her husband, Erik, adventure and record a podcast ( Hannah and Erik Go Birding ), created in an effort to inspire others to get out and bird. Marion has a fascinating history with invasive species.

South Africa 261

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 261

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. Whales emerge from within the larger group of mammals that includes cattle, deer, pigs, camels, with camels being the most deeply rooted.

Camels 196

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 196

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2015

Birding by Impression is a conscious, deliberate method of identifying and recognizing birds based on the study and evaluation of “distinctive structural features and behavioral movements” and comparison with nearby and similar species. It is not a handbook, though it approaches species from a collective viewpoint. So say Kevin T.

Birds 168

Birds New Jersey Science Groups 168

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

That’s pretty amazing–Bolivia has more bird species than India! The source of this ranking, BirdLife International, lists Bolivia as currently having 1,439 bird species, including 18 breeding endemics. The guide covers 1,433 species, the number of birds documented at the end of 2014, the cutoff point for the book.

Bolivia 168

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 168

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 3, 2017

According to Reedman , murre is the old Cornish world for a Razorbill , and eventually became a vernacular term for alcids more broadly; murrelet, then, makes simple sense as a name for the smaller members of the family. Some murrelets are named for their styling. The Japanese Murrelet , well.

North America 114

North America Science Collecting Fish 114

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

That fallacious family name seems to have encouraged all manner of knaves, dunderheads, and miscreants when time came to label species. Most of the warblers south of the border escaped this ignominy; those Basileuterus and Myiothlypis species generally appear exactly as advertised. NAMED FOR PEOPLE. NAMED FOR PLACES.

Rights 113

Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

For example, on finding gulls: Close study of gulls is not for everyone, and birders shouldn’t feel obligated to get deep into it if you prefer colorful, less-confusing, families of birds. But, as we say in the book review world, you can’t keep a critical mind down. And Nate knows that. Actually, I exaggerate. And, it is.).

Birds 262

Birds North Carolina North America Owls 262

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Jennifer Ackerman points out in the introduction to What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds , that we don’t know much, but that very soon we may know a lot more. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read.

Owls 200

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 200

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

Or, one of the 145 species of Glass frogs living in the Cental and South American rainforests, I could look through the transparent skin on their undersides and see their internal organs. All species of frogs and toads share the fact that they are amphibian creatures, they have two types of skin gland, four legs, and, well, they jump.

Reptiles 182

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 182

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It’s relatively easy to classify birds into family groups based on physical characteristics. We view them as our enemies when they eat our crops and as an extension of our family when we see them at our feeders. Remarkably, there are 59 bird families that have very little cultural significance; these are listed in Appendix III.

Birds 205

Birds Egypt Family Eagles 205

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

Written in a friendly, inclusive style quietly grounded in science, How to Know the Birds is an excellent addition to the growing list of birding essay books by talented birder/writers like Pete Dunne and Kenn Kaufman. ” The essays are arranged in thematic order grouped in six sections: “Spark Bird!”

Birds 114

Birds North America Breeding America 114

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2015

The feature distinguishes birds from other species; All birds have them, no other species do. Beaks vary across different kinds of birds, and this great diversity in beaks is part of the great diversity of the 10,000+ species of birds that exist today; Beaks thus facilitated the diversification of birds. Here’s the thing.

Alligators 207

Alligators Chickens Research Birds 207

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Hugh Powell is a science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Eight days with 20 of the world’s top birding guides looking for some 1,000 species and three dozen endemics. You can see as many hummingbird species as the folks at Magee Marsh are seeing warbler species—during 25 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.

Peru 254

Peru Birds South America Owls 254

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Here are some things I’ve learned from the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean by Scott Weidensaul: The Burrowing Owl is the only North American owl species where the male is larger than the female, albeit, only slightly larger. The 39 owls include five endemic Caribbean species.

North America 214

North America Owls America Dominican Republic 214

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

At the very least appreciated for their hard-shell adaptation, the way they quietly survive in ponds, rivers, oceans, islands, forests, even, for a few species, deserts, and, if you are of a certain age, their cultural depiction as ninja warriors. Or that tortoises and terrapins are considered part of the turtle family.

Turtles 189

Turtles Tortoises Family Terrapins 189

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2018

It’s not often that we have the opportunity to glimpse the home life of albatrosses, nor of any seabird species. For most seabird species, the male takes the first shift and the male and female then alternate, but the period of time for each shift varies according to species. What about incubation shifts?

Albatross 114

Albatross Penguins Research Breeding 114

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2016

They used Great T**s from non-urban and urban areas, and mixed them up through breeding, to rule out any possible family history of telomere length. In this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of juvenile zebra finches was allowed to interact with an adult.

Mammals 108

Mammals Zebras Birds Primates 108

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

Even in the tropics there are few birds that excel some of our own in elegance and beauty of plumage and we have an unusually large number of species considering the smallness of the area they inhabit. ” (Woodward brothers, “Natal Birds”, 1899) The mighty Drakensberg Mountains run along the western boundary of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Mozambique 182

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 182

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The magnificent history and diversity of birds on Earth came into sharper focus this month with the publication of 28 new scientific papers in Science and other journals. processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. American Flamingo photo by Dick Culbert).

Family 279

Family Parrots Birds 2014 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Email lists, blogs, websites, forums, Facebook groups, and of course eBird (see below) has completely revolutionized the way birders get their business handled. Not only is it a very impressive citizen science project that manages to marshal the legions of birders around Canada and the U.S., 2) The internet has changed everything.

San Diego 168

San Diego California Condor California Bald Eagle 168

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2011

And while they are easily identified to genus level, species identification - where necessary - is all I have mentioned in the intro to this post above, and then some. “Outside North America&# and “where necessary&# ? have asked themselves for ages: Is the Brown Creeper more than one species ? I’ll explain.

North America 145

North America Europe America Asia 145

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2011

Among these white-headed/dark-winged gulls formerly lumped into the genus Larus , there were 18+ recognized species the last time I checked, sharing similarities that make telling them apart for the amateur birdwatcher very difficult. 1998), then the proper name for this species is L. fuscus – should be separated as species.

2011 157

2011 Cyprus Deer Species 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2022

At this moment, Baihualing is the eBird hotspot in China which has by far the largest number of species – 486. With 398 species, Nanhui is trailing far behind despite being covered by a much larger number of checklists (2225 compared to 608). But that is science in hierarchical institutions).

Litter 202

Litter China Species Abandon 202

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

And they were intrigued and they had questions, lots of questions, more questions than could be answered by a field guide or a social media group. Each spread consists of a full-page painting of a bird or group of birds on the left and a combination of text and illustrations on the right. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley.

2020 262

2020 Birds Groups North America 262

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. By twos and fours they arrive and scatter in small groups among the canopy to their favorite perches in iron, cecropia and aguaje palm trees.

Peru 254

Peru Parrots 2011 Research Center 254

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2013

And now we enter into a family of birds more or less unknown to non-birders. And truth told, over the years they’ve been something of a square peg for ornithologists too, not fitting precisely into any of the known families of birds. I would never have believed it, but if the science says so who am I to argue otherwise?

Jordan 187

Jordan Guatemala Birds South America 187

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. There are variations on that theme, of course. Even the non-passerines often follow this pattern.

Breeders 195

Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 195

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Originally considered monotypic, two species are now recognized. Drakensberg (or Orange-breasted) Rockjumper is a Drakensberg Mountain species whose range is shared with the tiny landlocked kingdom of Lesotho. Males of this species are more brightly colored in their non-breeding winter plumage. the Rockjumpers.

South Africa 215

South Africa Lesotho Africa Swaziland 215

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2011

This has happened before, Archaeopteryx and the bird family tree have had an often tenuous relationship. But it is utterly bewildering to me to see news reports about this recent science that read “… An icon knocked from its perch&# or “Archaeopteryx no longer first bird.&# What evolved into what?

Mammals 240

Mammals Europe Groups Family 240

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

The single greatest challenge facing any book of science writing is balance. Otherwise, there would be no science writing, everyone would just go straight to the journals. That issue aside, though, this is a fascinating book which will engage not just birders, but most people who have any interest in nature or the science of the mind.

Humane 139

Humane Emotional Stray Dog Science 139

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2012

Nonetheless, I thought it might be interesting and informative to review a DVD put out by Crowe’s Nest Media , a family owned and operated company, which is how I found a copy of Your Backyard: A young beginner’s guide to identifying 18 common feeder birds by sight & sound in my mailbox earlier this week.

Science 173

Science Owls Pennsylvania United States 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Seabirds are one group of birds that go for the latter strategy. A few families have a small number of eggs in the clutches, like gulls or cormorants. One North American species I am very familiar with is the Cassin’s Auklet , which ranges from the end of the Aleutian Islands to California.

Eggs 163

Eggs Puffins Breeding Raised 163

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

Hunting sandhill cranes in Kentucky is a bad idea from a public relations standpoint, considering the growing cadre of birders and nature enthusiasts for whom cranes are a touchstone species. Initiating a hunting season on a large, charismatic species like a crane is no way to resuscitate hunting.

2011 239

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 239

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2011

Even if you don’t live in the summer range of a particular species, you may have opportunities to observe it while it passes through, especailly if you live in an active flyway, like I happen to. Itcher birds, migratory members of the tern family. The birds do the flying for you. Specifically, Itcher Tern. Image source.

Research 187

Research Humane Compassion New York 187

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

It may be as sick as deliberately targeting an endangered species for death. Birders know that the light’s not always perfect or even particularly good when you’re trying to tell one species from another. Speculation is useless in acts of vandalism. It may be as simple as trying to hit the big white one. The big white one. It flies on.

2011 239

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 239

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2023

Not a cover species The Black Kite is not actually black, but of course, misleading bird names are not exactly rare. No surprise then that the species is listed as Vulnerable. But then, sanity (or maybe respect for you, the reader) prevailed. Fortunately, they are quite common in Shanghai.

Birds 130

Birds Iraq China Ireland 130