10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

The Plain Sunbird is the plain vanilla version of the otherwise often very colorful family (ok, a very low-budget sort of joke). His somewhat dubious claim to fame includes a book describing his trip to New Guinea despite the fact that he never actually got to the mainland area of New Guinea ( source ).

Los Angeles 185

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 185

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) — that towering icon of modern anthropogenic extinctions — was a pigeon.

Solomon Islands 276

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 276

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 24, 2012

It’s actually a member of the family Artamidae, which includes the woodswallows (not actually swallows), the butcherbirds (not actually shrikes) and the peltops (which actually are peltops, since there are no others). A young bird contemplates a future of attacking humans in a funny field.

New Zealand 150

New Zealand Birds Australia Kangaroos 150