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Hoatzins invaded South America from Africa … by raft

10,000 Birds

We humans have a very deep and powerful urge to assemble individual data points into some sort of larger construct — to label and categorize them and understand how they relate to other things we know. Suddenly, hoatzins are no longer strictly birds of the Neotropics. And Mayr et al.

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GUYANA–Simply Delicious Birding!

10,000 Birds

Before I delve into some of these avian treasures let me give you a few non-birding reasons to visit this gem of South America. If your Spanish or Portuguese is at the level of a 2-year-old bonobo like mine is, then you’ll probably be pleased to know that Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America.

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Birding Acapulco

10,000 Birds

Cuba (twice), South America (twice), Europe and Morocco (once) and Bali (once). The third weekend of January, I travelled to the coastal city of Acapulco to give a seminar on family finances at a church there. And my one lifer for the trip was a family of Rufous-naped Wrens that apparently live in the same garden.

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A few Barbets

10,000 Birds

There are also 14 species of New World Barbets and 2 species of Toucan-Barbets (all in South America). Unfortunately, I have so far seen only a few of them, and none of the ones in the Americas … but here are ten that I have seen and got halfway decent photos of. That Smith Family is so depressing”.

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Not enough Woodpeckers

10,000 Birds

The Buff-necked Woodpecker (Taman Negara, Malaysia) is classified as Near Threatened, with the usual rationale of “habitat loss” (which sounds nicer than “evil humans destroying anything that does not immediately bring in money). The Ground Woodpecker (Drakensberg, South Africa) is listed as Near Threatened.

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The New Neotropical Companion: A Book Review by a Lover of the Neotropics

10,000 Birds

In a time of little published information about the rainforests of Central and South America aside from scientific journal articles and the works of 19th-century naturalists, the “little green book,” as it was called, became a must-read amongst nature-oriented travelers and researchers.

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Killdeer from Egg to Adult

10,000 Birds

It breeds across much of North America, is present year-round in the Caribbean, northern Central America, and the west coast of northern South America, and in winter is found across the rest of Central America. By the next day, when I returned, the entire Killdeer family had vacated the premises.

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