10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families. Getting entirely new families is easy when you start birding. Sometimes you may even lose them, like the aforementioned woodswallows which are probably no longer a family.

Family 162

Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2024

This is the home of the Rusty-naped Pitta , admittedly one of the less glamorous of the family, particularly the subspecies found in Yunnan, but still a nice sight and still a pitta. No doubt, the Lesser NLT will be relieved not to be bossed around by its erstwhile bigger family member anymore.

Burma 191

Burma India Birds Indonesia 191

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2012

The Edwards’s Pheasant is a rather smart blue-black member of the pheasant family and it may be on the edge of extinction. It has not been seen in its small home range in central Vietnam since around 2000. Conservationists searched intensively in 2011 but found none.

Vietnam 154

Vietnam 2000 Germany Asia 154

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2014

It inhabits rather dry areas within a region notorious for being one of the rainiest parts of the world, and is thus patchily distributed from Burma through Laos, Cambodia, parts of Thailand and south China, all the way to Vietnam. Just don’t try this with a Brown Prinia, unless you have life insurance and a family in need.

Burma 160

Burma Laos Birds Indonesia 160

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. After breeding they also disperse over the rainforests and savannas of West and Central Africa, where they hunt for aerial insects.

Africa 262

Africa Gabon South Africa Uganda 262

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2024

It was like that when I went to school, why wouldn’t it work for birds … If you saw a paper titled “Road Crossing by Birds in a Tropical Forest in Northern Vietnam”, would you – like me – also immediately visualize cute tiny traffic lights and small birds lining up and waiting in front of them?

Burma 183

Burma Birds Vietnam Laos 183