10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2020

Conservation status is Least Concern: “This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion” Or to put it more personally, I saw it in Shanghai yesterday. A resident in India but also included in the list of the world`s 100 worst invasive alien species.

Birds 165

Birds India Zoos 2019 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2022

Honeyeaters are a large bird family (190 species) with a strong presence in Australia. According to the HBW entry for this species, it “has been claimed that loss of native mammals after European settlement created shortage of nesting material, explaining this species’ penchant for taking hair from humans.”

Australia 197

Australia Birds Feral Cats Kangaroos 197

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2019

On a recent trip to India, a non-descript tree caught my attention. The koel and coucal are both from the extended cuckoo family Cuculidae. They hold a similar status in their family as the Common Gallinule and American Coot cling to amongst the Rallidae. In all, there were 6 cuckoos representing 4 species in just one tree.

India 153

India Eggs Family Species 153

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Of course this is nonsense, and they are clearly close to swifts, but with a hind toe that lets them perch like a swallow, they sit outside the family as well, in their own, rarely thought about, family. There are four species in the family, ranging from India to the Solomon Islands. Whiskered Treeswift.

Solomon Islands 166

Solomon Islands Singapore India Family 166

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

I stopped at the Red Crossbill , realizing that the species indeed “occupies an immense range, including North America, Eurasia, and northern Africa” (HBW) – including Baxi forest, China. It is hard to see any scientific value in defining a bird species as a country endemic. Progress of sorts, I guess.

China 230

China Birds Nevada North America 230

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

As the story goes, way back in the late 19th Century and organization called the American Acclimitazation Society was working hard to introduce every one of the 600 species of birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays to North America. But we forget that the family Sturnidae consists of more than our familiar European Starling.

India 156

India Stray Dog United States Stray 156

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Part of its attraction lies in it being a monotypic bird in the family Hypocoliidae – there are no other bird species in its genus and family. That is why the village of Fulay – the only place in India where this bird is regularly seen – is as famous among birders as the Taj Mahal is among the uninitiated.

India 221

India Iran Pakistan Afghanistan 221

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 28, 2020

The hapless Sooty Tern ( Onychoprion fuscatus ) is the classic hurricane bird, but other pelagic species are entrained in storms and blown ashore as well, like Bridled Terns ( Onychoprion anaethetus ), White-tailed Tropicbirds ( Phaethon lepturus ), and Magnificent Frigatebirds ( Fregata magnificens ).

India 168

India Squirrels North America America 168

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2015

There’s a Three-striped Palm Squirrel by the side of the track, while Jungle Bush Quails are running across it in front of our Maruti Gypsy, almost the official safari vehicle of India. At least 274 tigers have died in India in the last four years, more than 70 per cent of them due to poaching. Very dusty Swarovski CLs.

Tigers 246

Tigers India Killing 2012 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2013

The family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers, are found only in the New World. But surprisingly, this niche is not frequently filled by the birds Eurasian birders call flycatchers, which are those more chat-ish species in the family Muscicapidae. Birding Drongo India'

India 166

India Lifestyle North America Groups 166

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2017

1,712 species, 12% of which are endemics. News flash–I just received the trip report from Carlos, and the tally is 419 species recorded, of which 16 were heard only; plus Ian and I saw an additional species before the tour started, courtesy of Paulo Boute. Oh my gosh! I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Brazil 151

Brazil Birds Los Angeles Tigers 151

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Striolated Bunting ( Emberiza srtriolata ) This member of the bunting family (that’s bunting, not sparrow. Sparrows are from the family Passeridae. The species used to be lumped with the commensal House Bunting, but the two are now treated as separate species. A whole bunch coming for a drink.

United Arab Emirates 161

United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia Oman Yemen 161

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2018

It’s also the first drink featuring a non-North American species (I’ll admit there’s a bias in my selections that’s largely dictated by geography). Kiwi Rising is a double India pale lager by Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers of Framingham, Massachusetts.

New Zealand 100

New Zealand India Massachusetts United States 100

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 174

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2022

After writing this last sentence, I looked up the species in the HBW and found the sentence “Song poorly documented” in the appropriate section, while with regard to calls, the description is that “call is a two-note raspy nasal ‘ryeeh-reh’”. In New Zealand, the Spotted Dove is an introduced species.

Singapore 147

Singapore Mountain Goats Birds Giraffes 147

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 215

Birds Egypt Family Eagles 215

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2014

I actually have many targets, in a way, a I want to see lots and lots, but there is one species that the reason that the trip is even happening, the animal that has been pretty much the top of my animal bucket list for well over a decade. It’s a species that has bedeviled and bewitched me over the years. The African Wild Dog.

Sharks 173

Sharks Leopards Whales Whaling 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2012

Garigal National Park (the name always makes me think of those odd long-snouted crocodiles from India) is a long series of just about connected strips and chunks of land linking one of the coves of Sydney Harbour to the much larger Kuring-Gai Chase National Park (which forms a chunk of the northern border of Sydney).

New Zealand 157

New Zealand Game India Eagles 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. It is also related to Wood Stork of the Americas and Milky Stork of Asia.

Africa 241

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 241

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 188

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 188

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Knowing that there are reserves with long lists of 600 or more species, I set my threshold at more than 600 birds… and found only a few such hotspots. In early November 2020, there were 15 countries with more than 1000 species eBirded so far. Other than that, there are barely a few hotspots with over 500 species.

Asia 272

Asia Malaysia Papua New Guinea Thailand 272

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant. The little – the two species of black Buffalo Weavers obtain their appellation from their dark coloration that resembles their fearsome namesake.

Buffalo 204

Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 204

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2012

They are placed in the Cisticolidae family which has representatives throughout the Old World and whose Christmas get-togethers also include the eponymous Cisticolas, the Apalises (Apali?) and Camaroptera.

Asia 160

Asia Africa Ducks Family 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2020

I was lucky to visit India several times, but as a keen birder I carried along only a bird book, and even upgraded it to a new edition between the trips. Beside India, Lynx Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of South Asia covers Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. I clearly needed a mammal book.

Asia 177

Asia Mammals Sri Lanka Bhutan 177

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Photos courtesy of Mosetlha Bush Camp A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg.

South Africa 219

South Africa Africa Game Elephants 219

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Next, band names referring to individual birds or bird families. The Bowerbirds are an American independent-folk band as well as an Australian bird family. The bird family, however, is not. But an eagle it has to be, and this is a nice-looking species. I am sure you can easily imagine this as a PowerPoint slide.

South Africa 228

South Africa China Germany Birds 228

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2023

Sarah Amherst, Countess Amherst (1762–1838) was a British naturalist and botanist who lived in India. Other sources are even more exuberant – birdfact.com calls the species “one of the most striking birds on the planet” (probably again only referring to the male, though). Read it there if you want.

China 233

China Research India Zoos 233

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2013

This week it brought a bird to my attention that I had never heard of, though it seemed that other eBirders had been seeing it at a prime site near New Delhi, India. Occasionally, field guides allow bird species to blend into the background despite beautiful illustrations on the printed page.

India 162

India Sanctuary Species Family 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2017

I started the year in Florida, traveled to India with the ABA in February, combined family and birding in an August trip to California, and in-between saw very good birds in New York and New Jersey. I was thrilled to see many of these gorgeous birds at the fort at Ranthambore NP, India. It was a good birding year.

2016 110

2016 India Ducks Birds 110

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Sometimes I just want to hug eBird, or more specifically, whoever writes the short species descriptions (even though I am not the typical hugging kind of person, trust me on this). The Plain Sunbird is the plain vanilla version of the otherwise often very colorful family (ok, a very low-budget sort of joke). “Dull, me?

Los Angeles 187

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 187

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2022

It’s a unique bird, even its scientific name is wonderful, so it’s not surprising that Gerard Gorman, Woodpecker Expert Supreme, has written a book all about the species. But they are woodpeckers: the genus Jynx of the subfamily Jynginae of the Picidae family. They are beautiful, but in a different way.

Woodpeckers 236

Woodpeckers Hungary Thailand 2014 236

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. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

Africa 264

Africa Gabon South Africa Uganda 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2013

My best bird of the year is based on the sighting rather than the species. Obviously my best bird of the year is going to come during this trip, what with several species of endemic pitta and broadbill possible, not to mention 8 species of hornbill and numerous babblers, storks, kingfishers, trogons and even the endemic Bornean Bristlehead.

2013 167

2013 Birds Costa Rica India 167

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2013

Unlike many endemic species they aren’t remotely rare, and can be seen just about anywhere in the country, and they are also amazingly confiding, allowing close approaches and even coming close to us of their own volition. The family also reaches into India and as far east as samoa and Fiji.

New Zealand 175

New Zealand Samoa Fiji Killing 175

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Birders have a natural tendency to appreciate variety in form, from the bewildering range of colors displayed within a single avian family, to minute distinctions between otherwise similar birds wholly inscrutable to the untrained eye (or even to those of many birders!). Birders are generally happy when this happens.

Ohio 113

Ohio India Hawaii United States 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Orange-headed Thrush Orange-headed Thrush By Redgannet • March 6, 2011 • 18 comments Tweet Share The Orange-headed Thrush , Zoothera citrinus, is common across much of India and south-east Asia. In the Z.c.

2011 183

2011 Deer India New York 183

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2013

A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg.

Africa 192

Africa South Africa Elephants Rhinos 192