10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

It’s not clear how many of the plates have been touched up, redrawn or are new, and I hope we’ll learn more about the process, perhaps when the third book in the series by Howell and Dyer, a new guide to the birds of Mexico, is published.* Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. © 2023 by Steve N.

Costa Rica 213

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 213

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Marybeth learns as she birds, embraces listing goals as a means of engaging with community, unabashedly enjoys a little competition, struggles to balance her absolute joy in birding with unexpected, life-and-death family obligations. The book focuses on two listing events: her 2012 Louisiana Big Year and her 2016 Louisiana 300 Year.

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2022

Towhees are large, ground-hugging sparrows that occur only in North America. Down here in central Mexico, the Canyon Towhee is a constant presence in open areas, including in my garden and around our church. Earlier this month, I came across a family of Spotted Towhees (Olive-backed) with a couple of other strange aspects.

Mexico 207

Mexico North America 2015 Sparrows 207

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. Mexico is great for those who love biogeography!

Mexico 191

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 191

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. Honesty requires that I confess to having seen none of these species. These species are visually very similar, with subtle differences in their tail patterns.

Mexico 183

Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 183

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2019

But come spring, an even luckier few may even find a fellow survivor of their own kind with whom to start a family, unwittingly causing contentious debates among birders about the countability of established feral populations in the process.

North America 113

North America Vermont America Farming 113

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2016

One of the most impressive birds in North America is the Golden Eagle. It is found as far north as Alaska and as far south as Mexico, taking its place as one of Mexico’s official symbols. The oldest known Golden Eagle was over 30 years old, and as a species they prefer open and semi-open landscapes.

Albania 101

Albania Mexico Eagles Kazakhstan 101

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2016

while showing diminishing numbers in the north and northeastern part of the US and Canada, are quite abundant down here. Here is a pair birds that I visit quite often, in an arroyo near La Ventana, Mexico. Shrikes by the numbers: The family Laniidae is composed of 31 species of shrike, around the globe.

Butcher 115

Butcher Birds North America Mexico 115

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

It is worth pointing out that titmice belong to the family Paridae , an expansive international clan made up primarily of what we call “chickadees” in the states but are known as “t**s” in the Old World. This bird ranges from southeastern Arizona down through interior Mexico.

Arizona 264

Arizona Oklahoma Texas Mexico 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

In all of North America, only one avian species serves as both the beloved mascot of seven states as well as the totem to two professional sports teams (and an infinity of amateur ones!) The family Cardinalidae encompasses a plethora of New World passerines. However, Cardinalis phoeniceus is a South American species.

St. Louis 180

St. Louis United States Belize Guatemala 180

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 26, 2014

The Yellow-rumped Warbler ( Setophaga coronata ) complex is one of the most abundant and widespread representatives of the New World warbler family in North America, present in many parts of the United States even through the winter months, when the birds feed on small fruits and other foods, including sap. 2011; Milá et al.

United States 234

United States 2011 Guatemala North America 234

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 28, 2020

Every year along the Atlantic Coast of North America, from June to November, experienced birders anticipate the exciting possibility of finding rare, tempest-tossed seabirds blown in from the tropics far north of their usual range.

India 167

India Squirrels North America America 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

So, if you are going to write a field guide on the birds of the countries south and east of Mexico–Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—it makes the utmost sense that you embrace the whole geographic area. Each species account lists the basics—common name, scientific name, measurements in inches and centimeters.

El Salvador 232

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 232

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

One of these islands may have been the present day Northern Central American Highlands which includes Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of extreme southern Mexico (Chiapas). Alex also masterfully worked another tricky species into view for us during that first afternoon, Ruddy Crake (a close relative of the Black Rail ).

Honduras 214

Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 214

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

How to Know the Birds talks about 200 commonly found birds in North America (including one extinct bird, the Passenger Pigeon) in 200 brief essays, each exactly one page long. Each essay is entitled with the “big idea,” subtitled with the name of the bird species (common name and scientific name), and numbered.

Birds 115

Birds North America Breeding America 115

10,000 Birds

MARCH 26, 2011

Other notable guides to continents, countries, and regions outside of North America (the illustrious Collins Guide comes to mind) take an equally broad view of birds. Future field guides have much room to grow in guides focuses on families of birds. One example is sparrows.

Sparrows 163

Sparrows Birds America North America 163

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2012

This post is old news to those who pay attention to what I say on Facebook but I am still pleased as punch to point out that I have finally reached the 500-bird milestone in the American Birding Association area (basically North America north of Mexico). How did I finally reach this lofty peak?

San Marino 105

San Marino Los Angeles Birds Laws 105

10,000 Birds

APRIL 12, 2012

The family has representatives throughout the forests North America, Eurasia (including North Africa), and Indomalaya. In North America, we have, traditionally at least, four species, the most familiar of which is the White-breasted Nuthatch ( Sitta carolinensis ). In 2007, Garth M.

Species 267

Species North America Nevada 2007 267

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2011

The vast majority of Baltimore Orioles that breed in North America return to the tropics between Mexico and northern South America for the cold half of the year. A trip to the coastal plain may net you up to seven species of warblers, from the omnipresent Yellow-rumps to Chats and Cape Mays.

North Carolina 140

North Carolina 2011 St. Louis Baltimore 140

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.”

America 213

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 213

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

The hope and claim is that transferring this process to gull identification works more easily and just as accurately (at least for species) as an examination of plumage and molt patterns. Species Accounts. Gulls Simplified covers 25 species. From the Laughing Gull species account. These vary according to species.

North America 200

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 200

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2012

Catbirds are a group of rather distantly related species all named for the fact that they make sounds that remind some of a cat meowing. Birds called catbirds include two species in the New World family, Mimidae, four from the bowerbird family, Ptilonorhynchidae, and one from the Old World babblers, Timaliidae.

Papua New Guinea 182

Papua New Guinea Ethiopia Guinea Cats 182

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

The sandhill crane has the lowest recruitment rate (average number of young birds joining a population each season) of any bird now hunted in North America. Kills in Canada, Alaska and Mexico are not included in the count. Further, the crane take in Mexico is a free-for-all: neither regulated nor recorded.

2011 246

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 246

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Decades later, Richard Pough’s Audubon Bird Guide, Eastern Land Birds (I happily own the 1948 edition) included nest and egg descriptions for each species as well. And photographs of feathers in the species accounts, which surprised me. Text retrieved from the Hathitrust Digital Library. The first is accomplished well.

Eggs 230

Eggs Birds United States Sparrows 230

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2011

It made us reach for our field guide for North America, but that really does not compare to the real thing. I had spent several holidays with my family in the USA in the 1980′s and then worked in Maine during the summer of 1985-beware the poison ivy and the snapping turtles!

South Africa 158

South Africa United States Austin Alligators 158

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2016

I must have keep 400 images in the file of just this one species. This late evening photo of an American Avocet is one of my all time favorites of this species. While California Quail are quite common all around North America, getting a really nice shot, out in the wild is always a challenge.

Grizzly Bear 117

Grizzly Bear San Jose Bears Fish 117

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2014

I’m going to start with a specific example: species accounts for Common Tern and Arctic Tern. How have these species accounts changed from The Sibley Guide to Birds , published in 2000 (heretofore called Sibley One) to The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition , published in March 2014 (and heretofore called Sibley Two).

North America 238

North America Birds Species America 238

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2022

Then there was the Northern Cardinal that turned up at the pre-Columbian Tres Cerritos ruins on the lake’s north shore. And I found this one because he was singing his heart out quite persistently, which certainly suggests a bird that wants to settle down and raise a family. I have seen two Godwit species at Lake Cuitzeo.

Mexico 219

Mexico 2018 Ducks Breeding 219

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

The Crossley ID Guide: Waterfowl covers every residential, migrating, vagrant, exotic, and introduced swan, goose, dabbling and diving duck in North America (Canada and the United States): 62 Species Accounts on four swan species and one vagrant subspecies; 15 goose species; 46 duck species; plus accounts for hybrid geese, ducks and exotics.

Ducks 118

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 118