10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

At the snowy Danube riverbank, we are waiting for geese to come to their roost inside the mostly submerged island. A shot or two coming from the opposite bank, but they do not sound like geese shooting – more like boar hunting. Scanning the water for rarer species… S. warns me of two locally rare Bean Geese.

Geese 174

Geese Hunting Boars Birds 174

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2017

An eclectic mix of endemics, specialties and oddly displaced species, it is one of the most memorable places I have ever birded… and I never visited it as a trip. As you climb you can stop to see facinating species like the Blue-winged Goose , a strange species whose closest relatives are in South America.

Ethiopia 100

Ethiopia Mammals South America Rats 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not lazy and mean spirited. At this point if I want to make any dent on the remaining families I haven’t seen I’d really need to go to either Madagascar or South America.

Family 163

Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 163

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. Now we move on to the Neognathae , which also has two very deep branches that lead to all the other living species of birds. Erich Jarvis discuss key findings. ). were revolutionary for using 32,000 base pairs!) This is why.

Family 279

Family Parrots Birds 2014 279

10,000 Birds

MARCH 28, 2012

The driveway also showed up some large, floppy Pheasant Coucals (there is no word that applies to this species better than floppy, they remind me of my parents’ cocker spaniel) and some Whistling Kites circling over a small (managed) bushfire, and some White-faced Herons. This was certainly a more leisurely view!

Geese 167

Geese Ducks Australia Pelicans 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Swan : “any of various large heavy-bodied long-necked mostly pure white aquatic birds (family Anatidae, especially genus Cygnus ) that have webbed feet and are related to but larger than the geese.”. Many individual species get an entry too, though they are generally not capitalized.

Albatross 104

Albatross Bears Ducks Bald Eagle 104

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2014

And, as we talked of Long-billed Murrelets and Pink-footed Geese and Nutting’s Flycatchers, questions came up. Where did the Coney Island Gray-hooded Gull come from, Africa or South America? I kept wishing I had Rare Birds of North America , by Steve N. What year was the Red-footed Falcon seen in Massachusetts?

North America 252

North America America Birds United States 252