10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Myers, a professional birding guide in “real life,” summarizes the etymology and history of all common bird names (of bird families and groups, not all 10,000-plus species). The guide covers 265 of Maine’s 461 bird species: common nesting species, common migrants, and wintering birds.

Sri Lanka 216

Sri Lanka Malaysia Birds Suriname 216

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2022

Ndumo Game Reserve lies in the Easternmost part of South Africa, close to the border of Mozambique and Eswatini. It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

South Africa 147

South Africa Africa Birds Research 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2013

Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. This attractive (for a lark anyway) species is restricted to the dry savannah Somali-Maasai biome of north-east Africa (northern Tanzania, Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia).

Africa 202

Africa Somalia Pelicans Mozambique 202

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 182

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 182

10,000 Birds

MAY 27, 2015

This time it is the Old World that has misnamed a group of birds, or in fact several groups. Once upon a time, when I started birding, this great family included a wide range of species collectively known as the robins and chats. It all comes back to a split in one of the great bird families, the Turdidae, or thrushes.

Mozambique 161

Mozambique Zambia Zimbabwe Namibia 161

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2012

Barbets are a group of medium sized, chunky, generally colorful, frugivorous, hole-nesting near-passerines, that are popular targets for anyone birding in the tropics. In Asia, their 30 barbet species are placed into their own family Megalaimidae , and finally in Africa, we have 42 species in the family Lybiidae , the topic of this blogpost.

Ethiopia 223

Ethiopia Tanzania Africa Uganda 223