10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Tours groups that I guided to Ethiopia ten years ago had to endure very basic accommodation, almost no surfaced roads and low levels of service. There are also dry areas but this great diversity has resulted in an incredible bird list of over 900 species including Africa’s 2nd highest count of endemics (after South Africa).

Ethiopia 274

Ethiopia Eritrea Africa Mammals 274

Critter News

JUNE 4, 2009

Here are the results of the EU flirtation with restricting research on primates. The Commission had also proposed scaling back experiments on the 12,000 primates used each year, so they could only be used if the survival of their species was at stake or during an unexpected outbreak of life-threatening disease in humans.

Medical Research 100

Medical Research Medical Research Apes 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Its great diversity of habitats hosts an incredible bird count of over 900 species, including Africa’s 2nd highest list of endemics and near-endemics (after South Africa). Over a dozen distinctive ethnic groups exist here, many of whom live lives little touched by the modern world. Yellow-billed Stork. Hamar mother and child.

Ethiopia 251

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 251

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2016

In this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of juvenile zebra finches was allowed to interact with an adult. Another group simply heard adult songs played through a speaker. I’m pretty sure this was already partly known or suspected, but this new research nails it down.

Mammals 116

Mammals Zebras Birds Primates 116

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2016

The government of Colombia was involved in a long-simmering and occasionally boiling war with guerilla groups in the rural parts of the country. Not just birds, but also plants (Colombia boast the most orchid species, too), insects, primates, reptiles. The list goes on and on and on. It looks something like this.

Colombia 162

Colombia Primates Reptiles Experience 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2023

A boat ride into this swamp turns up usual suspects like Pied Water Tyrant and Yellow-hooded Blackbird , but also (and most excitingly) three species of kingfisher: Green, American Pygmy and Ringed Kingfisher. Back in 2014 we stumbled upon a juvenile Double-toothed Kite and that was the first and only time I have ever seen that species well.

Trinidad 29

Trinidad Falcons Primates Monkeys 29

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. A few years ago, in the American Birding Association FB group I posted a question: Where would you go if funds weren’t a problem? Some are incredibly rare and hard to find.

Congo 264

Congo Africa South Africa Madagascar 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

There are important details within that dictum that we will ignore here, but this has to do with knowing when a characteristic doesn’t really tell you about the relative position of species on a “tree of life” vs when the characteristic works for that purpose. That was useful, and it is still useful, even if there are often major exceptions.

Monkeys 149

Monkeys Gorillas Whales Whaling 149

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. The African Spoonbill is one of the six global spoonbill species, and the main African one (there are also some Eurasian Spoonbills in Africa).

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Birds Eggs 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. A Great Argus in full call, this species’ tail consists of the longest feather in the bird world. The 9 species of whydah are brood-parasitic seedeaters belonging to the Indigobird family.

Papua New Guinea 252

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 252

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2016

Primates are exceptional among the mammals, living amphibians (which represent only a small part of the original amphibian family tree) are pretty noisy too. It is costly, it determines mating success, it defines and controls territoriality, and in some species may be communicative in other ways as well.

Groups 171

Groups Collecting Primates Bats 171

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. There are variations on that theme, of course. Even the non-passerines often follow this pattern.

Breeders 216

Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 216

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2011

The trait must then be identifiable as to whether or not it exists in a certain species. For instance, in primate phylogeny, postcranial traits (bony traits of the body, not the head) are usually useless because we can’t link teeth to bodies in most cases, and the teeth drive the taxonomy (though there are some recent exceptions ).

Mammals 261

Mammals Europe Groups Family 261

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2011

This is also a hard question to address because most data on animal size distribution does not compare across classes of animals, and/or focuses on groups that would not be helpful. Or, we might expect to see them all be diurnal or nocturnal (as groups) but differentiate in body size.

Mammals 182

Mammals Rodents Birds Reptiles 182

4 The Love Of Animals

MAY 17, 2010

Lemurs are a species of primate, and reach sexual maturity between 2 and 3 years old. All species of lemurs are native to the island of Madagascar. Red-ruffed lemurs are one of nearly about 50 lemur species. Busch Gardens is home to five lemur species. 17 of a pound, at birth. They grow to be about 8 to 10 pounds.

Lemurs 100

Lemurs Madagascar Tampa Rescue 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Slightly larger than Wales and about the size of the US state of Maryland, this country’s lure is its 703 bird species and three dozen Albertine Rift endemics among them. The “Wild Rwanda – Where to watch birds, primates, and other wildlife” combines Ken, Christian and Keith’s birding skills, African expertise and story-telling talent.

Rwanda 219

Rwanda Primates Wildlife Gorillas 219

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2022

Lango Camp deck overlooking Lango Baï, by Congo Conservation Company The forests of the Congo Basin contain more than a 1,000 species of birds, together with 400 species of mammals, including Okapi, Hippos, Leopards, Chimpanzees and Bonobos. Other primates include Chimpanzee and Putty-nosed Monkey, several duiker antelope species, etc.

Central African Republic 307

Central African Republic Congo Gabon Gorillas 307

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

I was in contact with a group of birders for whom I arranged and guided an annual tour to Africa. Blue-moustached Bee-eater is rainforest species occurring in just a few scattered sites in Ghana, it was previously considered a subspecies of Blue-headed Bee-eater. During each trip we would discuss a destination for the following year.

Ghana 204

Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 204

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2023

The Ashy Tailorbird is a good example of the different perspectives of describing a bird – while the English name focuses on the body of the bird, the Latin species name ruficeps refers to the rufous head. The split makes the bird one of the six species endemic to Sabah, Borneo ( source ), four of which I saw during my week at Sepilok.

Woodpeckers 229

Woodpeckers Birds Eggs India 229

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2020

Further chapters detail wildlife watching opportunities for primates, birds, reptiles, turtles, butterflies and dragonflies; a description of the parks and reserves by habitat type; and a wildlife watching calendar to help plan a trip. 465 species have been recorded and the list keeps growing. Product details.

Sri Lanka 221

Sri Lanka Whales Whaling Leopards 221