10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). Donna’s BBOTY – an African Penguin.

2014 183

2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 183

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2013

How far is the closest human settlement? Does the word define a species within country terms, regional terms etc? Is the term defined at the sub-species or full species level in terms of classification? The species must be restricted to an internationally recognized country, island or island group.

Birds 198

Birds South Africa South America Feral Cats 198

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2014

It seems, in fact, that the moa’s closest relatives are the tinamous , familiar to birders that have been to South America. And then there are the species that came here from New Zealand’s Subantarctic possessions, specifically the Auckland Islands (a largish windswept archipelago south of New Zealand).

New Zealand 161

New Zealand Penguins Sea Lions Lions 161

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

In fact, the Dodo belonged to a clade (sometimes called Raphini) of 15 remarkable, bizarre, intriguing island-adapted pigeons, some of which are still alive today, but eight of which have been hacked from the tree of life, driven to extinction by humans. The painting above is by 17th-century Flemish artist Roelant Savery.

Solomon Islands 272

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 272

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. So do parrots, some songbirds, humans, and a few other mammals. Jarvis et al. This is why.

Family 279

Family Parrots Birds 2014 279