10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Africa’s famous Big Five , but do you know there is also an equally fascinating Little Five ? Africa is famous for its large, charismatic mammals, and the Big Five epitomize the most sought-after of these fantastic beasts. This blog post will discuss both the Big and Little members of these quintuplets.

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Buffalo Rhinoceros Elephants Leopards 197

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2012

A former wildlife wrangler, Currie also hosts, Nikon’s Birding Adventures TV , the first bird-watching travel show in the US. James Currie is a native of South Africa; he has led wildlife and bird-watching tours for more than 15 years. The new hour-long show delves into the Sonoran Desert to track Harris’s Hawks.

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South Africa Madagascar Wolves Lions 272

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. Storks are typically viewed as wetland species and whilst some storks are restricted to aquatic habitats, others are not. It is also related to Wood Stork of the Americas and Milky Stork of Asia.

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Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 235

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2014

Later, Harry Fuller, President of the Klamath Bird Observatory, led us to an open meadow where we saw a pair of Great Gray Owls hunting in a meadow. Finally, the Similan Islands are perhaps one of the most beautiful islands in the world and form a stunning backdrop to this species, one of the loveliest pigeons in the world.

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2014 Costa Rica South Africa Birds 184

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2011

This is not a surprise as both pastimes tap into my primeval desire to hunt. I don’t need to kill something to feel the rush of the hunt. The quest to see a particularly challenging species is something I dream about, plan for, study and rave about. But most antpitta species are a severe birding challenge.

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Ecuador South Africa United States Hunting 150

Critter News

JUNE 28, 2010

Cameron Selogie, owner of the Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa, served burgers made with African lion this week as a nod to the tournament in South Africa. I was led to believe they were not hunted, they were not shot, they were not abused," Selogie said. "I Reservations sold out, with a waiting list 100 long.

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Phoenix Lions Meat South Africa 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2015

Early starts are the rule when monitoring endagered species in Mkuze Game Reserve, in South Africa, but there’s a particular urgency to this morning’s start. And the two species were not inclined to get on, by which I mean that Lions will kill other large predators including Painted Wolves. Resilience.

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Wolves Lions Dogs Vet 188

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2012

Found patchily in sub-Saharan Africa, this large, ginger-colored owl can never be guaranteed on a trip to the continent. It is classified as threatened in South Africa – where its numbers have dwindled due to loss of habitat and pollution – and is uncommon and localized elsewhere. Consider their name for a moment.

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Owls Fish Botswana Barn Owls 242

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2015

Our group got to see another species that is a master of camouflage on our trip for the Honduran Emerald. I had seen Thick-Knees in South Africa, but I was very excited to see this species, which is the only member of its family found in Central America. Later on, we saw a second one that was actually moving!

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Honduras Birds Costa Rica Groups 244

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2020

Before it joins waters with the Matabele’s iliMphopho, the river of rapid rising and falling, known to the rest of the world as the ‘great, grey, green, greasy Limpopo’ of Rudyard Kipling’s writings, the Ngotwane River marks the boundary line between Botswana and South Africa. Habitats: riparian woodland (mostly Combretum sp.),

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Botswana Africa 2001 Fish 182

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. Here in New Zealand te only potential big tick would be a lost vagrant painted snipe, and we’ve already established that I don’t enjoy that kind of vagrant hunting.

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Family Wombats Uganda Fiji 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

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Endangered Species Species Morocco South Africa 185

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2015

It can’t have escaped your notice lately that the blog has been overrun with articles about North America’s pseudo-warblers (or wood warblers, as some people, apparently unaware the name is taken by a proper European species, call them), and, even worse, no small amount of poetry. And they are always a pleasure to see.

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Africa Feral Ethiopia Tanzania 174

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. New World Vultures.

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California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 177

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. 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).

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Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Game 237

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? With a trip to South Africa on the horizon at the time, I thought I could handle it. The Indexes show images of the most common birds of the area against a painted background, with page references to species accounts. Now, I’m not so sure.

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Brunei Birds Asia China 173

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2013

Here, thousands of Amur Falcons hunt for insects during the southern summer, Wattled Cranes and Denham’s Bustards may be seen, impressive Long-tailed Widowbirds display over the grasslands and the waterbodies are a haven to many hundreds of waterbirds, including Maccoa and White-backed Ducks. Image by Adam Riley. Image by Adam Riley.

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Lesotho Africa Birds Rats 165

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

” Writing about owls means writing about roughly 250 species (I counted 245 on the 2022 Clements spreadsheet, but I might have missed a few, and we all know that each classification system is different). These are behaviors that are most likely to vary across species and topics that make for compelling stories.

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Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 203

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

This makes it a particularly exciting time in New Zealand as the Rugby World Cup begins in two days, and the competition is being held right here in New Zealand (I would imagine they might be more excited if they hadn’t just lost two matches to Australia and South Africa, their big rivals in the Tri-Nations).

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New Zealand Penguins Sanctuary Birds 157

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Pafuri lies in the northernmost part of the Kruger National Park and is described as “some of the most potentially productive birding territory in South Africa” on the SANParks website. ” (HBW). ” (HBW). Vultures, therefore, tend not to nest in areas with high elephant populations ( source ).

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Elephants Birds Congo Africa 147

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

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Africa Gabon South Africa Uganda 262

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

I’ll never forget my introduction to the mammals of Kruger National Park, South Africa. We –participants of the ABA South Africa Safari—were on a small plane when one Lori Conrad looked out the window and screamed, “There are elephants down there!” and everyone ran to Lori’s side of the plane.

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Rhinos Mammals Animal White Rhinos 235

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

However South Africa doesn’t meet either of these criteria, but one special factor nevertheless carries it into this auspicious list of 17 nations – the Cape Florisitic Kingdom. of Africa’s landmass yet supports nearly 20% of the continent’s flora! An indication of its floral wealth is that this region covers a mere 0.5%

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South Africa Africa New Zealand Asia 226

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

But nevertheless, this part of the country is home to an astonishing variety of birds and a good number of species that are found nowhere else in the US. In fact, this sub-species was formerly classified as endangered in the US under the Endangered Species Act. A nice Ferruginous Pygmy Owl showing its rufous tail.

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Owls Texas Arizona Pigs 145

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2013

My best bird of the year is based on the sighting rather than the species. Obviously my best bird of the year is going to come during this trip, what with several species of endemic pitta and broadbill possible, not to mention 8 species of hornbill and numerous babblers, storks, kingfishers, trogons and even the endemic Bornean Bristlehead.

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2013 Birds Costa Rica India 167

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. We already had South Africa, Zambia and Uganda under our belts, but my clients’ request for the next year came right out of the blue: Ghana! We also knew we had discovered Africa’s next hot birding destination.

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Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2012

In the Neotropics the barbets have been placed into two families, the original Capitonidae (New World Barbets) with 14 species and Semnornithidae (Toucan Barbets) with 2 species (Toucan and Prong-billed Barbet). Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird is a woodland species that occurs widely through Africa. Benson to collect birds.

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Ethiopia Tanzania Africa Uganda 225

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Given the complexity of the research, the result feels like a bit of a letdown – “northern populations start migration earlier than southern populations, especially in autumn” The species name of the Chestnut-eared Bunting is fucata , from the Latin “fucare”, to paint red.

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Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 200