10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Flickers have other strategies. But the all-time favorite flicker strategy is to scream like a slasher movie victim and fly straight at the person’s head. But the all-time favorite flicker strategy is to scream like a slasher movie victim and fly straight at the person’s head.

Woodpeckers 224

Woodpeckers Wildlife Rehabilitation Wildlife Seattle 224

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2013

Now and then individual catfish of various species hunt nearer the surface and larger catfish such as the American Channel Cat will take a duck or other water bird. So, the modal catfish is a fish that hunts from below, can take large prey, and occasionally eats a bird. Here is a video of some Wels Catfish foraging on Pigeons.

Fish 203

Fish Birds Whales Whaling 203

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2015

Soon after carnivores that could hunt on land evolved, things like ancestral centipedes. For a long time the plants were mostly left untouched but their dead leaves and protoleaves were consumed by things like ancestral millipedes.

Rodents 187

Rodents Primates Bats Science 187

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2015

Lead remains in both fishing and hunting products, with strong lobbies that insist lead poisoning is not real, even as our facilities fill regularly with birds afflicted with it. Respect, understanding, and a greater awareness of wildlife are key for the public and agencies alike.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 189

Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2013

Although if you want to see a bunch of Turkey Vultures it’s a pretty good strategy. Lest you think that modern technology robbed all the challenge from my hunt, though, I would point out that there were a couple of confounding factors. And who doesn’t want to see a bunch of Turkey Vultures?)

Sparrows 165

Sparrows St. Louis Kansas City Kansas 165

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

I’m fairly certain that it was the deliberate strategy of the bird to kill the duck on the water and wait for it to come ashore. This bird was “tamer” than most of her species because she had become accustomed to hunting the narrow causeway for ducks and was relatively acclimated to all the vehicular traffic.

Falcons 117

Falcons Ducks Utah Ethics 117

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2013

They’re unusual to be sure, but there’s a certain grace in the back and forth monotony of the spoonbill’s feeding strategy and there’s little like seeing a line of spoonbills tearing across a shallow mudflat seeking food you can’t possibly see. Roseate Spoonbill , photo by Julie Gidwitz.

Birds 211

Birds North America Charlotte New Jersey 211

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2012

The egret used two different hunting strategies. It was odd to watch a single bird use such drastically different hunting styles and I really don’t have an explanation as to why.

Hunting 165

Hunting Jamaica Fish Birds 165

10,000 Birds

MARCH 6, 2023

Shockingly, the Ashy-throated Parrotbill apparently is a species heavily hunted for bird fighting in Guizhou Province, China ( source ). If being hunted by evil humans was not enough, Ashy-throated Parrotbills are also hosts of the parasitic Common Cuckoo. Shame on the researchers.

Eggs 167

Eggs China Birds Mammals 167

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

One of the black-crowns and the Green Heron were clearly in hunting mode, leaning over the water, staring intently. Here’s a Green Heron just a few yards up the creek from back in July, hunting with the same strategy. a hungry Green Heron. But why had these herons chosen this particular spot to go fishing?

Fish 110

Fish New York City New York Hunting 110

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

Great Frigatebirds engage in “unihemispheric sleep” on hunting trips of six to ten days, never landing, sleeping less than an hour in a 24-hour cycle, often keeping one-half of their brain awake while the other slept. Pause while we all try to imagine what our lives would be like if we could do that.)

Cyprus 251

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 251

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2012

But the honeyguides, indigobirds, and a single species of duck all do the classic cuckoo strategy (obligate interspecific brood parasitism) as well. This behavior is most common in colony nesters, since popping next door to drop off an egg is a lot easier than hunting down another nest through acres of forest or grassland. But come on.

Eggs 155

Eggs Neglecting Adoptable Hunting 155

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

Thankfully, as the authors note, this focus on animals to hunt has given way to visitors’ fascination with a range of creatures.). (The Big Five–Lion, Leopard, African Buffalo, African Elephant and Rhinoceros–were historically the main mammal attraction of Kruger.

Rhinos 239

Rhinos Mammals Animal White Rhinos 239

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2012

Watching them hunt is fascinating. Another strategy regularly employed by these weird raptors is that they will soar great distances, utilizing thermals in search of bush-fires. We stayed with the larger bird as it settled down to the serious business of hunting. But another reason might be that the wing flares confuse the prey.

Botswana 222

Botswana Eagles Porcupines Hunting 222

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

The chapter on Turning the Tide is happier, if much briefer, focusing on the Commission’s strategy of recognizing wetlands as a natural resource, working with the Department of Environmental Protection to de-pollute the Hackensack River, and restoring many of the wetland areas. This really happened, we created a landscape of toxic horror.

New Jersey 147

New Jersey Legislation Mammals Pigs 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

On the shore were the dominant big birds you see in Australia, a very vocal Australian Raven , some Australian Magpies , a hunting Grey Butcherbird , pairs of Maned Ducks cropping the grass and a pair of Laughing Kookaburras watchfully surveying the cafe patrons. Dusky Moorhen The Maned Duck – or Australian Wood Duck. A Rose Robin.

Australia 174

Australia Ducks Parrots New Zealand 174

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Common Cuckoo is a fascinating bird, an obligate parasitic breeder that employs numerous strategies, including fraud and murder, to survive. , deep-pandemic birds (all local), and still-pandemic birds (a little travel), it is the Rhode Island Common Cuckoo that will define this year for me. I saw the Cuckoo the second day of its visit.

2020 231

2020 Birds Germany Costa Rica 231

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

To be honest, both the robin and the flycatchers shown above remind me of the easter eggs I hunted for as a child – the same strong colors in front of a green background, same time of the year (feel free to insert your own Proust Madeleine reference here) … Bluethroats apparently are good at imitating other birds.

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2024

” Blue-bearded Bee-eaters seem to have a pretty clever hunting strategy. The authors of the paper sound a bit helpless, stating that “At the time of discovery, both birds [two bee-eaters] were still alive, but it was not possible to free them from the net because the bees began to attack the ringer.”

Squirrels 137

Squirrels Birds China Bears 137

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

Now that the colony is off limits for hunting, the population has grown and the village is benefitting tremendously from entry and guide fees, and a school is being built courtesy of conservation funds. Another of Ghana’s forest gems, the seldom encountered Fraser’s Eagle Owl. .

Ghana 191

Ghana Hunters Gambia Guinea 191

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Hunting: You may have noticed that the Written Species Accounts include a section on hunting. I am a city girl and until I became a birder my contact with hunting was limited to occasionally seeing dead deer on the tops of cars in upstate New York. So–not a fan of hunting. I was really taken aback when I saw this.

Ducks 118

Ducks North America Geese Hunters 118