10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2023

For birders, the Wolongshan area is like a poorer cousin of Balangshan – due to the lower elevation, the bird species here are more common and thus less interesting. Some Chinese Babax waste part of their lives feeding chicks of Large Hawk Cuckoos, which parasitize the babax species.

Hamburgers 197

Hamburgers Birds Science China 197

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2022

The Black-winged Kite is an elegant pocket-sized raptor which (I think) has become slightly more common at Nanhui in the last few years – which seems to indicate that the species likes partially destroyed nature better than more pristine areas. ” If in doubt, just classify species as LC?

Falcons 231

Falcons Japan China South Africa 231

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Its mood is not helped by the ambiguous review on eBird: “Although not actually pale, this brownish songbird is one of the plainer thrushes in its range” The Latin species name of the Dusky Thrush is eunomos (I guess that is Greek, but whatever) – meaning well-ordered. One page is dedicated to the Long-tailed Shrike. (yes,

Birds 185

Birds Blackbirds Indonesia Bhutan 185

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. I used to live in Botswana, where there are about 450 bird species in an area a few dozen miles from the capital; then somewhat naively moved back to Serbia with mere 250 species around the capital.

Sri Lanka 256

Sri Lanka Botswana Africa Serbia 256

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.

Birds 196

Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 196

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Sometimes I just want to hug eBird, or more specifically, whoever writes the short species descriptions (even though I am not the typical hugging kind of person, trust me on this). There are about 50 different species of flowerpeckers globally. If these are taken off, the species looks just like Clark Kent. “Dull, me?

Los Angeles 175

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 175

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago covers 1,417 species, 601 endemics, 98 vagrants, 8 introduced and 18 undescribed species. The archipelago consists of 17,000 islands stretching out over 2500 miles along the Equator with a varied history of avian research and study, most on the under- or not-studied side. Co-author Frank E.

Indonesia 121

Indonesia Brunei Birds Malaysia 121

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

In Alaska, they were found to mimic 30 different species ( source ). Maybe they have decided to boycott species with Russian-sounding names as a way to protest against Putin’s policies. Red-flanked Bluetails make shorter stopovers during spring migration (average 1.7 days) than in autumn average 3.4

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2015

However, that would be unfair since Asian scientists had to cope with tropical heat, leeches, kraits, and thick jungle while North American researchers just had to get over more or less severe cases of warbler neck, so I guess I’ll leave it at that and quickly return to the Pygmy Wren-babbler.

Vietnam 158

Vietnam Timor Myanmar Asia 158

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2017

Way back in the days when blog posts still got a lot of comments, I wrote a piece on why field guides that arrange species in a more or less strict taxonomic order regularly frustrate me. Taxonomy is constantly changing and so does the order of species in field guides. It was a nightmarish thing to do.

Brunei 149

Brunei 2009 2016 2014 149

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2015

During my previous five trips to Indonesia, I only heard but never caught a glimpse of three species. Now my tally stands at four species seen and a fifth heard-only. At least in the northeastern United States, their rate of so doing is high, according to research I summarized here. A country-first?

2015 180

2015 Costa Rica Birds Sparrows 180