10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

For one thing, we become more aware of cultural biases in our science (new findings on warbling female birds, for example, reveal both gender and geographic biases). Many popular science books have neither. As Ackerman explains in her Introduction, studying extreme behavior brings new insight into what we think we know.

Research 237

Research Birds Science Costa Rica 237

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica: A Field Guide covers 113 damselfly species and 170 dragonfly species, a total of 283 species. Wait–that adds up to 290 species, but the book only covers 283. .* Wait–that adds up to 290 species, but the book only covers 283. Paulson, William A.

Costa Rica 263

Costa Rica North America Family America 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2024

He has written and co-written over 400 scientific papers on brood parasitism, Common Cuckoos, egg rejection and other nesting behaviors, and fairy wren learning in addition to T he Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World’s Bird Species (Univ. Mark Hauber is currently (just appointed!)

Chicago 193

Chicago Barn Owls Penguins New Zealand 193

Critter News

OCTOBER 6, 2008

"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," the team led by Jan Schipper of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, concluded. "We The findings were being released Monday at the IUCN meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

Switzerland 100

Switzerland Species Spain Mammals 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. Whales emerge from within the larger group of mammals that includes cattle, deer, pigs, camels, with camels being the most deeply rooted. (So

Camels 204

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 204

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Manker’s thesis is that ornithology is an excellent gateway to students becoming science majors in college and, more broadly and longer-term, conservation-minded citizens. That article left an impression and I have wondered what became of Manker’s effort to create a high school ornithology curriculum. Think about it for a minute.

2018 264

2018 Agenda Science Eggs 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2022

While this already stretches credulity, the saying continues to state that seeing one mammal is better than seeing ten pheasants (Bella from Alpinebirding indeed confirmed that this saying exists and has not just come to me in a dream. To be safe, they just use both spellings on the species page. Examples: California. Connecticut.

Rhode Island 147

Rhode Island Research South Dakota North Dakota 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2022

Quite likely, these birds are also the inspiration for Australian science communicator Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki. Honeyeaters are a large bird family (190 species) with a strong presence in Australia. The Common Myna is an aggressive invasive species. Thanks to Clare for introducing me to him. ” (HBW).

Australia 208

Australia Birds Feral Cats Kangaroos 208

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Unless you are nothing but the lowly diehard lister, for which you should feel much shame and embarrassment for, birders and biologists alike frequently want to understand birds on a deeper level than how to identify the age, sex and species of a certain individual. I believe in science. Science, for many years, has done no better.

Emotional 216

Emotional Science Birds Mammals 216

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2022

” Funny how the difficulty of breeding a species can be illustrated in simple monetary terms. But that may have helped me to see them – the species is quite nomadic and settles wherever there is rain. was responsible for maintaining the universe, judging the dead, and for writing and science ( source ).

Birds 147

Birds Australia Sheep Zebras 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

These two islands are about halfway between the tip of South Africa and Antarctica in the Subantarctic Indian Ocean, have had relatively few human visitors, and are primarily inhabited with some of the rarest seabirds in the world and a smaller number of mammals. Marion has a fascinating history with invasive species.

South Africa 264

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2012

The species was extinct, a vanished part of the vanishing prairie — and not for the first time. In the 1950s the species was unofficially regarded as extinct by most biologists, a small part lost in the general tumble and disarray of the entire ecosystem they’d inhabited. You couldn’t see it. But this is real life.

Ferrets 192

Ferrets South Dakota Wyoming Captive Animal 192

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2020

Her children’s books–which include the charming Mama Build a Little Nest , other picture books, and chapter books–evince an easy familiarity with birds, their science and birding ethics. The chapters on native and exotic species, migration, L.A. 52 Ways to Wonder, Wander, and Explore Birds with Kids the latest.

Los Angeles 264

Los Angeles 2019 Birds 2014 264

Critter News

NOVEMBER 7, 2009

“The overall numbers are still tiny compared with the original populations before whaling started, but the trend is at last in the right direction,” said John Calambokidis, a marine scientist whose research on whale movements and populations has just been published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

Whales 100

Whales Whaling Endangered Species Mammals 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2016

Third, which we already suspected, bird brains are adjusted to provide extra smartness in a way not seen in mammals. 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. City Great Tit ( Parus major ) telomeres shortened.

Mammals 113

Mammals Zebras Birds Primates 113

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2013

Rather, my trip to the American Museum of Natural History last week was enlivened, however slightly, by spotting a Rock Pigeon perched on top of the elephants in the Hall of African Mammals, safely out of the elements and unexposed to Central Park’s hawks. It is driven by love for animals, but relies on their deaths to exist.

Elephants 158

Elephants Mammals Buffalo Gorillas 158

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2011

As the name suggests, the National Bison Range is mostly known for its large mammals. To my disappointment the biggest and most visible species I saw was the introduced Common (Ring-necked) Pheasant , and my first lifer was the equally introduced Gray Partridge.

Rattlesnake 164

Rattlesnake Bald Eagle Mules Mammals 164

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

Basically, Prum takes issue with the “adaptionist” interpretation of Darwin’s writings, which focuses almost purely on On the Origin of Species and the famous maxim, ‘survival of the fittest.’ Form develops according to function and sexual mating choices are based on choosing the mate best configured to deal with the environment.

Ducks 100

Ducks Research Animal Stud 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2014

These all had their own sub population of one or more species of large land bird, and these populations, in turn, give us the large lane birds we have today, except on Madagascar where the Elephant Bird went extinct (recently).

Madagascar 210

Madagascar Ostriches Elephants New Zealand 210

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2013

This was the local name meaning “ugly” used for these primates by the people of the Gonder area in northern Ethiopia when the German naturalist Rüppell “discovered” this species for science in the 1830’s. Mammals Ethiopia Gelada' they are the most terrestrial primate after humans. Photo by Adam Riley. Photo by Adam Riley.

Ethiopia 161

Ethiopia Primates Mammals Fur 161

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2015

It is a good place for South African birders, as several species are found here and nowhere else in South Africa, and it holds a small number of endemics that it shares with the Mozambique lowlands. The park did have a pack of African Wild Dogs, or Painted Wolves, the species I had gone to Africa to see. The days were demanding.

South Africa 148

South Africa Elephants Africa Lions 148

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2011

There was also a mammal jawbone in the pellet too. I stuffed it in my pocket and decided to take it to Richard Oehlenschlager at the Science Museum of Minnesota. I wasn’t as interested in the mammal jawbone, but it totally piqued his interest. What was throwing me off were the feathers. Was that a cardinal beak?

Bats 214

Bats Dissection Owls Minnesota 214

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2011

But it is utterly bewildering to me to see news reports about this recent science that read “… An icon knocked from its perch&# or “Archaeopteryx no longer first bird.&# The trait must then be identifiable as to whether or not it exists in a certain species. What evolved into what?

Mammals 257

Mammals Europe Groups Family 257

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The magnificent history and diversity of birds on Earth came into sharper focus this month with the publication of 28 new scientific papers in Science and other journals. processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. American Flamingo photo by Dick Culbert).

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2014

White-bellied Parrot was one of many target species at either of the canopy towers. ” At first light, many of the larger canopy species commute and call from the canopy: parrots, cotingas, guans, and toucans. Time for conversation, discussion about culture, cuisine, science, or politics, and the sightings of that morning.

Otters 160

Otters Parrots Birds Brazil 160

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

It is the 100th Anniversary of the extinction of the species known as the Passenger Pigeon and writers are paying attention. Errol Fuller’s The Passenger Pigeon is a beautifully illustrated, elegantly written “celebration” of the passenger pigeon and the artists who illustrated and photographed the species. It is a hodgepodge.

2014 161

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 161

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2014

The citizen science aspect is a big hit with many users, and eBirding areas with little existing data can be fun as well. Flycatcher Jen of I Used To Hate Birds has amassed close to 160 species in the last two years just walking and biking around Portland, Oregon, which is a number that deserves a toast if you ask me. Don’t be!

Birds 212

Birds Portland Oregon 2015 212

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. Duncan chose a mammal! However, all that changed when I saw a species that was both a long-awaited lifer and a very rare vagrant for Costa Rica.

2015 188

2015 Costa Rica Birds Sparrows 188

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2011

You’d think, then, that applying science to philosophy by studying the evolutionary underpinnings of thought and behavior across species would be right up my alley. That said, some of his conclusions about our duty to preserve other species are in line with my own, and maybe the topic could hardly be avoided in a book like this.

Morals 113

Morals Animal Humane Research 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

Even in the tropics there are few birds that excel some of our own in elegance and beauty of plumage and we have an unusually large number of species considering the smallness of the area they inhabit. ” (Woodward brothers, “Natal Birds”, 1899) The mighty Drakensberg Mountains run along the western boundary of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Mozambique 195

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

The field site I am assigned to is located in one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and home to a particularly rich avifauna that numbers well over 500 species. Hundreds of riotously colored birds representing 14 species of macaws and parrots flock and frolic together in less than fifty meters of forest canopy.

Peru 255

Peru Parrots 2011 South America 255

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2011

Even if you don’t live in the summer range of a particular species, you may have opportunities to observe it while it passes through, especailly if you live in an active flyway, like I happen to. Did birds repeatedly evolve migration because they ‘need’ to migrate more than, say, mammals? Well, not really.

Research 201

Research Humane Compassion New York 201