Way back in February when I was enjoying a family-and-friends vacation on New Providence in the Bahamas I wisely hired the best – and the only – bird guide on the island, Carolyn Wardle , for half a day to show me around some of the hotspots and help me find endemics and other species I wanted to see. It is unclear when, exactly, the Pied Imperial Pigeon became established on New Providence in the Bahamas other than it happened in the last decade. MORE

The duller Bowerbirds in the Bowerbird family produce much more elaborate bowers and the Great Bowerbird is rather dull compared to some of the more colourful Bowerbirds in Papua New Guinea. The new bower will only be a few metres away from this one once it is reconstructed and so we can watch the progress next year when it moves the “gifts” across to the new location. MORE

The ABA series currently lists guides on New Jersey (Rick Wright), Florida (Bill Pranty), Arizona (Rick Wright), Colorado (Ted Floyd), and California (Alvaro Jamarillo). These include Pennsylvania (George Armistead) and, the one we 10,000 Birds beat writers are really looking forward to, The ABA Field Guide to Birds of New York , by Corey Finger. Mack tells the story of how he set up a research station, and a life, in Papua New Guinea. MORE

These species wander far and wide and with the addition of wing tags they have been able to confirm movements as far away as Papua New Guinea. Some birds have been fitted with GPS tracking devices and move information on their movements will be discovered with this new modern technology. MORE

Reachable by direct flights from Portugal, the island country of Sao Tome and Principe lying in the Gulf of Guinea, in the armpit of Africa, has about 140 bird species and 28 endemics – more endemics per square mile than anywhere else on Earth. Island hopping further east lies Papua New Guinea with 870 species, including 38 Birds of Paradise. Hagen, Ambua Lodge and Makara near Tari, and the Walindi Resort on New Britain. MORE

Birds called catbirds include two species in the New World family, Mimidae, four from the bowerbird family, Ptilonorhynchidae, and one from the Old World babblers, Timaliidae. It is the only species in the genus Dumetella and most likely the only catbird most birders will ever see; the Black Catbird Melanoptila glabrirostris , also of a monotypic genus, is found only in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, and is the only other species of catbird in the New World. MORE

The colorful Purple Swamphen ( Porphyrio porphyrio ) lives in wetlands from Portugal and Senegal all the way east to New Zealand and the Samoan Islands, and a feral population is now well established in Florida. In their new study, Juan Carlos García-Ramírez and Steve Trewick of New Zealand’s Massey University suggest that the genus Porphyrio (from a Greek word for purple ) likely originated in Africa and colonized the world from there. MORE

I bought a new rucksack yesterday and the first thing I checked when I brought it home was, how easily my spotting scope with a mounted window clamp fits in – test passed with flying colours. MORE

The amazing Ribbon-tailed Astrapia of Papua New Guinea sports the longest tail in proportion to body size of any bird in the world. MORE

But he’s got stiff competition, including peers working to save Tree Kangaroos in Papua New Guinea, Sumatran Orangutans in Indonesia, and Snow Leopards in Pakistan. Sparrowhawk photo by Freek Verdonckt, Batumi Raptor Count. The Whitley Awards , bestowed by the UK-based Whitley Fund for Nature, have been dubbed the “Green Oscars” for their role in recognizing and supporting grassoots-based conservationists in developing countries. MORE

The speaker turned out to be Tim Laman, and the topic was the incredible research he and Ed Scholes had spent years doing on birds of paradise in New Guinea. Be careful how you Google ‘bird of paradise’! MORE

New Zealand is currently in the grip of a government mandated rebranding episode. Most notably the flag is under review, apparently the existing one is deficient for the crimes of “being too Australian” “being to British” and “not sufficiently rugby related” As such the government launched a contest to find a new flag and then proceeded to ignore all the interesting designs in favour of some flags that were like the All Black flag. MORE

Also, the island of New Guinea appeared as a whole, or as its parts, the eastern independent country of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the western West Papua province of Indonesia. 4%: Mexico, West Papua (Indonesia), New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya. 6%: Antarctica, Argentina, Indonesia (including the votes for West Papua), India. 10%: Australia, Papua New Guinea. MORE

They studied skins in museums around the world and worked with the artists of Lynx to update the illustrations from Handbook of Birds of the World and to add new ones. Working in an area for which there are few official checklists, no governing taxonomic body, and much new information on species relationships coming in, the authors were faced with a multitude of questions about family sequence, genus arrangements, English common names, and species taxonomy. MORE

The birds have historically been found from the Philippines south through central Indonesia to Papua New Guinea though they recently colonized remote parts of the west coast of Australia’s Cape York peninsula. Birders across Australia are excited about reports of a flock of 23 Spotted Whistling Ducks just north of Cairns in a pond in Wonga Beach. MORE

“He has, among other things, studied foraging behavior of Palm cockatoos in Papua New Guinea in an effort to expand CITES protection; worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society to set up one of the first community-based wildlife reserves in the country; and studied radiations of Pacific birds to clarify boundaries among species and begin unraveling the origins of pan-Pacific bird groups. The body is potentially host to new parasites we haven’t seen before. MORE

Ethiopia – the roof of Africa, fascinating endemic birds and wildlife and an incredible cultural and historical destination; Namibia , Botswana & Zambia – a fantastic overland tour can combine these three countries boasting vast wildernesses and superb birds and wildlife; and Ghana – the friendliest country in the world and great birding opportunities with Africa’s only rainforest canopy walkway and endangered Upper Guinea endemics. MORE

That larger clade is in turn sister to a clade containing the four remaining totipalmate bird families, which do still seem to be related, and which needed a new order name once pelicans were removed. But meanwhile, let’s look at the four avian families that comprise the brand new order Suliformes. He is a writer and communicator whose day jobs have taken him to six continents and more than 25 countries, including Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Kenya, and Cameroon. MORE

We wanted to try and observe some of the bush species that we have encountered in the tall trees of New South Wales on previous holidays. In 1942 in Papua New Guinea, whilst fighting a Japanese invasion force, hundreds of Australians died in what was one of the most significant battles during the Second World War. MORE