article thumbnail

The Jewel Hunter: A Book Review About One Birder’s Quest for Pittas and Beer

10,000 Birds

And, to give his dream year a little more oomph, he created a grand once-in-a-lifetime goal: to track down and see every pitta species in the world in one year. Black-faced Pitta is found only on one of the Solomon Islands (northwest of Australia). The endangered Gurney’s Pitta is losing habitat due to deforestation.

Hunters 202
article thumbnail

Clearing up the Collared Kingfishers

10,000 Birds

All the way back in 2011 I wrote about the confusing taxanomic enigma that is the Collared Kingfisher , a species that ranges from the Red Sea to Tonga in a bewildering variety of forms. I’m happy to report that an analysis of the species and some relatives has found that, as suspected, it isn’t a single species.

article thumbnail

Confusing Collared Kingfishers

10,000 Birds

The world of birding is filled with challenging groups well known to all, birds like gulls , Empidonax flycatchers or cisticolas that require attention to the tiniest details in order to assign an individual to a specific species (if it can be done at all). Subspecies humii , Thailand. Above we have an example of the species.

Samoa 172