10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2020

Niagara Falls State Park, right above the cataracts, is where I used to bike to on May days to see dozens of fantastic chestnut Bay-breasted Warblers whispering from the canopy, American Redstarts and Tennessee Warblers and Nashville Warblers filling the woods with song. One of the common species of middle elevation habitats in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Panama Nashville Baltimore 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

It’s also a big time for bird movements, a period punctuated by waves of migrants, first the early ones, then a time of many species, and finally, those last “late” migrants moving north. The same goes for Blackburnian and even Tennessee Warblers. Some Tennessee Warblers also feast on bananas.

Costa Rica 144

Costa Rica South America Tennessee Philadelphia 144

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2022

They are places where we invest most of our birding time and rightly so; mature tropical forests are where we find the highest number of species. Additional bird species prefer the sun-drenched vegetation of open fields and other edge habitats. Find a brushy field during the winter months and you might also find these colorful species.

Costa Rica 271

Costa Rica Farming Sparrows Birds 271

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2018

Baltimore Orioles are coming to feeders in November and checking out avocado trees (I saw six of them doing just that a few hour ago), Tennessee Warblers are masquerading as Old World warblers in most places, and small flocks of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are making appearances. For example, our most common Empid. Those would be birds like.

Costa Rica 146

Costa Rica Baltimore Tennessee Parrots 146

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2021

Tennessee Warbler is one of my winter birds. Patience, persistence, and focus are still part of the equation but where to look depends on the species you are looking for. Counting birds during migration is fun but I’m thinking more about raptor surveys for resident and wintering species. Do Some Raptor Counts.

Costa Rica 226

Costa Rica Liberia 2020 Birds 226

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

Many birders have places they return to year after year, special pilgrimages promising scenes and species they see nowhere else. He did, however, manage to see a migratory Tennessee Warbler at Kissena Park on Saturday morning and he decided that was his Best Bird of the Weekend. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2018 124

2018 Ponies New York City Tennessee 124

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2019

That fallacious family name seems to have encouraged all manner of knaves, dunderheads, and miscreants when time came to label species. Most of the warblers south of the border escaped this ignominy; those Basileuterus and Myiothlypis species generally appear exactly as advertised. NAMED FOR PEOPLE. NAMED FOR PLACES.

Rights 113

Rights Connecticut Tennessee Nashville 113

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2023

Pelee National Park – Ohio Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge – Texas These locations offer a variety of habitats including marshes, wetlands, forests, coastal areas, and deserts, attracting numerous bird species throughout the year. Please note that the availability of specific bird species may vary depending on the season.

United States 162

United States Michigan Texas Virginia 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2013

You may argue that they don’t wreak the same havoc with the indigenous species as do the two aforementioned invasives, but that would be a rather avicentric view. In particular, I remember this one Chukar situation down South in Tennessee* a while ago. With not a species to spare. . But Chukars are okay. An ABA Code 2.

Kazakhstan 175

Kazakhstan Tennessee North America Sparrows 175

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2019

This year, my main challenge is identifying 700 species within the borders of Costa Rica by December 31st. Those 700 species also need to be identified by my partner Mary (the other half of Team Tyto) because the road to 700 species is one that we are walking together. Such stops have already yield the tiger-heron and dipper.

Costa Rica 185

Costa Rica Tigers Birds Tennessee 185

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2019

As with any home inhabited by birders, we have kept track of all species heard or seen, night and day. The farm would have even more birds if not for the bio-diminishing blend of poison and monoculture but the adjacent hedgerow does support quite a few species especially when the figs and other trees are in flower or draped with fruit.

Costa Rica 167

Costa Rica Barn Owls Birds Parrots 167

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2011

It wasn’t until well after I returned home that I found the answer: They were winter Tennessee Warblers who’d been feeding in a flowering Combretum tree. New species. Here’s a typical fall Tennessee Warbler –that needle-sharp bill, pale superciliary, and lack of wingbars, tailspots, or streaks of any kind.

Tennessee 193

Tennessee Costa Rica New Jersey Birds 193

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2011

Everywhere cranes gather, from New Mexico to Indiana to Tennessee, people come to watch them. Pushing a hunt on a touchstone species like the Sandhill Crane at a time when wildlife watching is exploding and hunting is declining is an oddly divisive thing to do. What’s the necessity of hunting cranes?

Kentucky 258

Kentucky Hunting Tennessee Indiana 258

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 28, 2024

I have been slowly working up to my latest life list benchmark (2,000 bird species) and scoured eBird for a location within an 8-hour flight to get some lifers. For birders, there are many birding hotspots that are easily accessible and host endemic species. And somehow this directed us to Oaxaca.

Mexico 199

Mexico Birds Oregon Groups 199

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2019

Stuff wanders in, others things wander out and in the meantime, birds like Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl , two species of caracara, flycatchers, Clay-colored Thrushes , doves, and others make themselves at home. They shared the bushes with three of Costa Rica’s common flycatcher species, each nearly as vocal as the blackbirds.

Costa Rica 179

Costa Rica Barn Owls Stray Dog Blackbirds 179

10,000 Birds

APRIL 14, 2015

The official Florida checklist counts over 500 species, and thus Florida citizens had a wealth of State Bird candidates to choose from when they named the Florida state bird in 1927. This common bird is also the state bird for Arkansas, Texas (another avian hot spot), Tennessee, and Mississippi, so Florida even misses points for originality.

Florida 167

Florida Legislature Arkansas Mississippi 167

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2018

Known as a warbler haven, 30+ species visit this bi-state park near the Kentucky and Virginia southern border. Rocky Fork State Park, Tennessee. There are guides for historic buildings as well as birding tours. American Kestrel. Photo by © Mike Blevins. Breaks Interstate Park, Kentucky. Yellow-rumped Warbler. Photo by © Mike Blevins.

West Virginia 187

West Virginia Virginia Kentucky South Carolina 187

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2019

I generally wait until I have at least a dozen species on my year list before having my first drink of the year. Dr. Crow is dubiously credited today for originating the sour mash method used in traditional bourbon and Tennessee whiskey distillation. But which species of crow is our Old Crow – Fish or American?

Mississippi 117

Mississippi Kentucky New York Tennessee 117

10,000 Birds

MAY 5, 2012

There are a couple of species of which I wish I had gotten better pictures (especially Cape May Warbler ), there are a couple species of which I couldn’t resist sharing more than one shot, and there are a whole bunch of species that managed to avoid my camera altogether.

2010 178

2010 Louisiana Tennessee New York 178

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2018

By the end of my walk around Meadow Lake I had hit double digit wood-warblers for the day, with Tennessee and Orange-crowned Warblers at Baisley Pond Park as additional highlights. It’s hard to complain about an October day that nets over seventy species with ten of them wood-warblers! Orange-crowned Warbler at Baisley Pond Park.

Tennessee 146

Tennessee Family Birds Species 146

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2013

It was a relatively slow evening but I still tallied eighteen species of wood-warbler, to say nothing of orioles and tanagers and thrushes and vireos. The waterhole usually attracts both species of waterthrush but this year when the Louisiana Waterthrushes were moving through the waterhole was dry. It was great despite the lousy light.

Louisiana 160

Louisiana Tennessee Species Birds 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2018

At last count, there are 25 species of birds named for U.S. states, with varying degrees of geographical relevance (sorry, Tennessee Warbler ). But only two states have more than one bird named for them: Hawaii and California, with nine and seven extant and eponymous species, respectively.

2015 113

2015 San Diego Family California Condor 113

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2017

It’s not that they don’t like them, it’s just that most are fairly common and tend to grab the spotlight when you still need to focus on much rarer, less colorful species. Not so for the Yellow-eared because that fancy one is one of the rarer species. The Lanceolated Monklet is a living plush toy.

Costa Rica 154

Costa Rica Birds Owls Tennessee 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

According to the data the authors gathered from banded and recovered Blue Jays , the species shows both a northward post-breeding dispersal (which we’re probably seeing right now, in September) and a southward migration. That last bit is my own interpretation of the data.)

Alabama 106

Alabama West Virginia New York City New York 106

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Just about every species of bird that had ever been found in the Triangle of North Carolina had been seen at some time or another at Mason Farm. Over my many years and many visits, I’d racked up well over 130 species there, 28 of which were warblers. The bugs and snakes and salamanders were pretty great too.

North Carolina 169

North Carolina Salamander Farming Tennessee 169

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2016

It’s a welcome sound of “winter” in Costa Rica along with the chipping of Yellow Warblers , steady appearance of Chestnut-sided Warblers , and ticking notes of Tennessees. While watching the orioles move in and out of the patchwork of foliage and white sky, another, much more quiet and sneaky species popped into view.

Costa Rica 135

Costa Rica Baltimore Illinois Honduras 135

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2020

The prospect of identifying a certain number of species in a given amount of time pushes us to pay more attention to birds no matter what the circumstances (although I suggest keeping the exclamations about species identifications to yourself during such solemn situations as funerals, graduations, and watching episodes of The Sopranos).

Costa Rica 263

Costa Rica 2020 Morals Farming 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2022

Tennessee Warblers? Although the small but mighty Tennessee also occurs on the Caribbean, it’s a lot more common in the drier habitats of the Pacific slope and upper elevations. Typical Tennessee Warbler wintering habitat in Costa Rica. Costa Rica? Pish and a dozen might flit into view.

Costa Rica 207

Costa Rica Tennessee Bears Canada 207

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

In Costa Rica, it’s also happening, not as in full force mode as the temperate north but that will change in a month when we see thousands of Eastern Wood-pewees , flocks of Eastern Kingbirds , and other species hurrying their way to South America. Where will those birds go when they come back looking for food and shelter?

Costa Rica 156

Costa Rica South America Tennessee 2019 156

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2013

In fact, there are probably few species so well-known and well-loved. The North Carolina (and Tennessee) population of Black-capped Chickadee is an interesting story unto itself. That is, except for a few spots along the high points of the Appalachian ridge. The time, it seemed, was finally right.

North Carolina 162

North Carolina Kentucky Soreing 2000 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2011

Just click here to hear a recording of a bird taken in Tennessee. Wood Thrush are considered a Species of Least Concern by BirdLife International despite their declining population, because of their large range and population. Have you never heard a Wood Thrush and want to know what their song sounds like?

Tennessee 169

Tennessee North America New York Raised 169

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2011

Bald Eagle image is by Francois Portmann and is used with permission You know, I’ve been thinking about this whole dustup over hunting cranes in Tennessee and now Kentucky. There was a lot of hunting for Bald Eagles—it is traditionally a game species. We need to give hunters new opportunities and new species to hunt.

Bald Eagle 260

Bald Eagle Eagles Hunting Kentucky 260

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2020

Between them they shared 63 checklists, spanning 5 countries and noted 231 species of birds. Tennessee Warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina). Other sightings have been included from legitimate outings for work and exercise (at all times maintaining a respectable distance). 7 beats contributed this month. Graylag Goose (Anser anser).

2020 155

2020 Woodpeckers Sparrows Blackbirds 155

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2013

This past winter was very good for the chance to see boreal owl species in the United States. This is a Tennessee Warbler that was drawn to a manmade stream at the South Padre Island Convention Center, a stream set up specifically to attract warblers, tanagers, vireos, etc so people can see them and even photograph them.

Owls 223

Owls Birds United States Tennessee 223

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2011

Why put additional pressure on a recovering species? The handful of pairs that are attempting to nest in Ohio appear to winter in Tennessee. Our best studies show one in three pairs of nesting cranes successfully producing one fledgling. Remember, they were hunted nearly to extinction in the East before. What if they’re shot?

Kentucky 260

Kentucky Hunters Hunting Protest 260

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2018

There are over 11,000 species of moths in North America. I have a hard enough time with the 1,103 bird species on the ABA Checklist. The Southeastern guide goes a bit more west, to eastern Oklahoma and Texas, so its northern borders lie at the north boundaries of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

North America 100

North America America Oklahoma Missouri 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Birds that had been banded in Nashville, Tennessee. I always look forward to their return in the Spring, but swifts, like too many species of birds, aren’t doing so well. This is doubly concerning because this is a species that, for over 200 years, has tied its fate to our own.

North Carolina 171

North Carolina Nashville South America Tennessee 171