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Ten Birds That Changed the World — a review

10,000 Birds

They were barely mentioned in The Voyage of the Beagle and not at all in On the Origin of Species. It’s now known that Charles Darwin did not (contrary to what was once a settled idea) assign great importance to the Galapagos birds that came to be called “Darwin’s finches” (though they’re not true finches at all).

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Exploring the Uncharted Bird World

10,000 Birds

It divides countries into categories, where the next category has 200 more species. In some cases the data are outdated, e.g. Costa Rica has 900 and not 800 species, but I made no corrections, remaining faithful to the original map data. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands.

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Birding the Kruger Park (4): Letaba area

10,000 Birds

As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The Latin species name vermiculatus (worm-like) refers to the markings on the upperparts. Of course, the second explanation makes a lot more sense.

Zimbabwe 147
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Namibia’s 15 key birds

10,000 Birds

The League of Nations thereafter mandated this huge block of land to South Africa to administer and autonomy was only granted after the protracted Namibian War of Independence that was fought between the South African defense force and Namibian freedom fighters based in Angola, Zambia and other neighboring countries.

Namibia 248
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Africa’s Big Five and Little Five

10,000 Birds

Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant. Prime destinations for seeing African Elephant in the wild include Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda.

Buffalo 199
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Pink in Africa

10,000 Birds

Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. This attractive (for a lark anyway) species is restricted to the dry savannah Somali-Maasai biome of north-east Africa (northern Tanzania, Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia).

Africa 207
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What makes a good bird guide – your saying

10,000 Birds

But I know some people want to get the longest possible trip list, and don’t want to risk missing a later bird species because they stayed too long at an earlier stop. That way passing on his/her knowledge about 3/4 species and not just the one on show. And not explaining why its not another species. ’ TICK.

Birds 202