10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2014

Though he saw more than twenty species of wood-warbler this weekend the Hooded Warbler was his Best Bird of the Weekend both because of the effort he put into finding it, the serendipitous nature of the encounter, and the fact that a whole bunch of other birders got to see the bird.

2014 255

2014 Birds Experience Experiments 255

10,000 Birds

MAY 26, 2014

While I saw some pretty special species this weekend, the most special was the Gray Catbird because my sweet 7-year niece totally got into finding one; I think I’ve found the next generation birder in the family! We’re a little slow to discuss this weekend’s birding because many of us in the U.S.

2014 248

2014 Birds Family Experience 248

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2014

Though Corey managed to see or hear 135 species this weekend including such good birds as Yellow-bellied Flycatcher , Piping Plover , Yellow-billed Cuckoo , Kentucky Warbler , Bay-breasted Warbler , and a host of others, his Best Bird of the Weekend was a commonly seen bird, albeit a very cooperative one.

2014 251

2014 Kentucky Canada Birds 251

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was the third-from-last species to be added to his Big Sit total on Sunday afternoon, an amazingly cooperative Philadelphia Vireo that spent over an hour foraging around the Fort Tilden hawkwatch platform. What I got were a few unexpected Pied-billed Grebes.

Philadelphia 246

Philadelphia 2014 Birds Family 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

We saw a lot of great birds but only one truly rare one, a species that everyone on that trip will long remember. Unfortunately for me, that special species spotted in the bay separating Hong Kong from China was Red-breasted Merganser. I met the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society in the Nam Chung area for their weekly outing.

2014 237

2014 Feral Asia China 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2014

Corey had quite a few species from which to choose for his Best Bird of the Weekend but he couldn’t resist deciding on the Snowy Owl he watched and digiscoped at Tiana Beach in Suffolk County on Saturday. He wanted to tell me all about it, which earns the robin Best Bird of the Weekend honors.

2014 244

2014 Lions Owls Birds 244

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Ron Pittaway has published his winter finch forecast for the winter of 2013-2014. Though Ron is based in Ontario his reports are eagerly anticipated by birders across the northeastern United States and eastern Canada because it takes into account a vast array of data to figure out which irruptive species might show up where.

2013 168

2013 2014 Alaska Canada 168

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2014

While I didn’t notice any Neotropical migrants this weekend, I was pleased to spot a Tufted Titmouse , a species I tend to miss during winter.

New Jersey 212

New Jersey 2014 Louisiana Bears 212

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2014

This species is quite rare during migration in my area and this bird was, in one sense, way too early but, for my purposes, right on time. Who else is feeling good today? The Best Bird of my weekend was a real find. While I was on a call with Corey, what should fly into the tree right outside my window but a Yellow-throated Warbler ?

2014 229

2014 Birds Family Rights 229

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2014

Any time you see young of an endangered species it has to be considered your Best Bird of the Weekend. I enjoyed all manner of early summer entertainment and look to the Barn Swallow s that bombed us as we picked strawberries and soared daringly along the lakeshore as my Best Birds of the Weekend.

2014 222

2014 Endangered Species Birds Experience 222

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2014

This species, which has been on the decline in local Christmas Bird Counts, is always a pleasure to see, and Corey was especially pleased to watch and digiscope them at relatively close range with the light behind him.

2014 208

2014 Sparrows Birds Experience 208

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2023

Based on a visit in spring 2014, this guide updates the previous Finding Birds in Greece. Gosney writes: ‘‘When I revisited northern Greece in 2014 I was reminded just how exceptional it is for birding.

Greece 258

Greece Macedonia Bulgaria Gambia 258

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

The recently released 2014 State of the Birds Report lists the Bank Swallow as one of the common birds in steep decline. The report identifies 33 species that do not meet the Watch List criteria but are declining rapidly in many areas. The main reason for this rapid decline, as in the case of most species, is loss of habitat.

North America 217

North America 2014 California America 217

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2021

My first visit there, in June of 2014, was short and apparently just good enough to make me want to go back again, with a mere 12 species seen. My visit the next month produced 20 species; but many of them were great ones! That highest spot is in the middle of Mexico’s Cerro de Garnica National Park.

California 254

California 2014 Mexico Rights 254

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2014

Sure, there is unlimited potential and every single species can once again be counted, but, nonetheless, birders often put forth the energy to get that list built up again, to erase that zero, and to hopefully put three (or even four) digits in its place before the end of the year. May 2014 bring you many birds and few rubber bands!

2014 195

2014 Fox Birds Owls 195

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2014

Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one of three great goose species he saw on Saturday during a day-long expedition in eastern Long Island. The Dark-eyed Juncos around here are getting pretty feisty, which I will take as a very, very, very early sign of spring; hard to get to excited with all this snow still on the ground.

2014 206

2014 Geese Birds Experience 206

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2014

Even if you don’t normally count birds by year, consider wiping your proverbial birding slate clean and look at each new species this weekend with a fresh perspective. After all, to a year lister, January’s first Mallard is infinitely more attractive than December’s last.

2014 209

2014 New York Birds Rights 209

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2021

This species is easier to find in Derby than Broome and the Derby wharf is a good place to go and observe them. The Kimberley Flycatcher had previously been a sub-species of the Lemon-bellied Flycatcher , but is now a species in its own right as of August 2019. The photo below I took in 2014 at Marlow Lagoon.

Australia 237

Australia 2019 2014 Species 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2022

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes – Coracina novaehollandiae are a common bird species around our home in Broome, Western Australia. The only other similar species is the White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike , but it is a much smaller species and the call is quite different.

Australia 277

Australia Zebras 2014 2012 277

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

It is the first record of this invasive species for New York City and it served as a nice contrast to the hordes of pigeons in the neighborhood. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one found several weeks ago by 10,000 Birds beat writer David Ringer, the Eurasian Collared-Dove on Manhattan’s west side. How about you?

New York City 198

New York City 2014 Breeders Virginia 198

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was a relatively common species though it was uncommonly cooperative. With this weekend consumed by Halloween excitement, bats were more easily encountered than birds. How did you fare?

2014 193

2014 Bats New York Sparrows 193

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2014

I’ve been paying careful attention to nuthatches in anticipating of seeing a gaudy new species of what has always been a prosaic but still pulchritudinous bird for me. That’s a global initiative I can support! Speaking of the globe, I’ll be spanning it later this week.

2014 198

2014 Birds Owls Experience 198

10,000 Birds

MARCH 24, 2014

But on the topic of snow, Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was the first Snowy Egret of the year in New York State, one he found at Baisley Pond Park in Queens, a rather unusual location for the species to begin with, much less at the very beginning of spring. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2014 188

2014 United States New York Birds 188

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2013

On a Big Year, every species counts equally, even the lowly House Sparrow. As of my writing this he is off to a roaring start with 169 species recorded already. Rangel Diaz is doing a big year in Miami-Dade County, Florida, hoping to reach 300 species, and keeping a blog about it. And who’s planning one for 2014?

2013 244

2013 Los Angeles New Jersey North Carolina 244

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2015

I reviewed the New Jersey volume in May 2014 and, being in Florida at the moment, I thought this was a good time to take a closer look at both the Florida volume, published just last month, and the Colorado volume, published in June 2014. (I This is clearly done to allow readers to view similar species opposite each other.

Colorado 267

Colorado Florida New Jersey North America 267

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2013

states and thirty-seven counties, and added a whopping ninety-two species to my life list. Despite that, I managed to see 511 species in 2013 , which is not half-bad. Hopefully I will see at least that many species in 2014! Finally seeing my 300th species in Queens. And what do you think they will be in 2014?

2013 217

2013 New York City Nevada Trinidad 217

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

2014), presents an authoritative framework for our understanding of and future work on bird phylogeny. processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. Now it’s late 2014, six and a half years later, and here’s what we know today. Open Jarvis et al.’s

Family 279

Family Parrots Birds 2014 279

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2014

Though Corey had a heck of a weekend for birds, especially on Saturday, there was one species that stood out, both because of its inherent awesomeness and because it was color-banded. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2014 169

2014 Birds Experience Experiments 169

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

We all have invasive species on our minds this week, which should serve as an inspiration to those of us interested in expanding our personal range. Being a resident in an ecosystem certainly has its advantages, as does being a breeder (sometimes), but, every once in a while, you should visit someplace where you’re considered an exotic!

Colombia 184

Colombia Breeders 2014 Birds 184

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

New Year’s Day 2014. With binoculars around my neck, I am leaving home, wondering which will be the first species on my year list. By contrast, the wild Rock Pigeon, Columba livia livia , is an ill-numbered species that I have seen only a few times, in mountain gorges or Mediterranean islands, further away from villages.

Feral 260

Feral Meat Serbia Species 260

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

And I remember what I told him, based on many recent field guide trends: Coming from them, it will be a good book, but it will be nowhere near the user-friendliness of “Birds of Costa Rica” by Garrigues and Dean from 2014. Now I can hear you screaming: but there are over 900 species!

Costa Rica 278

Costa Rica El Salvador Nicaragua Belize 278

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2014

A little research revealed that these are old names of birds that have been split into different species. Water Pipit is now known as a European species; the American subspecies became the full species American Pipit in 1989. Scientific names don’t reflect the massive changes to species in the warbler family.

2006 247

2006 2014 Connecticut North America 247

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2014

Birding in Greece – Travel Guide to birdwatching sites in Greece (2014, 2nd edition – I was not aware of the first!) The book ends with a country checklist, 449 species long, and the contacts of the managing authorities of protected areas. While it makes for a richer appearance, is it useful? ISBN 978-960-6861-24-6.

Greece 259

Greece Macedonia Birds 2014 259

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

When I went to Honduras in 2014, I was advised to use The Birds of Costa Rica by Richard Garrigues and Robert Dean (2014) and The Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America by Steve N.G. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America covers 827 species, including resident, migratory, and common vagrant birds.

El Salvador 235

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 235

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

The northwestern spread of this non-native species made it to my yard a few years ago. The following maps I created on eBird show the dramatic growth in the spread of the Eurasian Collared-Dove from 2002 to 2014. I am always alarmed when I see rapid expansion of a non-native species of any kind.

Breeders 208

Breeders 2002 North America Bahamas 208

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

sq mi of the Danube Backwaters in 2014. Then I spent years explaining to the wider public why that wetland is important to us all (protection from floods, cleaner water, oxygen production, CO2 sink, biodiversity, e.g. 180 species of birds/150 of them strictly protected, etc.), sq km / 7.2 sq mi of the proposed reserve was announced.

Protection 279

Protection Serbia Protesting Protesters 279

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2014

A good state bird guide needs to offer details about a bird’s look, sound, behavior and habitat in language that is specific enough to differentiate the bird from similar-looking species, but nonscientific enough not to intimidate novice birders. Species are organized in American Ornithologists’ Union taxonomic order.

New Jersey 259

New Jersey Birds 2014 Tail Banding 259