10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2016

The year 2016 has been a pretty good year. I opened the year in California and even though I flew out in the evening on New Year’s Day I did see some species out there that I would otherwise not have seen for the year. Winter birding around New York City was just so-so but I did add one species to my Queens list.

2016 127

2016 Puerto Rico New York City New York 127

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2016

In an effort to look back on the year, I have added, and deleted, written and scratched off, a list of birds that would represent my “Best Ten Birds” of 2016. Much like David Letterman’s Late Show Top Ten List, I will count these down from number 10 to the number one bird of 2016. #10

2016 100

2016 Grizzly Bear Puffins Mexico 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 10, 2016

But enough of that, now for some highlights from the first count of the season in Costa Rica, the 2016 Arenal Christmas Count !: It’s not a huge block of forest but it’s large enough to still host several deep forest species and provide valuable habitat for many migrants. Tropical Mockingbird. Shining Honeycreeper.

Costa Rica 235

Costa Rica 2016 Belize Eagles 235

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Mid-December is an interesting time for birding, insofar as winter (or summer, in the Southern Hemisphere) species precede the official arrival of the season. So you still have time to add species you missed at the beginning of the year to your 2016 list.

2016 124

2016 Birds Species 124

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2017

Many sad and unfortunate things occurred in 2016, but the birding was good. I think this might be my best bird of 2016. The Cory’s was one of my birding goals of 2016, one of the last commonly seen birds of the East Coast needed for my ABA list. (10) It was a good birding year. This is a male bird, of course. 7) Piping Plover.

2016 109

2016 India Ducks Costa Rica 109

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2016

We may not see as many 2016 species as Arjan Dwarshuis ( epic! ), but happiness is a journey, not a destination, right? This calendar year is slipping away, but we still have plenty of time before the ball drops on December 31 to add more birds to our respective lists.

2016 125

2016 New York Suffering Birds 125

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2021

Of course, I also go there several other times each year; I have, after all, seen 160 species at this endemic-rich site. The reason for this annual pilgrimage is a single species, the Sinaloa Martin. All sightings southeast of the species’ Puerto Vallarta-to-Los Mochis breeding area are of migrating birds.

Nicaragua 261

Nicaragua 2015 2016 Mexico 261

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2016

I’ll be racking up fresh 2016 species on the road from NYC to Rochester. The first weekend of a New Year feels like Christmas all over again for birders all around the world eager to begin new year lists. Even the first bird of a new year feels fun. What was yours? Corey is coming back to NYC to make that Queens list pop.

2016 102

2016 Birds Species 102

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

I had planned to reach that goal by the end of 2016, accounting not only for the impressive potential of the county, but also for the fact that birding with two young children at home is not the easiest thing in the world. I move to Greensboro, NC, in the summer of 2013 with a county list of 60.

2016 141

2016 North Carolina Raleigh 2015 141

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2021

In 2021, the American Ornithological Society announced that it has now classified the Bahama Nuthatch as a distinct species, Sitta insularis. A 1931 daily newspaper article (likely from The Philadelphia Bulletin) reported that Bond “brought back thirty species of birds never before represented in the Academy’s collections.

Bahamas 343

Bahamas Philadelphia 2004 United States 343

10,000 Birds

MARCH 28, 2024

Back in 2016 one very unexpected bird appeared in the Mexican highlands: an American Flamingo. After birding and passing through a large number of habitats, our total for the day was 109 species.) Of course, when a group sees 109 species, there are many highlights for the day. Flamingos !”

Mexico 188

Mexico Cuba Chile South America 188

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2023

The (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record – which is the book’s full title, or Arjan Dwarshuis’s Big Year, as I prefer to call it shortly, is a highly anticipated and a long awaited travelogue of the author’s 2016 race against time across 40 countries in his attempt to break the world birding record.

Papua New Guinea 246

Papua New Guinea Guinea Suriname Brazil 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2024

The island’s largest salt lake, Akrotiri, is not a great draw for waders, but the range of large, shallow saline pools on its east side, along Lady’s Mile, were in perfect condition to attract a wide variety of species. Additional species seen included a pair of Whimbrels which didn’t linger, Little Ringed Plovers and Greenshanks.

Cyprus 209

Cyprus Tethering Breeding Cattle 209

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Conceptualizing a plumage aberration such as leucism, where pigments are prevented from reaching some (or all) feathers (in the case of birds) may be a feat of the imagination that can most easily be applied to one of the more common species – maybe an American Robin , or a Rufous-bellied Thrush.

Paraguay 212

Paraguay Trinidad 2006 2016 212

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2024

I discovered that it had been ringed on 26 September 2016 at Iken, on the River Alde on the Suffolk coast, so almost exactly four years before my sighting. They are of the race islandica , a sub species of the nominate race, limosa. Rings are not the only way of marking birds, and with a number of species wing tags are more often used.

Lithuania 130

Lithuania Morocco Iceland Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2016

The owners have been faithfully feeding the birds and welcoming birders for years, and it’s only going to get better in 2016. They also have a couple of trails that could turn up Highland Tinamou, Black-breasted Wood-Quail , and other cloud forest species. Short-tailed Hawk is one of the most regular species in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 103

Costa Rica 2016 San Jose Birds 103

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2021

What I didn’t realize, at the time, was that this pulp is also enjoyed by many bird species. I go there every year around this time, because in 2016 I saw Sinaloa Martins migrating north to breed. This species is rarely seen and almost unstudied. No one knows where they spend winters.)

2020 273

2020 Mexico 2016 California 273

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

In August 2016, the newly planned Chinese Belt and Road harbour development inside the most valuable 9 sq km / 3.5 Belgrade City Environmental Secretariat accepted the initiative and the Institute for the Protection of Nature of Serbia produced the study and the official proposal for the protection of 18.6 sq km / 7.2

Protection 263

Protection Serbia Protesters Protesting 263

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2017

I saw Painted Wolves again, my favourite species ever. The Orange-fronted Parakeet is a critically endangered species that I came agonisingly close to seeing but didn’t. Singapore is a densely populated city-state which still manages to protect a number of species. See, according to eBird, that isn’t a species.

United Arab Emirates 100

United Arab Emirates Ethiopia 2016 Singapore 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2016

Birders concerned with ticking off bird species from a list in North America already know all about the AOU Supplement. Green Violetear – Another name for a widespread species bites the dust! However, like any supplement, this publication does provide something extra, something additional.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica 2016 Panama South America 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Why are these issues?

Costa Rica 210

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 210

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

When I returned Sunday morning with appropriate optics, warblers were nowhere to be seen, but a veritable profusion of sparrow species along with a mess of Marsh Wrens made up for their absence. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was his favorite species, a Green Heron , at the Great Vly in his hometown of Saugerties, New York.

2016 154

2016 New York Collecting Birds 154

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

She was attracted by the number of different species and their colors. She has a very broad knowledge of species. In Ecuador, there are 1.600+ species of birds. Mindo Cloud Forest has been always on top of Christmas Bird Counts all over the world with 450+ species! Why organize with us your birding/photo tour in Ecuador?

Ecuador 178

Ecuador Spain Cows 2017 178

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2017

In 2016, the DOT started rebuilding a bridge on the highway next to Four Sparrow Marsh, and maybe because of the noise, maybe because of the removal of some buffer plants, the sparrows did not breed that year. This species is in too much trouble to throw away a breeding ground. There was still hope that the sparrows might return.

New York City 208

New York City New York Sparrows 2016 208

10,000 Birds

MARCH 24, 2022

They both saw an impressive 640 species (plus a dozen or two more each, but not together), yet, while Bruce is still birding nowadays, Lynn is quite happy to forget birds and pursue other interests. And in 2015- 2016, they travelled the entire continent of Australia birding and writing about it.

Australia 230

Australia Cooking Birds 2015 230

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2023

It covers 403 species: 172 nonpasserine species and 231 passerine species in the Species Accounts, 198 species beautifully illustrated by the author in the Plates section. The scarcity of information on the young of some avian species is astounding.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 252

Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Family Collecting 252

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2016

Appreciation of invasive species may be somewhat heretical in some naturalist circles, but watching these huge winter flocks always entertains. Between work and weather, I didn’t see much this weekend, but my kids and I spotted a mesmerizing flock of European Starlings wheeling about in intricate formations.

2016 160

2016 Birds Experience Experiments 160

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2021

A brief personal digression: I moved back into the house I grew up in back in 2014, my parents vacated at the end of 2016. With that logic those trees, if left to grow, should produce something of use to at least one or two species of birds. Of course, various species of bats as well. A Yellow-crowned Parrot digs in.

Opossums 264

Opossums Barn Owls Reptiles Hunting 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2020

The most recent report was issued in December 2019 and it used data from the 2016 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. Others might require a life list or the ability to identify a specific number of species, or some other criteria. million birders.

2016 260

2016 North America 2019 2020 260

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2019

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is probably the most iconic bird species in China – to the point that some bird guides I know are quite tired of looking for it. In 2016, the global spoon-billed sandpiper population was estimated at 240–456 mature individuals – a critically endangered species.

China 185

China Endangered Species 2016 Species 185

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2017

Thank all that is good and holy in the world that the abomination that was 2016 is finally in the books. Here’s hoping that 2017 is a much better year than 2016! All of 2016 only netted me one new species for Queens, a Greater White-fronted Goose. I will see at least 500 species for the year.

Puerto Rico 103

Puerto Rico 2017 Austria Bahamas 103

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2017

We have done some bush-walking this week around Broome as the weather permits, but still no luck with finding any Snipe species for the 2017 list ! Our best observations of Jack Snipe were in dull weather at the Canal Scrape Hide at Spurn Bird Observatory on October 7th 2016. Two Jack Snipe at roost.

2016 100

2016 2017 2015 Species 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2015

A total of 122 teams covering just about every major habitat counted a total of 1183 species or approximately 65% of the entire avifauna of Peru in a single day! The onset of the competitive spirit came the evening of May 9th as many watched the number of species per country switching places between Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

2015 205

2015 Peru Colombia Brazil 205

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

He was pleased to spot all of his target species, from Yellow-breasted Chat to Ovenbird. Corey enjoyed an early morning subway ride into Manhattan on Sunday in search of a couple of reported rarities and some lingering wood-warblers at City Hall Park. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2016 134

2016 Squirrels New York Birds 134

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2022

So, the basic idea is to show 15 species of Australian birds in each post and give you the usual trivia about them. All photos were taken in Australia in December 2016 – locations included Brisbane and surroundings, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Melbourne, and the coast near Melbourne. Admittedly, it is mostly grey.

Australia 184

Australia Koalas Parrots Birds 184

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2016

Back in Costa Rica, walks through coffee and fields near the house, and a few other day trips have upped the list to 250 species. The year has just started, there are hundreds of other bird species to look for, I wonder if I can reach 700 species for Costa Rica by December 31st? White-eyed Vireo! .

Costa Rica 101

Costa Rica 2016 San Antonio Sparrows 101

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2016

For the sake of family peace, I left my bins at home, which meant that the tastiest species I could put a name to was Dark-eyed Junco , which I’ll be seeing a ton of over the coming months. While acquiring our fragrant Balsam Fir , I was distracted by a variety of birds flying over.

2016 124

2016 Birds Owls Family 124