10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

In ten years of hardcore birding, I have seen Aztec Thrushes only four times, never twice in the same year (2017, 2018, 2019, and now, 2024). Only the 2017 and 2019 sighting were in the same general area; although the first sighting there was of a family unit, and the second was of a single bird.

2017 207

2017 2019 Nashville 2018 207

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2017

For the last several years, I have produced a small run of calendars for my fiends and family. The best 12 images of the previous year.

2017 123

2017 Culling 2016 Mexico 123

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2024

There are five families: Stilts & Avocets (Family Recurvirostridae), Oystercatchers (Family Haem), Plovers (Family Charadriidae), Sandpipers and Allies (Family Scolopacidae), and Jacanas (Jacanidae), with Family Scolopacidae representing the bulk of species (as it does worldwide).

North America 259

North America America 2006 Delaware 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2022

Carrie answered the question in a 2017 post , stating that “In general, the Europeans of yore assigned the common name ‘rail’ to members of the family with longer bills and ‘crake’ to the birds with stubby ones.” ” (She then warns that this difference is not consistent).

Birds 208

Birds 2017 Fish Breeding 208

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

The Juniper Titmouse ( Baeolophus ridgwayi ) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. In 2017, my neighborhood, Aldea de Santa Fe, began a Juniper Titmouse Nesting Box Project in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch Program. A total of 79 fledged, which beat our 2017 count of 52.

2017 151

2017 New Mexico Groups Abandon 151

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2023

In 2017 the arrival of the Magpie Geese warned us of the high rainfall ahead and then they bred in the area. This year we have had high numbers of Magpie Geese once again in the Broome area and this last weekend we observed our first family groups for the season. The Magpie Geese bred again in the Broome area during 2018.

Geese 147

Geese Breeding Australia 2018 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 26, 2017

On Saturday he dragged his family to the Adirondack Mountains to see a stake out Great Gray Owl in Keene, a first for all three in the family. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was one of the easiest to decide that he can remember.

2017 111

2017 Owls Woodpeckers Birds 111

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2018

A couple of the biggest of bird families are restricted to the Americas. Just about anywhere a birder ventures, the miniscule members of the latter family can be seen, and in most tropical locales, it’s not just one species. Talamanca Hummingbird. White-crested Coquette.

Costa Rica 213

Costa Rica Nicaragua Panama Honduras 213

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 19, 2023

A little further, there’s a family group of Savannah Elephants with two two-year olds. This time they appear more relaxed, but nervousness might be a better policy: between 2013 and 2017, well over a thousand rhinos were annually poached in South Africa.

South Africa 215

South Africa Africa Game Elephants 215

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2020

For the last several years, my first out-of-town trip of the summer takes me to the east side of Lake George in northern New York, for a relaxing mid-June weekend with my family at a lakeshore cabin belonging to a family friend.

New York 154

New York 2017 Adoptable Family 154

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 25, 2017

Remember those lazy days of summer, the doldrums during which you could catch up on family time, work, or less birdy hobbies? Corey and family can be found in the Hudson Valley. Don’t look now, but the season we are in is rapidly giving way to the next. The summer stall, if that ever really settled in where you live, is lifting.

2017 100

2017 Family Birds 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2017

Family accounts for all 142 bird families recorded from the region. The family accounts is the only illustrated chapter and that sudden outburst of photos looks a bit strange compared to the rest of the book. Country accounts for all 68 territories that comprise the region. Species accounts for all 2,792 bird species.

Africa 168

Africa Botswana Nigeria Namibia 168

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 28, 2016

Will there be more in 2017–more birds, more places, more friends? I’m heading down to NYC for family festivities, though you won’t find me in Times Square rocking in the New Year. Do you see the ones you wanted to see, in the places you desired to visit, with the friends whose camaraderie you appreciate?

2016 111

2016 2017 Birds Family 111

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2017

Luckily, I made it to Cobbs Hill Park for a quick walk, which turned up a frenetic Northern Flicker family. As mentioned, I toiled away in what will soon be a new garden for much of the recreational portion of my weekend. Oh, how I love the Polka Dot Woodpecker , as does Corey, who clearly also enjoys taking pictures of them. How about you?

2017 100

2017 Woodpeckers Birds Family 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2017

I was so crippled with envy over Corey’s current Neotropical sojourn (with a few family commitments thrown in) that I could barely bring myself to look at birds at all. If your circle of friends reside closer to the South Pole, you probably hear fond thoughts of the approach of spring.

Guatemala 100

Guatemala 2017 Turkey Birds 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2017

My family and I enjoyed the Corn Hill Festival this weekend, which is definitely one of Rochester’s better events. The closer to the poles you live, the more likely you lustily embrace this season. Around here, summer features festivals pretty much every single weekend.

2017 100

2017 Endangered Species Falcons Birds 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Corey had a great weekend in his hometown visiting his family and making a couple visits to local birding hotspots. I was fortunate to not only run into some tasty year birds like Pectoral Sandpiper but also some local birders I knew only by name. Always nice to know the people whose eBird lists you use for field intelligence!

2017 100

2017 Birds Family Experience 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

Ballantine and Hyman explore how birds communicate and summarize studies on how that communication functions in diverse bird families all over the world. Their text is combined with 200 (rough count) brightly colored photographs, many full or three-quarter page in size, and 10 charts and diagrams. This is a beautifully designed book.

North America 278

North America Research Birds America 278

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2021

Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago describes all 1,456 bird species (39 species more than in the first edition) within 107 bird families known to occur in the region, including 628 endemics (27 endemics more than in the 1st edition) and 10 species yet to be formally described (down from 18 in the 1st edition).

Indonesia 264

Indonesia Timor Brunei Guinea 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2017

I’ll be heading (but not technically migrating) to NYC for a family visit that will likely be woefully bereft of bird spotting. A slightly smaller subset of those autumnal advocates also envision all the migrants still streaming across the skies. How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding?

2017 100

2017 Birds Family 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2017

Because Corey and his family just journeyed to Belize for some serious Neotropical bird looking! Don’t you love that? I’ll be hanging around Rochester this weekend, too paralyzed with envy to get any decent birding done. Why so jealous? How about you? Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding?

Belize 100

Belize 2017 Birds Family 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2019

We encounter a family participating in a hawk watch count at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park; birder and activist Madeleine Sandefur, who introduces us to Sabal Palms Sanctuary in Brownsville, on the south side of a border wall built in 2009; and birders who are actually birding, identifying an oriole (Altamira rather than Hooded).

Advocacy 267

Advocacy Mexico United States Sanctuary 267

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

Covering 1,261 species with data and taxonomy current up to August 2017, the field guide is an exciting achievement. Within families, the species are arranged less taxonomically and more in line with “design and space considerations,” (Introduction), and on the plates themselves, species are arranged to facilitate comparison.

America 213

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 213

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

A family motel and passion for responsible ecotourism brought her home to the Oregon Coast where she and her husband, Erik, adventure and record a podcast ( Hannah and Erik Go Birding ), created in an effort to inspire others to get out and bird. It is an extremely popular fundraising project with an almost cult-like following.

South Africa 263

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 263

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

The Shorebirds in Action begins with introduction to various families, as a framework for later discussions. The buttonquails are only briefly mentioned here, while the skuas, auks, terns and gulls are families not generally regarded as shorebirds and are therefore not covered. Publisher: Whittles Publishing, 2017.

Botswana 117

Botswana 2017 Groups Europe 117

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2020

Great Shearwater – At this point, seabirds are my weakest family in Queens with the most species having reported in the borough that I have not seen. 314 – Sooty Shearwater , 13 May 2017: Yes! I must stare at the ocean a lot. Sooty Shearwater – Ditto. Western Tanager – Pretty unlikely but a guy can dream, right? 1 out of 2!).

2018 159

2018 2019 2015 Kansas City 159

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Say’s Phoebe – A self-found rarity at Edgemere while accompanied by my family made my day back on 05 October 2014. Golden Eagle – Two weeks to the day after the Say’s Phoebe I was once again at Edgemere with my family and picked up a Golden Eagle flying past , a surprise bird for sure!

2010 160

2010 2013 2011 2012 160

10,000 Birds

JUNE 14, 2017

It is with that in mind, and given that we are pretty much half way through this year, that I have picked my top twenty images for 2017. I happen to think the Crested Cara cara is one of the most beautiful birds in the falcon family. They stay here in Mexico despite the heat, and raise their families.

Seattle 107

Seattle Mexico 2017 Falcons 107

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2017

Now, those of you familiar with my tendency to chase birds in New York and knowledgeable of the spate of Great Gray Owls we have had in 2017 might question why it took me to nearly the end of March to make a trip upstate to see one. I, on the other hand, enjoy living with my family and would like to keep doing that. Family twitching?

New York 101

New York Owls Beavers Puerto Rico 101

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2017

You can find the Pygmy Marmoset’s family feeding tree by looking for its markings on the trunk, similar to those made by sapsuckers. Princeton University Press, 2017. Princeton University Press, 2017. Warbler Rainfrog is one of the few rainfrogs that prefers disturbed habitats. Paperback, 224p., Paperback, 288p.

Ecuador 170

Ecuador Wildlife Reptiles Mammals 170

10,000 Birds

APRIL 16, 2017

The birding has been rewarding as always and we have been able to add several birds to the 2017 year list that we may not see around Broome every year. I am not expert on our local wildflowers and scientists are constantly finding new species in remote areas of the Kimberley, so for some of the flowers I can only give you a family name.

2017 100

2017 Australia Ducks Family 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

The main attraction for birders here are the hornbills – I have written about them before , so this post will be more on the other birds I saw there in 2017. The photos of Sultan Tit that I got at Hongbenghe in 2017 were much better than the ones I got on Hainan in 2022. I am only joking! Birds should be free. A worrying trend.

Myanmar 147

Myanmar Birds China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2017

After a very good Wet Season with substantially more rain than normal over the first few months of 2017 the land was flooded and a huge variety of birds arrived in the Broome area to take advantage of the ideal conditions for breeding. The more brightly coloured female bird remained at the back of the family group as they swam to shore.

Breeding 100

Breeding Eggs Raised 2017 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2019

Clearly, author Phyllis Limbacher Tildes, the author of 24, soon to be 25, children’s books, is also a birder (and a little research brings up a presentation she gave at Ogeechee Audubon, Georgia with the biographical information and she and her family “love watching birds and wildlife seen near their lagoon on Skidaway Island.”

New York City 146

New York City Pelicans Penguins New York 146

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

Working in an area for which there are few official checklists, no governing taxonomic body, and much new information on species relationships coming in, the authors were faced with a multitude of questions about family sequence, genus arrangements, English common names, and species taxonomy. Co-author Frank E. Species Accounts.

Indonesia 124

Indonesia Brunei Malaysia Papua New Guinea 124

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

I compared the maps to those in the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th edition (2017) and though, yes, most of the ranges remain the same, there are some changes. But, I think the birding world is big enough to accommodate more than one way to identify the members of this infamous family.

North America 198

North America El Salvador America Nicaragua 198

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2016

The end of July and beginning of August featured an amazing trip across the American west with my family. And here’s really hoping that your 2017 is also full of great birds. A couple of long range twitches to upstate New York netted me one great state bird and one dip. Or at least written on a blog. Or something.

2016 128

2016 Puerto Rico New York City New York 128