10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2024

Being a westerner — raised in California, and now living in western Mexico — I was perhaps most excited about the migratory birds that breed in eastern North America. And the Baltimore Oriole is an iconic eastern bird, which winters along Mexico’s east coast, but never in the west.

Mexico 194

Mexico Birds Raccoons Baltimore 194

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 24, 2014

August arrived and I was releasing birds knowing they’d need time to adapt prior to making that long flight across the Gulf of Mexico, headed to South America. Their population is in serious decline, so their breeding colonies are monitored by biologists. Finally, it was just Sophie left.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 221

Wildlife Rehabilitation Ohio Tulsa Woodpeckers 221

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2020

But when raised, they seem to have a sort of weird cape. In other words, they never raise their own young. Instead, they lay their eggs in other species’ nests, and let those nest-making birds (often significantly smaller than the cowbirds) raise their young. But in most light, they appear to have a shiny black color.

Birds 154

Birds Blackbirds Mexico Cattle 154

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Howell and Jon Dunn list “overall size and structure” as the fundamental first step in gull identification in their classic Gulls of the Americas (though they then go on to describe endless variations of plumage patterns). This isn’t a new idea. Species Accounts. Gulls Simplified covers 25 species.

North America 200

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 200

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Those of us who were raised in the four-season north (here in Michoacán one could define, at the most, three seasons) tend to think of avian migration in terms of seasonal temperatures. For us, it’s all about birds moving north during the warm season to breed, and south to escape the winter cold.

Mexico 179

Mexico Alaska Falcons Species 179

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

The sandhill crane has the lowest recruitment rate (average number of young birds joining a population each season) of any bird now hunted in North America. Kills in Canada, Alaska and Mexico are not included in the count. Further, the crane take in Mexico is a free-for-all: neither regulated nor recorded. to a high of 11%.

2011 245

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 245

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2011

For native people, living in South America meant living with hummingbirds, and for Europeans, discovering South American meant discovering hummingbirds (and, tragically, exploiting South America meant exploiting hummingbirds, destroying hundreds of thousands for stuffed specimens and in futile attempts to keep them alive in captivity.)

South America 156

South America New York Alaska America 156

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2022

And I found this one because he was singing his heart out quite persistently, which certainly suggests a bird that wants to settle down and raise a family. So yes, this appears to be a breeding population.]. And since I don’t go to the lake very often in late spring, I rarely get to see these Avocets in their breeding plumage.

Mexico 219

Mexico 2018 Ducks Breeding 219