10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2024

Any place that used to be good for an interesting species last year is likely to have been turned into another construction site this year. I don’t think many other bird species are named after Japanese citizens. Also, there are quite some variations within each species – for details, see here. in northeast Asia.”

Chicago 143

Chicago Birds Asia China 143

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2020

Birders normally care about species and make species lists, how do families fit into those? Adding more species brings a lot of excitement, as long as you bird your own country or a continent. 11,000 species require lots of money and a good portion of one’s life. That gamble is rigged, so the house always wins.

Family 292

Family Birds South America Breeding 292

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2022

From one side, the reserve is under the attack of spreading arable fields, from another by numerous wind generators and it is no easy task to support the surviving breeding birds within its borders. Shimmering in the distance, Nilgais , the biggest antelopes of Asia, walk by. After my trip, I followed the news of this species closely.

Gazelles 254

Gazelles India Pakistan 2012 254

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

Black Drongos must be breeding here – this juvenile was terrorizing his parents with constant calls for food. Edward Brown (1810-1867) was a Victorian-age bird collector particularly active in East Asia, in whose honor this shrike species was named. Black-tailed Gulls , I think.

Cats 215

Cats Kittens Birds Transported 215

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2024

Bald Eagle Species Name: Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Status In Alaska: Breeding resident. Endangered Species list in 2007. Steller’s Sea-Eagle Species Name: Haliaeetus pelagicus. Range: Steller’s sea eagles are endemic to coastal northeastern Asia, inhabiting regions in Russia, Korea, Japan, mainland China, and Taiwan.

Alaska 207

Alaska Eagles Bald Eagle Deer 207

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2020

This means that every year, millions of birds fly by the city on their way between their breeding grounds in Northern Asia and their wintering spots in Southeast Asia and Australia. In addition, some vulnerable bird species such as the Reed Parrotbill live in Shanghai year-round and rely on the reedbeds for survival.

Wildlife Reserve 165

Wildlife Reserve Asia China Factory 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2016

It’s a bang-up breeding year for super-endangered birds! The species, which migrates from the Russian Arctic to Southeast Asia, is down to about 200 breeding pairs in the wild, due to habitat loss and poaching. For the past several years, getting the birds to breed has been an exercise in futility.

Louisiana 190

Louisiana Eggs Breeding Asia 190

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area. The raptors of Ruoergai deserve a separate post.

China 171

China Mongolia Russia Birds 171

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2022

Every place has its common birds, the species that do very well in a given habitat. As we like to say, these are species that are “hard to miss”, birds that, if you are watching, will be seen. Bird in southern Asia and there are mynas and magpie-robins. Bird in southern Asia and there are mynas and magpie-robins.

Costa Rica 147

Costa Rica San Jose Asia Geese 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. The African Spoonbill is one of the six global spoonbill species, and the main African one (there are also some Eurasian Spoonbills in Africa).

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Eggs Africa 147

Critter News

DECEMBER 29, 2008

A breeding program in Malaysia will attempt to breed a rescued Borneo Sumatran rhino in order to save the endangered species. Experts cannot confirm how many Borneo Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, but estimates range from 10 to 30 individuals, many of them isolated from others in their species.

Rhinos 100

Rhinos Malaysia Species Wildlife Reserve 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

In its natural old-world range, the House Sparrow offers an interesting identification challenge and has vagrant potential since it is a polytypic species with a highly complex taxonomy. The genus Passer has several well-recognized and recognizable species in Europe, and still holds several enigmas.

Sparrows 214

Sparrows Italy Kyrgyzstan Asia 214

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Black-bellied Plover: Known as Grey Plover in Europe and Asia. Eurasian Oystercatcher: Not all of them are breeding at Claire`s beach in Australia. Grey-tailed Tattler: I already made fun of this poor species in my last post. Cuckoo species (Common?): Point for American birders, I am afraid. Proof that there is no god?

China 270

China Birds Asia Fish 270

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2022

Around this time of the year, the first few waders are back in Shanghai from their breeding grounds far further up north. Generally, being back here early is not a very good sign – it may indicate a failed breeding attempt, as suggested for Asian Dowitchers in a paper on their presence in Lianyungang somewhat further north of Shanghai.

Cattle 147

Cattle Portugal Buffalo Alaska 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

Not bad given that the 5 families in the inner circle of the laughingthrush family have a combined number of about 68 species. The Hainan version is sometimes considered a separate species, in which case it is classified as Near Threatened. 36, if my counting is right and there has been no very recent split or lump.

San Diego 204

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 204

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. Storks are typically viewed as wetland species and whilst some storks are restricted to aquatic habitats, others are not. Like the Adjutants in Asia and Jabiru of the Americas, the Marabou is our bare-headed scavenging stork.

Africa 238

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 238

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2021

Just last year, 5 new bird species and 5 new subspecies were discovered in a few short weeks of fieldwork on the islands of Taliabu, Peleng and Batudaka. In recent years Indonesia has been competing with the Andes as the region giving rise to the biggest number of undescribed bird species (naturally, all of them endemics).

Indonesia 264

Indonesia Timor Brunei Guinea 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2015

You see, the Great (White) Heron/Egret is a polytypic species with four subspecies: alba in Europe, egretta in the Americas, melanorhynchos in Africa, and modesta in Asia and Oceania. Just so you know. But we’re far from done with the confusion. This may appear to make identification easy, but it is not.

Asia 178

Asia Europe Germany Breeding 178

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2021

This is the second post in the Birding crème de la crème series (the first, focused on southern Asia, is here ). Geographic patterns of species richness for birds (1,558 species) in East Africa at 0.25° resolution (blue indicates low species richness, while brown indicates high species richness).

Africa 196

Africa Kenya Uganda Tanzania 196

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2012

There I found a study which showed that the ingenious little birds had found a protein source that allowed them to coincide their breeding with times of man-made, rather than natural seasonal abundance. They are popular as caged birds and escapees have established a number of feral populations beyond their normal ranges. Clever things!

Asia 189

Asia Feral Breeding Africa 189

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

Africa 263

Africa Gabon Uganda South Africa 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Not too many highlights, not too many species … hard to say whether this is just the usual nostalgia for a better but probably nonexistent past or a real phenomenon. This species is listed as vulnerable – similar to the Yellow-breasted Buntings, it is trapped on a large scale. Humans, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Birds 231

Birds Japan Germany Ducks 231

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

Always interesting to see the same species both in Germany (in my parents’ garden) and in Shanghai. Grey-faced Buzzards are also on migration in October, passing Nanhui on the way to their wintering grounds in South East Asia. Not that easy to spot outside of the breeding season, though relatively quite common.

2019 189

2019 Japan Owls China 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2013

At the time this post goes live I’ll be wandering around Hong Hong in a bemused state of mind trying to identify not only the native birds but the multitude of other species released by the inhabitants into the area. The Brown-headed Gull is a bird of Asia, breeding from Turkmenistan to Mongolia, and winters along the coasts of Asia.

Turkmenistan 154

Turkmenistan Mongolia Asia Europe 154

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. The crest on the back becomes erect during breeding displays.

Africa 164

Africa Wolves Goats Sheep 164

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2013

Purple Herons Ardea purpurea are an old world element of the Ardeidae and range widely throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe and central Asia. Within Europe, they are mostly found in the South (around the Mediterranean), and the East.

Germany 153

Germany Asia Europe Africa 153

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2016

Ring-necked Pheasants are native to Asia, brought over in the 1880’s. Since then their range has spread across the United States and southern Canada, and they remain a sought-after game species. Males are territorial, and may act aggressively towards other avian ground species. These males are striking.

South Dakota 100

South Dakota Hawaii United States North America 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2015

. “The Pygmy Cormorant is a strictly protected bird species in Serbia, as well as in the European Union. It belongs to a group of species of special conservation concern, which under the European Birds Directive requires Member States to designate Special Protection Areas (Annex I species).

Serbia 180

Serbia Protection Europe 2007 180

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2012

It has recently been reclassified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; this category is reserved for only the most threatened species in the world. If this bird did become extinct, it would be the first pheasant species to have been lost in the 400 years since proper records began.

Vietnam 154

Vietnam 2000 Germany Asia 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

Other species have certainly expanded their ranges, but never in such a rapid and global scale. For reasons that are not quite clear, this species underwent a massive range expansion. In the east, this species can be found along the east coast of Africa, the Nile Valley,and into parts of the middle east and India and southeast Asia.

Cattle 170

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 170

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2012

There are two species in the Old World woodpecker genus that sounds like birds that birders would never be able to see. Eurasian Wrynecks are found breeding across the temperate zones of Europe and Asia. They migrate to warmer climes in Africa and south Asia to winter.

Hungary 173

Hungary Asia Woodpeckers Africa 173

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2013

If you are relying on leg colour or bill colour or bill length then you will really have quite a challenge sorting through all of the species present, but with perseverance you will eventually work it out! They are all in non-breeding plumage to add to the challenge, though some male Bar-tailed Godwit are still carrying a trace of colour.

Asia 145

Asia Australia Bats Breeding 145

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

I do not get too many comments on my blog posts, but it seems that whenever I write about jacanas – whether in Africa, Australia, or Asia – there is an unusually high number of reactions (well, maybe one or two rather than the usual zero) from female readers. This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). End of side note.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandoning 162

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Did I dare dip my toe into this catalog of tantalizing species? Kinabalu (at 13,455 feet the highest peak in southeast Asia), and human development that has resulted in freshwater rice fields, secondary forest, and oil palm plantations, this means that Borneo offers an incredibly high degree of biodiversity. Now, I’m not so sure.

Brunei 174

Brunei Asia Birds China 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2012

The Rose-ringed Parakeet naturally occurs in two isolated areas: a thin strip across Africa just south of the Sahara, and south Asia where it is mostly found in India with smaller ranges in adjacent countries. and the White Storks are also wild and countable despite breeding at the zoo.

Germany 243

Germany Netherlands Zoos Costa Rica 243

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2012

Oriental Plovers Charadrius veredus are a species of shorebird that we see in varying numbers around Broome and they may be on the beach, feeding on insects across the plains or at the ephemeral lakes. During February there have been astonishingly high numbers some years and this has been as a result of insect activity.

Mongolia 180

Mongolia Asia China Shelters 180

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

Or else I’d be tempted to mention that the cold rainy weather has given way to a massive heat wave and drought, or that the summer doldrums this year are more boring than ever, or that it is so unfair that Corey is more than 100 species ahead of me in his year list, or that I really would enjoy some nice birds for a change!

Germany 174

Germany Russia Iceland India 174