10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

850 illustrations by Tomasz Cofta are both accurate and stunning, and 2,400 photos by Michal Jakuj and 189 other photographers from Europe and Asia are good documentary shots. Each species is described only by features that may (although not always) be seen in flight; those impossible to notice in flight are omitted. And the result?

Europe 237

Europe Asia Cyprus Turkey 237

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

That was a wild cat, a wild Wildcat, the cat that lives in the wild because that is where it is from and where it belongs, at the southern end of its pan-African range that extended at one time well into Europe and Asia. Also, feral Cats on islands seem to be a serious problem, causing the extirpation of some indigenous species.

Feral Cats 254

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 254

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Before my first trip to the tropics many years ago I always wondered how is it even possible that new bird species are discovered with all the deforestation and general habitat obliteration going on all over the world. I mean, we as a species are today basically everywhere. But still new species are found.

Solomon Islands 213

Solomon Islands Ecuador Colombia Brazil 213

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

Miami, Florida has a reputation among the birding community for being overrun with exotic bird species. However, the typical birding experience for someone down here also includes a large menagerie of other species such as Orange-winged Parrot , Mitred Parakeet , Egyptian Goose and Nutmeg Mannikin. It is well-deserved.

Miami 195

Miami Asia Florida Malaysia 195

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2022

Instead, they usually just describe species seen at a specific location, with the vague notion that these descriptions might be interesting to other birders. It looks quite distinct compared to some of the other recently discovered species. I guess my sympathy is more with the Plain Bunting, if such a species existed.

China 202

China Vietnam Asia Birds 202

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

JUNE 16, 2022

Shimmering in the distance, Nilgais , the biggest antelopes of Asia, walk by. Hunting and disturbance, deterioration, fragmentation and destruction of habitat were the forces behind the decline of this, once widespread species, making it Critically Endangered on the IUCN Global Red List. The main tactic is diversion. Males reach 1.2

Gazelles 253

Gazelles India Pakistan 2012 253

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2023

Yet, I was not aware of any of Arjan’s big year updates in English, so I had no clue where he was or how many species he managed to see. After 3 months of South and Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Australia, Arjan’s count stood at 2,060 species. And I wanted to learn about his travels in detail.

Papua New Guinea 246

Papua New Guinea Guinea Suriname Brazil 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2023

In 176 pages, this smallish book (180 x 128 mm / 7 x 5”) covers 279 bird species (out of the total of 562) most likely to be seen in Hong Kong, including every species classified as Abundant, Common, or Uncommon in the Hong Kong Bird Report. Species descriptions include nomenclature, size, distribution, habits and habitat.

United Kingdom 174

United Kingdom Portugal Asia Birds 174

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 18, 2023

The somewhat shoddily edited Wikipedia entry on sunbirds states that there are 145 species in one paragraph and then talks about 146 in the next. There isn’t really a lot of interesting information on the individual sunbird species – but the photos hopefully still make this a post worth looking at.

Indonesia 174

Indonesia Asia Species Raised 174

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2024

The scope is worldwide; of the 24 birds depicted, five are from the Americas; five from Eurasia; three from New Zealand; two from Australasia; three from Africa; one from Africa and Asia; one from Antarctica; two worldwide, and two from Asia, introduced worldwide. of Chicago Press, 2014).

Barn Owls 176

Barn Owls Chicago Penguins New Zealand 176

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical description of the family is that of “a tropical African and Asian songbird that typically has a melodious voice and drab plumage”, another is “small, dull-colored passerine birds of Asia and Africa”, yet another states that they are “often rather plain” Individual species get even harsher reviews.

South Africa 221

South Africa Malaysia Africa China 221

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

MAY 24, 2020

North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. Trogons and quetzals are an ancient, colorful bird family that occurs in forests and other wooded habitats from the American tropics to Africa to Southeast Asia. So let’s look at this sampler, shall we?

America 262

America Arizona North America Texas 262

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

Both the female Black-tailed Godwit and Bar-tailed Godwit are larger than the male of the species. Bar-tailed Godwits also change their plumage around the same time, so you have to be careful with your observations to work out which species of shorebird you are observing.

Mongolia 147

Mongolia Australia Asia Breeding 147

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

MARCH 23, 2014

Big news about a small bird broke earlier this month when bird researchers from several nations announced that the species formerly known as Spotted Wren-Babbler ( Spelaeornis formosus ) — a tiny, secretive bird of montane forests from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China — is not a Spelaeornis wren-babbler at all.

Family 268

Family Comoros Asia India 268

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

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 291

Family Birds South America Breeding 291

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

The 2000 MacKinnon guide is showing its age while my preferred choice for the Shanghai area, Mark Brazil’s “Birds of East Asia”, covers non-Chinese locations such as Japan and Korea while excluding Western China. While there are some decent Chinese-language guides, they are of limited use for (local) illiterates like me.

China 197

China Brazil 2000 Birds 197

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2016

Due to habitat encroachment and environmental degradation in its traditional home base of Asia, the bird’s worldwide population has dropped to roughly 20,000 individuals, marking it as a Vulnerable species. The world’s biggest flying bird—the Sarus Crane , with a maximum of height of 6 feet/1.8 meters—has had a rough go of it.

Thailand 251

Thailand Asia Hunters Species 251

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2022

They are places where we invest most of our birding time and rightly so; mature tropical forests are where we find the highest number of species. Additional bird species prefer the sun-drenched vegetation of open fields and other edge habitats. Find a brushy field during the winter months and you might also find these colorful species.

Costa Rica 262

Costa Rica Farming Barn Owls Sparrows 262

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

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2022

Being an island, Mauritius has its share of endemics, extinct endemics (the dodo again), and introduced species. The Red Fody is an introduced species, though from nearby, sort of (Madagascar). Of course, the Common Myna is not a native species either. I saw a few of each group, with the obvious exception of the second one.

Mauritius 221

Mauritius 2000 Birds Madagascar 221

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 213

Sparrows Italy Kyrgyzstan Asia 213

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

Other species probably breeding here – judging from their presence in pairs during the summer months – include Black-winged Cuckooshrike … … Black-naped Oriole … … Lesser Coucal … … And Pied Kingfisher. As a consequence, it was felt that the bird’s name needed to be changed.

Cats 214

Cats Kittens Birds Transported 214

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2022

At this moment, Baihualing is the eBird hotspot in China which has by far the largest number of species – 486. With 398 species, Nanhui is trailing far behind despite being covered by a much larger number of checklists (2225 compared to 608). So, it is certainly justified to cover this spot in more than one post.

Litter 208

Litter China Abandon Abandoning 208

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2018

It divides countries into categories, where the next category has 200 more species. In some cases the data are outdated, e.g. Costa Rica has 900 and not 800 species, but I made no corrections, remaining faithful to the original map data. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands.

Equatorial Guinea 193

Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Central African Republic Guyana 193

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

JULY 5, 2013

The project seems to be just as much about the process as about the product, since the coloring sessions were wonderful teachable moments that got kids enthused about saving this Critically Endangered species. With population estimates in only the triple digits, these special shorebirds need all the help they can get.

Asia 146

Asia Thailand Russia Endangered Species 146

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

Or would be, had I encountered more of them – so far, I have seen only a very small share of the approximately 233 woodpecker species, and got decent photos of an even smaller number – not much more than 10% of all of them. So, writing a post about them is easy.

Woodpeckers 228

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 228

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

I saw two Pitta species at Hongbenghe, both among the slightly less glamourous among the pitta family: The Blue-naped Pitta … … and the closely related Rusty-naped Pitta. It seems that this is another species for which the standard phrase of scientists anywhere, “more research needed”, applies.

Myanmar 147

Myanmar Birds China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2019

Reachable by direct flights from Portugal, the island country of Sao Tome and Principe lying in the Gulf of Guinea, in the armpit of Africa, has about 140 bird species and 28 endemics – more endemics per square mile than anywhere else on Earth. The main island of Sao Tome has about 100 species and 17 endemics among them.

Costa Rica 190

Costa Rica Sri Lanka Rwanda Papua New Guinea 190

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Black-bellied Plover: Known as Grey Plover in Europe and Asia. Grey-tailed Tattler: I already made fun of this poor species in my last post. Cuckoo species (Common?): As this is a coastal place, there are of course lots of waders, in larger numbers, and more variety than in Shanghai. Point for American birders, I am afraid.

China 269

China Birds Asia Fish 269

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 19, 2024

Bald Eagle Species Name: Haliaeetus leucocephalus. 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. It is recent as of 2024. Wingspan: 5.9

Alaska 207

Alaska Eagles Bald Eagle Deer 207

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2019

Based on how naturally parrots and leafbirds (the real ones in Asia, not the figments that plague birders in every country) blend into foliage, I’d imagine that most arboreal avian species would want the same advantages. Corey enjoyed a spring like outing on Sunday morning, adding eight species to his Queens year list.

2019 114

2019 Asia Turkey Parrots 114