10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2013

Smooth-billed Ani ( Crotophaga ani ) is a widespread and ubiquitous bird in disturbed grassy areas throughout much of the neotropics, including most of the Caribbean Islands. It is one of three species of ani ( Groove-billed and Greater Anis are the other two) and together form a unique branch in the cuckoo family.

Florida 234

Florida Virgin Islands Miami Breeders 234

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2024

I’ve been a regular visitor to the island of Cyprus for over 25 years, making around a dozen trips during this period, every one in search of birds. I made my most recent visit earlier this month, arriving with my three birding companions, Martin, Mike and Chris, on a warm spring evening.

Cyprus 246

Cyprus Breeders Falcons Hunters 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2020

As we ascend to the height of the season, we become more likely to encounter extreme weather coupled with extremely mundane birding. This is not to say that you won’t find great birds where you are, but only that they will likely be the resident breeders or wintering species you’ve already grown accustomed to.

2020 198

2020 Breeders New York Birds 198

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

This is the second part of a post showing some birds seen at Nonggang in December 2022, along with the usual (mostly irrelevant) comments. Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). Sir James McGrigor (1771-1858) Director Gen.

China 264

China Birds Pythons Eagles 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

His song, “C hanges in latitude, changes in birding attitude” really rings true when you’re on the road. Traveling really rejuvenates the passion when local breeders become banal. Most people don’t expect birding wisdom from Buffet, but he is, after all, the Chief Parrothead! Birding best bird weekend'

New York City 199

New York City 2014 Breeders Virginia 199

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2013

Although both species are widespread in North America as breeders in shrubby edge habitats, that is not the case in the southern half of the sunshine state (the more northerly race of Prairie Warbler is an uncommon breeder in the panhandle). Everyone, I would like you to meet the ‘Florida’ Prairie Warbler ( S.

Florida 237

Florida Miami Breeders Tampa 237

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2023

The voices are different however and one can distinguish between the two species through their vocalisations. In this part (sorry Corey) all those tundran breeders seem to have followed the path most flown. The seaweed, in its turn attracts insects and thus birds.

Iceland 264

Iceland Stray Breeders Canada 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2020

But we’re not confined to a wasteland of resident breeders just yet, are we? Corey got out and about birding on both Saturday and Sunday morning, before joining a Black Live Matter march on Sunday. What was your best bird of the weekend? Hopefully, you’re still finding surprises. Saturday night, a surprise found me.

2020 198

2020 Breeders Birds Owls 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

We all have invasive species on our minds this week, which should serve as an inspiration to those of us interested in expanding our personal range. Being a resident in an ecosystem certainly has its advantages, as does being a breeder (sometimes), but, every once in a while, you should visit someplace where you’re considered an exotic!

Colombia 186

Colombia Breeders 2014 Birds 186

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2024

Given that according to the HBW, the species prefers dense primary and secondary montane forests, the note that the bird also forages among kitchen waste (in the same HBW entry) seems somewhat incongruous. His obituary was published in Nature. Note to those readers who do not know Wham!: ” ( source ).

Burma 246

Burma India Indonesia Thailand 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2024

You want to do some serious birding? And yes, Sable Antilope is very cool, but birds are sub-zero cool! And yes, Sable Antilope is very cool, but birds are sub-zero cool! And it was birds we came for, so his customer service wasn’t great. Consequently, he would drive too close to any bird party we came across.

Mozambique 246

Mozambique Zimbabwe Birds Mammals 246

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2015

Few birds are as ubiquitous in the United States as the American Robin. Found in all fifty states except for Hawaii, the robin is also the state bird of not just Connecticut, but Michigan and Wisconsin as well. Still, this leaves them more vulnerable to pesticides compared to many other species.

Connecticut 196

Connecticut Wisconsin Michigan Hawaii 196

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2011

The Buller’s Mollymawk is an endemic breeder to New Zealand, although it ranges widely away from the islands to feed, and regularly goes to South America’s Humboldt Current to feed. As albies go they seem to be doing better than most species, and are only listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Albatross 258

Albatross New Zealand South America Breeders 258

10,000 Birds

MAY 9, 2012

The least common species of hummingbird I see here is the Calliope Hummingbird ( Stellula calliope ). She is the latest of our local breeders, not nesting usually until mid-May. The female is the earliest breeder of all these species, arriving on breeding grounds shortly after the males in November.

Breeders 253

Breeders North America America California 253

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2023

It is home to four diverse forest ecosystems (deciduous, mixed, boreal, and lowlands), experiences seasonal weather systems ranging from cold dry Arctic winters to humid, thunder-storm filled summers, and, according to the latest official checklist, hosts four professional sports teams with bird names.* state and Canadian provinces.

North America 246

North America Birds Owls Canada 246

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2022

At the end of 2022, let us celebrate the local field guide, a sub-genre that many of us feared would die, the victim of technology, development, and globalization, but which still shines bright, fewer in number but brilliant in quality, thanks to birders and birding organizations that believe in knowing your patch and your state.

Los Angeles 246

Los Angeles Birds District of Columbia Parrots 246

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2013

Joseph Chiera is a Masters student in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College in NYC and a “somewhat newbie” to birding. After taking an ornithology course last year, he was hooked and spends most of his free time birding or reading birding blogs. Of course, birding was on the itinerary!

Iceland 239

Iceland Puffins Europe Birds 239

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2020

As a result, all of the birding I have done has been in my back yard, or from my roof. As our long-time readers know, one 10,000 Birds tradition is for each writer to write in December about their Best Birds of the Year. This tiny bird also has a sweet song that I love. I do not like these friends right now.).

Birds 211

Birds Breeders Species Mexico 211

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2014

It is also a good description of the birding in southernmost Florida. However, few realize how unique and how good the birding can be here. Sure, Miami and the Florida Keys do not boast any endemics ( ‘Cape Sable’ Seaside Sparrow is close) at the species level.

Florida 178

Florida Miami Stray United States 178

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Both the male and female of the species have a bright red crown. Shortly after the first bird leaves the feeder, the remaining woodpecker peaks around the edge of the feeder. These birds inhabit foothill and mountain woodlands and are closely associated with oaks and usually found in pine-oak woodlands. www.youtube.com/watch?

Woodpeckers 207

Woodpeckers Breeders North America Groups 207

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2011

This area includes Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, part of Audubon’s Humboldt Bay Important Bird Area (IBA). You can see the list of the more than 270 bird species observed throughout the year at the marsh, along with their frequency and time of year seen here. Click on photos for full sized images.

Sanctuary 250

Sanctuary Breeders Alaska North America 250

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2015

Midsummer birding can become boring if you focus solely on species counts. The general lack of longitudinal movement among birds limits most areas to the same restricted pool of resident breeders every year. Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? How about you?

Breeders 165

Breeders 2015 Geese Canada 165

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2011

Too bad the birding is so thin. Where will you be this weekend and will you be birding? Western New York might not boast a phenomenal diversity of resident breeders, but we have lots of fun species summering here. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend ! I hope to run into some!

Breeders 162

Breeders 2011 New York Game 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2014

On Saturday I awakened at 3:30 AM, tiptoed out of the house as quietly as I could, and headed north and west to Sullivan County, the first of three counties I planned to visit in a series of surgical birding strikes to see (or hear) the birds I had thus far missed this year as they migrated through New York City.

Breeding 166

Breeding New York Downers Breeders 166

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2018

Turning off the asphalt, I enter the Deliblato Sands steppe, between the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains in the northeast of Serbia, where the first bird to greet me is a Northern Wheatear , followed by a Crested Lark. They are quite a rare breeding species in Serbia, declining as we speak, but one pair breeds nearby.

Serbia 174

Serbia Eagles Falcons Breeders 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2011

Now how about those birds… Corey has really beaten the summertime birding blues by focusing on the best of what the season of resident breeders has to offer: baby birds! What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.

2011 157

2011 Breeders Suffering Canada 157

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2013

They are described in most texts as “a very small, drab-gray bird with a long tail” but I think they are under appreciated. The male and female of the species look very similar but they are easy to tell apart. Probably one of the most interesting things about these little birds is that they are cooperative breeders.

North America 234

North America Breeders America Breeding 234

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2011

They are the first of our migrant breeders to go, and they are gone by the beginning of August. The Common Swift holds a unique position amongst the birds of Europe, a position that makes it particular and peculiar beyond its astounding adaptations to an aerial life: It defines a season. The birds of summer have gone.

Elephants 187

Elephants Neglecting Europe Breeders 187

10,000 Birds

MARCH 29, 2011

A big bruiser of a bird, the Glaucous Gull is nothing if not bulky. Maybe I am getting too sentimental but when that big a bird, almost entirely white, is seen from the top deck of the boat with the dark blue sea as a back drop, like in the image at left, it can take your breath away. Don’t you agree? Pretty darn cool, no?

Breeders 221

Breeders Birds Species 221

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

The species ranges widely across the Pacific, as its scientific name suggests, from the Revillagigedo Islands off Mexico to the Japanese Bonin Islands to New South Wales in Australia. So easily in fact that when planes come to land they, along with the other birds, must be flushed up and away lest they do themselves and the planes an injury.

Albatross 206

Albatross Madagascar Breeders Mexico 206

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2011

Happy birding, Dale Forbes Tags: accentors , Alpine Accentor , Birds , features , polygynandry • Have you seen the cool 10,000 Birds t-shirts? While studying, he also worked on various conservation/research projects (parrots, wagtails, vultures, and anything else that flew) and ringed thousands of birds.

2011 235

2011 Breeders Deer Breeding 235

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. Presumably, in the early days of ornithology, some scientists spent most of their time transcribing bird calls. This post shows some of them. And of course, I would have been wrong.

San Diego 271

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 271

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2018

He made a whirlwind tour of some of the best birding areas in the country, from the Karajukica Bunari peat bog in the extreme southwest (by the border with Montenegro) all the way to the Slano Kopovo Crane Sanctuary in the northeast. He enjoys combining his passion for birds with computer science background to model nocturnal bird migration.

Serbia 186

Serbia Switzerland Farming Montenegro 186

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

One of the less well remembered awful things that happened in the Second World War (a six year period of history filled with an uncountable number of awful things) is that war’s direct role in the extinction of two species of rail. The loss of these two species was, in fact, no aberration, except in how late the extinctions were.

Hawaii 253

Hawaii Guam Mammals Fiji 253

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2011

It is even more odd to be birding Central Park in June, when migration has essentially wrapped up and all that is left are breeders and stragglers. When we first spotted the bird this is how it was holding the fish. I did not count on sending him home with a fish story though!

Fish 198

Fish New York City North Carolina Breeders 198

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2011

… leaving the remainder of the birds on the Cyprus Species List (over 380 species) are either migrants or accidentals. the first three found only in the Troodos and Paphos forests). That’s quite a lot! As it happens though, Blackcaps may provide a modern example of how this can occur. Well no kidding!

Cyprus 157

Cyprus Breeders 2000 Protection 157

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

The Mourning Dove ( Zenaida macroura) is among the most abundant and widespread terrestrial birds endemic to North and Middle America. Their habitats vary widely in both rural and urban landscapes; open habitats are preferred and the species generally shuns only extensively forested areas and wetlands 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=44fNo6B5gUI.

Hunters 217

Hunters Hunting North America Game 217