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Will Raup is a birder from upstate New York who helped Corey learn a lot about birds when Corey was first starting out as a birder. When you think of invasives, you think of the birds that have been helped by human beings to get where they are, such as House Sparrow or European Starling. a Cattle Egret in Brooklyn. coromandus.
One bird species that we occasionally observe around Broome is the Yellow-billed Spoonbill, but we had not seen one for a few years until recently. The river level is low this time of year and the bird-life was very good. We soon observed several bird species and then a Yellow-billed Spoonbill flew overhead.
The Black-winged Cuckooshrike is breeding in several Shanghai locations – I suspect that some trees near the Nanhui hotel might be another one, given the vigorous singing of this bird. The Amur Paradise Flycatcher is another species breeding in Shanghai. Yellow-rumped Flycatchers are breeding in the same park.
Though the birding around Lake Kerkini may be outstanding, it’s inevitably the lake itself that is the centre of interest. The Greylags are interesting, as they are of the eastern race, rubrirostris , with distinctive pink legs and beaks, unlike the orange of our birds at home in Britain.
There’s nothing like an unexpected bird to get the pulse racing, as I was reminded on a recent warm and sunny summer’s evening. The farm in question is large – 1,000 acres – and mainly arable, though a small herd of Redpolls (not birds, but a distinctive breed of cattle native to Suffolk) are a new addition.
Have you ever enjoyed one of those brilliant birding expeditions, the outing where every target species takes its cue with machine precision? Of course we’ve all experienced the excruciating opposite of such an excursion, but when waves of new birds practically clamor for attention in quick succession, the feeling is exhilarating.
Birdwatchers tend to like the rare, the exotic – yet many common birds are exciting as well. With that in mind, I would like to introduce what might be the 20 most common birds of Shanghai. If the Black-crowned Night Heron wasn`t fairly common in Shanghai, I think local bird watchers would plan weekend trips around it.
Like many of you, I had plans for this year’s spring migration: to bird the very best tour of the Balkans, heading for northeastern Greece. Then about a 100 km to the Ismarida Lake and Porto Lagos lagoons for breeding and migrating waders. And off birding I went. “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”
No, I am not going to tell you about some blood-sucking bird with hypnotic powers. But the bird is cool, and I need the photos to prove my points. Instead, they lay their eggs in other species’ nests, and let those nest-making birds (often significantly smaller than the cowbirds) raise their young. Starling -numerous.
Construction is still ongoing at Nanhui, there are constant rumors that key birding sites will be made inaccessible … you have to take every Nanhui visit as it is your last (yes, another clichee). Still, there were a few birds there this September. Still, there were a few birds there this September. A juvenile male.
This can mean some interesting birding, if you can bear the Shanghai heat … Of course, the egrets and herons described in my last post are still around. Cattle Egret … though some of them seem to want to hide (which is really difficult for a white bird). Sanderling: A bird with strong work ethics.
The very best wetland birding around Belgrade, Serbia, is not to be found in the locally famous and tourist-promoted Obedska or Carska Bara Ramsar areas, but at Beljarica Backwaters and the fish farm triangle of Centa, Baranda and Sakule villages, in the Tamis River floodplain. mi, to the Vrbovski turnoff.
CR being the highest category in the Red List , if I want to see some of those birds, I better hurry! Locals being vegetarians, why are there no birds? Sociable Lapwings breed in several areas along the Kazakhstani – Russian border and overwinter in Iraq, Sudan and northwest India. Did I counted some pile of dirt as a bird?
In Tobago’s wetlands and forests we see the seasons changing in the faces of the birds. The first step in preparing for the breeding season is getting ready for courtship. The often overlooked Cattle Egret has legs that turn bright pink during this brief courtship period.
Ruffs were by far the most numerous, with as many as 500 birds in view at once. Few birds sport such magnificent breeding plumage as the male ruff, but not a single bird showed more than a hint of this plumage. These ruffs still had a 1,000 or more miles to fly to reach their northern breeding grounds.
Lake Kerkini National Park in the north of Greece is the very best birding area in the Balkan Peninsula and definitely among the top ten hotspots of Europe. Some 320 species have been recorded here, and in springtime it is possible to observe more than 150 bird species in a week. The lake lies at a mere 35 m / 115 ft a.s.l.
The highway across Roebuck Plains heading south continues to offer great birding opportunities. They are ground-dwelling birds and there is plenty of food for them at ground level. If I zoom in on the larger flocks of Whiskered Terns you only get to see a handful of the thousands of birds! Whiskered Terns feeding.
Instead of going on about zip lines and other modern, adventure tourism attractions, the birding crowd talks about taking photos of Resplendent Quetzals , seeing dozens of hummingbird species, and the seemingly odd absence of raptors in Costa Rica but nope, we don’t really talk about extinction. Must be a joke, right?
Have you ever birded a place so young that birds still have no names ? … – part 2 – Once I finish this writing, with a strange mix of emotions I will put the Lynx field guide Birds of Colombia to the bookshelf for the first time, more than half a year after I received it. Cerros de Mavecure, photo by Juan Carlos.
The bird got very nervous when I approached, trying to strike me with its beak through the net. Herons and egrets are easily the most visible birds at Nanhui, particularly in summer. And indeed, if you only see a single Little Egret posing on a tree in the early morning, the bird can look quite majestic.
A Little Blue Heron/Tri-colored Heron hybrid was reported from Arizona in 1964 and a Little Blue Heron/Cattle Egret suspect was reported from California in 1989. Since then, there have been a handful of records of this rare breeding occurrence. . Birds herons and egrets hybrids'
If you like birds on posts, if seeing “little brown jobs” posing nicely in the distance as you drive or walk along a dirt road only to have it fly away as you approach makes you deliriously happy, then North Dakota is the place for you. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Scott Barnes, N.J.
I am sure this means millions of individual birds were displaced by this drought event. But it actually showed the extreme crowding, into the very small remaining area of water, of birds that should have been spread over many dozens of square miles. And are the birds returning with the water? Still, there were a few good signs.
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. Incredibly social, Smooth-billed Anis form monogamous pairs that build a communal nest where all birds share in the responsibilities of feeding and tending to the young.
Jersey has always gotten a bad rap in general (the smells of the turnpike, the Jersey shore, the governor), and in the world of birding, the state often seems to be symbolized by two words: Cape May. The New Jersey Bird Records Committee (NJBRC) documents 465 species of natural origin. Press, 2003). It does so with authority and style.
The country has one eBird hotspot with 200+ and 48 with more than 100 bird species. Among travel guides, due to its extensive coverage of natural history and birding sites, recommendation goes to Laurence Mitchell’s Serbia: The Bradt Travel Guide (5th edition, 2017). Little Bitterns are back by late April.
Bologna La Grassa may revel in the indulgence of its Parma ham, lasagne, and rich, fatty ragùs, and Venice may boast the bounty of the sea, but the rugged, hilly homeland of the ancient Etruscans is undoubtedly cattle country. An avian butcher at work: Red-backed Shrike ( Lanius collurio ) depicted by Dutch bird illustrator J.G.
Every time I go out with them, which is not nearly often enough, I end up with great sightings, often of surprising birds, in gorgeous landscapes. Ferruginous Hawks breed in the grasslands of eastern Montana, but they are rare in the mountains and in winter, so this bird was certainly a surprise.
Nick Sly, a friend of 10,000 Birds who writes intermittently at the thoroughly-recommended Biological Ramblings , is an ornithologist who graduated not so long ago from Cornell only to be cast out into the real world where he keeps a wry eye on all things biological! The youngest bird in this clutch is only two or three days old.
Kentish Plover / Credit: Jane Stylianou It’s just the thing that I thought birders from outside of Cyprus would want to hear that I had to share it in full: BirdLife Cyprus conducts yearly waterbird breeding counts. Only six pairs of Little Terns Sternula albifrons nested at Larnaca wetlands along with another pair at Oroklini Marsh.
Seeing 50 species of birds on an early summer day in lowland England isn’t difficult, but on the moors of the Pennines – the rugged hills that form the spine of northern England – it’s not so easy. There were four splendid c s, feeding in a field a few hundred yards away.
Just under a fortnight ago, I saw a report on the local bird alert of a sighting of a group of approximately 20 Nacunda Nighthawks at a wetland not more than 20 minutes from where I live. Striated Heron in breeding plumage – extra plumes and blue lores. Such is birding, such is life.
Grey Hypocolius is a Holy Grail of Middle Eastern birding. Part of its attraction lies in it being a monotypic bird in the family Hypocoliidae – there are no other bird species in its genus and family. No, birds are way too smart for that stupid trick. But I have never seen any bird with anything like it!
It also used to be a rather common bird in the South of Germany, but the German population has crashed and collapsed (almost?) If it still breeds in Germany at all, which it might do, it is so rare by now that pairs do not get reported to anywhere except to the relevant nature conservation authorities. What on earth?
For many in the birding community, Miami is a destination meant only for ticking off ABA-countable exotics such as Spot-breasted Oriole or Red-whiskered Bulbul. It was truly heart-warming to see the local birding community participate with so much enthusiasm and fervor. This bird was a life bird for him!
Having observed the Cattle Egret in breeding plumage at the Derby Poo Ponds on June 19th we found ourselves at Windjana Gorge first thing the following morning. We soon added Sandstone Shrike-thrush to our 2020 bird list and it is a great place to find them without too much walking. A couple of crocodiles. Northern Fantail.
I had been contacted by Bill at Birds & Beans Coffee, a wonderful shade-grown distributor I’d been using for a few years, to help do a breedingbird survey on a local organic farm. Barn Swallows lined up on the wires outside his cattle barn and Grasshopper Sparrows sang unseen from uncut hayfields. Pretty sweet.
Since I have started to bird by kayak, it took me a lot of time to realise that paddling is not the synonym for birding and that I can bird without a paddle, although I cannot paddle without a pair of binoculars. Which birds can be seen there? But, more than just quantity, this spot offers some quality birding, too.
The second edition of the National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition has one of the longest book names in bird bookdom: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition: Now Covering More Than 1,000 Species With the Most-Detailed Information Found in a Single Volume.
Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius. Some time after the Spanish encounter with the Turkey, birds were brought back to Europe where they were raised and became an important source of food and fancy feathers.
There is a lot of bird movement around Australia at the moment due to the weather, so time to go and investigate! Last weekend we drove just out of town to where the road has been flooded and observed thousands of birds that have taken advantage of the very wet “Wet&# that we have experienced and bred like crazy.
On my recent short family vacation to Miami, I was granted a single day to get out and really bird like a madman. We immediately headed to an undisclosed location where Carlos had breeding Mangrove Cuckoos staked out. Let me get out of the car before making me look at birds! Come on, Carlos! What is it with this guy?
Kazakhstan – May 2009 After our excellent time at the Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve we bid a fond farewell to its gorgeous grassy terrain and made our way to a location where Sociable Lapwing were known to breed. Well, that is almost too much to ask for!
New Year’s resolutions from birding friends are starting to trickle in as I write this review. It is the last day of 2015, time to select the bird of the year past and set goals for the bright open future, when everything is new again. The process is called “Wide-angle birding: Be the bird, see the bird.”.
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