10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2024

But no, my story today is about the birds that come in to breed on the heather moorland which dominates the high ground. This is prime habitat for many birds and Shetland is a great place to see them in relatively pristine conditions. Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus Shorebirds take the limelight. And with good reason.

Puffins 259

Puffins Raised Breeding Africa 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2012

Whilst leading a birding tour to Sri Lanka, I spotted a flash of bright white in a lily-choked wetland near Ambalantota in the south-east of this verdant island. Whilst we are on the subject of jacanas and their mating behavior, it is worth noting that this family of birds (as well as phalaropes and painted-snipes) is polyandrous.

Sri Lanka 216

Sri Lanka Eggs Raised Investigation 216

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2024

So Eduardo set aside the afternoon to show me some of the city, and take me birding in two city parks. 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. Two other birds, both residents, surprised us.

Mexico 233

Mexico Birds Raccoons Baltimore 233

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Bufflehead ( Bucephala albeola ) Female at Cavity Entrance photos by Larry Jordan “Some 85 species of North American birds excavate nesting holes, use cavities resulting from decay (natural cavities), or use holes created by other species in dead or deteriorating trees. Talk about cute! www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWDXIhy9oJA

North America 244

North America America Barn Owls Fur 244

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2012

There are thousands of shorebirds that visit Broome each year and the majority of them are now in the northern hemisphere hopefully sitting on eggs. Not all of our shorebird species migrate and those that reside here are also currently sitting on eggs, or thinking about laying eggs in the upcoming weeks.

Eggs 241

Eggs Raised Breeding Species 241

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2020

The birds are moving around the globe as if nothing has happened. These were Torresian Crows that realised that the Channel-billed Cuckoos were likely to try and lay eggs in their nest, so they could raise their young for them. This short section of power line is a great stop off for birds.

Asia 278

Asia Australia Eggs Raised 278

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 255

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs 255

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2016

It’s a bang-up breeding year for super-endangered birds! As a backup plan, researchers captured some Spoonies in Siberia in 2011 and brought them to England , where they’ve been raised at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire. Now, it’s Spoon-billed Sandpipers’ turn.

Louisiana 190

Louisiana Eggs Breeding Asia 190

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2020

No, I am not going to tell you about some blood-sucking bird with hypnotic powers. But when raised, they seem to have a sort of weird cape. But the bird is cool, and I need the photos to prove my points. In other words, they never raise their own young. I hope you will forgive my rather lurid title.

Blackbirds 164

Blackbirds Mexico Cattle Birds 164

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The poster bird of this area is the near-threatened Black-necked Crane. Not sure how I (or the bird itself) feel about the bird being named after a bird collector, though. A beautiful bird, but a disastrous name, if even some of the accusations against Przevalski of him being a massive racist are true. .”

China 202

China Mongolia Russia Birds 202

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. The poor bird’s Latin species name is macgrigoriae , apparently (HBW) named after Jane Grant McGrigor, the daughter of Maj. Sir James McGrigor (1771-1858) Director Gen.

China 259

China Birds Pythons Eagles 259

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

There is also the Pheasant Coucal , which is unique in the fact that it does not put its eggs into another species of birds nest, but sits on its own eggs and raises its own young. It was a juvenile bird and no doubt its parents had used one of the many Paperbark Flycatchers nests to lay its eggs in.

Australia 184

Australia Eggs Raised Species 184

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2014

It’s always risky to say what separates humans from other animals — tool use, self-awareness, and the perception of morality no longer being as obvious a set of distinctions as they once were – but I will go out on a limb and say that narrative is at least as characteristic of humans as feathers are of birds.

Montana 215

Montana Horses Eggs Morals 215

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2017

Laysan albatrosses are ocean-dwelling seabirds who have 6-foot wingspans, weigh 7-8 pounds, occasionally sleep while flying, and rarely land except to raise their chicks. The oldest Laysan albatross was last seen raising a chick on Midway Atoll in 2016, at age 66. The young men had severed the birds’ legs in order to remove the tags.

Albatross 214

Albatross Honolulu Hawaii Killing 214

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

When you monitor a species of birds over many years you learn a lot from your observations and you soon become aware of the fact that some birds are just better at parenting than others. There is egg predation, chick loss and sometimes possibly just some “bad parenting”! Three eggs in the nest.

Eggs 165

Eggs Raised Breeding Family 165

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Mating systems and parental care patterns can be odd among birds. Male-female role reversal, happens in some familiar birds, but is rare. Male Phalaropes, Jacanas, Tinamous, and Rheas build nests, incubate the eggs and take care of the chicks. Females then begin to lay eggs in the nest the male prepared.

South America 157

South America Eggs Raised America 157

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

The first eggs were laid in the first week of July, which is the case each year. The eggs take 28 days to hatch and it is then at least 35 days before the chicks are developed enough to fly and there have been problems with predation as in other years. Pied Oystercatcher sitting on eggs in the nudist area of Cable Beach.

Breeding 160

Breeding Eggs Camels Shelters 160

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

Looking along the high tide mark down the beach with my binoculars I noticed two small birds. I soon noticed the shallow nest scrape, but there were not any eggs in it yet. Hopefully they will soon lay eggs and raise young on Squeaky Beach. We could then continue to search for other bird-life around the National Park.

Australia 194

Australia Eggs Raised Birds 194

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2015

There are sixteen pairs of Pied Oystercatchers and they have varying success at raising young birds. To the north they are very unlucky with predation before the eggs even hatch out, but to the south the eggs hatch out and then the predation occurs on the chicks.

Feral Cats 160

Feral Cats Eggs Feral Cats 160

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2019

I couldn’t help thinking this–me, the anthropomorphism hater– as I watched a pair of Philippine Eagles tend their nest, raise a chick, and tear monkeys apart in Bird of Prey: The Story of the Rarest Eagle on Earth , a well-crafted, beautifully filmed documentary with a mission. 1980’s Filmstrip, photo by Eric Liner.

Eagles 203

Eagles Philippines Eggs Monkeys 203

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

When out birding, I prefer completely wild habitat. I enjoy birding in cocoa estates especially – as they retain some of the highest percentage of native biodiversity (as compared to other altered habitats). Shade-grown crops have myriad advantages, and naturally, we’re here for the birds. Yellow-breasted Flycatcher.

Trinidad 251

Trinidad Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 251

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

It does not usually rate high on peoples’ Western Palearctic wish-lists, but Prunella modularis is a dapper little bird with some fascinating habits. In such cases, the spurned donor has been observed helping to raise the brood. This is a Dunnock. Now it is classified with the Accentors.

Sparrows 165

Sparrows Eggs Raised Breeding 165

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2011

The first eggs are laid during the first week of July each year and if these eggs fail to hatch or the chicks are lost they will lay further eggs within a few weeks. Sadly a lot of eggs are lost to feral cats and chicks are sometimes taken by birds of prey. Nest site with 3 eggs-one white!

2002 168

2002 Feral Cats Eggs 2007 168

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Any worthwhile discussion of baby birds will wisely lean heavily towards young shorebirds, which are surely among the most adorable of all immature avifauna. And despite our evident New World bias here at 10,000 Birds, we have a fondness for Old World shorebirds like thick-knees. We raised this little fella to a young adult.

Senegal 245

Senegal Cats South Africa 2011 245

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2013

Icterus galbula is a handsome bird, to be sure. While walking along the beach one morning, I noted a fruiting Dagger Cactus right near the beach, at the top was a bird just destroying one of the purple fruits near the top of plant’s formidable crown. There is no doubt about it, this is a striking bird. Birds orioles'

Baltimore 194

Baltimore Broker North America Raised 194

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2013

Once again Pied Oystercatcher breeding season is fast approaching in Broome and we can expect the first batch of eggs to be laid within the next few weeks. We have also discovered that they are very rarely successful with the first eggs laid due to predation of either the eggs or the chicks. It is a spectacular and noisy sight.

Eggs 191

Eggs Breeding Australia Raised 191

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. This bird is represented in an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. Can’t say that it is a particularly obvious name from seeing the bird.

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Eggs Africa 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2012

Life is hard for baby birds, as the world is filled with reasons why they might not make it too adulthood. Starvation and predators make it hard to grow up, and birds have evolved a lot of strategies to give (at least some of) their chicks the best chance in life. Seabirds are one group of birds that go for the latter strategy.

Eggs 171

Eggs Puffins Breeding Albatross 171

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2012

Energetically sticking his head out, then in, then back out a different hole was a vaguely sinister-looking brown bird, obviously outraged that someone had the nerve to put him in there. “He He had two major strikes against him: one, he had been found and raised alone by someone with little knowledge of birds, and so was imprinted.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 207

Wildlife Rehabilitation Parrots Game Eggs 207

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2012

The bird life of Kruger National Park appears to be distilled into a small area surrounding the hide and they seem oblivious to the observers with their battery of lenses poking out from the wooden building. Today an adult bird was hunting while two juvenile birds waited, knee-deep in water, apparently unclear what to do next.

Hunting 200

Hunting Battery Raised Adoptable 200

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2012

Just look at this bird: Do birds get any blander? Had I not been with some European birders who knew what they were about I would never have noticed the adult Barred Warblers in the vicinity, of which I only got fleeting glimpses, and would likely have been flummoxed completely by this bland little bird.

Hungary 181

Hungary Eggs Abandon Abandoning 181

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2011

Probably one of the most familiar nests to North American birders, their eggs are known well enough to have a color named after them and many individuals are acclimatized to people, which means that they are comfortable enough to nest near our buildings. … a.

Eggs 160

Eggs Raised Birds 160

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2013

He then takes all the dead mosquitos and puts them on a tray feeder for his feeder birds to eat. This year, his groundskeeper texted to tell me that a bird made a nest in it and it wasn’t working. These birds are known for building more than one nest in their territory and the ones here go for it gusto.

Industry 167

Industry Ducks Eggs Raised 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2011

We here at 10,000 Birds thought this would be a perfect time to look back and figure out what each of us considered our Best Bird of the Year, just like we did last year. Not only did we not expect to see this seabird this far inland, it was a life bird for me! We would like you to join in!

2011 212

2011 Birds South Korea North Dakota 212

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 21, 2012

It is thought that the gray morph mimics a bird eating hawk. In this way, the cuckolding Cuckoo can convince its cuckoldee, the Reed Warbler, to back off when the Cuckoo comes around, allowing the Cuckoo to toss out one of the Warbler’s eggs and replace it with one of its own, to be raised by the hapless Warbler parents.

Hungary 179

Hungary 2012 Science Eggs 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2013

And then there’s this guy: Birds without a nesting site assigned to them by name seem to be a little more confused. All About Birds describes the Violet-green Swallow as a cavity nester, seen in open woods at middle elevations. Birds nesting swallows violet-green swallow' Barn Swallow by David Menke, USFWS.

Montana 163

Montana Woodpeckers Eggs Raised 163

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 25, 2019

We continue to have egg predation at many of the nest sites and chick loss, but one pair of Pied Oystercatchers is being successful in raising two chicks so far. There has never been two eggs hatch and two chicks survive for more than about ten days since we started to keep an eye on them in 2000.

Eggs 151

Eggs 2000 Family Breeding 151