This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
“I don’t know anyone else crazy enough to try 12s,” my friend answered when told that I am about to test NL Pure 12×42. Are 12s right for birding? Or have you ever birded with 12s? If you spot a small bird with, e.g., 8s, you will walk towards it until you get a better view. What do you think? compared with 20.5
I am still tired from the long drive, but it was great to play with the very best toys for birders, to be able to share experiences and to ask the factory staff all sorts of silly questions. The next day we had an outdoor workshop and a chance to test the toys. impressive for Central Europe. impressive for Central Europe.
When it comes to tropical birding, field guides regularly deal with well over a 1000 birds and tend to be on the hefty side. Travel guides are mostly lighter, but this “where to watch birds guide” is truly lightweight and traveller friendly. Each site gets from 2 to 5 pages (but mostly 3-4).
10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. That’s what makes us such good company: No birds to be seen at the moment?
I was reading Carrie’s post last month and got to thinking about car birding in general. Personally, I am a big fan of car birding, despite the necessary fossil fuel burning that is involved. For many birders, the thought of car birding is as natural as using a field guide. You will see more birds.
I started to bird from a kayak. Paddling around the Veliko Ratno Island Reserve in almost downtown Belgrade was such a liberating experience of getting close to nature while not having to travel far or invest much. For a while, I birded from the least birdable white water racer, the one with those flares behind the cockpit.
Summer birding gets a bad rap, especially around here, but July offers one highlight. As soon as the test began, so did the monotonous cheeping. My conjecture was confirmed three hours into the test when that streaky little bugger hopped out into the open. I blame Baby Bird Week. What was your best bird of the weekend?
As a result, some of the most popular and exciting birding destinations in the world run on Tico time. Having visited quite a few outstanding ecolodges in my blessed life, I’ve learned that exceptional birding destinations must first and foremost harbor exceptional, accessible birds. A handsome Crimson-collared Tanager.
That summer generally signals a decline in local avian diversity probably hasn’t sunken in yet, but rest assured the birds you saw this weekend may grow tiresome in another month. Corey enjoyed camping with family and friends for the long weekend after getting tested for COVID and coming up negative. How about you?
When I saw the NL Pure in a webinar for the first time, immediately – before the webinar ended, I asked my Swarovski sales rep for a pair to test. I kept them in my backpack until yesterday, didn’t want to hold them, to get any impressions… I wanted to test them as a tabula rasa (a clean slate). And today I did.
I was especially looking forward to take some better photos of the birds I saw last time, which I only managed partly. After all, I’d rather call myself a birder than a bird photographer, although I have to admit that I enjoy doing both more or less equally.
I knocked down several first birds of spring this weekend (not literally) but will always give Best Bird honors to a Saw-whet Owl , especially one showing as well as the one Ivy and I located at Owl Woods on Easter. Corey was extremely pleased to finally get out and about birding again after his family all caught COVID and recovered.
Birding in the Amazon Rainforest has its pros and cons. However, rainforest birds live in specific microhabitats and are often much easier to hear than to see in the dense multilayered rainforest. This Birding Rally’s competitors were companies that specialize in birding and nature tours.
Some birders like to see just birds, while others like birds, but don’t mind stopping or even taking detours to see other creatures along the trail. I like to see birds for a long time and hear their vocalization; even if these are common species. Elliott’s and Possibly a Markham’s Storm-petrels (bird on the left).
New research suggests that the phenomenon of contagious yawning can also be seen in birds. In one experiment, yawns were observed when birds in neighboring cages could see each other, and again when views of adjacent birds were blocked. Click here to go directly to the study.).
Photography is a great tool to improve bird ID accuracy as explored in my previous post Photography and Birding. My experience is only with Canon equipment which I have used for five years, of course there is also Nikon and others but these will not be considered here. macro of $1474. The weight of the kit is 0.3
“That bird! That bird, chase it! Shearwaters scattered at our approach and the wind howled in our ears but it couldn’t dampen Wilfredo’s focus, nor his vocal insistence to “follow those birds”! As the prop motor revved and ocean spray flew by, I wondered, “Which birds”?
After testing both Swarovski NL Pure 10×42 and 12×42, I – a self-confessed lover of smallish full-size binoculars, felt the urge to try the latest 32 mm NLs. Although I did test them thoroughly later, I knew from that first sight, this pair was made for me. 10s are a whole new experience compared to 8s.
My business trip to Florida to host the Tests and the Rest Winter Conference 2020 was more than just a professional success. January in Florida always delivers on tasty birds. Corey was so bummed about having to lead an Owl Prowl in an area with no owls that he decided there were no good birds this weekend. How about you?
I recently birded the Tualatin River NWR near Portland, Oregon, and made that my test case for a deeper dive into the Mobile Track. The refuge is a popular birding location , and it has 229 species observed and nearly 8,000 checklists submitted.
Seriously though, we were walking our dog at the local park when out of the blue she said (and she is not into birding at all) “ You know what would be great. Imagine looking at birds through that.” There were rumours of cameras, some devices for bird ID, etc. Like binoculars have but with further reach. and Aaaah’s!
Birds are a subset of dinosaurs (See: Honey, I Shrunk the Dinosaurs. Prior to the extinction of all of the other dinosaurs, resulting from a cosmic impact event about 65 million years ago, the ancestors of modern birds were different from modern birds in many ways, but also similar in many ways. So how did beaks evolve?
And Flamingos and Hornbills and a Secretarybird and birds with names like Hamerkop and Thick-knee and Eremomela (which I know is a scientific term, but which, when pronounced correctly, reminds me of a Yiddish term of endearment my grandmother used). And so, I went on the American Birding Association Safari to South Africa.
This, 2022, has been a curious year for books about birds and birding. Dragan]: Europe’s Birds: An Identification Guide , by Hume, Still, Swash, and Harrop is a photographic guide. The artwork of “Europe’s Birds” is dazzling, the text condensed and comprehensive, and the layout and design are without peer.
In Costa Rica, our July birding news usually consists of interesting sightings during the mid-summer tours. These and other important birding related questions come to mind and during a normal July, I would be personally and actively helping answer them. Which tours saw the most roosting owls?
Knowledge is more likely to be shared via shared experience than the exchange of data, though both happen. But early in the process of learning about the Efe I made a foray into the literature available in the 1980s of orientation and navigation, and this included the literature on birds.
Those are the headlines from a study by Nicholas Mason and Scott Taylor , released online in March and covered here on 10,000 Birds and elsewhere at the time. In the meantime, how can we develop a more balanced view of global bird diversity? ” What to do?
You may have read my recent piece on Birding the Okavango Delta in Botswana here on 10,000 Birds. If you have never thought of India as a birding destination, I’d urge you to give it a good look. Babita Tours has many years of experience organizing tailor-made wildlife tours for private groups in this wonderful country.
Moved by an unseasonable bout of optimism, I went owl-chasing this weekend and actually encountered what has been a true nemesis bird for me: Northern Saw-whet Owl ! For Corey, this was a weekend without a single standout species but with many birds that were pretty darn neat. What was your best bird of the weekend?
As usual, my experience with such boardwalks was somewhat underwhelming, as was Eshowe as a whole, but there were still a few birds worth mentioning at the forest and in the area surrounding Eshowe. There are actually much nicer photos of the Purple-crested Turaco in another blog post of mine, Birding Mkuze.
home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / I and the Bird / I and the Bird #146 I and the Bird #146 By Mike • March 17, 2011 • 1 comment Tweet Share Birders, as you probably already know, really get around. Enjoy a special St.
If there is one order of birds that is guaranteed to draw involuntary gasps and odd keening noises, it is the Strigiformes. A recent experience left me upside-down in a drift of pine needles as finding myself face-to-face with a Barred Owl was such a shock that I lost the power of standing. Birds Barred Owl'
Given how far Hokkaido is from Europe, it seems a bit surprising how many bird species wintering on this Japanese island have a name starting with “Eurasian” Or how many of these species I have also seen in my parents’ garden in Germany. Like the Eurasian Nuthatch.
A literal wild goose chase had led to a cascading series of errors in which I missed nearly every bird I sought. At least I could test them out. Did I have a lovely experience with the birds as well? I was feeling fairly disheartened. My big year, after starting off with an incredible rarity , had fizzled.
Even notice that hot weekends don’t usually make for hot birding? Though I succeeded in resisting the siren song of shorebirds at the lakeshore, I couldn’t help but pay attention to birds everywhere else I went. What was your best bird of the weekend? Interesting, no? How about you?
My best bird of the weekend was a Great Black-backed Gull , a rarity in a land-locked Serbia, with less than 10 observations so far. Alright, it did focused on the weldings of the barge and not the bird, but it was still amazing. (I How to describe the experience in one word? in which way? In every way!
Hungarian birding guide Attila Steiner shows the typical reaction to looking through a Swarovski ATX First of all, the biggest of the new scopes will boast a 95 mm objective lens. As cool as watching the birds was I also enjoyed watching my fellow birders test out the new optics. But I am getting ahead of myself here.
One of the most regularly traversed roads for the purpose of birding on the island of Trinidad is the Arima-Blanchisseuse Road. Most folks who have come here for birding have stayed at the Asa Wright Nature Centre (likely reopening later this year – but more on that to come) which is located along this picturesque road.
All the local avian characters have been extra-antsy despite the weather, all contending for best bird of the weekend. What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. Where Are You Birding This First Weekend of March 2011?
home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birding / Where Are You Birding This Third Weekend of March 2011? Where Are You Birding This Third Weekend of March 2011? Mama mia, no birding for me! Share your plans in the comments below.
Found throughout South America in ever-dwindling numbers these extremely beautiful birds – threatened by habitat destruction and collection for the wild bird trade – are often difficult to see and hard to find. The experience is one of the ornithological highlights in the world. That’s right – birds eating clay.
We assume natural selection has shaped birds to avoid predators. Noticing predators, reacting to them perhaps with an alarm call, and escaping them, as well as other behaviors, keep the bird alive and thus allow it to reproduce. We would expect, then, that natural selection favors birds that are good at these things.
I had no problem getting bins on birds quickly during my field tests. Let me know both your impressions and experiences in the field! The Moldable Security Cover holds bins in place until you need them, which is just what this system promised. At the same time, I felt very comfortable with my optics firmly in place.
My thoughts won’t cover too many tech specs (you can peruse these at the link above), but will focus on a user’s experience. A miserable day in Mumbai dawned with wind and rain blowing towards me across Powai Lake (if I am to give the scope a fair test it needs to be able to perform in poor conditions as well as good, clear light).
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content