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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. BirdingExperiences is a Costa Rican company owned and run by enthusiastic birdwatchers from Costa Rica.
I was soooo excited about getting to know the Middle East, as well as some of its exotic species. My one sighting of the little-known Sinaloa Martin outside of summer had occurred on a 29th of February, and I hoped to repeat that experience. This female Rose-throated Becard also gave me my best photo so far of its species.
Growing up birding in Western New York was also a time when the old woods of the Niagara Gorge were punctuated with the songs of hidden Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos and the lazy notes of Eastern Wood-Pewees. Thanks to guiding, I have identified around 620 species six months into the year and Mary has a list of more than 530.
May delivers one of those amazing times of the year when we’re too busy looking at birds to sit around talking about them. A weekend that included well north of a hundred species is a difficult weekend for which to decide what is the Best Bird of the Weekend and Corey had that enviable task this weekend. How about you?
Louisiana is a magical place to bird. At the same time I was ogling Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Upland Sandpipers, Marybeth Lima was also birding Louisiana. Chapter Two is a potpourri of stories about nemesis birds, birding by ear, birding for science, under the rubric of birding ‘for the love of it.’
“Sit under a fruiting tree and birding shall be fruitful.” ” After spending the last couple months chasing migratory shorebirds, I was aching for some forest birding. And what better way to do it than to fortuitously come upon a fruiting tree being attended to by a multitude of species? Streaked Flycatcher.
The bird is just chilling out, waiting for the urge to fly. The bird below is also waiting, but not to fly. One might assume this is a falconry bird, but it’s not. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of birds knows the efficiency and delicacy of their respiratory systems. Now imagine you have the lungs of a bird.
To every bird, though, mid-September remains what it’s always been: a good time to feed, mass, and move ! Corey enjoyed his outing with me on Saturday and his coastal birding with his pal Mary on Sunday. Over twenty species of wood-warbler, a variety of shorebirds, and host of birds in general will make for some fun fall birding.
Not all birds are created equal. These are the kinds of birds even those barely cognizant of nature recognize, appreciate, and aspire to. These are the kinds of birds even those barely cognizant of nature recognize, appreciate, and aspire to. Central Africa has one of those birds. Lesser Striped Swallow.
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. Mercedes Rivadeneira has been in the birding tourism and nature conservation business for over 30 years!
The best of summer birding in my experience takes place at the beach. Our land-locked species in temperate zones tend to become too focused on the little details of perpetuating their species to be sufficiently entertaining. Out on the shore, though, a whole suite of species exists in the places we gravitate to anyway.
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. We work hard to provide the richest and most rewarding experience of the Neotropics.
Another year of birding in Costa Rica has come to an end, another one begins. I bet some tanager flocks will be in the cards; birding in Costa Rica tends to deliver. It’s 2023 already and I have already started this year of birding. A male American Redstart flashed its Halloween finery and other birds flitted into view.
Perhaps a little more shock-inducing and paradoxical than concepts of birding at sewage ponds or graveyards, an oil refinery seems to be the antithesis of a desirable place for a birder. From Yellow-hooded Blackbirds to Purple and Common Gallinules , there are almost too many birds to focus on!
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.
Fortunately, nature assures that, as one suite of birds leaves, another takes its place. Corey enjoyed some good birding on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. But his Best Bird of the Weekend was one he saw with his family on a visit to Jamaica Bay on Saturday evening. What was your best bird of the weekend?
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. My name is Kalu Afasi, I am a birding guide from Ghana, a country in West Africa.
Indeed, even though I just celebrated 40 years of living in Mexico, we have never been to Cabo San Lucas, and our only experience with Cancún was going though immigration in that city’s airport. If we were more enthusiastic beach-goers, I would probably have many more tropical birds on my life list by now.
How can one, in what is barely the second week of the first month of the year – even think of suggesting a Bird of the Year? I began recording my bird sightings with photographs in late 2009, and since then I have seen (or at least heard) a fair proportion of species recorded within my home country of Trinidad & Tobago.
I listed it on eBird – but my experience (and not only mine) is that the motto of eBird reviewers generally is “If I see it, it’s a vagrant – if you see it, it’s an escapee.” The Amur Paradise Flycatcher is another species breeding in Shanghai. ” And so it turned out.
I finally tracked down Black-bellied Plover , a shorebird species that had been eluding me for the county for years, plus a bonus bird in the form of a very infrequent Forster’s Tern hobnobbing with the usual Caspians. Corey got out looking for birds a whole bunch this weekend. What was your best bird of the weekend?
But birds don’t seem to care about what ails us humans. My daughter and I visited Owl Woods in search of winter finches but were surprised to find owls instead; obviously, the name of this legendary birding site suggests otherwise, but encountering both a Saw-whet and Barred Owl on the same autumn day was both unexpected and thrilling.
Corey did get out for some socially distant birding this weekend and his Best Bird of the Weekend was a Yellow-throated Warbler at Cunningham Park, only his fifth record of the species in Queens. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?
Collins Birds of the World is “ a must for the travelling birder ,” as the BBC Wildlife Magazine reviewer has put it. When I moved to Botswana, to learn my birds I got myself the thickest local field guide. It is not a concept for a total beginner, more of a reminder to someone with some experience. And I cannot agree more.
October is on the wane, but the birds just keep coming. I wasn’t really where any uncommon birds were this weekend, but I’m never far from very vocal Northern Cardinals , which is a good thing. Of the two, he chose the latter as his Best Bird of the Weekend, simply because he got a better photo of it. How about you?
Costa Rica has long been one of the more frequently visited global birding hotspots. In addition to providing many people with wonderful life experiences, these birding visits have helped increase our understanding of local bird distribution. More Birding in the Northern Volcanoes. Does Wing-banded Antbird occur?
The same analogy applies to bird sightings, but here we are, so let’s hear what you saw this weekend! Corey went out onto the East Pond at Jamaica Bay both mornings this weekend and saw bunches of great birds. What was your best bird of the weekend? What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?
What is your favorite birdspecies? What are the main regions or locations you cover as a bird guide? North-eastern South Africa including the Kruger National Park and the Western Cape How long have you been a bird guide? 5 years How did you get into bird guiding? René Rossouw, I live in Nelspruit, South Africa.
May is a time for birding. We have the slow weeks and months for reading, writing, and dreaming about the birds we’d rather be seeing. Corey enjoyed getting out early and birding both days this weekend, and has the lists to back him up. After that, what else could be his Best Bird of the Weekend? How about you?
Weekends like these tend to fill those of us closer to the poles with envy for our birding friends even the slightest bit closer to the equator. While I knocked down plenty of first of spring birds this weekend, I most appreciated the appearance of a species that hangs around all winter. What was your best bird of the weekend?
Unfortunately, this makes it sound a bit more interesting for birding than it turned out for me – though admittedly, I spent less than a day there. And the area was recommended to me, so most likely my limited birding skills are to blame, rather than the birds themselves. ” That seems a bit unfair to me.
The slate of birds available to the ardent birder in a particular place is a constant cycle of regulars, not-so-regulars, visitors, rarities, and vagrants. I chased birds for a few years when I first got started, but my laziness eventually took over. For the traveling birder, almost every bird is guaranteed to be a new bird.
June can be a hit-or-miss month for birding. You may, if fortune favors you, hit good weather or birds. I’ve continued my inconsistent effort to pick off the species I need for my Monroe County list. What was your best bird of the weekend? In that sense, June is no different than any other month, right?
As August comes rushing to a close, the doldrums of the last few weeks have already started to give way to a new mass movement of birds. Not only did I pick up that little brown job, but I found plenty more species that looked verrrry much like it. What was your best bird of the weekend? Move with them! Good times!
The winds of December blow in a dramatic shakeup of birding conditions in most parts of the world, especially the ones with fair odds of a white Christmas. The excitement of those not-likely birds of November has died down, but the new regime of real winter birds in the Northern Hemisphere hasn’t fully asserted itself yet.
Actually, many birds started their seasonal peregrination weeks ago and may have many more weeks ahead until they’ve reached their destinations. Migration is meaningful to those of us who appreciate when non-local birds invade our local airspace, so make the most of this one. What was your best bird of the weekend?
November doesn’t fit any of the conventional narratives of birding seasons. Nonetheless, November can really cook when the birding conditions are just right. I finally chased down what has been a nemesis species for me at Webster Park, which seems to be one of Rochester’s most reliable winter finch hotspots.
In the era of digital cameras and social media, images of birds are easy to come by. Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of birdspecies that are no longer with us. Species like the Gyrfalcon , the aerial powerhouse of the tundra, of stunning, breeding-plumaged May warblers.
Not only have we completed Birding Tourism February , but we’ve also collectively made it through what is usually one of the least exciting birding months of the calendar year. This is not to say that fantastic birds cannot be found in February, but rather that we’re mostly picking through the remainders of the last season.
I added yet another new Monroe County bird in the form of a Stilt Sandpiper this weekend, which is the only way this species earns my Best Bird honors. Corey is enjoying life visiting relatives in southern California and has seen a bunch of birds he hasn’t seen awhile. What was your best bird of the weekend?
After three attempts, I finally found this incredibly rare vagabond sandpiper spinning amongst more common local species; interestingly enough, it prefers the company of Bonaparte’s Gulls , which the phalarope happens to resemble in both winter plumage and feeding territory. A subspecies as Best Bird of the Weekend?
With hope, this was a memorable one for you, even if the birds weren’t particularly rare. However, many of the bird’s field marks were obscured because it flew far below me as I walked across the bridge I’ll always know as the Tappan Zee. What was your best bird of the weekend? Another weekend is in the books.
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. 140 birds). My name is Nikos Gallios. and up to 9000 pairs forms in the north of the lake.
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).
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