10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

I am guessing that no birder practices this passion exclusively for the birds. As we walked up the “beautiful river” (which is what “Río Bello” means) Nacho pointed out trees from the dogwood, holly, and linden/basswood families. Many migratory Warblers and other birds are now arriving down here.

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Birds Mexico Cooking Family 246

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Last month, I birded my favourite local patch, Beljarica – the best eBird hotspot in Belgrade city and the 3rd best in Serbia – four times. One consequence of being near the city is the widespread feeding of birds with what is junk-food for them – bread. With more than 30 birds, Black Storks became truly common.

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Serbia Boars Otters Birds 299

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2020

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?

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2020 Rabbits Jamaica Pelicans 278

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2022

Not as interesting as birds, but easier to get photos of – see a few at the end of this post, just put there in an uncaring way as I really went to St. Lucia for the birds. I sometimes wonder why green birds are relatively rare. On the other hand, “at the same time birds want to blend in, they also want to stand out.

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South Africa Africa Saint Lucia Camels 257

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

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?

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New Jersey Guatemala France Birds 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

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. The post Visit Guatemala with Birding Expeditions appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

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Guatemala El Salvador Belize Honduras 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2021

As grumpy as these daily 30-degree temperature swings are making me, you have to wonder how the birds are reacting. My family’s walk through Rochester’s historic Mt. Corey had a pretty amazing weekend, birding-wise, with a host of highlights including Sora , Hudsonian Godwit , Wilson’s Storm-Petrel , and more.

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United States Turtles 2010 Birds 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

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?

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Breeders Owls Birds Family 263

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

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!

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Ecuador Birds 2019 Cattle 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2021

The best of summer birding in my experience takes place at the beach. I found myself fully immersed in marine species while boating, fishing, and birding coastal Virginia with family this weekend. I found myself fully immersed in marine species while boating, fishing, and birding coastal Virginia with family this weekend.

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Virginia Birds Fish Experience 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2020

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?

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Costa Rica Birds Thailand Farming 262

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2023

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!

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Trinidad Birds Ducks Fish 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Birds of Belize by Steve N. Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. Dale Dyer put in years working on his paintings for Birds of Central America , both in the field and in the museum. Howell utilizes the IOC World Bird List (v.11.2, Why are these issues? © 2023 by Steve N.

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 246

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2022

Some more photos of Australian birds mixed with irrelevant facts and mediocre half-jokes, as a way to pass away the time while being under lockdown in Shanghai (note: it is over now but this post was written during the lockdown). It must be a bit frustrating for a flower to be less colorful than the bird visiting it though.

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Australia Birds Feral Cats Kangaroos 254

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2023

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.

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Greece Pelicans Stray Dog Tortoises 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2021

We’re still far from peak passerine passage, but getting closer every day… I had to move my bird feeder from its perfect position this weekend, because of–of course–squirrels. Corey enjoyed getting out on birding outings both mornings of the weekend, and was out in nature with his family both afternoons.

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Squirrels Louisiana Birds Family 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2020

And yet, I miss my family and friends, and grieve for those around the world who are not as lucky as I have been. I don’t mind the bird poop they leave behind! I began a love affair with birds and birding in my early twenties, but the COVID-19 crisis has taught me to be grateful for their presence.

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Birds Blackbirds Shelters Wildlife 260

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

Birds are still, as ever, on the move according to their own rhythms, but the next few months should bring some familiar friends to you, wherever you are. I finally had a chance to visit my brother and his family in their beautiful new home in Westchester. What was your best bird of the weekend? How about you?

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Birds Family Experiments Experience 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2022

They can’t provide the same ecosystem value as natural forest and woodland but in places intensely modifed by people, hedges are vital sanctuaries for birds and other wildlife. In keeping with the depauperate biodiversity of open fields, such scraggly hedgerows host very few birds. Hoffmann’s Woodpecker.

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Costa Rica Birds Sparrows Woodpeckers 279

10,000 Birds

MARCH 24, 2024

There are beautiful beaches, a plethora of amazing food and drinks, a multitude of family fun locations, a world-renowned zoo, and one of the biggest birding festivals in the US. My family visited San Diego every year as part of a Disneyland-SoCal Road trip to escape the rainy Christmases at home near Portland, Oregon.

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San Diego Sea Lions Lions Birds 245

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

Popple] One of the great things about birding is its continuing ability to surprise. After many years pointing binoculars at birds they can still shock you with unseen – sometimes unrecorded – behaviour, baffle you with an unexpected vocalisation or just turn up in oddly unexpected places. Places, too, can surprise. I was wrong.

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Koalas Birds Zoos Hunters 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

But one nation that bestows physicians with the respect they deserve is Jamaica, where the national bird is a hummingbird known as the “doctor bird” – the Red-billed Streamerbird ( Trochilus polytmus ). An adult male “Doctor Bird”, as depicted in Illustrations of the Birds of Jamaica by Phillip Henry Gosse (1849).

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Jamaica Detroit Medical Birds 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Fortunately, I share this preference with birds, which we found away from the lake, mostly in some semi-desert areas. “ Not the bird’s fault, I guess. Possibly my favorite bird on the whole Qinghai trip was this Mongolian Ground Jay – thanks a lot to Bella from Alpinebirding for finding it.

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China Austria Birds ALA 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2020

Over the years I’ve seen a variety of open-country birds there, including Bobolinks , Vesper Sparrow , and American Kestrel. Over the years birding Willow Lake I had added nearly eighty eBird checklists at the preserve and netted myself 127 species, good for number two on the eBird hotspot list. I really hope so.

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Bald Eagle New York City New York Birds 243

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2021

It is a well-known birding spot, and a low-budget alternative to Baihualing. While Baihualing is much better for birds, foreigners are currently prohibited from going there, presumably as we all carry Covid-19, even if like me we have been in China the whole year. Anyway, another topic I wanted to mention in this post is birds.

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China Birds Zebras Germany 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2021

Guyana is an Amerindian word meaning “land of many waters” but it could just as easily mean “land of many birds”. Before I delve into some of these avian treasures let me give you a few non-birding reasons to visit this gem of South America. Not a great look for a middle-aged birding dude. Wilderness. Guyana is WILD.

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Guyana Otters South America Colombia 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2021

Early August is a bit of a dead time for birding in Shanghai unless you like your birds as little white spots at the far end of a telescope. So, I asked around and was told that Qinghai is the place to go to for birds in China in August. Going to Qinghai usually starts with a flight to Xining, the capital. But it is not.

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North Korea Birds China Woodpeckers 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2020

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?

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2020 Owls Birds Family 234

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

It is a well-known birding hotspot, though access to some of its parts may be tricky without a local guide. There is quite a bit of construction going on, so in the future, the park may become much more accessible to tourists, and at the same time much less attractive for shy birds (and their birder followers). Birders, less so.

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Pandas Birds Mammals China 260

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2024

I admit this is not quite on the level of fellow writers’ posts describing birding as an extreme sport. The bird has now started using its scientific name, Hemipus picatus , as it is substantially shorter. Perhaps the middle section of blog posts should be relatively boring in order to get rid of the more casual readers.

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Myanmar Sri Lanka Nepal Niger 236

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2022

It has been more than 5 years since I last went to Australia, and I was even less of a qualified bird photographer then than I am now. So, the basic idea is to show 15 species of Australian birds in each post and give you the usual trivia about them. I guess it is a bird though. Admittedly, it is mostly grey.

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Australia Koalas Parrots Birds 246

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2020

If you want to write a bird guide, you should have guided people yourself. Howell and Fabrice Schmitt: both of them are international bird tour leaders with WINGS. Birds of Chile – A Photo Guide has 240 pages and more than 1,000 photos accompanied by a brief text to make bird ID easy. And that is what recommends Steve N.

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Chile Birds South America Albatross 260

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2020

The last time I had seen a Summer Tanager was during a Christmas Bird Count in 2012. Sightings in Trinidad have been sporadic, 38 to be exact since the formation of the T&T Bird Status and Distribution Committee. This is an immature bird, as evidenced by the yellow wash on his underparts. Amazingly, it was still there!

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Trinidad Birds Squirrels 2012 259

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

Of course, it is hard to justify such an obsession in a blog post ostensibly all about birds. But now I do, courtesy of Phoebe Bridgers: “ Nothing else matters “ I have not figured out a link to birding yet). Fortunately, the lack of eBird lists does not mean there is a lack of birds. Neither had the wife.

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China Birds Nevada North America 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2020

The checklist for a basic birding outing has become more complex during the COVID-19 crisis. Your choice for birding spot depends equally on the abundance of birds and scarcity of birders. Yes, birding may not be as carefree as usual, but the freedom, fun, and fascination the act elicits matters more now than ever.

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2020 Owls Birds Family 232

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

They looked out their windows and across their patios and up from their apartment terraces and saw–birds. This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives.

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2020 Birds North America Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2020

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 bird species that are no longer with us. In Costa Rica, lately, I have been enjoying the class and elegance of bird poster art produced by CaraCara.

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Costa Rica Birds Woodpeckers Species 264