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Proving that cruelty knows no bounds, some (language unsuitable for a family blog) in Virginia Beach is shooting blow darts at birds. Meanwhile, an Oregon farmer caught a beating from a neighbor irritated by his loud “bird cannons.” (Who Who knew there was such a thing?).
More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.
For more Bahama Nuthatch information and links, check his blog, [link]. In 2021, the American Ornithological Society announced that it has now classified the Bahama Nuthatch as a distinct species, Sitta insularis. One is a species altogether new to science — a nuthatch discovered on Grand Bahama Island.”
On a Big Year, every species counts equally, even the lowly House Sparrow. Priority in all of these blog posts will go to those keeping a blog about their big year, simply because it is easier to track what they are doing. Also, big year blogs are one of my favorite types of blog to read.
I was intrigued to read this piece over at the ABA Blog. One the one hand, science is awesome. It seemed like a Rubicon for birding in general, and citizen science in particular, if you now need specialized recording equipment to even know what you’re seeing. But that’s not the fault of the science.
BirdLife International believes that this might be maximum population the species can reach, as it seems to completely saturate its range. Occasionally the Tristan Thrush Nesocichla eremita will prey upon chicks from the two-egg nest of the Inaccessible Island Rail but this not enough in any way to threaten the species.
This time around I will only be reporting on big years with a blog component because that is where the interest is. If you are doing a big year why wouldn’t you blog it? By the way, where current numbers were readily available on the blogs big year birders use I took numbers from there.
I was told when I first started blogging here at 10,000 Birds that I was never to use the short form, “10K.” ” But here I’m using it because someone ELSE used it … the Bird 10K project is an effort to do the whole DNA thing they do on groups of species on the whole mess of 10K (or more) birds.
Obviously, those who seek the best views often aspire to the best optics, which we can all agree are modern miracles of science. While we’ve seen more than 150 amazing species in our first 48 hours attending the 3rd African Birding Expo and the pre-Expo familiarity tour of Uganda, one species stands as first among equals.
Skimming through the myriad of posts in my blog reader yesterday I came across a post from the ever-watchful guys at the Raptor Persecution Scotland blog that left me cold with anger. of nearly 500 radio-tagged releases).
I know at 10,000 Birds, we’re not only supposed to wow you with blog articles, but we’re also supposed show you some awesome photos. It’s not an exact science, but it’s to get an idea of general usage and to see how the habitat can be managed in a better way for migratory feeding.
There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. The paper that just came out in science has the following spectacular conclusion. Science , 345 (6196 ), 562–566.
Peripatetic ornithologist Nick Sly has long been a friend of the blog here and has contributed such classics as Green-rumped Parrotlets from Egg to Adult and Forpus passerinus and the Ornithologists of Masaguaral. This kind of detailed genetic and developmental work has traditionally relied on model species in the lab (aka chickens).
This, the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count , is one of those times: tell us how you contributed to citizen science. I hoped to add the Carolina Wren that’s been hanging around my house to the tally, but settled instead for Northern Cardinal , the most common GBBC species at the midway point. How about you?
To all you hardy naturalists who have already logged Christmas Bird Count hours in service to citizen science, I salute you! But he really appreciated the Surf Scoters he saw at Shinnecock Inlet out in Suffolk County on Long Island on Saturday so he chose that species. Winter has come early and often to Western NY. How about you?
The Ochraceous Bulbul looks similar to the Puff-throated Bulbul, with which it shares a genus – the similarity made one of my travel companions doubt the whole framework of species distinctions. Paul Conrad (1836-1885), a German naturalist in the East Indies, after which the species is named ( Pycnonotus conradi ).
It is kind of unappealing to see blog posts with highly specific and rather boring-sounding titles such as this one. On a positive note, in one study , when small swaths of dense bamboo were cut and cleared for an unrelated study, these were utilized by small insectivorous species including the Golden Bush Robin for foraging.
Somewhat strangely, the HBW calls it a “small grey to yellow babbler” – while the species indeed has some grey parts, that is not the color that sticks to mind when seeing or remembering the bird. Plus the sibia apparently plays an important role in the pollination of one endangered rhododendron species ( source ).
Hugh Powell is a science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Eight days with 20 of the world’s top birding guides looking for some 1,000 species and three dozen endemics. You can see as many hummingbird species as the folks at Magee Marsh are seeing warbler species—during 25 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.
Nate Swick is a contributor to 10,000 Birds, American Birding Association (ABA) blog editor and event leader, and environmental educator. He is a current member of the North Carolina Bird Records Committee and an eBird coordinator for North Carolina. Most of these photos are by photographers associated with the USFWS and Wisconsin Dept.
Flight Paths traces the history of migratory research in nine chapters, starting with the earliest attempts to track birds, bird banding/ringing (which she traces back to Audubon), and ending with ‘community science’ projects such as Breeding Bird Surveys and eBird. THIS IMAGE NOT IN THE BOOK. Schulman, 2023.
Britain might have had new species to add to it’s list, then again maybe it didn’t. The internet, don’t forget the internet, HTML, blog formats, photo upload, RSS Feeds, which browser, broadband speeds ( does anyone ever get what is promised?),
Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). The eBird description of the Small Niltava starts with the surprisingly dull statement that “size distinguishes this species from other niltavas” Who would have thought.
Why tediously write blog posts when ChatGPT can do it for me? So, I asked ChatGPT: “Please write a 500-word blog post about birding in Shanghai in the style of Kai Pflug for the website 10,000 birds” This is the result: Greetings, fellow birding enthusiasts!
Not too many highlights, not too many species … hard to say whether this is just the usual nostalgia for a better but probably nonexistent past or a real phenomenon. This species is listed as vulnerable – similar to the Yellow-breasted Buntings, it is trapped on a large scale. Humans, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
Sure, the AOU has the final say in whats a species, whats not, yadda yadda yadda… but who tells them what to say? I’ve been sciencing really hard lately. After all, there are some epic splits coming your way… what do you think about new species of storm-petrel and murrelet that can be found in the United States?
I have to admit that I abstained from the CBC this year, prizing personal comfort over citizen science. Anyway, two species of nuthatch are visible from my toasty warm kitchen, so let’s give this weekend’s honors to White-breasted Nuthatch. Did you partake in any Christmas Bird Count excitement this weekend? How about you?
It feels good to start a post with some truly attractive birds – such as two species of broadbills. Strangely, there do not seem to be many papers on this species. In one paper , you can find fascinating sentences such as “The new species is most similar to D. My cats refuse to even try Fiery Minivets.
Lago de Yojoa, Honduras, February 2009 Let’s say that you are a serious birder on your first trip to the neotropics and are hoping to see as many species as possible. We watched Purple Gallinules , Pied-billed Grebes , several species of swallow, Great-tailed Grackles , and every other bird that crossed our paths.
When I look at all these changes condensed into one mesmerizing blog post, the differences seem staggering. Email lists, blogs, websites, forums, Facebook groups, and of course eBird (see below) has completely revolutionized the way birders get their business handled. Let’s get to it then. 2) The internet has changed everything.
I'm reposting what I wrote as I rarely do any original writing for this blog anymore. Please note the vast generalizations here, but, in the areas of religion, at least orthodox religion and there are varying levels of how fundamental you want to go, there is only one species with a soul and that is the human.
Utility,” co-authored with Brian Sullivan, Michael O’Brien, Chris Wood, Ian Lewington, and Richard Crossley ( Birding , November 2009) proposed a standard avian species order for field guides, apart from the ever-changing AOS taxonomic order. Species are useful handles (p. 16, below).”
Among these white-headed/dark-winged gulls formerly lumped into the genus Larus , there were 18+ recognized species the last time I checked, sharing similarities that make telling them apart for the amateur birdwatcher very difficult. 1998), then the proper name for this species is L. fuscus – should be separated as species.
Darren Naish, in his great blog at Scientific American (Which, if you’re not ready, why aren’t you reading it?) It’s Critically Endangered, and that’s about as bad as it gets before a species is lost. I’ll be tipping my cash to a worthwhile project in Peru, and I hope you will too.
I do not get too many comments on my blog posts, but it seems that whenever I write about jacanas – whether in Africa, Australia, or Asia – there is an unusually high number of reactions (well, maybe one or two rather than the usual zero) from female readers. This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). That means that.
Before my trip to Washington the only species of puffin I had ever seen in the wild was the puffin of the Atlantic Ocean, the appropriately named Atlantic Puffin. The first obstacle was getting to the general range of the species, which is the west coast from northern California to Alaska and across to Russia.* I love puffins.
White-bellied Parrot was one of many target species at either of the canopy towers. ” At first light, many of the larger canopy species commute and call from the canopy: parrots, cotingas, guans, and toucans. Time for conversation, discussion about culture, cuisine, science, or politics, and the sightings of that morning.
Such an embarrassingly populist title of a blog post should obviously be followed by some dry facts. There are 17 different species of them, a few of them endangered, particularly some island endemics. Fear not, science has an answer: about 1.16 How to distinguish the two species, as they look somewhat similar?
Erika is a first year graduate student studying Ecosystem Science and Conservation at Duke. She has contributed many pieces to 10,000 Birds and writes about her birding adventures on her blog, newbirder.tumblr.com. Now, I don’t want anyone in the blogging audience to be alarmed.
Even if you don’t live in the summer range of a particular species, you may have opportunities to observe it while it passes through, especailly if you live in an active flyway, like I happen to. In one simple blog post, it is impossible to address even the most basic questions about bird migration. Well, not really.
Hunting sandhill cranes in Kentucky is a bad idea from a public relations standpoint, considering the growing cadre of birders and nature enthusiasts for whom cranes are a touchstone species. Initiating a hunting season on a large, charismatic species like a crane is no way to resuscitate hunting. I overlooked the date.
That’s pretty amazing–Bolivia has more bird species than India! The source of this ranking, BirdLife International, lists Bolivia as currently having 1,439 bird species, including 18 breeding endemics. The guide covers 1,433 species, the number of birds documented at the end of 2014, the cutoff point for the book.
Like the other species of seabird on the island they are the subject of long term studies by PRBO Conservation Science (formerly Point Reyes Bird Observatory), and in order to get good data sets large numbers of birds are banded each year (around 800 per year). well pretty much roll around in the stuff.
It may be as sick as deliberately targeting an endangered species for death. Birders know that the light’s not always perfect or even particularly good when you’re trying to tell one species from another. Speculation is useless in acts of vandalism. It may be as simple as trying to hit the big white one. The big white one. It flies on.
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