10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

It provides goals and a definite direction for your birding travels and thoughts; sometimes it even becomes the basis of a book! In 2012, I reviewed The Jewel Hunter , an absorbing narrative in which author Chris Goodie travelled throughout Asia, Africa, and Australasia to observe and photograph every Pitta species in the world.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Bolivia Ecuador 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

His second book on migration is a tale of many birds and many research studies all connected by the theme of migration and by his thoughtful narrative voice. The book is organized into ten chapters, framed by a Prologue and Epilogue focused on Weidensaul’s banding experience in Denali National Park.

Cyprus 249

Cyprus Slaughtered Slaughter Research 249

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

The book is chiefly about how people have conceptualized and studied birds, but there is an underlying theme, the changing ways in which our Western culture has viewed animals, nature and God. It’s a huge scope for a 338-page book. Common Guillemot research at Skomer Island, Wales.

Dissection 215

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs 215

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2022

Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not consciously presented this way, but as I read the book, I really did feel that Klem was writing as he talks, putting into text the many presentations he has done over the years. FLAP is the Fatal Light Awareness Program, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and this is how they raise awareness.

New York City 252

New York City Illinois Science Killing 252

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2024

Several where-to-find-birds books have been published, including ones by Steve Mills, Dave Gosney (both covering northern Greece), Steve Dudley (Lesvos), etc., Several where-to-find-birds books have been published, including ones by Steve Mills, Dave Gosney (both covering northern Greece), Steve Dudley (Lesvos), etc.,

Greece 246

Greece Spain India Europe 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

” The book in question is Birds of Bolivia: Field Guide , edited and written by Sebastian K. 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. ″ x 9.5″x

Bolivia 171

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 171

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2014

True, because of higher precipitation, more luxurious vegetation and higher diversity of altitudes and habitats, east Macedonia and Thrace may offer better birding and a longer bird list, but for those, there is a more informative new book, Birdwatching in Northern Greece – a site guide by Steve Mills (2011, 2nd edition).

Greece 217

Greece Macedonia Birds 2014 217

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Everyone is looking back on their best birds of 2019, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a book that looks back a little further: Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City , by P. Because, as this book demonstrates so well, it is sometimes important to look back in order to move forward. “Wait!”

New York City 148

New York City New York Birds Breeding 148

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Navarro’s exceptional drawings illustrate the species accounts. Forty-eight species. Compare, for example, the species account illustration of the Cuban Trogon with the photo that opens up the introductory chapter. The luxury of space means that each species can be shown from various angles and in distinctive poses.

Cuba 228

Cuba Birds 2000 United States 228

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2019

And the book is about much more, ripple effects from what happens when part of a living thing becomes the central ingredient to a highly visual, social, profitable business. I did often wonder while reading the book whether the result equaled the effort. The late Victorian age was not a good time to be an egret!

Virginia 118

Virginia Portland Industry New York City 118

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2021

Every now and then you read a book which you believe should be read by everyone on the planet. Nature’s Best Hope by American entomologist and conservationist, Doug Tallamy, is such a book. Insects and a host of other invertebrate life have evolved with these plant species, and thus depend on them.

North America 262

North America Wildlife Mammals Breeding 262

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2015

Producing a book about birds and nesting is a dangerous business. Some people love books like that. I’m happy to say that Laura Erickson and Marie Read have written a book, Into the Nest: Intimate Views of the Courting, Parenting, and Family Lives of Familiar Birds , that is not too cute and that does not anthropomorphize.

Eggs 263

Eggs 2006 Family New York 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2018

Fun fact: only three species in the lower 48 states are not protected by that statute – the House Sparrow, Rock Pigeon, and Common Starling.). The book, handsome and hefty, is meant to “commemorate and amplify” the Year of the Bird initiative –but it’s a self-celebration of sorts, too. As happy as, well, larks.

Minnesota 121

Minnesota Protesting Protest Protesters 121

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It took me a while to wrap my mind around the concept of Birds and People , Mark Cocker and David Tipling’s book that, in 592 pages, explores the intersection of just that—birds and us. Still, I found it a little disjointing that a book has been written about our relationship with birds. So, I just sit here, amazed at this book.

Egypt 210

Egypt Birds Albania Eagles 210

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2021

His latest book is The Real James Bond , available as a hardcover, an eBook and an audiobook. 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.”

Bahamas 343

Bahamas Philadelphia 2004 United States 343

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

No, Madagascar is the most famous for an endemic group of mammals: lemurs, sifakas, indri, aye-aye – in total, 112 endemic species and subspecies of lemurs alone! Still, there should be no problem with larger species that allow for longer observation time (e.g. Larger species, that is, excluding dolphins and whales.

Madagascar 239

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 239

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

But, sometimes an appreciation of birds and birding requires more than a reference book with images of birds and facts about their identifying field marks. There are large avian handbooks and small ‘how-to bird’ guides, and quite a few excellent books of both types have been published. And, each essay tells a story.

North America 115

North America Birds Prairie Dogs Barn Owls 115

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2018

The theft of some “dead birds” captures his imagination, and by the end of the book we’ve traveled with him around the world as he talks to famous fly tiers,* the Tring police, and Rist himself, seeking for the truth behind the story. Seriously, this book is crying out for a movie treatment!). Mostly adult males.

Collecting 103

Collecting Iraq Ostriches Science 103

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2011

Be warned, The Atlas of Birds is not a map book, though it does contain maps, lovely orange and purple and green bird distribution maps. And, it is not a coffee table book, though it is on the large size (11 x 8.5) It is pretty amazing how much information Mike Unwin compresses into the book’s 144 pages.

Albatross 195

Albatross Campaign Protection Birds 195

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2016

This is a very good thing; it means they publish a lot of books about birds (probably more at this point than U.S. This is a hefty book, 560 pages long and dimensions of 6.3 Over 3,200 photographs have been used, most showing species in their habitats. British birders are very serious about birding and their birds.

Ireland 142

Ireland Birds Falcons Turtles 142

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

Life Along the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Gateway to a Million Shorebirds , by Lawrence Niles, Joanna Burger, and Amanda Dey, is a book with a mission. The numbers, as detailed in this book, are alarming: the horseshoe crab harvest grew from less than 100,000 in 1992 to over 2.5 million in the late 1990’s.

Delaware 178

Delaware New Jersey Eggs Research 178

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2023

The (Big) Year that Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record – which is the book’s full title, or Arjan Dwarshuis’s Big Year, as I prefer to call it shortly, is a highly anticipated and a long awaited travelogue of the author’s 2016 race against time across 40 countries in his attempt to break the world birding record.

Papua New Guinea 246

Papua New Guinea Guinea Suriname Brazil 246

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2022

Even so, we do have some sandpipers and plovers around; there have been recent reports of Surfbirds and various other wading species. Their local guide excitedly confirmed the bird as a Harpy Eagle (only the most dearly wanted species for every birder in Costa Rica), took photos and video, and spread the news.

Costa Rica 187

Costa Rica Eagles West Virginia Albatross 187

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

It is the 100th Anniversary of the extinction of the species known as the Passenger Pigeon and writers are paying attention. What is amazing is that each of these three books is very different in content and tone. This is not that kind of book, as Fuller makes clear from the beginning. We have a lot of source material.

2014 160

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 160

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

The Nature of The Meadowlands , a photographic book by Jim Wright, presents the tale, and though you may be thinking that you live in Ohio, so this book is not for you, it is worth paying attention. Fortunately, the book starts with an introduction to the places that comprise the 30.4 square mile area along the Hackensack River.

New Jersey 145

New Jersey Legislation Mammals Pigs 145

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

The descriptions of the territory’s birds, seals, whales, introduced mammals, invertebrates, and plants are written within the framework of the conversationist, so it is more than a field guide, it is a record of endangered wildlife and the efforts being made to protect it. The temptation will be to jump to the Wildlife sections.

Georgia 173

Georgia Penguins Wildlife Whales 173

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

The opening beautifully encapsulates the essence of the book. She doesn’t know the species till it emerges, almost dreamlike, from the heavy glare of the sun. Fox encounters 69 species, some singly, some in huge feeding or migrating flocks. We are all suckers for an albatross, at least in the United States.

Fox 100

Fox Albatross Geese Bald Eagle 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2019

To give an idea of what I mean by “birdy”, although Costa Rica is similar in size to West Virginia, more than 920 species have been recorded within the borders of this southern Central American country. With so many species to choose from, it’s far from easy to decide which merit inclusion.

Costa Rica 113

Costa Rica Parrots West Virginia Birds 113

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2023

This is how it looks like: Or at sunset: A species I did not come for from Shanghai is the Black-crowned Night Heron. They look crap but presumably offer some protection for the chicks, though not from each other (see the murderous activities within the nests in my previous post ). Yes, we have them in Shanghai as well.

Birds 213

Birds Elephants Eagles Rhinoceros 213

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2022

The stars of the bird world take many forms and fame is often related to location but some species, some cool groups of birds are accorded priority no matter when or where they are seen. The Olive-crowned Yellowthroat is one of Costa Rica’s resident wood-warbler species. 13 Warbler Stars from the North.

Costa Rica 274

Costa Rica Nashville Tennessee Turtles 274

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

Or, Pygmy leaf-folding frogs, Afrixalus brachycnemis, from Tanzania, tiny climbing frogs who lay their eggs in leaves and then fold the leaves over them for protection, sealing the nest with secretions. This is what happens when you read a book like Frogs and Toads of the World , by Chris Mattison.

Reptiles 183

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 183

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2020

Having more than 1300 bird species, including over 75 endemics, it is hard to resist the lure of India – something I know from personal experience. Bikram Grewal is the author of over ten books on birds of the subcontinent and also acts as a consultant on eco-tourism. Yet, with larger protected areas things get more complicated.

India 240

India Lions 2020 Groups 240

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

And, to give his dream year a little more oomph, he created a grand once-in-a-lifetime goal: to track down and see every pitta species in the world in one year. This is the birding adventure book supreme. I’m reading a book about a man who is doing a Pitta Big Year,” I say. And mosquitos. And leeches.

Hunters 190

Hunters Sri Lanka Asia Solomon Islands 190

10,000 Birds

MAY 2, 2017

Once again thanks to the good folks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt we here at 10,000 Birds are giving away books! Carrie reviewed the book here and, like me, she has a soft spot for Pete Dunne’s prose. But enough about the book! One of our email subscribers chosen at random will win one of the copies of the book.

North America 162

North America Falcons Eagles Birds 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 25, 2019

Focusing on an often under-appreciated portion of the continent, the book showcases forty species found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio – but perhaps not for long. The result is a book that invites and doesn’t exhaust the reader. I honestly found it in many ways quite hopeful.

Indiana 126

Indiana Downers Iowa Illinois 126

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2019

But I insisted he try the blood and violence guy, and he humored me, only to send me, later, a longish email, pointing out the flaws in my judgment and in the book and the author, and closing with this: “Since I didn’t care for any of his characters, I really didn’t care who killed whom.”. Fair enough.

2018 131

2018 Humane Laws Suffering 131

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2019

From the Amazon basin through the towering Andes to the endemic-rich Choco, it is possible to observe 600 species in two weeks and even 800 in three weeks – they could all find themselves on your life list. Birds of Ecuador” is a heavy book, but only marginally more than e.g. Helm Birds of East Africa. Still, is it hefty?

Ecuador 146

Ecuador South America 2006 Venezuela 146