10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2019

But the way it is, familiarity breeds (relative) contempt. The Cattle Egret (or Eastern Cattle Egret , to be exact, but that would mess with my alphabetic order) can be seen in farmland around Shanghai. Instead of cattle, it nowadays often follows tractors ploughing the fields and thus stirring up small animals.

Germany 187

Germany Cattle Blackbirds Birds 187

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2024

This indicates peak breeding condition, but by May their pouches are back to pale yellow again. Both species of pelicans breed on the lake, with the Dalmatians the more numerous. The latter is a relatively new colonist, and has recently been joined by Cattle Egret, though the latter remains scarce.

Pelicans 246

Pelicans Greece Fish Bulgaria 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2024

Few birds sport such magnificent breeding plumage as the male ruff, but not a single bird showed more than a hint of this plumage. These ruffs still had a 1,000 or more miles to fly to reach their northern breeding grounds. They were sharing the same habitat as the resident Kentish Plovers, the only wader to breed here.

Cyprus 246

Cyprus Tethering Breeding Cattle 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2021

Whiskered Terns will breed in this area if the conditions are right. Attempting a photograph of the cattle beside the highway was pointless, because you only got photographs of locusts! It is hard to make it possible for you to appreciate the huge numbers of both Whiskered Terns and locusts that have been flying around in recent weeks.

Cattle 264

Cattle Breeding Family Rights 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2012

The lush pastures of the Aripo Livestock Station sustained herds of happy Buffalypso , a special breed of T&T beef cattle named for their Water Buffalo heritage and Calypso-happy country. Where we entered the area, the savannah seemed more like Aripo Ranch. In fact, it was. In that regard, Aripo was amazing.

Trinidad 237

Trinidad Cattle Fast Food Blackbirds 237

10,000 Birds

MAY 21, 2013

A Little Blue Heron/Tri-colored Heron hybrid was reported from Arizona in 1964 and a Little Blue Heron/Cattle Egret suspect was reported from California in 1989. Since then, there have been a handful of records of this rare breeding occurrence. .

Arizona 231

Arizona Florida Cattle California 231

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2011

Kentish Plover / Credit: Jane Stylianou It’s just the thing that I thought birders from outside of Cyprus would want to hear that I had to share it in full: BirdLife Cyprus conducts yearly waterbird breeding counts. Only six pairs of Little Terns Sternula albifrons nested at Larnaca wetlands along with another pair at Oroklini Marsh.

Cyprus 224

Cyprus Ducks Cattle Breeding 224

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2012

If it still breeds in Germany at all, which it might do, it is so rare by now that pairs do not get reported to anywhere except to the relevant nature conservation authorities. Cattle is mostly kept in housings in Germany (sadly), and cattle out on a pasture is a rare sight in our landscape. What on earth? That was it.

Cattle 164

Cattle Germany Iran Breeders 164

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2020

If you see 50 cattle egrets following a plough on a rice paddy, less so. Flashy when breeding, camouflaged when not (or when young). While most egrets are not a big draw for experienced birders, they are often the ones that non-birders find the most impressive. So, here are some of the species living in Nanhui, Shanghai.

Singapore 249

Singapore Fish Cattle Breeding 249

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2021

My outing’s total count for water-dependent waterfowl, shorebirds, herons, gulls, and terns (I’m leaving land-loving Cattle Egrets out of this count) was around 120; the count for a similar date in 2018 was around 2000 individuals. A single Laughing Gull turned up in his breeding plumage, several months early.

San Francisco 264

San Francisco 2018 Mexico Ducks 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2013

According to the Florida Breeding Bird Atlas, the first confirmed breeding record was in Miami in July of 1938. Large swaths of the Everglades were being drained to make way for cattle ranching, citrus groves, and low density housing that included many overgrown, weedy lots. Petersburg area and Cape Canaveral.

Florida 235

Florida Virgin Islands Miami Breeders 235

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

Then about a 100 km to the Ismarida Lake and Porto Lagos lagoons for breeding and migrating waders. The first thing to appear was its yellow bill – a locally rare Cattle Egret ! From there to the nearby Evros River Delta, at the very border with Turkey, with more easterly species such as the Spur-winged Plover.

Greece 297

Greece Bulgaria Serbia 2000 297

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2020

But all this changed with the arrival of Europeans, and their cattle. Also, as ranchers increasingly moved their free-range cattle into feedlots, they settled down and became incredibly numerous. The Brown-headed “Bison-birds” learned to be Cowbirds, and expanded their range coast-to-coast, and into almost all of Mexico.

Blackbirds 218

Blackbirds Mexico Cattle Birds 218

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

The population of parrotlets they studied was located on one of the many huge hatos (cattle ranches) in the Venezuelan llanos, a vast swath of flat flooded savannah in the central third of the country that drains into the Rio Orinoco. You don’t really know a bird until you’ve studied it on its breeding grounds. The Auk 108: 863-871.

Eggs 269

Eggs Venezuela Porcupines 2008 269

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Ferruginous Hawks breed in the grasslands of eastern Montana, but they are rare in the mountains and in winter, so this bird was certainly a surprise. A vast congregation of Bald Eagles kept watch over a herd of cattle about to calve, up to seven in a single tree — no doubt awaiting delicious placentas.

Bald Eagle 232

Bald Eagle Falcons Geese Montana 232

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2022

Bologna La Grassa may revel in the indulgence of its Parma ham, lasagne, and rich, fatty ragùs, and Venice may boast the bounty of the sea, but the rugged, hilly homeland of the ancient Etruscans is undoubtedly cattle country. Of course, a land of beefeaters needs butchers.

2019 264

2019 Butcher Livestock 2006 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2020

Striated Heron in breeding plumage – extra plumes and blue lores. The cows and their entourage of Cattle Egrets sloshed through the pastures, each time they moved we lurched forward hoping to see a disturbed Grey-breasted Crake hop into view – but alas, no such luck even though we were hearing the little skulkers consistently.

Livestock 264

Livestock ALA Ducks illegal 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2021

Cattle Egrets have perfected that smudgy look. Breeding in Northern Japan and wintering in the Phillippines, some seem to take a migratory rest stop (and slight deviation) at the Shanghai coast. ” This is probably an Eastern Crowned Warbler. But do we really care? ” Hm.

LACS 264

LACS Birds France Japan 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2014

I had been contacted by Bill at Birds & Beans Coffee, a wonderful shade-grown distributor I’d been using for a few years, to help do a breeding bird survey on a local organic farm. Barn Swallows lined up on the wires outside his cattle barn and Grasshopper Sparrows sang unseen from uncut hayfields. Pretty sweet.

North Carolina 207

North Carolina Farming United States North America 207

10,000 Birds

JULY 29, 2021

For most species, the breeding season ends by the end of June and the majority of songbirds are silent and invisible now. mi farther on, there is a dirt track to the left, worth exploring in the breeding season ( Eurasian Penduline Tit , Moustached , Sedge , Eurasian Reed , Great Reed and Savi’s Warblers ).

Farming 264

Farming Fish Birds Boars 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

The other part of its attractiveness may be coming from the fact that it breeds in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – countries seldom visited by foreign birders. Part of its attraction lies in it being a monotypic bird in the family Hypocoliidae – there are no other bird species in its genus and family.

Iran 252

Iran India Pakistan Afghanistan 252

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2024

Meadow Pipits are abundant breeding birds on the moors Romaldkirk produced most of the village birds we could expect: there were House Martins and Swifts, Chaffinches and House Sparrows, plus Jackdaws on the church (which dates from Saxon times, more than a thousand years ago).

Sheep 246

Sheep Breeding Ducks Hunters 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2020

Having observed the Cattle Egret in breeding plumage at the Derby Poo Ponds on June 19th we found ourselves at Windjana Gorge first thing the following morning. As we all well know there is something very different about 2020. Following on from our first camping trip for 2020 we took another camping trip a bit further afield.

2020 264

2020 Australia Cattle Groups 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2023

We also observed nests of Pygmy Cormorants , Dalmatian Pelicans , Little Egrets , Cattle Egret (with a chick), Squacco Heron , and Spoonbills. However, during a storm the chains that kept it anchored broke off and the raft is now stranded on the shore, accessible to stray dogs and not used for breeding.

Greece 246

Greece Pelicans Stray Dog Tortoises 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius. The chance that this was a real Turkey are not great, and the chance that Columbus actually brought breeding stock from Honduras to Spain is not great, so maybe, maybe not.

Turkey 260

Turkey Columbus Spain Fowl 260

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2018

Depending on your particular interest, opt for March/April (spring migration), May/June (breeding season), August to October (autumn migration), or November/December when waterbird migration reaches its peak. Breeding season May – June , 261 eBirded species (yet, only about 242 breed in the country).

Serbia 189

Serbia Macedonia Geese Owls 189

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2014

In the breeding season, some 50 species were recorded here, including Little Bittern and Golden Oriole , both unusually easy to see, as well as Ferruginous Duck , Red-backed Shrike and Penduline T**s that bred here this spring – but all I managed to see was their nest ( again ) and not the inhabitants!

Serbia 247

Serbia Stray Dog Botswana Protection 247

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

Kazakhstan – May 2009 After our excellent time at the Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve we bid a fond farewell to its gorgeous grassy terrain and made our way to a location where Sociable Lapwing were known to breed. Well, that is almost too much to ask for!

Kazakhstan 170

Kazakhstan Cows 2009 Endangered Species 170

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

Habitat destruction combined with hunting has pushed them away from their former breeding grounds. In breeding season grazing cattle may walk through the nest, breaking the eggs, while wild and domestic pigs may eat both eggs and chicks. Bustards are being counted in February because their breeding season starts in March.

Serbia 150

Serbia Romania Hungary Hunting 150

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Not that long ago, Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, rainforests were razed to make way for hot and chiggery cattle pasture, and bot flies probably became more numerous than some bird populations.

Costa Rica 270

Costa Rica Species Panama Falcons 270

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2011

So barren in fact it is not uncommon to find this grassland species occupying the same habitat as cattle or areas with high degree of human disturbance. I feel blessed to live in Colorado where I can see these beauties in migration and breeding. These Mountain Plovers , as you can see, are so cryptic in their environment.

Prairie Dogs 200

Prairie Dogs Colorado North Dakota Soreing 200

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 13, 2012

That Cattle Egret I found in Somerset County, August 2009? Birds of New Jersey , written by Joan Walsh, Vince Elia, Rich Kane, and Thomas Halliwell, published by New Jersey Audubon Society, was a landmark volume; 704-pages long, it presented results of the 1993-1997 New Jersey Breeding Bird Atlas. No wonder people were excited by it.)

New Jersey 250

New Jersey 2009 Bald Eagle New York City 250

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2021

One of this species’ many peculiarities is that it has a digestive system unique amongst birds: Hoatzins use bacterial fermentation in the front part of the gut to break down the vegetable material they consume, much as cattle and other ruminants do. We found Black-collared Swallows breeding in cracks among the lower riverside rocks.

Dolphins 264

Dolphins Colombia Otters Monkeys 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2018

Cattle fields surrounded the small town, the cows forming dark silhouettes against the rapidly graying skies. In truth, they breed inland and can even spend a good portion of the winter months on inland, freshwater bodies across the Southeast, Mexico, and California. Ring-billed Gulls in the fading evening light.

Kansas 138

Kansas Pelicans ALA Cows 138

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

On the ground we saw large numbers of Red-wattled Lapwings and White-tailed Lapwings , the latter of which breed at the site. Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters are something of a speciality, breeding here before flying off to Africa for the winter.

United Arab Emirates 176

United Arab Emirates UAE Oman Feral 176

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

On the ground we saw large numbers of Red-wattled Lapwings and White-tailed Lapwings , the latter of which breed at the site. Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters are something of a speciality, breeding here before flying off to Africa for the winter.

United Arab Emirates 174

United Arab Emirates UAE Oman Feral 174

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2018

Since 1966, when the Breeding Bird Survey first began monitoring, numbers have declined 79 percent. Research indicates that this decline can be tempered by management of cattle grazing practices, preventing growth of shrubs and trees and the invasion of non-native plants.

North Dakota 197

North Dakota Sparrows Birds Blackbirds 197