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Some Hokkaido Winter Passerines

10,000 Birds

Given how far Hokkaido is from Europe, it seems a bit surprising how many bird species wintering on this Japanese island have a name starting with “Eurasian” Or how many of these species I have also seen in my parents’ garden in Germany. It seems extra-pair paternity is very frequent in this species.

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Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The book is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Avifaunal Overview,” and “Species Accounts.” The authors’ detailed delineation of problems with the accuracy of NYC breeding bird surveys or with the limits of historical writings may test a reader’s patience. Most birders will go straight to the “Species Accounts.”

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15 Australian Birds (Episode 6)

10,000 Birds

According to Tim Low (in “Where Song began”), “so easy were they to breed that by 1859 they cost less to buy in London than in Sydney.” ” Funny how the difficulty of breeding a species can be illustrated in simple monetary terms. We even had some chicks – not that this was a big achievement.

Australia 147
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How The Bird Got Its Beak

10,000 Birds

The feature distinguishes birds from other species; All birds have them, no other species do. Beaks vary across different kinds of birds, and this great diversity in beaks is part of the great diversity of the 10,000+ species of birds that exist today; Beaks thus facilitated the diversification of birds. So how did beaks evolve?

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Do birds avoid predators because of culture?

10,000 Birds

Where predators are rare, turning more attention to feeding might produce a Darwinian benefit, for example. Most likely, all individuals of a given species have very similar genes guiding very similar developmental processes, but produce different results because the plasticity itself is selected for. Invasion of the birdie snatchers.

Birds 122
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Great Egrets and the reliability of field marks

10,000 Birds

I was still telling the truth when I mentioned the four subspecies, species, taxa, forms, you name it, of the Great Egret: modesta (Asia), alba (Europe, Asia), egretta (Americas) and melanorhynchos (Africa). alba : yellow in non-breeding season (usually less bright than egretta ), entirely black in breeding season. This is easy.

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Gulls Simplified: A Gull Book Review

10,000 Birds

Even more than warbler, shorebird, and sparrow identification, this is a field that tests our endurance (gull watching is too often done in bitter cold, windy conditions), patience (even getting one good photo can take hours as you try to separate the ‘interesting gull’ from the flock), observational skills (so many plumages!)