10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

He goes on to describe how early classifications of the nine-primaried oscines relied on bill shape to determine family boundaries. A new perspective on tanagers Much of the core of the tanager family remains intact. Most of these birds are small, finch-like species with thick, conical bills for cracking seeds or eating insects.

2003 254

2003 Sparrows South America Family 254

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2014

Corey greatly enjoyed his weekend in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of upstate New York with family and friends. In addition to the camping and camaraderie he took some time to catch up to the local breeding birds of which there were quite a few. That level of cute is tough to top! What was your best bird of the weekend?

Colombia 189

Colombia 2014 New York Birds 189

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

In 2008, with my family decided to build the Limneo Lodge , a small accommodation with only 9 rooms. In the next year I visited the British Birdfair for the first time, which turned out to be the experience that changed my life. Next to them, Whiskered and Black Terns nest on floating leaves of White Water-lilies.

Greece 264

Greece Wildlife Boars Otters 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2011

Phoebes are proud members (at least they seem so) of the Family Tyrannidae , the tyrant flycatchers. Of the more than 400 tyrannids, as birds in this family are sometimes called, only three belong to the genus Sayornis , the phoebes. It is also one of the most recognizable with its rounded head and telltale tail pump.

Argentina 240

Argentina United States North America America 240

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In this first installment, I will focus on my impressions and experiences in the highlands portion of our tour. Many Neotropical families and genera have some of their northernmost members here, such as the spinetails ( Rufous-breasted Spinetail ), Tangara tanagers ( Azure-rumped Tanager ), and guans ( Horned Guan ).

Honduras 252

Honduras El Salvador Costa Rica Arizona 252

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

I am still tired from the long drive, but it was great to play with the very best toys for birders, to be able to share experiences and to ask the factory staff all sorts of silly questions. The Lake Neusiedl National Park is Europe’s westernmost steppe lake and an important breeding and wintering area, as well as a migratory stopover site.

Austria 299

Austria Factory Asia Battery 299

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

In the mean time, a family group of Black-throated Magpie-Jays were frolicking in the breeze high over the dry valley, showing off their exorbitantly long tail streamers. It did not take long before we had a family group of Tufted Jays right by the side of the road (KM 216) and an uncommon Gray-collared Becard at the same spot.

Mexico 235

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Bats 235

4 The Love Of Animals

JANUARY 24, 2012

Having a pet is a wonderful and rewarding experience. However, all too often, dog lovers choose a dog breed that they want without first considering how well that breed will fit in with their lifestyle. It’s easy to be taken by a specific breed and lose sight of the more important aspects of owning a pet.

Lifestyle 100

Lifestyle Breeding Dogs Rights 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

Red-billed Curassow ( Crax blumenbachii ), a large, ground-dwelling bird belonging to the same family as the more familiar Plain Chachalaca of southern Texas, was never a very widespread species. There are certain birding experiences that stay with you forever. Curassows are such stately birds. Photo courtesy of Ciro Albano.

California Condor 239

California Condor Brazil Parrots Texas 239

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Above them, on limestone cliffs, Alpine Swift and Crag Martin breed. The good side of this popularity is presence of restaurants and inns (from personal experience I can recommend a place for carnivores called Vodopad – By the waterfall). Forest covers 70% of the area (hornbeam, beech and oak).

Serbia 264

Serbia Woodpeckers Owls Eagles 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2020

Beginning this year, New York State embarked on its third-ever breeding bird atlas , and it’s the first one I’ve been able to participate in as a birder.

Farming 241

Farming New York Unwanted Breeding 241

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2021

It was a treat to see several wintering members of the esteemed Parulidae family. An uncommon species in Costa Rica, it was in a brushy area that reminded me of its breeding grounds. Always a fun time, this count involves boat trips, an abundance of Anhingas , and many other birds. Wintering Wood-warblers. Agami Heron. 171 Species.

Costa Rica 263

Costa Rica Wildlife Tennessee Owls 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. During breeding season, their white plumage turns a delicate pink color, a lovely sight indeed. The Saddle-billed Stork has a similar Africa-wide distribution as the Marabou.

Africa 250

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 250

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2021

It is not a concept for a total beginner, more of a reminder to someone with some experience. of January 2019, which resulted in 10,711 species, 40 orders, 246 families and 2,313 genera. With about 35 species per plate (but in a much larger format, too), Collins Birds of the World has a similar concept, minus the range maps.

Botswana 264

Botswana Africa Ecuador Birds 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

So much so that the two species are placed within their own family, Chaetopidae. Breeding groups typically occupy territories of around 8 hectares and consist of a breeding pair and one or two helpers. Breeding groups typically occupy territories of around 8 hectares and consist of a breeding pair and one or two helpers.

South Africa 257

South Africa Penguins Africa Birds 257

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2020

Those of us in the United States are celebrating Memorial Day Weekend, normally a time to gather with friends and family for barbecues, beach outings, and other fun group activities. While Mike was busy looking for breeding wood-warblers I spent my time scouring Queens for something new for my year list.

2020 193

2020 United States Breeders New York 193

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2013

But why on earth would you want to go to some sewage ponds when there are so many ways to experience debauchery and dissolution in Las Vegas itself? Avocets, Black-necked Stilts , and Spotted Sandpipers breed at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. Birds, of course! ( As Clare well knows! ) Get out of the casinos and into nature!

Las Vegas 245

Las Vegas Nevada Birds Blackbirds 245

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2012

The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes , endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed , restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. However this classification is no longer widely accepted, and in my opinion quite correctly so.

Sierra Leone 274

Sierra Leone Ghana Equatorial Guinea Cameroon 274

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

Hey, in 1959 Walt Disney set up a studio on the island and filmed Swiss Family Robinson there! I did however manage to be in the right place at the right time to experience a gang of Magnificent Frigatebirds that had a Red-footed Booby surrounded. Both Brown and Red-footed Boobies actively breed on Little Tobago as well as Saint Giles.

Fish 262

Fish Rights Breeding Species 262

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

Spot-breasted Oriole, attending its nest In my experience, male Spot-breasted Orioles begin to sing in the first half of March through most of May on the very same perch in the very same tree every day in spring. The young followed the parents around in small family groups well after they had fledged.

Miami 197

Miami Costa Rica Florida 2005 197

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Steve Howell has spent decades of experience in the field studying the birds of Belize, Costa Rica, and especially Mexico. Checklist for Belize lists 622 species in 76 families, of which 104 are rare or accidental and four introduced. This is particularly helpful for bird families that might be new to birders.

Costa Rica 246

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 246

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2011

For 9 months of the year, this great, bellowing herd can be found in the Serengeti and watching the long lines of grunting wildebeest moving across the plains is truly a remarkable experience. And of course the big game is an added bonus. Only bull African Elephants reside in the Ngorongoro Crater The birding is equally astounding.

Tanzania 249

Tanzania Africa Stud Leopards 249

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2020

Species like the Gyrfalcon , the aerial powerhouse of the tundra, of stunning, breeding-plumaged May warblers. A locally owned company started by Birding Experiences founder and guide Diego Quesada (with whom I have watched Buff-breasted Sandpipers among other birds), CaraCara offers poster art of bird families that occur in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Birds Woodpeckers Species 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2015

Just like we did last year my family spent this past weekend camping at North Lake State Park, up in New York’s gorgeous Catskill Mountains. And, not surprisingly, the breeding birds present were largely the same species as last year which was not a problem at all! Eastern Kingbirds are always a pleasure. That’s my boy!

Birds 162

Birds New York Family Sparrows 162

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2024

As I have mentioned repeatedly over the past months, life this spring has gone topsy-turvy in central Mexico, as we experience what has certainly been one of our driest years in history. Motmots definitely make up one of the bird world’s glamour families. Western Mexico offers only one, the endemic Russet-crowned Motmot.

Mexico 246

Mexico South America 2020 America 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2011

Not to mention, its brilliantly bulbous crimson throat, bloated during breeding season must be a sight! They really appeared to enjoy this, because as soon as they swam back to the rocks they would line up again to repeat the experience. The Magnificent Frigatebird is the bird I would want to see. See who won the contest here!

Brazil 244

Brazil 2011 Birds Penguins 244

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

In my experience, I’ve noted how birders, particularly newer birders, can have a tendency to jump to conclusions when they see any sort of bird that doesn’t match up perfectly with the picture in the field guide. New Jersey mystery sparrow.

New Jersey 254

New Jersey North Carolina Sparrows Connecticut 254

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2022

A number of families exist on Trinidad but not Tobago. Most notably the family of New World Vultures. Eclipsing all that was seen previously on the trip (for me at least) was this breeding plumage Stripe-backed Bittern. No bitterns have ever been seen on Tobago, but Trinidad has three. American Flamingo.

Trinidad 278

Trinidad Turkey Squirrels Cows 278

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2014

That’s right, I, along with my family and some really good friends, was camping. And one that I have written about before when I was pleased to find Blackburnian Warblers like the one above breeding.). No, I wasn’t being punished, the apocalypse had not come, and I was putting myself through these privations voluntarily!

New York 183

New York Cooking Chipmunks Whales 183

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

A family motel and passion for responsible ecotourism brought her home to the Oregon Coast where she and her husband, Erik, adventure and record a podcast ( Hannah and Erik Go Birding ), created in an effort to inspire others to get out and bird. About half of all breeding Wandering Albatross nest on the Prince Edward Islands.

South Africa 264

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2019

Getting to actually see four species, in the last two weeks, and to hear two more is almost unheard of in my experience. Last week, a good friend, Dan Weisz gave me a tip on the location of a family of Burrowing Owls that were extremely easy to access. It all started in getting to photograph the Northern Pygmy-owls in Madera Canyon.

Owls 194

Owls Arizona Tucson South Africa 194

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

” Landfill often made me wander off into some half-forgotten gulling experience of mine. In one of the first of Dee’s observations about gullers he calls them: “men leaving their homes and their families to spend time peering at arsey birds in some of the arseholes of the world.”.

Angola 228

Angola United Kingdom Mozambique Botswana 228

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2019

The Kerkini Lake National Park is my favourite birding area in the whole of the Balkans and while I’ve been here in April and again (migration), September (migration), October (coffee break), December and January (wintering), this was my first time in the breeding season, in May. But nowadays, they, too, breed here, about 20 pairs this year.

Greece 203

Greece Pelicans Buffalo Fish 203

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2011

Mike Freiberg grew up in Philadelphia, PA, where his family introduced him to the world of birding. His summers during college were spent as a biological technician, monitoring breeding birds for Point Reyes Bird Observatory in Eastern Oregon, and also five seasons in Black Hills, SD, working for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory.

Venezuela 160

Venezuela Brazil Iowa Guatemala 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2011

Filming the plovers of Estero Lagoon Plovers are a significant part of the shorebird family, comprising 66 species worldwide. This is an endemic breeding bird in North America and much is now being done by various federal and non-profit groups to ensure and foster its conservation.

Florida 232

Florida South Africa 2011 Africa 232

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Experiments in the field (the famed Asa Wright Nature Center veranda) involving Bananaquits and bananas came up with numbers ranging from 7 to 16, but a tanager always came along to interfere with Bananaquits’ noisy appreciation of their namesake fruit. Even during the breeding season the birds appear to be quite unwary of humans.

Trinidad 239

Trinidad South America Birds 2011 239

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 24, 2015

Green Herons , Eastern Kingbirds , Tree Swallows , Cedar Waxwings , and a host of other species were successful in breeding and there were a lot of birds around. I particularly enjoyed watching and digiscoping the Red-eyed Vireo family that was foraging low and in good light. And the pointy bill is the clincher.

Tennessee 165

Tennessee Collecting Experience Experiments 165