10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

The source of this ranking, BirdLife International, lists Bolivia as currently having 1,439 bird species, including 18 breeding endemics. But, the numbers are quite large, and the birds organized in groupings that, for the most part, make it an easy process to figure out which Antwren (or Woodcreeper or Seedeater) is which.

Bolivia 169

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 169

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

In the Peterson field guide tradition, text and range maps are on the left and illustrations are on the right (though, unlike the tradition Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America there are no arrows pointing to field marks). Each species account lists the basics—common name, scientific name, measurements in inches and centimeters.

El Salvador 230

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 230

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2024

The Sinaloa Martin is a large swallow, which seems to breed only along a narrow band of the Sierra Madre Occidental, in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, and Jalisco. It sports the intense purple back and head of its close relative, the Purple Martin , which is found in much of North America (summer) and South America (winter).

Mexico 203

Mexico South America 2020 America 203

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.” But, unlike most books focused on a bird family, this one is organized geographically. The full-length species accounts are not repeated.

Penguins 277

Penguins New Zealand Georgia Albatross 277

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with. A few years ago, in the American Birding Association FB group I posted a question: Where would you go if funds weren’t a problem? Day after day went by, with much sound but no sight of the peacocks.

Congo 264

Congo Africa South Africa Madagascar 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.” (Can

America 212

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 212

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

These large seedeaters (belonging to the weaver family) are so named for the generally black plumage of the adult male, resembling a widow in mourning. The 9 species of whydah are brood-parasitic seedeaters belonging to the Indigobird family. Africa’s impressive Long-tailed Widowbird by Adam Riley. Widowbirds. Sugarbirds.

Papua New Guinea 232

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 232

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2013

And now we enter into a family of birds more or less unknown to non-birders. And truth told, over the years they’ve been something of a square peg for ornithologists too, not fitting precisely into any of the known families of birds. But that’s a group for a different time. Horned Grebe , photo by Julie Gidwitz.

Jordan 188

Jordan Birds Guatemala South America 188

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Their taxonomic affinities have caused great confusion and debate amongst ornithologists; they were originally assigned to the thrush family, then Old World warblers before being shifted to babblers (the last mentioned a common dumping-ground for any aberrant passerines). A dancing Blue Crane , South Africa’s national bird.

South Africa 216

South Africa Lesotho Africa Swaziland 216

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2014

It also supports the greatest variety of large mammals in all of South America, including such iconic species as Maned Wolf and Giant Anteater. It was a poignant and ironic sight to see them in the process of breeding right next to that barn at the edge of the park. There are approximately 10,000 plant species in the Cerrado.

Brazil 167

Brazil South America Collecting America 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Duck : “any of various swimming birds (family Anatidae, the duck family) in which the neck and legs are short, the feet typically webbed, the bill often broad and flat, and the sexes usually different from each other in plumage.”. Some entries include etymology (word history) information. But I’m no lexicographer.

Albatross 103

Albatross Bears Ducks Bald Eagle 103

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

The big book (2017 edition, let’s call it the ABG ) covers 747 breeding residents or regular migrants, 29 introduced species, and 160 vagrants, a total of 936 species (I’m assuming the revised edition includes a few birds that were missed because of the cutoff point, I don’t have it in hand).

Australia 230

Australia Birds 2017 Groups 230

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2019

I hesitated because a 496-page book about two skulky neotropical bird groups is a little intimidating. Antpittas and Gnateaters covers 64 species in six genera and two families. (I Here’s Plate 3, the third plate for Conopophaga , one of the two genera of the Gnateater family. Antpittas and Gnateaters by Harry F.

Research 136

Research Eggs South America Costa Rica 136

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

Picidae, Woodpecker, is one of those charismatic bird families that everybody gets excited about. Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide is the first major guide to family Picidae in 20 years. Unless the woodpecker is drumming a hole into your garage, and then, well, it’s a different kind of excitement.)

Woodpeckers 236

Woodpeckers Europe 2002 Research 236

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2018

Gulls of the World is meant to cover more geographic area (add South America, Australia and the Arctic and any other parts of the world not covered in the first book) and less detail. I suppose this works with such a small family, but it made my librarian brain ache just a little bit. Browsing through this book is tough.

2004 143

2004 North America America Europe 143