10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2014

Most were introduced, meaning they were brought to Florida by humans. These wild birds migrate out of Florida to northern breeding areas in the spring and are not present in Florida during the mottled duck breeding season. However, captive-reared mallards are being unlawfully released by humans in large numbers in Florida.

Florida 259

Florida Ducks New Zealand Feral 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2013

The Osprey is one of the true cosmopolitans of the avian world, found on six continents and breeding on five. It can and will live near most any body of water with an adequate supply of fish — fresh or brackish, wild or crowded with human activity. Because the stadium is by the river. And Osprey love them some nest platforms.

Bald Eagle 252

Bald Eagle Idaho Primates Eagles 252

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

Not sure if they are breeding but certainly they are trying, though I am not fully convinced of their competence. And of course there are passerines, some which spent the summer at Nanhui, some just returning from their breeding grounds elsewhere. Another new breeding record for Shanghai . Some cuckoo species. Brown Shrike.

Tigers 256

Tigers Breeding Cattle Bears 256

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2013

There are three things that will go wrong: 1) The inland zones that would become the new wetlands are already, in many cases, occupied by human-built things that will severely interfere with this process. Also, these human-occupied area are probably full of toxins and other impediments to normal use by wildlife. ” GL: Aha.

Maryland 271

Maryland Penguins Birds Wildlife 271

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2013

Its amazing to me that there are still places on earth where wildlife is blissfully unafraid of humans. It was made a National Park in the 1980s and is a major breeding and nesting area for over 30,000 seabirds. A male Magnificent Frigatebird in full breeding regalia. Red-billed Tropicbirds nest on these craggy cliffs.

Whaling 267

Whaling Whales Sharks Marine Life 267

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2023

While the P-a-P Wildfowl Trust’s main thrust is the breeding and release of five duck species, the habitat encourages a number of native wetland birds to inhabit and proliferate the area. Witnessing unbothered Blue-and-yellow Macaws lazily perusing the larder of moriche palm fruit ensures that thoughts of anything else all disappear.

Trinidad 264

Trinidad Ducks Birds Fish 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2014

There are two Painted Bunting populations, one that breeds along the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to Florida and one that breeds in the interior United States and northern Mexico from southeastern New Mexico to western Mississippi. The Atlantic Coast population lingers on the breeding grounds after nesting to molt.

Mississippi 278

Mississippi Mexico Alabama North Carolina 278

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

One of the more unusual additions to our local avifauna is the Common Hill Myna (not to be confused with Common Myna, a parking lot obligate in Miami), a popular bird in the pet trade due to its ability to mimic human speech. Common Hill Myna’s range in South Florida.

Miami 248

Miami Asia Florida Thailand 248

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2012

So it was with a superlative, breeding-plumaged, male Scarlet Tanager today at Jamaica Bay. Now Scarlet Tanagers are always a gorgeous bird, and if you walk by a breeding-plumaged male without looking not only are your credentials as a birder at stake but so are your credentials as a human being.

Jamaica 228

Jamaica Collecting 2009 Breeding 228

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2022

I assume this is because so many of them breed in the Arctic and tundra regions, so their summer is much briefer than that of other birds. Still, most of the birds were locals, including Fulvous Whistling-Ducks , Black-necked Stilts , and a lone American Avocet (still with a bit of breeding color). Let that be a lesson, to me.

Mexico 255

Mexico Breeding California Groups 255

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2013

Today, there are more than 3,000 birds at this accessible colony and they are protected by fences and stiff fines for human disturbance. The only other significant mainland breeding colony is based about an hour out of Cape Town on the east coast at a place called Betty’s Bay.

Penguins 250

Penguins South Africa Leopards Sharks 250

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

They can reach heights of up to 5 ft 7 inches, taller than many adult humans. They are not bound to wetlands the entire year and large groups of birds will disperse to dry grassland and savanna outside of the breeding season. This is worrying because paired birds generally only lay one egg and the breeding cycle can be very irregular.

Botswana 208

Botswana South Africa Africa Ethiopia 208

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2014

My Dark-eyed Juncos are trilling in preparation to retreat to quieter breeding grounds, the Black-Capped Chickadees sing their two notes, and the Song Sparrows absolutely will not shut up. Snow Geese overgrazing their breeding grounds, displacing other Arctic-breeding species and setting themselves up for a fall. The result?

Geese 237

Geese Montana Breeding Pelicans 237

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Luckily for them, even though they nest on the ground, they usually breed far from human habitation, under heavy vegetative cover. They form a monogamous relationship with a female each breeding season, but attempt (and sometimes succeed at) extra-pair copulations with other females. Click on photos for full sized images.

Ducks 224

Ducks North America Hunters California 224

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2013

It breeds in a broad and not quite coherent band from Iceland in the west through central Europe and southern Scandinavia all the way to eastern Russia, wintering in Africa, parts of India, and Southeast Asia to Australia. Aspect one is feeding when humans are not around.

Germany 232

Germany Russia Iceland India 232

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2012

So modest and retiring is this well named woodland recluse that it will not sing if it suspects humans are taking notice of it. Perhaps it feels some measure of security from human intervention in subdued light. It was a warm winter day and the bird seemed to be practicing its song for the breeding season to come. … a.

New York 235

New York United States Oregon Compassion 235

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

According to Wikipedia, these birds are good at multitasking, being “in some parts of its range … known as a symbol of luck, longevity, and fidelity” As in humans, “the social implications of dancing [among the cranes] are complex in meaning” ( source ). It seems that two Italian men have found a way to do both.

Eggs 263

Eggs Bald Eagle Birds Owls 263

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2012

This is our thirteenth year of observing Pied Oystercatchers breed along the coast near Broome and it gets easier every year! They always nest from the end of June and they always nest in the same place or within a few metres if there is disturbance around the breeding territory. They are so predictable!

Feral Cats 231

Feral Cats Turtles Eggs Investigation 231

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

As far as I know, White-rumped Snowfinches are not among the main prey of the Saker Falcon – but they associate with colonies of pika, using burrows for both roosting and breeding (HBW), so it makes sense to mention them here (plus I forgot to cover them in my earlier post on Ruoergai birds).

China 264

China Falcons Stray Owls 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2014

Let’s say you’re a bird wrapping up your breeding season in the north of Scotland—where do your thoughts turn when winter beckons? In either case, they’ve got a travel history that would leave most humans’ passports in the dust. Photo by Adam Rowlands/HEMEDIA. News geotagging migration Red-necked Phalarope Scotland UK'

Iceland 238

Iceland Stray Ecuador South America 238

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Apparently, this is another bird species that feels not so certain about flying (many humans have similar feelings). Citrine Wagtails are rare in Shanghai but apparently quite common around Chaka, though unfortunately most of the ones we saw were not in breeding plumage. I blame this on covid-19.

China 264

China Austria Birds ALA 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2022

Contrary to alleged preferences among humans, the golden-headed cisticola has a shorter tail during the breeding season ( source ). “She monitors Pied Oystercatchers breeding along a 23km stretch of beach by bicycle and on foot.” It breeds in tree holes, presumably explaining the more commonly used name for it.

Australia 259

Australia Koalas Parrots Birds 259

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Kirtland’s Warbler is a classic niche species; they breed in only very specific conditions, which occur in only a very specific area. this species breeds. Fortunately, there were still a handful of immature birds alive at sea, and a few years later they were back on Toroshima breeding again. Somebody won a Nobel Prize.

Albatross 253

Albatross Endangered Species Bald Eagle Alaska 253

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2020

The usual way to find an owl would be to listen to its territorial call in the breeding season (to listen and not to lure it – I oppose the playback ), but this species is even less vocal than most other owls. Population estimates from “Birds of Serbia: Breeding Population Estimates and Trends”, BirdLife Serbia, 2015.

Serbia 246

Serbia Owls Slovakia Croatia 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2024

Other researchers apparently tried to get their universities to fund their drone toys, resulting in papers with titles such as “The use of drones to study the breeding productivity of Whooper Swan “ Another finding does not come as a surprise to birders watching birds both from cars and on foot.

China 246

China Iceland Whaling Whales 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2022

Bird names say much about human perception, they can also give us insight into the people who invented names for official bird descriptions. Three live and breed here, two migrate through the country in large numbers (one of those also breeds here in small numbers), and another migrates through and winters in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 279

Costa Rica Pennsylvania South America Panama 279

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2021

On the other hand, in April, some other species start breeding here in Shanghai. Interestingly, these heronries frequently seem to be near highway exits – either because these relatively ugly places are less likely to be disturbed by humans, or because this shortens the commute of those birds working in downtown offices.

Birds 254

Birds Farming Alaska Breeding 254

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2012

And much of that time is spend loafing around the breeding colonies trying to pair off and engaging in silly-looking behaviours referred to as dancing by scientists. It can take over a year to raise a chick for the larger species, and even species that can fit their entire breeding cycle into one year tend not to breed in consecutive years.

Albatross 257

Albatross Raised Breeding Rights 257

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Every part of the world has it’s suite of parking lot staples, those urbanish species that seem to prefer to linger about humanity subsisting in no small amount to the magnanimity, or more likely the laziness, of humankind. And when you’re in the middle of your post-breeding molt, you need to do that a lot.

North Carolina 245

North Carolina Fast Food Sparrows Birds 245

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2016

For example, years ago, Eiton Tchenrov postulated that the wild progenitor of the domestic dog, some subspecies or another of wolf, could benefit from overlapping its breeding territory with human hunters. The humans tended to keep away a range of predators that might take the pups as a form of interference competition.

Alligators 176

Alligators Leopards Protection Rabbits 176

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2015

This is my first visit to this area, known as the Madz Brod, where two new breeding species for the country were discovered a decade ago. They are common winter visitors, but this is my first observation of them in the breeding season. Madz Brod by Slobodan Puzovic. At some rock faces we see juveniles on their nesting ledges.

Europe 250

Europe Serbia Russia ALA 250

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2022

In fact, the family name Lanius derives from a Latin word for “butcher”, though the “butcherbird” was a butcher long before humans even developed the language to describe these activities. Who knows – perhaps early humans got the idea of cutting and hanging meat by watching these shrikes at work in their arboreal abbatoirs?

2019 264

2019 Butcher Livestock 2006 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2012

The magical month of May draws to a close, leaving all good birds ensconced in their breeding territory and getting down to the business of making more good birds. We fortunate humans who live on the upper half of the planet can finally acknowledge the onset of the most sultry season of the year.

2012 197

2012 Mexico Birds Breeding 197

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2012

Not only is Spain a stronghold for these birds, but they are hard to miss — huge, bright white, social, and not in the least shy of humans and human dwelling-places. But the White Stork in Europe is a big, pretty bird that nests in plain view of humans, often in the middle of town on top of an important, prominent building.

Spain 231

Spain Europe Rodents France 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area.

China 250

China Mongolia Birds Russia 250

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2013

I teach human evolution, and at some point I use a chart showing reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, which in turn relates to how we date some ancient sites.

Investigation 251

Investigation 2013 Humane Research 251

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

After all, what was thought as its habitat was heavily deteriorated and converted to agriculture as the human population grew. A captive breeding program was established with a facility at Gustavo del Solar’s property, not far from where the birds were re-discovered. Photo: Fernando Angulo Pratolongo.

Collecting 270

Collecting Peru Neglecting Ecuador 270