10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2013

Their remarkable survival skills, evolved over thousands of years, rely on a chain of stopover feeding grounds and habitats for breeding and raising young – but break any one link and the survival of the entire species is threatened. I.e., will a lack of, or reduced, winter kill-offs of parasites affect these birds?

Maryland 264

Maryland Penguins Birds Wildlife 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. What could motivate gunmen (I cannot call them hunters) in two states to deliberately kill North America’s tallest and most critically endangered bird? One percent of the wild population of whooping cranes fell to guns this winter alone.

2011 244

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 244

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2012

But when the biological imperative to breed is on the brain, and springtime is peak time for thinking about breeding, they can become raving psychos, each bird desperate to lay claim to a nest box that would allow it to raise young and thereby pass on its DNA to the next generation and win the evolutionary sweepstakes.

New York City 209

New York City New York Jamaica 2010 209

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

In the non-breeding season, Common Merganser all look pretty much like females. Not a bad look though – more attractive than the male breeding plumage, I think. Carrion Crows like to think of themselves as very modern birds. To enhance this image, they very much like to pose on power lines.

Birds 261

Birds Germany India 2018 261

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2012

They reside there at the top of a small mountain sanctuary as mythical as my first remembrances of ancient thunderbirds, living, mating, and raising young. Their hallmark: They don’t kill. My first view of them was at a distance. Condors, like all New World vultures, can disturb the human psyche.

California Condor 252

California Condor California Idaho Utah 252

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

Greater flamingoes winter in large numbers Kerkini’s wintering Flamingoes probably breed in Turkey Forty years ago Flamingoes were rare visitors to Greece: several thousand now winter on Kerkini Lake Kerkini is an artificial lake, its depth varying considerably throughout the year. Such an abundance of wildfowl attracts Peregrines.

Greece 246

Greece Pelicans Buffalo Geese 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2022

The Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Wuyuan) is listed as Critically Endangered, as there are only about 250-280 birds spending the breeding season in Northeastern Jiangxi (and according to the HBW, it is not clear where they spend the non-breeding period). The shame would kill them.

San Diego 263

San Diego Malaysia China Zoos 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

I should have known that birding High Island meant I would be 20 minutes away from a place where hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterbirds rest, feed, breed, and generally have a good time. I love American Avocets and I rarely see them in such marvelous breeding plumage, so I was in heaven. Clapper Rail. Back to the Flats.

Houston 260

Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 260

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Leopold and his friend Richard Loeb are two of the most infamous murderers in U.S.

Michigan 258

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 258

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2023

The latter is even captured in a somewhat gruesome video , in which the hornbill plucks a caged bird out of its cage and kills and eats it. At 15h59, the female picked up the fourth chick and killed it by repeatedly crushing it with her beak. One paper describes them breeding in a human settlement in abandoned clay jars.

Rhinoceros 157

Rhinoceros Singapore Transported Hunting 157

Critter News

DECEMBER 12, 2009

Another animal dies at the Calgary Zoo and more questions are being raised about their practices. They were a part of the zoo’s breeding program for the rare birds. In November 2008, a virus killed a 15-month-old Asian elephant calf named Malti. I don't track zoos, but this seems like an unusually high number of casualties.

Zoos 100

Zoos Animal Welfare Welfare Elephants 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

Even if we couldn’t find time to raise the bins at a favorite patch, it only takes momentary glances into the sky and hearing chip notes from the trees to remind us that birds are on the move. Migration is happening. Every birder knows it. The old neighborhood standbys are quiet or maybe gone.

Costa Rica 192

Costa Rica South America Tennessee 2019 192

4 The Love Of Animals

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Each animal they raise to adulthood is a step away from extinction, with the ultimate challenge to return them to the wild. We’ll see ambitious programs to save diverse species from the outback of Australia, the savannahs of East Africa, the Brazilian Amazon and some of the most successful zoo breeding programs in the world.

Pandas 100

Pandas Leopards Gorillas Zoos 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Fuller has not preached about the evils of the human practices that killed and dislocated the Passenger Pigeon; he hasn’t moaned and groaned or sentimentalized. In both countries, birds have been killed for reasons of food, commerce, and sport. It wasn’t just the mass killings in so many ways.

2014 168

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 168

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2023

During the breeding season, some Cattle Egrets look like teenage girls who have just discovered the existence of make-up, and consequently massively overdo it. While having somebody else raise your chicks like an attractive strategy to me, it is not without dangers. It is probably all downhill from here. What’s next?

Birds 130

Birds Cattle Raised Mammals 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

In 1856 Wahlberg was killed by an Elephant near Lake Ngami in Botswana without ever publishing an account of his travels, but fellow Swede Carl Sundevall catalogued his collection at the Stockholm Museum and described the birds Wahlberg collected. In 1964, Clancey’s “Birds of Natal and Zululand” raised the total to 590.

Mozambique 228

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 228

4 The Love Of Animals

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

If it did, the licking often prompts it to vomit up some of that kill for the other members of the pack to share. The Russians began by breeding a group of foxes according to one simple rule: they would walk up to a cage and put a hand on the bars. Foxes that slunk back in fear and snapped their teeth didn’t get to breed.

Wolves 100

Wolves Fox Dogs Apes 100

Animal Ethics

APRIL 27, 2008

There is no happy ending for even the most humanely raised animal. And there is no good reason to breed, confine and kill animals for food unless we believe that economic benefit justifies killing. More and more people do not. We call ourselves vegetarians. Patti Breitman Fairfax, Calif.,

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Meat Sheep 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 15, 2009

According to Stephanie Woodard's column in Prevention published today, the CDC reports that "certain types of MRSA infections kill 18,000 Americans per year—more than die from AIDS." Factory farms are concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) where animals are raised intensively and permanently confined in warehouses and sheds.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Vegetarian Factory 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

Consider some of the victories: On November 5th, 2002, more than two and a half million Floridians voted "Yes" on Amendment 10 to amend the state constitution and prohibit the use of gestation crates , narrow metal cages where breeding pigs are kept for most of their lives. The full text of the amendment is available here.

Factory 40

Factory Gestation Crates Veal Crate Factory Farm 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

This sort of question can also be raised without benefit of hypothetical examples from future genetic engineering. Suppose further that such blood is obtained without killing the animal and without causing the animal pain. If, on the other hand, the legs are produced in factory conditions, there is a moral objection. KBJ: Ditto.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

Kills in Canada, Alaska and Mexico are not included in the count. Texas and North Dakota together account for 88% of the total yearly kill of sandhill cranes. Letters from Eden (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) will soon be followed by a memoir about the birds she has raised, healed, studied and followed throughout her life.

2011 263

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2013

Curiously, some eagles were also observed by the Ada Ciganlija Island, within Belgrade – in the breeding season! But persecution, killing and poisoning in the late 20th century has led to their demise and at the beginning of the new millennium, Serbia had only two to three pairs of Imperial Eagles. We must be doing something wrong?

Serbia 238

Serbia Eagles Hungary Cooking 238

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2013

Mt Bruce, since you ask, is the Department of Conservation’s premier endangered bird breeding centre. Long-finned Eels swam in the rivers, and in their pens the breeding Blue Ducks where whistling away. And on this visit, we were there in time to see feeding for the kiwi chicks the centre was raising. A Kaka at Mt Bruce.

New Zealand 171

New Zealand Rats Raised Endangered Species 171

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2022

It looked like a family of parrots were trying to kill each other” The Black-backed Puffback has what eBird describes as “a fiery red eye” eBird also explains the name: “When excited, males can raise fluffy white feathers on the rump to resemble a puffball.”

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Eggs Africa 147

Animal Ethics

JUNE 7, 2016

In light of this horrible incident, is it right for the zoo to carry on a breeding program that subjects more animals to such unnatural lives? Further, did those who reacted so strongly to Harambe’s killing go home and serve meat to their children? This horrible incident has raised some tough questions indeed.

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Gorillas Zoos Meat 40

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

What the Owl Knows is organized into nine chapters: introduction, adaptation (including vision and flight), research and researchers, vocalization, courtship and breeding, roosting and migration, cognition, and two chapters on owls and humans–captive owls (not zoos, educational owls) and owls in our cultural history.

Owls 246

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 246

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

I was a bit surprised to see a juvenile Grey Treepie in Shanghai – it seems too young to already be on migration, and there was an adult nearby, so most likely the species is breeding in Shanghai, along with approximately 24 million humans. Soldiers could probably learn a lot about camouflage from this species.

Tigers 130

Tigers Birds Ecuador Humane 130

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2015

Penguins are also bellweathers of climate change; dwellers of remote areas you’ve (probably) never heard of; creatures who have developed unique, innovative ways of adapting to the harsh environments where they breed and rear chicks and the water environments in which they feed and swim.

Penguins 240

Penguins New Zealand South Africa Albatross 240

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2022

As with Chinese male humans, having your own building is still vital to raising young. There was a breeding pair at Binjiang Forest Park this June. So, the birds start collecting mud and small sticks. Nest building: a good activity for a rainy day. You should try it too. Not going for the obvious either. Sometimes it works.

Birds 241

Birds Sparrows Mountain Goats Protection 241

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Hopefully, the winter time in Shanghai gives the Black-faced Buntings some time to relax from the challenges of the breeding season. In contrast, the females need to make sure not to get duped into raising actual cuckoos – the buntings are a targeted host species ( source ). The White-browed Thrush is not a lot more attractive.

Eggs 259

Eggs Birds Bangladesh China 259

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

I have written about the interesting sex life of these jacanas a few times already (short version: female mates with male, lays a bunch of eggs for him to incubate and raise the chicks, leaves him, finds another male, repeat). The Little Grebe is of course a very common bird that can still surprise by its beauty in its breeding plumage.

China 147

China Birds Eggs Breeding 147