10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2021

As the boreal migrants head north, breeding season for the residents and austral migrants is beginning to pick up. They’ve not wasted any time, having drifted northward from mainland South America only a few weeks ago. Some species have already fledged their young and are in the process of feeding the juveniles.

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Raised Breeding South America Family 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2012

When they are not getting ready to breed they are a pretty bland brown-and-white bird. Actitus macularius , as spotties are known to the scientific set, are widespread across North America and winter across Central and South America, even as far south as Chile.

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New Jersey North America Chile South America 234

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2020

Birders normally care about species and make species lists, how do families fit into those? Adding more species brings a lot of excitement, as long as you bird your own country or a continent. 11,000 species require lots of money and a good portion of one’s life. That gamble is rigged, so the house always wins.

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Family Birds South America Breeding 299

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

I’ve been fortunate to see two Penguin species in the wild (African and Galapagos) and have dreamed of seeing more–maybe even all!–especially –especially when reviewing books like A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia or Far from Land: The Mysterious Lives of Seabirds.

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Penguins Georgia Albatross New Zealand 279

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2014

Across the world’s northern oceans, 24 species of auklets, murres, puffins, guillemots, and related seabirds make a living catching food beneath the waves and breeding, often in large colonies, on coastlines and islands. All alcid species alive today can fly, but with difficulty. See Cairns et al.

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Penguins Puffins 2008 Sharks 276

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

Gray Kingbird perched on a Gumbo Limbo Tree, another typical West Indian species native to South Florida. Although a reasonably common species in southern Florida, Gray Kingbird is especially abundant in the West Indies where even islanders not interested in birds are very familiar with this species.

Dominican Republic 258

Dominican Republic Puerto Rico Miami Florida 258

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Its population actually fluctuates in response to the availability of Spruce Budworm and though it nests on the ground it is entirely inseparable from the forests of the north during breeding season. According to pioneer Neotropical ornithologist Alexander Skutch, “Coffee Warbler” might be a more appropriate name than Tennessee warbler.

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Tennessee Ecuador South America United States 247

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

When I got back into birding about six years ago, I would not have predicted the personal bonds a birder can form with certain species. While all birds bring us joy, and we certainly want to see as many as we can, some species just seem more… special. I’ll start with two species that are especially hard to find.

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Mexico South America Birds Turkey 226

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).

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Mexico South America 2020 America 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2011

We will have posts on a variety of individual species of wood-warblers, wood-warbler taxonomy, searches for difficult-to-find wood-warblers, and a host of other topics. Many other non-migratory wood-warbler species are living their lives across the neotropics, doing their best to survive and pass on their genes.

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United States South America Cooking 2011 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2013

Although both species are widespread in North America as breeders in shrubby edge habitats, that is not the case in the southern half of the sunshine state (the more northerly race of Prairie Warbler is an uncommon breeder in the panhandle). Everyone, I would like you to meet the ‘Florida’ Prairie Warbler ( S.

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Florida Miami Breeders Tampa 245

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Decades of land transformation and hydrological changes resulted in the decline of the only species of apple snail native to Florida and the kite population followed suit. While the native apple snail continued declining, another species of apple snail native to South America began to appear in canals and ponds in South Florida.

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Florida South America Bolivia Eggs 247

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

Recently a Fork-tailed Flycatcher was reported from a park in San Francisco, a long ways away from its home in Central and South America. Superficially similar to Fork-tailed Flycatcher, especially if you don’t know that this species exists! This bird was photographed a few years ago in Connecticut, by Corey Finger.

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San Francisco San Diego Connecticut South America 222

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2012

And there were several birds, often feeding close to shore, much different from my first encounter with the species along another fabled wildlife drive, the one at Brigantine in New Jersey. They are found in South America, the Caribbean, and the gulf coast states in the southeastern United States. Nothing, that’s what.

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Wildlife New Jersey South America United States 237

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

It’s also a big time for bird movements, a period punctuated by waves of migrants, first the early ones, then a time of many species, and finally, those last “late” migrants moving north. While our winter residents bulk up to head north, they are joined by other species coming from South America.

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Costa Rica South America Tennessee Philadelphia 196

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Nothing against the Rocky Pigeon but let’s be honest, if a breeding plumaged Blackburnian Warbler hops into view, It’s pretty easy to forget about that pigeon, Warbling Vireo , or even a Pine Warbler when you can treat the good old retinas to a striking combination of red-orange, black, and white.

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Costa Rica Emotional South America Panama 238

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2022

In Costa Rica, we have our pewees, 6 species of them. 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. This is how these charming flycatchers roll in southern Central America.

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Costa Rica Pennsylvania South America Panama 279

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2020

This sort of biozone mixing can create a tremendous richness of species. Each of these habitats attracts its own group of species. I mentioned last week the Jamaican Nettletree, whose tiny fruit was attracting all kinds of species — even some I thought did not eat fruit or seeds. This one was a true lifer for me.

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Mexico Nicaragua Lamb Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2020

This is when we might see the greatest variety and numbers of wood-warblers, where we can watch dizzying groups of swallows zip through the skies as kettles of Turkey Vultures , and Broad-winged and Swainson’s Hawks flow towards South America. Swallows Everywhere. How many Sinaloa Martins also fly this way?

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Costa Rica West Virginia New York South America 338

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2022

Wood-Wrens , birds of the family Henicorhina , are very small wrens of Central and South America that like to live very close to the ground, in dense forest underbrush or elfin forests. It’s a long drive, at least an hour of steadily climbing twists and turns; but there are high-altitude species I can only see there.

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Mexico South America America Species 261

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2013

Phaetusa simplex is the only species in its genus and it seems very unlikely that it will be confused with another tern species. Though the Large-billed Tern is a bird of freshwater rivers, lakes, and marshes of South America it does wander to North America on very rare occasions.

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Trinidad Nevada New Jersey Illinois 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Less than 1% of all species exhibit role some type of role reversal where males do what females typically do. Perhaps the most complicated and bizarre mating system is that of the Rheas of South America. They live in flocks in the open country shrubland of Southern South America.

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South America Eggs Raised America 190

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2013

Despite their predilection for the watery realm, there are some species of grebes that are long-distance migrants. Larger species like the Western and Clark’s Grebe of western North America, the wide-ranging Great Crested Grebe of Eurasia and the beautiful Giant Grebe of South America, are strong flyers and e xcellent dispersers.

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Jordan Guatemala South America Birds 250

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2020

Last weekend I wasn’t on the hunt for any species in particular though. Many of these were still in their breeding plumage, a special treat for us here in the tropics as they would soon shed their richly patterned exterior for a drab and more mundane outfit. There were more Lesser Yellowlegs than we could count.

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Trinidad South America Blackbirds Game 255

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2012

They are fiercely territorial on breeding territory, but in migration they often gather in rather large numbers. Eastern Kingbirds breed across the eastern United States and much of southern Canada. They migrate through Central America and winter in South America, apparently almost entirely east of the Andes.

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Kittens Hunting South America United States 248

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2015

Most birds use these ephemeral beaches as breeding grounds. They have adapted to breed during the dry season when sand bars are exposed and food is plenty. Depending on the age of the dry season, birds will re-start another breeding attempt or give up until the next year. Pied Lapwing. Photo Credits: Amy McAndrews.

South America 205

South America Fish Breeding Eggs 205

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Most of these birds are small, finch-like species with thick, conical bills for cracking seeds or eating insects. Odd little grassquits singing from power lines in South America’s great cities. ” For these reasons, it is perhaps no surprise that bird bills have played a prominent role in their classification.

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2003 Sparrows South America Family 260

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2020

When our local government called for Michoacán’s residents to stay at home, I said goodbye to some 250 regional species, and shut myself in at home with the other 30 that regularly visit my neighborhood. And on this particular trip, I could see all these species on a single kind of tree. And what species!

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Squirrels Sparrows South America Mexico 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2011

They are species that breed in the US and then spend the winter in Central and South America, eating what’s avialable–especially fruit. Some of my happiest memories were sitting on the deck with a big ole’ cup of coffee and watching the parade of birds come in for the fruit.

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Nigeria Belize Birds South America 252

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

My home country of South Africa can only be described as a birding paradise! Originally considered monotypic, two species are now recognized. Cape (or Rufous) Rockjumper is a true South African endemic and restricted to the southwest Cape. Males of this species are more brightly colored in their non-breeding winter plumage.

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South Africa Lesotho Swaziland Africa 258

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

The flocks that just a fortnight ago held multiple species in varied, if subdued, hues, now overwhelmingly consist of a single species. We get to see a lot of them around here, and familiarity breeds, not contempt certainly, but perhaps apathy. It seems to me to have been a good budworm year.

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North America North Carolina South America Tennessee 243

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2011

What species is shown? Though wood-warblers, the mostly brightly colored birds of the family Parulidae, are only found in the New World we felt that birders the world over would be pleased to see a plethora of posts about these striking and sought after species. Below is the logo. Leave your best guess in the comments.

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United States South America 2011 2012 178

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

There was one odd reprint in 2018, when the Subalpine Warbler was split into the Eastern and Western species, but the changes in the guide weren’t sufficient to call it a 3rd edition, so it remained the updated reprint of the 2nd edition. I haven’t noticed changes in the few descriptions of harder to ID species that I compared.

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Europe Birds Woodpeckers Ireland 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2024

These species are not only beautiful or charming, but have a personal resonance for me. It turns out this species is very difficult to see — everywhere except in my territory, since to date I have now seen it 64 times within an hour of Morelia. Hudsonian Godwit Now this is a bird that needs no personal backstory to be special.

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Squirrels Mexico Kansas South America 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2022

But it wasn’t the day’s first FOY species. As it turned out, these were not the only bad photos to help me flesh out my 2022 year list that day (species 201-211, on February 12th). But previous experience with Ejido Triquillo taught me that another species might turn up during the spring.

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Mexico Guatemala South America United States 257

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

These arid hills, cloaked in a mosaic of deciduous scrub and desert vegetation, form a northern outpost for several Neotropical species while also harboring several key endemics and southwestern Nearctic species. This poorly documented swallow is a breeding endemic to these high mountains. Photo by Andrew Spencer.

Mexico 247

Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Bats 247

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2016

Baltimore Orioles spend their winters in Florida, Central, and South America, and migrate north to breed in much of the Eastern United States. It’s true that many know the bird because of Baltimore’s baseball team, but the species’ history with Maryland goes back much further.

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Maryland Baltimore United States Legislature 145