10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2015

In its natural old-world range, the House Sparrow offers an interesting identification challenge and has vagrant potential since it is a polytypic species with a highly complex taxonomy. The genus Passer has several well-recognized and recognizable species in Europe, and still holds several enigmas.

Sparrows 258

Sparrows Italy Asia Kyrgyzstan 258

10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2015

For example, the White-headed Duck is nowadays a rarity in Europe (okay, excluding Spain, I know… that Spain …), but until some 50 years ago, it used to breed in Serbia. The hide overlooking the breeding colony of Red-footed Falcons.

Serbia 268

Serbia Spain Birds Hungary 268

10,000 Birds

MAY 31, 2024

True, most of our migrant breeding birds start to return in April, but in May even the late arrivals – Turtle Doves, Swifts, Spotted Flycatchers and Nightjars – finally appear. Perhaps most spectacular of all were two fine Grey Plovers in full breeding finery, living up to their American name of Black-bellied Plover.

Greece 246

Greece Turtles Breeding Europe 246

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Species formerly referred to as P. One recent study found that this species was sister to P. perdix , and also that race przewalskii (sometimes subsumed within suschkini , but generally paler) was basal to other taxa included within the present species. barbata , but present name has priority. I blame this on covid-19.

China 264

China Austria Birds ALA 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 15, 2012

So, yes, it was Spain. Specifically, rural northwestern Spain, at various points along the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route to the supposed burial place of Saint James the apostle and, before that, to the westernmost point in continental Europe, the supposed End of the Earth, the Finis Terra. My life White Stork.

Spain 221

Spain Europe Rodents France 221

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2023

Before I was born, it used to be a rare breeding species in mountainous areas south of Belgrade, but became extinct after the 1960s due to intensive poisoning of wolves. There’s an eagle… a White-tailed Eagle , a relatively common and numerous breeding species of riparian forests along large water courses and fishponds.

Bulgaria 264

Bulgaria McDonalds Eagles Wolves 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2013

In the end, it was birding that has taken him from his native Serbia, across the Balkans and Turkey, to the very borders of the Old World: East Anglia and Spain, southern Africa and India, where he chased that country’s rarest owl. A pair of these eagles breed nearby, but this bird shows no wish to reappear and show itself better.

Spain 254

Spain Terrapins Eagles Europe 254

10,000 Birds

APRIL 26, 2024

Tucked away at the extreme eastern end of the Mediterranean, Cyprus is regarded politically as part of Europe, but when it comes to birds it’s very much Middle Eastern in flavour, with a number of species that are hard or even impossible to find in Europe, plus a trio of endemics. It was strange to hear it here in Cyprus.

Cyprus 246

Cyprus Breeders Falcons Hunters 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2021

Let’s just say that the journey from the capital city, Port of Spain, to the said peninsula could easily run into 2.5 The area is known for being a breeding area of the enigmatic Rufous Crab-Hawk and it was the first place I saw the species, many years ago. hours one-way. Rufous Crab-Hawk.

Sea Turtles 279

Sea Turtles Bats Turtles Trinidad 279

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 13, 2011

If you have been on the receiving end of any guided birding you know that a good guide can make or break the trip and João was up there with the best in terms of his knowledge of the local sites, breeding birds and visitors, coping easily with our constant questioning. Noudar has recorded 184 different species since 1999.

Portugal 255

Portugal 2000 Legislation Adoptable 255

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2016

I am planning to have this post be the first in a (very) small series on Europe’s “large white-headed gulls” It will of course only be a small series since there aren’t that many large white-headed gull species in Europe and particularly because I don’t want to cause too harsh a drop in the blog’s visitor numbers.

Europe 177

Europe Spain Italy Ireland 177

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2011

Undisturbed through thousands of generations by man or land predators, the birds accumulated piles of poop several meters thick and sat atop them with a proprietorial pride in huge colonies, breeding, feeding and creating even more guano. Now where have I heard that before?

Bolivia 244

Bolivia Chile Spain America 244

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2020

Chamois is an agile goat-antelope with short hooked horns, found in mountainous areas of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus. There are more than 1100 plant species, the most valuable being the 76 endemics. Other species include Roe Deer (also spotted), Wildcat , European Pine Marten and Otter.

Bears 264

Bears Serbia Birds Mammals 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

Other species have certainly expanded their ranges, but never in such a rapid and global scale. For reasons that are not quite clear, this species underwent a massive range expansion. In the east, this species can be found along the east coast of Africa, the Nile Valley,and into parts of the middle east and India and southeast Asia.

Cattle 179

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 179

10,000 Birds

MARCH 28, 2020

Flashback two weeks and my daily check of recent eBird sightings reveals the presence of several tours taking place, lots of cool birds being seen and enjoyed by dozens of birders, no doubt many of the species are lifers, dozens of bird species seen during trips of a lifetime. As I write this, the weather is ironically gorgeous.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Birds Spain New York 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

There is another area of the Queens County CBC where a team will also likely see Monk Parakeets , Myipsitta monachus , but I am seriously determined to count that bird for my area, Coastal Flushing, a section of northeast Queens, New York, that includes Whitestone, home of one of the loudest invasive bird species in the U.S.

Chicago 255

Chicago New York City New York Illinois 255

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2011

The Black Stork ( Ciconia nigra ) has a very wide distribution in the Old World, ranging from Spain (an isolated population) and northern France through central and eastern Europe all across northern and central Asia to the Pacific coast of Russia and China.

Germany 161

Germany Asia Russia China 161

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2024

At the time of writing, my British year list stands at a modest but satisfactory 139, while my European list is on 173, thanks to a visit to southern Spain in February. A lone Whooper Swan on a grey January day in Norfolk As for the ducks – I’m now up to 15 species. We have had a winter with no snow, and few frosts, so no Smew.

Spain 130

Spain Eagles North America Ducks 130

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Not many European countries have their single-country guides (the exception being UK, Spain and a few others with a strong in-country publishing scene). Following the IOC taxonomy (Gill and Donsker 2018), Birds of Cyprus deals with 405 species. The vast majority, more than 380 species, are migrants, of which more than 120 are vagrants.

Cyprus 264

Cyprus Saudi Arabia Europe Birds 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2024

A month later I had the chance to watch these impressive birds again, fishing off Cape Trafalgar in southern Spain. Preparing for the perfect landing Brakes on, landing gear down The Gannets are present at Bempton from the end of February through to October, for their breeding season is an exceptionally long one.

Puffins 245

Puffins Eggs Fish Culling 245

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

Last year, in November, I notched up a dozen species of butterflies, an impressive total anywhere in Europe so late in the year. A feature of the autumn is the abundance of Great White Egrets – up to 200 on the lake – but as far as I know they have yet to breed here. Despite appearances, they are remarkably docile.

Greece 246

Greece Pelicans Geese Buffalo 246

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2012

And then there are the birds… Green-backed or Amazonian White-tailed Trogon Asa Wright Nature Centre is most renowned for its resident breeding colony of unearthly Oilbirds. I actually turned down an opportunity years ago to see this species in Ecuador because I wanted the Dunston Cave birds to be my first.

Trinidad 250

Trinidad South America America Ecuador 250

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

If it hasn’t begun already, the grape harvest should be getting underway in Spain this month. If the storks have been making the great journey back and forth between Spain and Africa long before people even began making wine, the feature grape of this single-varietal wine – the green-skinned Albariño – is a more recent arrival to Catalonia.

2017 119

2017 Spain California Condor Zoos 119

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

This thrush is extremely common in urban and suburban Germany and one of the most conspicuous bird species here, comparable to the American Robin in North America. Because this was such a common species, we lacked quantitative data to be certain that this lack was an actual “situation” and not just the ordinary seasonal variation.

Germany 178

Germany Blackbirds 2006 Denmark 178

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2019

In a warm Catalonian March (I was about to say Spanish, but among quite a few flags, I haven’t seen a single Spanish one), Barcelona was filled with sunlight and full of Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets , two charming but alien and invasive species. Steve answers: Bonelli’s Eagle !

Terrapins 222

Terrapins Eagles Rats Europe 222

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2024

Black-tailed godwits winter in large numbers on the estuaries of both Norfolk and Suffolk, and we know that nearly all these birds breed in Iceland. They are of the race islandica , a sub species of the nominate race, limosa. In breeding plumage islandica godwits develop a deeper red plumage than their limosa cousins.

Lithuania 130

Lithuania Morocco Iceland Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

APRIL 12, 2011

reduce traffic casualties amongst Badgers , get the White-tailed Eagle back as a breeding bird, increase the number of protected plant species etc.). Take these large savannah-like areas in Extremadura, Spain, for example (the Dehesas). so far you have focussed on European nature. In the Crossbill Guides it is no different.

Badgers 145

Badgers Ethics Africa Spain 145

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2019

Why this one city alone would be named for birds, in this country of 1,800 species, is unclear, but it could very well be a designation inspired by the nearby Islas Ballestas, an uninhabited island group just offshore from Pisco and home to enormous breeding colonies of Humboldt Penguins , Inca Terns , Peruvian Boobies , and many other species.

Peru 163

Peru San Francisco Parrots Chile 163

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2018

Following passage of the United States Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the California Condor ( Gymnogyps californianus ) was among the first 75 species listed for protection, the so-called “Class of 1967”. By tradition, the Köbe is always a man, though this isn’t a legal requirement.

California Condor 130

California Condor Oregon California Zoos 130

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Sadly, they no longer breed in Algeria, while in Turkey no free-flying birds remain. (In Intriguingly, there are far more Bald Ibises in captivity than there are in the wild, for this is a bird that breeds readily in confinement. Bald Ibises are curious birds, for they are happy breeding in close proximity to man.

Morocco 246

Morocco Austria Algeria Germany 246

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

In the High Arctic we find several migrating species that break that mould. This population’s breeding range is covers much of the Eastern Arctic, from northern Labrador up to Ellesmere, in as far west as the Kivaliq region (Rankin Inlet, Arviat). This tiny passerine winters in Africa, places like Tanzania, Nigeria, Somalia.

Somalia 252

Somalia Africa Nigeria North America 252

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 26, 2022

This is a rather photographer-friendly species, staying on the same branch for quite a while and even returning to it after catching some insects – you can see this on video here and here. While the source does not say so directly, it hints that this means the species is not as intelligent as Eurasian Magpies (which pass the test).

Finland 147

Finland Birds McDonalds Israel 147

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2016

Alba wagtails range widely and commonly from Greenland and Spain towards the east, far and wide, to the mighty river Yenisei in Siberia. Now, if you quickly call to mind the pattern of Asian species reaching Europe as vagrants, you will remember that most are from Siberia. This – roughly – is where ocularis takes over.

Germany 100

Germany Sharks Morocco Asia 100