10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2023

But of course, you can skip them when getting near the end of this post – though that will mean not using your knowledge and skills to help Afghan women. And of course, there is a large number of Rock Doves (feral), particularly near one particular mosque. Oh god, I sound like the Pope now.

Afghanistan 170

Afghanistan Birds Feral Zoos 170

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 11, 2023

I began recording my bird sightings with photographs in late 2009, and since then I have seen (or at least heard) a fair proportion of species recorded within my home country of Trinidad & Tobago. Of course, a major factor in this decision rests in its status as a resident species. Well, let me explain.

Birds 262

Birds Trinidad 2020 2009 262

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2024

I could imagine that timing the earlier emergence of insect prey at the breeding grounds is particularly problematic for insectivorous species. Eurasian Green Woodpecker In other areas, the lawn was densely covered in daisies and I experimented a bit with photographing from low angles to make the daisies look even more dense.

Soreing 173

Soreing Owls Eagles Woodpeckers 173

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

We work with the best guides so our guests not only have outstanding hotel services in Mindo Cloud Forest, but they will also have a top-notch experience. Julia Patiño has 20+ years of experience guiding in birding tours and is one of the first women guides in Ecuador! She has a very broad knowledge of species.

Ecuador 179

Ecuador Spain Cows 2017 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2023

So, in order to show a few more photos of the bird than the usual two or three had I included this bird in a post of birds seen around Wolongshan, Sichuan), here is one dedicated to the species. The Latin species name is semitorques , which means something like “half-twisted” – but I have no idea why.

Vegan 175

Vegan Cats Animal Friendly Eggs 175

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2024

I saw 32 species here in my first 24 hours, some of them exciting ones. My second lifer this trip was a migratory Yellow-throated Warbler , a species I could not hope to see my previous trip, which had occurred in early summer. We were happy to experience three birds of prey on this jaunt.

Barn Owls 205

Barn Owls Mexico Parrots ALA 205

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2021

Not to say, of course, that there’s no point in getting out to see birds this time of year–any day is a good day for birding. He got out on both mornings and saw pretty much expected species. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. How about you?

Birds 187

Birds Woodpeckers Experience Experiments 187

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

I, of course, love a good river delta. Now, it is much easier for me to achieve first-time sightings of species in Europe than it is in Mexico, at this point of the game. So I might have assumed I would not see new species in the Palmones wetlands. The first gave me eight new species for Spain, of which four were lifers.

Spain 176

Spain Mexico Europe North America 176

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2024

Bald Eagle Species Name: Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Endangered Species list in 2007. Steller’s Sea-Eagle Species Name: Haliaeetus pelagicus. Conservation efforts are crucial to ensure that future generations get to experience the awe of seeing these incredible eagles soaring through the skies. It is recent as of 2024.

Alaska 207

Alaska Eagles Bald Eagle Deer 207

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2024

Visiting Guyana brought with it the unavoidable expectation of seeing some mind boggling species – some endangered, some emblematic, others downright bizarre. Before we boarded the flight to Guyana we already knew that probabilities of seeing one of the target species was slashed to near zero. After all, there were already rocks.

Guyana 206

Guyana Brazil ALA Eagles 206

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Over the course of the following hour or so we observed many different species *coincidentally* alight on the wall near to the body of the fallen yellowlegs. Animals obviously see death and experience it as we do, so the question is not one of if, but of how. Life departed from yet another little body, and all were notified.

Elephants 268

Elephants Ducks Humane Family 268

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2019

It’s a rush any new birder experiences: that of every species being a lifer. Once you’ve been around the birding block a few years, your appreciation for the lifer experience deepens greatly. But the opportunities to see new species become more difficult with each one seen. Those Snowy Egrets ?

Spain 193

Spain Europe Sparrows Mexico 193

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2023

This area offers Mexico’s greatest concentration of endemics, as well as very few species an American birder might have already seen up north. So I took him to Paso Ancho, of course. But I knew that quite a few charismatic species had failed to turn up. I hoped for a more complete survey of the site’s species.

Mexico 147

Mexico Oregon Squirrels Falcons 147

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2023

Its mood is not helped by the ambiguous review on eBird: “Although not actually pale, this brownish songbird is one of the plainer thrushes in its range” The Latin species name of the Dusky Thrush is eunomos (I guess that is Greek, but whatever) – meaning well-ordered. One page is dedicated to the Long-tailed Shrike.

Blackbirds 193

Blackbirds Birds Indonesia Bhutan 193

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Sadly, the HBW states that the species is “almost extinct in some areas in China owing to hunting and trapping for the cagebird trade and taxidermy” The Maroon Oriole looks much more interesting, though my photos do not really do it full justice. … Traill did this enough times that Shirley began to hide the scale.’

Nepal 159

Nepal Birds Owls Nigeria 159

10,000 Birds

MAY 27, 2024

Given how far Hokkaido is from Europe, it seems a bit surprising how many bird species wintering on this Japanese island have a name starting with “Eurasian” Or how many of these species I have also seen in my parents’ garden in Germany. It seems extra-pair paternity is very frequent in this species.

Iran 172

Iran Germany Research Humane 172

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

12 species of cuckoos are on the Costa Rica bird list. This Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo was seen and captured on camera by Josh Beck in Panama, the most reliable place to connect with this rare species. Many a birder with years of experience in the Neotropical region has never ever seen or heard an RVG.

Costa Rica 254

Costa Rica Panama Cats Washington 254

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2022

Yes, we do have warm, tropical weather and a fancy assortment of resident and wintering species. Nor is there any trudging through snow in search of extra hardy species or visits to feeders with the hope of finding a grackle or Red-winged Blackbird that failed to fly south. These were some of the highlights. The Count Meeting.

Costa Rica 240

Costa Rica Eagles Blackbirds Species 240

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2021

One can only hope 2021 gets more exciting–in a good, healthy, and interconnected way, of course–in the coming months. Corey enjoyed getting out around Queens on both Saturday and Sunday morning, and managed to get his total species in the borough to an all time high for January, with 115.

Birds 195

Birds Sparrows Experience Experiments 195

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

More than 20 species are recognized, many look similar and to throw a bit more challenging flavored sauce into the Megascops mix, there might be a few more species awaiting description. One of the more recently, officially recognized screech-owl species is the Choco Screech-Owl.

Costa Rica 192

Costa Rica Owls Panama Argentina 192

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2022

While preparing an article this week for a local newspaper on the nighttime denizens of Tobago, it crossed my mind that I never considered owls as a group, far less target species for any particular outing (except for a select few, upon which I shall expound here). This resulted in my only photograph of this species to date.

Trinidad 272

Trinidad Owls Barn Owls Abandon 272

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2023

I mean that in a good way: By automatically showing one’s new year list each January 1st, and comparing it to one’s last several year lists, they always make me want to hit the ground running with as many species in my first week as I can manage. This past January, however, my experience was even better.

Blackbirds 147

Blackbirds Ducks Mexico 2020 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2020

While the 480-odd species recorded within T&T may outstrip our fellow Caribbean islands by leaps and bounds, it pales in comparison to the massive lists of mainland South and Central America. T&T boasts a fascinating level of biodiversity, however the relatively small size of the islands puts a limit on individual species diversity.

Trinidad 256

Trinidad Family America Species 256

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Of course, you can just recklessly say that you like music – but that would be foolish and almost guarantees you will have to listen to a mix of local folk music (preferably modernized by some electropop elements) and Celine Dion. I am not sure there is a good answer to the question above. Indeed, I fared a bit better this time.

China 210

China Russia Birds Owls 210

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2021

It helps that there is a little bird hide almost on top of the hill, guarded by a Chinese lady and attracting a substantial number of species of birds and birders. Even though this is no challenge at all, of course. A Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler made an early experience. So, what was there to see? Always nice to see.

China 262

China Birds Zebras Germany 262

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

This incredibly widespread species ranges around the Northern Hemisphere (and much of the Southern as well), and is found in locations as disparate as the Arctic tundra, Hawaii, Cuba, and the Galapagos – as well as many places in between.

Owls 205

Owls New York New York City Cuba 205

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2024

Of course, excellent opportunity to go birding with my friends Brad and Laura. Of course, I made that up. My hosts could confidently tick off the species on their life list. We got at least three sub-species but the highlight was a Wilson’s Snipe we flushed. It is mid-March and I am back in Colorado for meetings.

Denver 163

Denver Colorado Ducks Mules 163

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2023

This leaves Shanghai in June with basically just the year-round species and the summer breeders, maybe with a few added ultra-lazy individuals of migratory species. Fortunately, there are a few more such breeding species than most Shanghainese are aware of. Such as the Black-winged Cuckooshrike.

Birds 130

Birds Eggs Breeders McDonalds 130

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.

Mexico 180

Mexico Guatemala South America United States 180

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

What my previous experience had not prepared me for, was that this summer I would see many of those species for the first time all at once. Of course, several resident Warblers were also present: Crescent-chested , Grace’s , Golden-browed , and Red Warblers , and our always common Slate-throated Redstart.

Mexico 169

Mexico Nashville Virginia Shelters 169

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Rather, I am speaking of what a certain group of birds must experience every day. These are the few species who prefer to spend their lives hanging upside-down. We each have reasons to give special love to certain species. Of course, birds that are rare, new, or especially beautiful are beloved by most birders.

Mexico 138

Mexico Horses Groups Species 138

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

The Shoebill serves as the symbol of the magnificent wildlife experiences Uganda offers visitors, which may seem a bit odd. That honor goes to the Gray-crowned Crane , a very sexy species in its own right. Having finally seen this iconic species, I can assure you that the experience wildly exceeds expectations.

Uganda 259

Uganda Africa Penguins 2019 259

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2021

Go to Hispaniola and a birder has the pleasure of admiring two species of tody for the price of one, checking out the odd, mono familiar Palmchat , and listening to the parrotish calls of the White-necked Crow. Watch the streams for fish, we saw a few, unidentified yet cool looking tropical species! Of course we all want that!

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Puerto Rico Birds Owls 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2020

In the normal course of things, Corey’s first Eastern Phoebe of the year on Sunday morning would have easily been his Best Bird of the Weekend. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

2020 162

2020 Birds Experience Experiments 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Based on his own experiences teaching ornithology to high school students in California, he believes that high school student often just need the spark of an interesting elective class that fills a graduation requirement. .” And, of course, many colleges and universities have undergraduate and graduate level ornithology courses.

2018 263

2018 Agenda Science Massachusetts 263

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2022

Both Trinidad and Tobago share over a hundred species but within the mix are many that are found on one island and not the other. The disparity in species could be stark, for example if one were to bird on different sides of the planet. I don’t keep lists but one of my guests did and the final tally was 166 species.

Trinidad 252

Trinidad Turkey Squirrels Cows 252

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2024

Osborn, a passionate field biologist who participates to the core of her being three re-introduction projects aimed at saving three very different, endangered species: Peregrine Falcon, Hawaiian Crow (‘Alala)*, and California Condor. She crafts her prose with a visual immediacy that bring you directly into her experience.

California Condor 175

California Condor Falcons California Coyotes 175