10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2021

There was an island in the middle of the river and the tall trees held Yellow-billed Spoonbill nests and there were several families within the vicinity. One family of Yellow-billed Spoonbills all lined up together on the one branch over the river and made for an impressive group of birds. Yellow-billed Spoonbill family.

Breeding 237

Breeding Australia Cattle Family 237

10,000 Birds

MAY 26, 2014

While I saw some pretty special species this weekend, the most special was the Gray Catbird because my sweet 7-year niece totally got into finding one; I think I’ve found the next generation birder in the family! But watching a Northern Goshawk rip through the sky over Bloomingdale Bog in the Adirondacks was definitely a BBOTW moment.

2014 201

2014 Birds Family Experience 201

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

But Swarovski Optik is a family-owned business, so the then CEO, Mr. Swarovski, categorically rejected the advice and decided: factory stays in Austria, and the prices will only go up! You know that classical definition of what separates men from boys? The next day we had an outdoor workshop and a chance to test the toys.

Austria 296

Austria Factory Asia Battery 296

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2021

The Pheasant Coucal family have moved on from the last place that we observed them. The bird-life has definitely benefitted by the recent outbreak of locusts. There have been literally thousands of Whiskered Terns feeding close to the highway as you can see by all of the tiny dots in the header photos.

Cattle 259

Cattle Breeding Family Rights 259

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2011

Astounding because she picked up birding before she could speak and surprising because this ability was definitely not inherited from anyone in my family, myself included. Thankfully there are several really excellent family board games that you can play as a whole family. Her natural talent was astounding and surprising.

Birds 278

Birds Game South Africa Wildlife 278

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

The best test of that proposition, of course, is to repeat it to any one of the hundreds of thousands of birders who have, say, a family. Birders are almost by definition interesting and interested people, and those interests—even if they don’t push birding completely out of mind—range widely.

New Jersey 242

New Jersey Guatemala France Birds 242

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

The family Ardeidae consists on long-legged, long-necked, long-beaked, water birds called waders in North America or maybe just herons, egrets, and bitterns everywhere else. It’s a massive family with worldwide distribution, so I’ll be expecting a tsunami of submissions for this one.

North America 159

North America America Birds Family 159

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

Red-billed Curassow ( Crax blumenbachii ), a large, ground-dwelling bird belonging to the same family as the more familiar Plain Chachalaca of southern Texas, was never a very widespread species. Having a family of endangered Red-billed Curassow willingly approach me to within such a short distance is definitely one of them!

California Condor 211

California Condor Brazil Parrots Texas 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2012

Speaking of July, every year around this time an assemblage of my family and friends gather in a remote part of Pennsylvania for food, fun, and flaming chickens. However, while there will definitely be a chicken this year (probably Jackson Pollock-themed), an inferno might be ill-advised considering the tinder-dry condition of the area.

Chickens 163

Chickens Pennsylvania 2012 2011 163

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2022

One of the most interesting aspects of watching birds in Africa is to see different members of bird families that I already know from China. An information for those Indian readers of the blog who only know “Kingfisher” as a brand of beer: It is also a bird family. Different bird families, I know.

South Africa 197

South Africa Africa Saint Lucia Camels 197

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

The Groove-billed Ani is an odd-looking member of the Cuckoo family. You will definitely see it, everywhere except in dense woods. In contrast, it is always a nice surprise for me to see Mourning Doves down here. They are residents, but not common ones. Inca Doves , in my garden. Its characteristic “pee-HOOey!”

Woodpeckers 324

Woodpeckers Mexico Cattle Turkey 324

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

That was definitely my best sighting. Corey got his Best Bird of the Weekend early this weekend as while he and his family were making their way home from a week-long vacation in Cape Cod on Friday a Black-throated Gray Warbler was found in Queens at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

2020 155

2020 Jamaica Birds Family 155

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

As we walked up the “beautiful river” (which is what “Río Bello” means) Nacho pointed out trees from the dogwood, holly, and linden/basswood families. You might not guess this Lobelia is from the same family as the popular bedding flower with that name — until you see the individual flowers close-up.

Birds 211

Birds Mexico Cooking Family 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2023

Lake Kerkini National Park in the north of Greece is the very best birding area in the Balkan Peninsula and definitely among the top ten hotspots of Europe. Last but not least, there were three species of shrikes, Red-backed , Lesser Grey and at least 2 Masked Shrikes , possibly 2 more, an entire family (not all were showing so well).

Greece 227

Greece Pelicans Stray Dog Tortoises 227

10,000 Birds

MARCH 5, 2023

Then we threw together a semi-planned family-related trip to the States in early December. This Northern Pintail definitely went for a basic brown eye color. But my wife’s and my lives have been rather chaotic of late. First, we had our five-week trip to Spain, Turkey and Jordan in September and October. Amber, perhaps?

Jordan 192

Jordan Mexico Ohio Spain 192

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2017

The figures show the order of bird families in the four field guides mentioned above. For easier reference, I have given the order of families in the oldest field guide (on the left) a spectral colour pattern and used the same colour for the respective families in the other guides. Order of bird families, non-songbirds.

Brunei 153

Brunei 2009 2014 2016 153

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

North of the equator, schools will be letting out for the summer and families will be packing up for adventure. Travel is definitely on my mind because Corey and I are both off to explore new parts of the world this weekend. Exotic locales make for exotic birding and even the most mundane territory can astound the first time visitor.

Botswana 161

Botswana 2012 Birds Fish 161

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

One that could take close up shots when we were banding birds, get a wide view for establishing shots of habitat or just something to grab fun photos of friends and family–all while fitting easily in a jacket or pants pocket. There’s definitely better color quality with the SLR but the iPhone photo isn’t bad at all.

Israel 221

Israel ALA Abandoning Abandon 221

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2012

More importantly, I know which groups/families occur in these regions, which ones resemble each other, and where to find them in my books even in cases where similar groups are found in different segments of my field guide because they are not closely related to each other. This means I know my birds quite well.

Indonesia 234

Indonesia Family Asia Groups 234

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2021

And Giant Otters are still common in the rivers around Karanambu Ranch, home of the late “otter lady”, Diane McTurck, who used to rehabilitate orphaned otters and whose family still runs the lodge. These are the purple-colored skittles, not quite as tasty as the red ones, but definitely firm fan favorites.

Guyana 278

Guyana Otters South America Colombia 278

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

As Watson has put it in the Chapter 1, “while the focus of this book is on families of African birds, there are a few individual species that have somehow come to epitomise Africa, even though they have relatives elsewhere, and commentaries on these appear too. Most definitely so.

Congo 264

Congo Africa Madagascar Kenya 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2013

My best bird this weekend was hardly rare, but spotting a Great Blue Heron in a suburban yard far from water definitely caught my attention.

St. Louis 167

St. Louis 2013 United States Arizona 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2013

They are usually in a group and our garden regularly has a family group of eight visit it. They have listed under “Other names” in one of our field guides “Happy Family & Yahoo”! It could then re-join the family group and continue to enjoy the insects and grubs that our garden has to offer.

Australia 157

Australia Groups Family Experience 157

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2011

Feeding birds is generally regarded as a harmless past-time, a wholesome way for people to share nature and enjoy wildlife with the family. Birds definitely need our help when it comes to habitat preservation, but attracting hoards of birds is not the way. She started feeding the ducks and geese that used the open water in the 1980s.

Bald Eagle 242

Bald Eagle Deer Minnesota 2000 242

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2011

This has happened before, Archaeopteryx and the bird family tree have had an often tenuous relationship. But they were definitely not birds. If you lay out all the mandibles and maxilla of all the mammals, you could construct a phylogeny that would be a pretty good first stab at a reasonable mammal family tree.

Mammals 246

Mammals Europe Groups Family 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2011

Ornithology By Corey • March 2, 2011 • 4 comments Tweet Share If you like science and comic strips you definitely want to read xkcd. Hes only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasnt working as a union representative or spending time with his family.

2011 153

2011 Deer Cats Owls 153

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2021

Wood-Wrens, which like to live close to the ground in deep brush, definitely follow this rule; they are not at all colorful, but their song sure does ring. It is not that close of a relative of the Northern Mockingbird , being in the same family, but a different genus. That is because it is, well, a Mockingbird.

Trinidad 178

Trinidad Transported Emotional Mexico 178

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

The Peterson Reference Guide to Seawatching offers two types of information: Species Accounts–descriptions of 112 birds within 15 families as they appear over and on the water, and Where to Watch, brief descriptions of 47 sites on the North American eastern coast and interior recommended for seawatching. ” I agree.

Ducks 230

Ducks Groups North America North Dakota 230

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2011

The second sound that we heard belonged to another fantastic member of the cotinga family, the White Bellbird. This small member of the toucan family is a stunner. They were definitely mobbing something. The call is so bizarre that it sounds as if it might be two pieces of hollow metal piping being banged together.

Suriname 210

Suriname Guyana Birds South America 210

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2015

Regardless of the temperatures I got out and about both mornings on my own and in the afternoons with the family. Definitely a migrant and the Osprey that was in the area was not happy about this much larger interloper. There were lots of birds around and my camera was in overdrive! They always live up to the second half.

Bald Eagle 181

Bald Eagle New York City Birds Geese 181

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2021

If you had your choice of one bird family to pursue, to seek out and observe and photograph and kvell over, which one would you choose? A passion for one bird family is also very useful. It provides goals and a definite direction for your birding travels and thoughts; sometimes it even becomes the basis of a book!

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Brazil Bolivia Ecuador 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

The answers involve phylogenies, evolutionary family trees, derived from DNA studies combined with fossil records, and geological concepts of how the continents and oceans were formed from super land masses. These words and others are listed in the Index, with page numbers given for their definitions.

Science 211

Science Albatross Research Owls 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 14, 2021

This elegant bird is part of a small family, unrelated to other birds called “flycatchers”, but including the Phainopepla of the American southwest. Gray Silky-Flycatchers are common throughout the central Mexican highlands. My son and I still remember seeing our first Silky-Flycatchers , right here in the Cañada.

Mexico 221

Mexico Sparrows United States Virginia 221

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2020

As soon as I got a good look of one of these, I checked my Merlin recordings, and discovered that the particular species in question does have a call very unlike the usual clicks and buzzes I associate with the family. But the Hummingbirds definitely won the day! just north of the Mexican border.

Mexico 221

Mexico Species Breeding Family 221

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

It is definitely a nest with a view! I observed the whole Pied Oystercatcher family at the water’s edge and the chicks were exposed and vulnerable. The pair closer to Gantheaume Point are still incubating their second clutch of two eggs and have chosen to nest in exactly the same place as the first clutch.

Eggs 210

Eggs Breeding Australia Family 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Though they look like sparrows they are weavers from the family Ploceidae or, to be more specific, they are Euplectes franciscanus. If you see a bird that seems like it could almost be a Grasshopper Sparrow but definitely isn’t you are likely looking at a female Orange Bishop. The Le Conte’s Sparrow was not refound.

Sparrows 177

Sparrows Africa Family Rights 177

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2024

There was definitely only one youngster there. Addendum: My time with the Red-tailed Hawk family didn’t end with fledging. On June 5, I thought one of the youngsters had fledged, because I only saw one youngster in the nest.I saw two hawks perched on the catwalk railing, which was what the parents often did.

Squirrels 204

Squirrels Game Hunting Family 204