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

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

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

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

MARCH 20, 2015

You will notice a definite west coast bias: Mountain Chickadee , Varied Thrush , Black Oystercatcher , and Townsend’s Warbler should give you the idea. I put up $35 so I could get two sets: one to keep and one to give as a present to an undetermined person. The prototype doesn’t have all of the artwork yet.).

Game 197

Game Family Groups Birds 197

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

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2022

It also summarizes the vagrancy status of every bird family in the whole wide world, which makes it fun to read as well as superbly educational. But it’s a very fluid definition, as the book makes very clear. The Family Accounts are the fun part of the book. Is the ship-assisted vagrant a ‘true’ vagrant?

Compassion 258

Compassion Birds Eagles Science 258

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2024

Motmots definitely make up one of the bird world’s glamour families. The Orange-breasted Bunting is one of Mexico’s most beautiful endemics. But the Black-chested Sparrow is also rather handsome, for a sparrow, and has an even smaller range. Western Mexico offers only one, the endemic Russet-crowned Motmot.

Mexico 209

Mexico South America 2020 America 209

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

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

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

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

JULY 7, 2021

So I contacted him for the exact location, which turned out to be a beautiful 14-acre property that belongs to his family, and he kindly invited me over. In other words, they were definitely lifers. Which it was! We didn’t manage to make it happen the first Monday, but on the 28th of June, we birded his property together.

Barn Owls 256

Barn Owls Leopards Owls Mexico 256

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2024

I felt sorry for an American family that couldn’t understand anything said in our church services, so I started interpreting for them. But I should clarify that getting married to her was definitely the result of a plan of mine. So that happened. Interpreting then turned into yet another, rather lucrative, side career.

Turkey 190

Turkey ALA Mexico Collecting 190

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2022

I will start by telling you about encounters in Turkey with two special bird families. I really should have encountered these families in Mexico, as they both occur here. The second family is definitely not one that you would find in an urban center. And, doubly happily, I now have enough material for many future posts.

Spain 162

Spain Turkey Mexico Agenda 162

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

I tried to get a better idea of what exactly the definition of cuckoo-dove is but am still not very clear about it – Wikipedia only offers the rather formal definition “any of several species of bird in the genera Macropygia , Reinwardtoena, and Turacoena of the pigeon family.”

Geese 147

Geese Birds Fish Sparrows 147

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

JULY 21, 2022

The one bird I did not see here, however, was the Bateleur Eagle … One highlight in the area is the Saddle-billed Stork , likely to be the tallest species in the stork family. Another member of the stork family, the African Openbill , looks like it is could benefit from a good orthodontist. And sadly, it is listed as Endangered.

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Eggs Africa 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2023

And this one’s was definitely when a bird briefly took wing just to the left of our path, only to settle right back down to the ground. Like all members of the Nightjar family, the Buff-collared Nightjar hunts for insects on the wing, at night, and rests immobile during the day, protected by its subtle camouflage.

Bats 130

Bats Mexico ALA 2019 130

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2023

And, in return, they share their expertise with me — definitely a win-win situation. But he regularly visits family in Morelia. Talk about a collateral benefits — we now both have new birding buddies, they have a church (which made sure they had everything they could need upon arrival), and our church has a new family!

Mexico 206

Mexico Cuba Species Turkey 206

SalesFuel

MARCH 27, 2024

They specialize in the following: family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and specialty care. AdMall has definitely helped showcase to the senior marketing manager that using cable TV with our sports packages has extremely high viewership numbers that puts them out front of their ideal customer base,” said Huffer.

Medical 52

Medical Campaign Research Family 52

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

AUGUST 27, 2023

Pied Oystercatcher eggs It is Winter here in Northern Australia which means plenty of cloud-free blue sky and there are definitely worst places to be sitting for twenty eight days watching the world go by! I could observe where the family had come down to the ocean at night on the big tides. One large Pied Oystercatcher family !

Eggs 130

Eggs Australia Protection 2000 130

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2022

Here in central Mexico, the winter season always seems to begin with the arrival of various members of the sandpiper family. Definitely an adult. Action was bound to beat contemplation, and so he wrote about his returning waders before I wrote about mine. Let that be a lesson, to me. They have farther to go, but they also leave sooner.

Mexico 176

Mexico Breeding California Groups 176

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

SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

Corey finished up his family trip to Costa Rica on Saturday and his Best Bird of the Weekend should be a Pacific Screech-Owl outside of his hotel on Friday night, a lifer!

2019 121

2019 Costa Rica Pelicans Birds 121

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

DECEMBER 2, 2020

But if you really want to rack up the numbers on each and every outing, you should definitely come here in the winter. Once I moved beyond the reservoir area, it was once again the hummingbird family that gave me the best photos. Four Least Grebes at once! That’s a personal best.

Game 156

Game Lions Africa Mexico 156

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2017

Diversions like these definitely help get us through the more prosaic birding months. My family and I enjoyed the Corn Hill Festival this weekend, which is definitely one of Rochester’s better events. The closer to the poles you live, the more likely you lustily embrace this season.

2017 100

2017 Endangered Species Falcons Birds 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2022

They are also from the family responsible for mezcal and tequila. It was definitely a highlight for the day. A female Broad-billed Hummingbird , to my left, suggested what was in store. Then, to my right, I saw an enormous flowering agave plant. Agaves are those spiny non-cactus rosette plants one is likely to see in Western movies.

Mexico 147

Mexico California Woodpeckers Sparrows 147

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

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

MARCH 31, 2023

The same can be said, to a lesser extent, for the shorebirds, New World sparrows, warblers, and many other families. It definitely happens.) For example, of the 9 duck species we saw, 7 are winter-only. Wetter : The length of my list is greatly influenced by the presence or absence of water.

Blackbirds 147

Blackbirds Ducks Mexico 2020 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2024

The rooms are floating in a pond and the pond provides a home for a Eurasian Beaver family. Definitely, lack of songbirds. Yes, that’s where I was going – the Oostvaardersplassen – and the hotel has a little bridge straight into the National Park. Skeins of Greylag Geese completed the picture.

Beavers 141

Beavers Netherlands Eagles Bald Eagle 141

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

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

MAY 23, 2022

And indeed, Kai’s Rule (“if even I can see the difference between two birds, they should definitely be split”) suggests that this is justified. Confusingly, while there are more than 50 species in the fantail family, the Yellow-bellied Fantail is not one of them.

Litter 209

Litter China Abandoning Abandonment 209