10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2021

Of course, I also go there several other times each year; I have, after all, seen 160 species at this endemic-rich site. The reason for this annual pilgrimage is a single species, the Sinaloa Martin. All sightings southeast of the species’ Puerto Vallarta-to-Los Mochis breeding area are of migrating birds.

Nicaragua 262

Nicaragua 2015 2016 Mexico 262

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2023

The Jay’s enthusiasm for acorns is well documented, and they will start harvesting them as soon as they are ripe, flying off with as many as six or seven in the gullet and another in the bill. Not only eggs but nestling birds of many species fall prey to the Jay.” It’s a different matter in the spring.

Norway 196

Norway Ghana Japan Eggs 196

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

When you bird afar and wander wide, you carry a field guide to the birds of the region you are exploring, a pair of binoculars, likely a camera, perhaps a spotting scope and a tripod too, plus clothing, medicines, toiletries, electronics, money and documents… Did you notice the missing item?

Madagascar 239

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 239

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2019

That way, we can make a regular old bird list more like an exciting digital trip report while also documenting sightings. Always nice to document your lifers, especially beauties like the Crowned Woodnymph. The official bird list is well over 900 species and literally hundreds of fantastic tropical birds are accessible but when to go?

Costa Rica 296

Costa Rica Thailand Hawaii Species 296

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 9, 2023

With my recent relocation to the central forests of Trinidad, I have been afforded the incredible opportunity of observing three oft-confused species in close proximity to one another. In reality these species are rarely in the same place at the same time, however! All the more reason to keep birding!

Trinidad 146

Trinidad Abandoning Abandonment Abandon 146

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

As mentioned in many other posts on this blog, the avifauna of Trinidad & Tobago consists of several species and family groups occurring very interestingly, in threes. Short-tailed Nighthawk (above and below) Overall, this species seems to be poorly known, which is understandable given its habits. Well, kind of.

Trinidad 130

Trinidad Bats Falcons Groups 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2022

This endearing and very familiar species grabbed the attention of all present, including the official event photographer from the THA! And yes, there was an official photographer sent to document us documenting birds – see the post here. Our little group managed a final tally of 56 species!

Trinidad 236

Trinidad Falcons Ducks Livestock 236

10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2021

A friend of mine has been begging me to come over to document a nesting pair of Plumbeous Kites in her property but life has gotten in the way thus far. Some species have already fledged their young and are in the process of feeding the juveniles. I managed to get one picture of both birds – but both were obscured by foliage.

Raised 264

Raised Breeding South America Family 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2021

In fact, this is probably a species that has substantially expanded its original range through the pet shop route and the resulting escapees. In fact, it seems to be one of the species employed by past ornithologists to establish their own monument in the shape of a subspecies. A challenge for young birders, maybe. On the ground?

South Africa 229

South Africa Africa Lesotho Nigeria 229

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2023

It covers 403 species: 172 nonpasserine species and 231 passerine species in the Species Accounts, 198 species beautifully illustrated by the author in the Plates section. The scarcity of information on the young of some avian species is astounding.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 253

Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Family Collecting 253

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2020

With around 400 species recorded for the area, yeah, it’s where we might all like to quarantine for a bit! Thanks to that bird’s choice of hunting grounds and David having plenty of time to watch it, he has documented the bird chasing everything from motmots to large woodpeckers as well as occasional visits from the parents.

Costa Rica 210

Costa Rica Birds Thailand Farming 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 2, 2020

Just yesterday I learned that the Barn Owl ( Tyto alba ) is the only breeding bird found in New York that has been documented nesting in every month of the year. This bit of trivia was given in an article in my local bird club’s monthly newsletter about the ongoing breeding bird atlas in New York State.

Barn Owls 231

Barn Owls 2017 Rodents Owls 231

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). The eBird description of the Small Niltava starts with the surprisingly dull statement that “size distinguishes this species from other niltavas” Who would have thought.

China 224

China Birds Pythons Eagles 224

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2018

There are an additional 1,200 acres of surrounding protected refuge, supporting a documented 525 bird species! In the park proper, 358 species have been recorded. One of the highlights of birding in this Texas state park is the chance to see five owl species that breed here. Photo by © KS Nature Photography. Stygian Owl.

Texas 150

Texas Owls Barn Owls Hunting 150

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

August is possibly the best month there, because you gradually observe the rise and fall of numbers of various migrating species, which use it as a stopover site to fatten up ahead of the long hauls further south. Before I start, my readers are already asking themselves why are they familiar with the name of this locality?

Serbia 267

Serbia Boars Otters Birds 267

10,000 Birds

JUNE 25, 2022

Even so, in the short term, it can be hard to accept that hundreds of species are close to being extinguished from this irreplaceble tapestry of life, that hundreds more are headed for the same eventual abysmal stop. We would see how species that used to be common, even abundant, became remnants of their former, robust populations.

Costa Rica 255

Costa Rica Parrots Albatross Protection 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Why are these issues?

Costa Rica 210

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 210

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2023

Our own version of Gullmania began with the first documented sighting of a Heerman’s Gull. It’s a bird species I have expected for some time, an overdue bird if you will. Choice gulls have come to town and local birders have responded in kind.

Costa Rica 224

Costa Rica Factory Transported Fish 224

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 The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.”

Penguins 278

Penguins Georgia Albatross New Zealand 278

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2022

Even going on the same route twice a day we have noticed different bird species at different times and every walk is a time to enjoy time together in nature very close to home. It is a shame we had not noticed what was going on earlier, so we could have documented it from an earlier stage of development. Mistletoebird nest.

Australia 147

Australia Eggs Species Birds 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2018

Invasive species , particularly rodents, have long been a problem on the Hawaiian archipelago. Mice are also detrimental to the island’s habitat for other reasons, including their consumption of plants and invertebrates, often competing with native species. Implementing mitigation measures identified for selected species.

Mice 102

Mice Albatross Honolulu Rats 102

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2020

This species is rare, hardly ever observed, and severely understudied. EBird, for example, has a total of only 134 observations recorded (5 of them mine), and has only received 9 lists with photos of the species (4 of them mine). But my encounter with a Green Heron by the river was worth documenting here.

Owls 154

Owls Woodpeckers Mexico Falcons 154

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2020

I can’t say whether one of these species is more prone to punditry than the other. Fortunately, the varietals that make up The Pundit are more well documented.

2016 184

2016 Washington Owls United States 184

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Because, let’s face it, when you get off that plane and look at those severe volcanic landscapes and then find yourself face to face with one of the islands’ four mockingbird species, you’re not going to think, “Oh, look, lava and a mockingbird.” The updating of the text is very important.

2006 246

2006 Tortoises Sea Lions Porpoises 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

Maybe these people like challenges – at least here at the monastery, getting good shots of this species is quite easy. Another species apparently enjoying the proximity of a monastery is the White-winged Grosbeak. The Black-rumped Magpie is one of the four new species that were split from the Eurasian Magpie in 2018.

Birds 208

Birds Germany India 2018 208

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2019

Species with small ranges ( e.g. , single island endemics) or tiny populations ( e.g. , endangered species) are especially vulnerable. Nevertheless, the 2017 CBC tallied 1,934 birds of 82 species, both of which were low counts for past CBCs ( e.g., the 2016 CBC had 2,579 birds, 97 species).

Puerto Rico 254

Puerto Rico 2017 2018 Virgin Islands 254

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2018

There are 258 species documented; half of which nest in the park. In the midst of an intensifying battle between protecting public lands and advancing private interests, I want to share a moment of avian celebration at Yellowstone National Park. As the first U.S. national park (1872), birding records date back to its establishment.

Canada 146

Canada 2018 Blackbirds Protection 146

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

That’s pretty amazing–Bolivia has more bird species than India! The source of this ranking, BirdLife International, lists Bolivia as currently having 1,439 bird species, including 18 breeding endemics. The guide covers 1,433 species, the number of birds documented at the end of 2014, the cutoff point for the book.

Bolivia 171

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 171

10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2021

Earlier in the day, as we ventured out towards the deep waters off of Malpais, Costa Rica at 6 in the morning, another Galapagos Shearwater was the first real pelagic species we encountered. There was even that outside, enticing chance of documenting something new for Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 264

Costa Rica Dolphins Sea Turtles Turtles 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2021

I wonder what he would have made of the extraordinary peregrinations undertaken by this species in 2021, with birds turning up well north of their usual range in an event the American Birding Association has coined – with hashtag – #spoonbillsummer?

New York 263

New York South Carolina North Carolina Massachusetts 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2020

It’s similar with birds: good birds never come if you have a way of documenting them. This is an uncommon species here – only about a dozen birds overwinter in the country annually. Now, that fits the bird I saw, but soon I will realise another issue: in Serbia, this species was recorded only once!

Serbia 266

Serbia Birds Cyprus Ducks 266

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

Another paper recently published in Forest Ecology and Management documented that EAB predators’ behavior matches their growing numbers. … Here at 10,000 Birds 20 July – 26 July is Invasive Species Week. Nonetheless, this week will be chock full of invasive species.

Woodpeckers 273

Woodpeckers Illinois Chicago Kentucky 273

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2018

I will add at least three new species to my Queens list. This will be very difficult as I have added a total of three species to the list in the last two years. I will get to 300 species photographed in Queens in eBird. I will see at least sixty species from my balcony this year. Tune in all year to find out!

2018 127

2018 Birds 2017 New York 127

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. Habitat loss, as documented by hieroglyphs. Hence, this species has earned the German colloquial common name “Nimmersatt”; meaning “never full”.

Ostriches 147

Ostriches Parrots Eggs Africa 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

It’s always tragic when a species goes extinct. But that tragedy is compounded when the species at risk is a country’s national bird. A field team recently discovered a juvenile Manumea (and documented it with photographs). For more info on both species, check out this video from Samoa’s Ministry of Environment.

Samoa 169

Samoa Bald Eagle Campaign Hunting 169

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2022

I was surprised that this species is named for its vocalization – which sounds like laughter. For example, the Diamond Dove is the world’s second-smallest species of the columbidae order ( source ). The Latin species name haematonotus (“blood-backed”) sounds a bit more exciting but not necessarily more accurate.

Australia 147

Australia Birds Parrots Ostriches 147

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2019

The tropical habitats of Costa Rica are home to a surprising number of raptor species. Although the country is around the same size as West Virginia, 39 species of diurnal raptors are on the list. As is often the case for tropical ecosystems, there may be hundreds of species of birds at a site, but many of them are naturally rare.

Costa Rica 178

Costa Rica Eagles West Virginia Opossums 178