10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2017

Despite mostly guiding them, I still somehow managed to see a European Badger sitting and watching me back for several seconds, before it slipped into bushes and quite a few White-tailed Eagles , e.g. four in just one morning. And how about Black Storks, otters and eagles? And, with it, its otters, eagles and storks.

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Eagles Otters Campaign Serbia 189

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2024

Somehow, Steller’s Sea Eagle manages to look both fierce and slightly cartoonish. The species is listed as Vulnerable – the estimated number of individuals is 4600-5100 (HBW), of which about 2000 winter on Hokkaido. Back to the eagle. They also estimate between 2115 and 2645 individuals traveled to see the eagle.

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Eagles Sea Lions Bears Russia 135

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2019

A wonderful variety of bird species are waiting to be seen and among them are many a birder’s favorite avian group, the wood-warblers. Among the most desired bird species during May migration, brightly colored, beautiful and boldly patterned, how can a birder not get hooked on spring warblers? Great Green Macaw!

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Costa Rica Species Belize New Jersey 203

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2016

By the cliffs we find several Eurasian Crag-Martins and a consolation species – a family of Golden Eagles in the air! The next morning is for the Kerkini Lake, one of the youngest national parks of Greece, protected only ten years ago, in 2006 and inhabited by 11 amphibian, 27 reptilian, 44 mammal and 312 bird species.

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Greece Boars Woodpeckers Eagles 259

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2024

What is your favorite bird species? Hamerkop, Martial Eagle, Southern Ground Hornbill, Saddle-billed Stork, Pel’s Fishing Owl, Secretarybird, African Fish Eagle, Lilac-breasted Roller and Lappet-faced Vulture Lilac-breasted Roller Can you outline at least one typical birdwatching trip in your area?

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South Africa Africa Eagles Fish 246

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2022

Even so, we do have some sandpipers and plovers around; there have been recent reports of Surfbirds and various other wading species. Harpy Eagle! The biggest birding news for Costa Rica was a sighting of an adult Harpy Eagle in northern Costa Rica , near Boca Tapada.

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Costa Rica Eagles West Virginia Albatross 257

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Already recorded this winter are Black-throated Diver , Goosander and several Greater Scaups , together with Ferruginous and Tufted Ducks and the regulars, Common Goldeneye , Caspian Gull , Pygmy Cormorant and White-tailed Eagle. Although many of them can be found in city parks, too, at the top of Avala your chances are higher.

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Serbia Woodpeckers Ducks Birds 306

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 19, 2019

And here in Europe, they are the real deal, an indigenous species and not domesticated animals gone wild. Photographed within Beljarica: five White-tailed Eagles by Snezana Panjkovic. Two hundred metres further on, two young White-tailed Eagles were soaring. I think all were males, at last two huge ones certainly were.

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Serbia Otters Boars Hunters 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

But I was hoping for a bit more avian variety and had my heart set on another whisky featuring a different species, but those plans fell through due to local unavailability of my first choice. A pair of Golden Eagles depicted by Clarence Henry Roe (1850-1909), an English painter who lived in Scotland for a time.

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Eagles Ireland Oregon Protection 263

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

On a recent visit I threw my bags in the hotel room and went straight there, and got over 60 species of birds in a few hours and fantastic views of Nilgai , the largest antelope in India. Commoner species include Bar-headed Geese , parakeets, shrikes, mynas and minivets. You should also see Gharial and Mugger Crocodiles there.

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India Wildlife Tigers Rhinoceros 255

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2024

Peregrine Falcon Peregrine Falcon Another highlight was when another birder informed us of a Eurasian Eagle-Owl that roosted in a vine on the cliff. The owl could be observed extremely well, and again I was very happy to get my best sighting of this species, which I’ve seen a few times before but usually at a distance or at dusk.

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Falcons Owls Eagles Breeding 246

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.

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Bulgaria McDonalds Eagles Wolves 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2021

That’s because this fascinating part-Caribbean, part-south American country holds well over 800 species of avifauna making it without doubt one of my top three countries in all of the continent to visit. Ok, maybe not the vampire bat…but some of the more “cuddly” species are actually quite easy to see.

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Guyana Otters South America Colombia 279

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2022

One of the reasons that I usually start each year’s species list with a visit to the wetlands of Lake Cuitzeo is that the site offers so many species that I can find nowhere else. Not all the colorful species have feathers. There are several, almost identical, species of Flycatchers in the Myiarchus genus.

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Eagles Falcons Sparrows Species 264

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. I was rewarded with nice scope views of Eurasian Eagle-Owls – by no means a surprise sighting as these birds breed here.

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Soreing Owls Eagles Woodpeckers 241

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2023

First birds came in the form of migrants and resident species that live in an oasis of precious green space near home. Those kept me below the 700 species threshhold but I won’t complain about 691 species. 48 Hummingbird Species. I also saw a high percentage of the raptor species possible in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Buffalo Endangered Species Birds 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

I observed White-tailed Eagles likely a few thousand times, and this didn’t strike me as the dark young bird. I observed White-tailed Eagles likely a few thousand times, and this didn’t strike me as the dark young bird. The next option would be a very dark adult Greater Spotted Eagle … but I wasn’t ready!

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Otters Croatia Eagles Protection 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Quite a few bird species have crests. Their main use is to display – either to communicate with other members of the species or to scare other species, as a raised crest makes the bird appear larger. In fact, crests occur in at least 20 of the 30 orders of extant birds, and in all major groups of passerines.

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South Africa China Germany Africa 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2020

A single morning birding the thorny desert of Baringo in Kenya’s Rift Valley yielded several species at a rate I at times struggled to keep up with. Lake Baringo and the surrounding desert scrub at just over 3,000 feet elevation is one of the most profitable birding hotspots in the country, boasting approximately 470 species.

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Kenya Owls Ostriches Hunters 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, offers several great birding spots and here are some recommendations for areas to go birding in and around the city, how to get there by public transport, and some of the bird species you might expect to see. It is home to almost a hundred bird species, including woodpeckers and songbirds.

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Transported Woodpeckers Serbia Birds 279

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2020

First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38. From there to the nearby Evros River Delta, at the very border with Turkey, with more easterly species such as the Spur-winged Plover.

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Greece Bulgaria Serbia 2000 295

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Raptors to look for in this reserve are Golden Eagle and Short-toed Snake Eagle , European Honey-buzzard and Peregrine Falcon. The commonest owls are Eurasian Scops Owl and Tawny Owl , while rare ones include Ural Owl and Eurasian Eagle Owl. About 120 species have been recorded so far.

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Serbia Woodpeckers Owls Eagles 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2020

There are three species of crow-like cotingas with odd hairdos known as umbrellabirds, the Bare-necked Umbrellabird is the one that lives in Costa Rica. Three days, three hawk-eagles. During a memorable guiding trip in June, we hit the jackpot with all three species of hawk-eagles in just a few days.

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Costa Rica 2019 San Jose Eagles 245

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

With more than 312 so far recorded bird species, Lake Kerkini National Park offers great birding year-round. In spring, a huge heronry of 10 species (including Spoonbill , Glossy Ibis , Squacco , Purple , and Night Heron , Pygmy Cormorant , etc.) Overwintering raptors include Greater Spotted , Golden , and Imperial Eagles.

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Greece Wildlife Boars Otters 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2021

Of the 6 species of quetzal, the one that lives in the cloud forests of Central America usually gets the “most spectacular” badge. And yes, this species lives in Quetzal Valley, a place that actually does exist! On a recent visit, I was reminded of that when we saw the feathered remains of an Ornate Hawk-Eagle feast.

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Costa Rica Birds Eagles America 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2020

eBird list of the recorded species. Birds of prey include European Honey-buzzard , Long-legged Buzzard , Short-toed Eagle , Booted Eagle , Montagu’s Harrier , etc. eBird list of the recorded species. The Danube being 3 km wide here has another, sad consequence: all floating rubbish is being wind-blown to this bank.

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Mali Serbia Eagles Turtles 264

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? Photo: VICE.

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Serbia Boars Otters Birds 299

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2024

There are 154 species of cuckoos in the world, and they’re all a fascinating bunch. It’s not a species you are likely to overlook, either, as it is extremely noisy, its cackling call carrying great distances. Give it a few more years and there’s a good chance that it will be split into a full species, just like the Cyprus Scops Owl.

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Cyprus Africa Europe Asia 246

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2021

Once I observed a man walking his two small dogs here, passing by a perched White-tailed Eagle but looking down at grass and not noticing the largest raptor in Europe at all. The eagle seemed well-used to people and paid no attention either. Photo by Branislav Dencic.

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Otters Protesting Protest Protesters 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2018

Birdwise, it turned out to be a good one and my year list was almost 400 species long, which made me happy… almost. Lesser White-fronted Goose and Greater Spotted Eagle came to mind, but what else? I am scoping Great Cormorants roosting in their colony in the (now dry) flooded forest, there is one… eagle to the right of them.

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Greece 2017 Pelicans Geese 190

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2016

As with mammals, the avifauna of the tar pits is heavy on individuals from predatory and scavenging species who were perhaps drawn to the struggles of dying mammoths and ground sloths. Eagles with appealing names like Fragile Eagle and Errant Eagle , as well as the extant Golden Eagle. Condors, of course.

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California Condor Coyotes Turkey California 203

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2019

In an unhurried half-day of birding, we racked up over 90 species, including killers like Denham’s Bustard , Northern Carmine-throated Bee-eater , and Shelley’s Rufous Sparrow. The raptors exceeded expectations in both quantity and quality, with lots of vultures, eagles, and a magnificent Beaudouin’s Snake-Eagle.

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Uganda Senegal Africa Game 245

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2021

It was an unexpected bird tour, without too much planning and aimed at a few target species, of which we saw most, but the main one eluded us… Early morning, leaving the last houses behind… and a Little Owl awaits us on a traffic sign. That tall poplar, they often stand there… there’s an eagle!” “In who dipped it). In that poplar?” “No,

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Serbia Romania Eagles Falcons 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2023

Some 320 species have been recorded here, and in springtime it is possible to observe more than 150 bird species in a week. Booted Eagle by Kostas Papadopoulos The next morning was a lazy one, a late breakfast and even later excursion. Later in the day, roadside birds included a Booted Eagle and a Levant Sparrowhawk.

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Greece Pelicans Stray Dog Tortoises 246

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2015

Other species I can recognize are colloquially called crocodile bark tree, due to the bark pattern, and paper bark. For you and me, there are about 200 bird species, but for proper tourists, there seem to be only five species in the reserve: Bengal Tiger , Leopard , Sloth Bear , Indian Wild Dog (Dhole) and the Gaur.

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Tigers Boars India Chickens 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

People whoever they are (even the most experienced of hawkwatchers) love Bald Eagles – it’s just a given. In my experience if you show a non or novice birder their first Bald Eagle and they will be amazed, show someone their first Thayer’s Gull and they aren’t likely to gasp (sorry, larophiles)!

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Bald Eagle Los Angeles Connecticut Eagles 252

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2022

Gazetted as the “nature monument” in 2013, one of the few remaining – Bojcinska Forest by the village of Progar covers 670 ha / 1650 ac, with around 108 bird species and some 60 species of mammals. A Lesser Spotted Eagle high in the thermal, getting ever smaller. And a White-tailed Eagle making an appearance in the same thermal!

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Croatia Serbia Shelters France 264