This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Timothy Barksdale is a birder, Prairie Chicken documentarian , and wildlife videographer well-known for his stunning Adventures with Birdman. He’s got a different view on how bird watchers should respond to The Big Year than the one Corey recently expressed here. We’re pleased to share his thoughtful perspective and plea for your consideration… Dear Friends and Lovers of Birds, On Friday, October 14th, to my knowledge, the first feature film with the subject being Birding ever
I'm constantly asked about the details of Baby Sky's life. Where does she get her protein? How are her bones going to grow without cow's milk? You mean she's never eaten bacon? Are you a communist? At Baby Sky's 15 month checkup she landed at about the 75th percentile for height and weight. She comes from small stock, so I do see that decreasing a bit.
Dog lovers and Star Wars geeks rejoice! You can now dress up your pooch for Halloween (or whenever you want to!) as your favorite Star Wars character. Baby the Maltese got to try out the Princess Leia version, but as you can see, there are also Darth Vader and Yoda costumes available. The Leia buns were an absolute riot! Of course, our dog only wanted to play with them, not wear them on her head, but we still think she looks darling as Princess Leia.
Apparently, this will happen in 8 months. I had no idea! Excerpted from The New York Times. In eight months, the sale of foie gras will be banned in California. But for seven hours on Friday night, at a restaurant appropriately known as Animal, three chefs presented an eight-course meal that was nothing short of a glorification of this soon-to-be-outlawed delicacy.
I support the goal of legal rights for nonhuman animals, but this approach is wrongheaded. Instead of using the 13th Amendment, the original understanding of which did not include animals, proponents should work for a constitutional amendment, or simply for national legislation. Take it to the people.
Luisa Elena Betencourt is an artist with a MFA from Washington State University which she got through the Fulbright program in 1992. She contacted Corey to ask permission to use a Masked Trogon image from the blog for an art show and Corey agreed provided she would write a post for 10,000 Birds about how she is inspired by birds and nature. Luisa is currently preparing a show that will open on 10 February 2011 at Agora Gallery in Chelsea, New York.
I may have to buy a smartphone : For more than a year, Berres (and his graduate students, of course) have been testing and improving the fruit of that inspiration: WeBIRD, the Wisconsin Electronic Bird Identification Resource Database. Like music-identification apps Shazam and MusicID, WeBIRD allows anyone with a smartphone and a mysterious bird nearby to record the bird’s call, submit it wirelessly to a server and (after a few seconds) receive a positive ID on the species of bird tweeting away
I may have to buy a smartphone : For more than a year, Berres (and his graduate students, of course) have been testing and improving the fruit of that inspiration: WeBIRD, the Wisconsin Electronic Bird Identification Resource Database. Like music-identification apps Shazam and MusicID, WeBIRD allows anyone with a smartphone and a mysterious bird nearby to record the bird’s call, submit it wirelessly to a server and (after a few seconds) receive a positive ID on the species of bird tweeting away
If you have never been to Hawk Mountain , Pennsylvania during fall migration I would strongly recommend a visit. We have just returned from hosting this past weekend’s inaugural Extreme Raptor Weekend and Hawk Mountain was one of our chosen partner venues. Besides the presence of several noted birding personalities, interesting seminars and phenomenal prize give-aways, the real stars of the show were undoubtably the birds.
The Big Year was alright. It was neither horrible nor outstanding, neither fully factual nor completely made-up, neither completely engaging nor totally alienating. I would give it a solid “B-” as a birder whether I was grading on a curve or not. If you are a birder you should, of course, see the movie. If you are not a birder there is no reason to see it in the theater because despite the fact that the movie is about birding there is very little that is exciting or funny or orig
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge , AKA Tinicum, is an outstanding urban oasis in southern Philadelphia, less than one mile from Philadelphia’s airport. Being a New Yorker, I had never birded the refuge before. After all, why would I drive over two hours to bird in habitat that is very similar to much closer locations? But when the Focus on Diversity: Changing the Face of American Birding conference was held there last weekend it seemed like a welcome excuse to finally check out this
Every spring the wood-warblers come north bedecked in breeding finery and every autumn they head back south again in more muted colors. The trickle of migrants becomes a flood and then slows to a trickle again, leaving us New Yorkers with a host of Butterbutts and few other wood-warblers to tide us over until spring. This fall I again spent time out in the field documenting the wood-warblers moving through and enjoying the last looks I would get at them for six months or more.
Guianan Cock-of-the-rock, Capuchinbird, Red Fan Parrot, Guianan Toucanet, White Bellbird, Grey-winged Trumpeters, Black Currasow. Interested yet? Well, you should be. For these stunning birds are not easily found outside of the Guianas which includes Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana. On a trip to Suriname to find and film some of these spectacular species I was blown away by the birding.
We humans have a very deep and powerful urge to assemble individual data points into some sort of larger construct — to label and categorize them and understand how they relate to other things we know. Which is why, upon meeting new people, we want to know where they’re from, who their family is, what they “do,” or two or three other things, depending upon our cultural values.
Tanzania is without a doubt the quintessential African safari nation. Nowhere else in Africa do the preconceived ideas of the continent really exist in such living detail; tall, red-robed Maasai herding their skinny cattle, endless grasslands studded with flat-topped Acacia trees and grazed by herds of zebras and wildebeest, and dramatic volcanic calderas brimming with big game and fierce predators!
Okay. I know at 10,000 Birds, we’re not only supposed to wow you with blog articles, but we’re also supposed show you some awesome photos. So let me get this photo of a Trumpeter Swan out of the way: That’s an up close shot, but sometimes you can see some cool things when you are far away. I’m in the middle of three different bird surveys for work and it’s been a fantastic way to watch the changes in fall migration in Minnesota.
Navigated 360° tours, like YourVRTours, advance pipelines by engaging clients further along the sales funnel. These immersive experiences provide comprehensive property insights, increasing buyer intent and readiness. By embracing navigated tours, agents can optimize property exposure, better qualify leads, and streamline the sales process. Stay ahead in the ever-evolving real estate landscape with innovative technology that elevates buyer journeys and progresses pipelines more effectively.
The American Black Vulture ( Coragyps atratus ) does not only look evil; it is evil to the core. Horrid. American Black Vulture ( thanks Redgannet for letting me use your photo) I must admit that I too completely underestimated them when I first say the American Black Vulture in Costa Rica. Bizarre looking with that funny grayish head and they strange gait when running on the beach.
Please give a warm welcome to Walter Kitundu, the latest addition to the bevy of beat writers on 10,000 Birds. Walter first came to our attention on 10,000 Birds when he made a comment here – and are we ever glad he did! He is an excellent photographer and his blog, Bird Light Wind , is well worth a visit. Walter manages to see and photograph so many great birds that we felt it would be unfair to limit him to one specific beat so he is the Beat on Assignment, and will blog on the same
October 13 found me doing something very unusual, even for me: learning about birds while watching an orchestra. The University of Montana Symphonic Wind Ensemble, to be precise. At a concert called “Winged Messengers”, which included a piece called “Chickadee Symphony” by Craig Naylor. Plenty of composers have been inspired by bird song – it’s possible that even the first musicians were.
While we at 10,000 Birds wouldn’t advocate taking such an approach , it is not without its merits: Nico Dauphine told a D.C. superior court judge in response to the allegations, “absolutely not, no I did not.” The Ph.D. Smithsonian Institute researcher is accused of trying to poison street cats outside her apartment building on 15th Street in Northwest.
As a form of entertainment, it may lack the sophistication of America’s Got Talent , but watching a gull trying to swallow a starfish is certainly compelling. Glaucous-winged Gulls in Vancouver’s Stanley Park can often be seen with a perplexed yet determined look on their faces and a starfish half in, half out (or two-fifths in and three-fifths out, or vice-versa), apparently stuck.
I spent this past weekend at the coast, travelling to Arcata for a Northern California Audubon Council meeting hosted by the Redwood Region Audubon Society. This area includes Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, part of Audubon’s Humboldt Bay Important Bird Area (IBA). The Arcata Marsh is an innovative wastewater treatment facility consisting of 307 acres of freshwater marshes, salt marsh with tidal slough, grassy uplands, tidal mudflats, brackish marsh, 5.4 miles of walking and biking p
When climate changes, causing habitats to move, birds can get up and fly away to a new habitat, so really, they’ll be fine. Right? Well, that’s probably a little bit true, but only a very little bit. I’ve been working on climate change lately (not causing it, but reading and writing about it) and birds have come up in a few places.
“Seen anything good?” -Our Ritual Greeting It was after about fifteen minutes on the dike at Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area with a pleasant couple from Maryland that I realized that we had managed to have quite a conversation that touched on a variety of topics but managed to not introduce ourselves. We had discussed the birds, parenting, birds, hometowns, birds, weather, birds, and blogging.
“This focus on diversity is good. It is the future of conservation. It is good.” -Dave Magpiong “There was so much incentive for me to stop birdwatching.” -John C. Robinson I spent all day Saturday at the Focus on Diversity: Changing the Face of American Birding conference organized ably by the irrepressible Dave Magpiong and a host of others.
It is early, pre-dawn, and the sky is just lightening in the east when you arrive. You park your car, gather your optical equipment, take a last gulp of glorious coffee, and get out of your car. The whole area is alive with movement and chip notes but you can’t take the time to figure out what it is you are hearing and barely seeing because you have an even more difficult birding challenge ahead of you.
You should know by now that there are a good number of birds that spend an appreciable amount of time underwater. There are, for example, the Penguins and Diving Ducks. And then there are the crazy-awesome Dippers and one should not forget the great diving birds like Gannets and Albatrosses. This Yellow-crowned Amazon was not quite as vociferous as his Central American cousins And like many of these birds, I too love to spend time beneath the water – there are few things better than free d
Though it was pretty warm for an October morning when I spotted this bird at Fort Tilden, Queens, it was fluffed up as if it was suffering from extreme cold. Maybe it was trying to be a big tough guy considering the volume of sparrows in the vicinity of where it was foraging? Somehow, I doubt it but I have to admit that I was entertained with such a fluffy Common Yellowthroat.
When I digiscoped the European Starlings feeding on hawthorn berries last week I also turned my digiscoping rig towards the horde of American Robins that were frequenting the same hawthorn shrub. They were struggling to stay balanced on thin branches in strong wind while scarfing down berries like they were the tastiest thing they had ever eaten. It was fun to watch and photograph and I spent quite a bit of time with the birds in the nice late afternoon light snapping shot after shot after shot.
The Brown Booby is a bird that helps explain why birders don’t always want to share what they are doing with non-birders. Explaining to people that the main goal you have for a visit to Cape May is seeing a Brown Booby and you will, at the least, get an odd look. Others will crack ribald jokes, mock you, or accuse you of being crass. Being a birder can be a tough row to hoe sometimes.
Black-necked Stilt ( Himantopus mexicanus ) photos by Larry Jordan Click on photos for full sized images. This female Black-necked Stilt ( Himantopus mexicanus ) is distinguished from the male by her paler brownish back and scapulars. The male of the species has the upper portion of the head, back of neck, back and wings all glossy black. He also has longer legs than the female.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
266 
Let's personalize your content