10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

I think most of us in North America have come to the somewhat disappointing conclusion that fall migration is pretty much finished for the year. The flocks that just a fortnight ago held multiple species in varied, if subdued, hues, now overwhelmingly consist of a single species. You’re done.

North America 237

North America North Carolina South America Tennessee 237

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2011

In California, coveys break up and pairs begin forming in February or March, followed by nest building and egg laying in May or June. She will usually lay 12 to 17 eggs, averaging five per week 1 , before beginning incubation. Occasionally, larger clutches occur due to egg dumping by other females. References: 1 Baicich, Paul J.

California 259

California Gophers Rattlesnake Eggs 259

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

The Bank Swallow ( Riparia riparia ) is North America’s smallest swallow. The report identifies 33 species that do not meet the Watch List criteria but are declining rapidly in many areas. The main reason for this rapid decline, as in the case of most species, is loss of habitat.

North America 209

North America 2014 California America 209

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 28, 2015

Although it was formerly abundant and geographically widespread, Trumpeter Swan numbers and distribution were greatly reduced during the early fur trade and European settlement of North America (1600’s to 1800’s), when it was prized for its skins and primary feathers 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq1bx7Ic2FY. v=kq1bx7Ic2FY.

North America 180

North America Iowa Wisconsin Michigan 180

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2013

Clicking on the map will take you to an explanation of this important biome, including its climate and its plant and animal species. All four major flyways in North America — the aerial migration routes traveled by billions of birds each year — converge in one spot in Canada’s boreal forest, the Peace-Athabasca Delta in northeastern Alberta.

Obama 263

Obama 2008 United States North America 263

10,000 Birds

JULY 23, 2014

Since its introduction, this dove has spread quickly across the North American continent. The northwestern spread of this non-native species made it to my yard a few years ago. In North America and the Caribbean, they are found mostly in suburban, urban, and agricultural areas where grain, roost, and nest sites are available.

Breeders 200

Breeders 2002 North America Bahamas 200

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Their habitats vary widely in both rural and urban landscapes; open habitats are preferred and the species generally shuns only extensively forested areas and wetlands 1. To show how adaptive this species is, the following photograph was sent to me by one of my readers and I use it with her permission.

Hunters 206

Hunters Hunting North America Game 206

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

There was a time when I thought each bird species had its own individual song. Then I found out that there was this vocalization called a ‘call,’ so I thought each bird species had its own individual song (but just the males) and individual call. Bird communication is a complex and evolving science. How do they know?

North America 279

North America Birds Research America 279

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2013

The Black Swift is considered a Species of Special Concern in California. Plus the fact that they only lay one egg per season which is incubated for about four weeks and the chicks don’t fledge for another fifty days gives you some notion as to why these birds are a Species of Special Concern.

California 239

California Costa Rica North America Niger 239

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 21, 2015

Isla Rasa was declared a sanctuary in 1964, and egg-collecting and disturbance during the breeding season are discouraged. With the breeding colony concentrated on one small island this species is vulnerable to a catastrophic weather event. References: 1 Birds of North America Online , 2 BirdLife International.

San Francisco 163

San Francisco North America Seals Sanctuary 163

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

For mankind to snatch away a species’ very existence is wrong on so many levels that I can’t begin to explain them. However, despite our best efforts to wipe them off the face of the earth, some of the more vulnerable species have managed to hang on. this species breeds. Here are some U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Albatross 247

Albatross Endangered Species Bald Eagle Alaska 247

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2014

The featured image above shows a female incubating eggs from my first resident breeding pair back in 2007. Violet-green Swallows will nest solitarily or in colonies and in my experience seem much more mellow than other swallow species. The four to six eggs are white and unmarked. References: 1 Birds of North America Online.

Eggs 171

Eggs North America 2007 Woodpeckers 171

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2012

The pair may have to compete for nesting cavities with several other species including native Tree Swallows and Violet-green Swallows, as well as non-native House Sparrows and European Starlings. The female alone incubates the usual 4 to 6 eggs for about two weeks beginning the day the last egg is laid. i Kamakawiwo?ole’s

Washington 208

Washington Eggs Israel California 208

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Today, the species has all but disappeared east of the Mississippi River and has declined in western parts of its range, most likely caused by the expansion of the House Wren which destroys and removes their eggs from nest sites 1. References: 1 Birds of North America Online. This is what I am used to seeing.

Mississippi 174

Mississippi North America Eggs America 174

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2014

More than 99% of the population of Tricolored Blackbirds ( Agelaius tricolor ) live within the state of California and form the largest colonies of any North American passerine bird 1. The Results of the 2014 Tricolored Blackbird Statewide Survey confirm that this species is in rapid decline. Click on photos for full sized images.

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Blackbirds California 2014 Sacramento 212

10,000 Birds

JULY 17, 2012

Horned Larks breed widely over North America, including up here in the High Arctic. For many North American bird enthusiasts, Common Ringed Plover ‘s are a bird they rarely, if ever, get to see. Here they are a common breeding bird, one of our two species that migrate from here to Europe and then south.

Eggs 226

Eggs North America Breeding Europe 226

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2024

Being a westerner — raised in California, and now living in western Mexico — I was perhaps most excited about the migratory birds that breed in eastern North America. This was only my fourth encounter with the species (all on the east side). Although, truth be told, this species does seem to be a rarity in Tabasco.)

Mexico 243

Mexico Birds Raccoons Baltimore 243

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2013

The two dozen species are, nearly to an individual, long bodied and bicolored. In North America, at least in the eastern part of it, we celebrate the return of the Baltimore Oriole to parks and farms this time of year. Icterus is a wide-ranging neotropical genus consisting of the technicolor blackbirds we call orioles.

Baltimore 208

Baltimore Broker North America Raised 208

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Both the male and female of the species have a bright red crown. Within a group, 1–7 male co-breeders compete for matings with 1–3 joint-nesting females who lay their eggs in the same nest cavity. Acorn Woodpeckers are the only species to store individual nuts in holes drilled in granaries. Click on photos for full sized images.

Woodpeckers 199

Woodpeckers Breeders North America Groups 199

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 289

Wildlife Rehabilitation Family Birds Collecting 289

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2015

The Brown Pelican and the Peruvian Pelican are closely related and once were considered the same species. The Brown Pelican occurs in both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America and northern South America. The species reached pre-pesticide numbers by the late 1990s and was fully delisted in 2009.

Pelicans 157

Pelicans North America Peru Chile 157

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2015

Another species of Python, the African Python ( Python sebae ) has established a small population in the 2,877-acre Bird Drive Area (BDA) in South Florida. Photo Credit: Invasive and Exotic Species of North America (www.invasive.org). Rock Python. Photo Credits: Samuel Wright.

Pythons 209

Pythons Florida Mammals Reptiles 209

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2020

I am only responding to my subjective impression of a single species’ appearance here; specifically, that of the Bronzed Cowbird. Instead, they lay their eggs in other species’ nests, and let those nest-making birds (often significantly smaller than the cowbirds) raise their young. Native versus invasive species?

Blackbirds 174

Blackbirds Mexico Cattle Birds 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2013

The White-headed Woodpecker is a non-migratory bird found in mixed coniferous forests dominated by pine trees in far western North America. Yah, another western species. White-headed Woodpeckers usually lay 4 to 5 eggs in a clutch and we’ve seen at least three different nestlings here now.

Woodpeckers 154

Woodpeckers North America America Eggs 154

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

For ornithologists, it is the documentation of a multi-year project designed to record the distribution and abundance of birds in a specific area (in North America, usually a state or a province), utilizing a mapping method involving blocks and grids. The second page is the map page. Brauning and Andrew M.

Pennsylvania 258

Pennsylvania Breeding Sparrows Birds 258

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 15, 2020

Plus a few truly difficult species. Sure, it is an introduced species in Germany. But the Kentish Plover was sheltering its young under its body, and the Little Ringed Plover was incubating an egg — right in the middle of downtown Madrid! So seeing this beautiful (though common) European species was a special treat.

Austria 186

Austria Spain 2019 Germany 186

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2011

This happened to me recently on a birding trip, with somewhat egg-on-the-face results. We were driving up to northwestern Michigan from our homes in Ohio (me) and West ByGod Virginia (Geoff) in search of a bird species that would be a lifer for both of us: the Bohemian Waxwing. I was on a birding quest trip with my friend Geoff Heeter.

2011 243

2011 Michigan Birds Ohio 243

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2016

Shrikes by the numbers: The family Laniidae is composed of 31 species of shrike, around the globe. The most common species here in North America is the Loggerhead Shrike , Laniidae ludovicianus which has 11 subspecies. Here is a pair birds that I visit quite often, in an arroyo near La Ventana, Mexico. Migrans and L.i.

Butcher 148

Butcher North America Birds Mexico 148

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2015

Western Bluebirds ( Sialia mexicana ) like the male shown above, as well as Eastern Bluebirds ( Sialis sialis ) and Mountain Bluebirds ( Sialis currucoides ) have all benefited from 90 years of nest boxes and bluebird trails, monitored by thousands of bluebird enthusiasts across North America.

Tenant 163

Tenant Farming Illinois North America 163

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. 266-67).

Dissection 263

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs 263

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

And, I started daydreaming about encountering something a little different, maybe a Horned Frog, Ceratophrys cornuta, a large, squat green and brown frog of South America, with a wide mouth large enough to eat other frogs as well as reptiles. A book about all the frogs and toads of the world is an ambitious undertaking.

Reptiles 216

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 216

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2012

Cliff Swallows migrate to North America from their wintering grounds in South America to nest in large colonies, sometimes numbering in the thousands. It is illegal for any person to take, possess, transport, sell, or purchase them or their parts, such as feathers, nests, or eggs, without a permit.

San Diego 165

San Diego illegal California South America 165

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2011

July, as all northern hemisphere birders appreciate, is the month when the egg timer flips and everything starts pouring back out again in a steady stream south. Recently local birder Steve Holliday spent some time collating all the local information on ringing reports for this species with some interesting results.

Poland 157

Poland 2009 France Europe 157

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

It’s the warbler that is often the last unchecked species on birders’ life lists and, whether you list or not, for most of us observing it is a once in a lifetime experience. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species list. A nest wasn’t found until 1903, which set off a craze for Kirtland’s Warbler skins, nests, and eggs.

Michigan 258

Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 258

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2019

It was advisable to remove them at night, to keep them calm, to establish immediately a feeding board on which they would be fed chopped beef and egg to start, then fresh birds, rabbit or squirrel. Nestlings weren’t taken until their down had been replaced by feathers. By 1999, the Peregrine Falcon was removed from the U.S.

Falcons 213

Falcons California Condor Alaska Texas 213

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

The section South Georgia Wildlife describes 65 species of birds, 20 species of sea mammals, nearly 60 species of insects, and more than 40 species of flowering and nonflowering plants. They breed in dense colonies, incubate their single egg on the feet, and take more than a year to fledge a chick.

Georgia 182

Georgia Penguins Wildlife Whales 182

10,000 Birds

MAY 29, 2011

Friends of mine came home from those lakes with tales of Sandhill Cranes , Snowy Owls with eggs in the nest and others. A tantalizing report from them included a brown owl, the likely suspect a Short-eared Owl slightly north of its accepted range. Few things in this earth can beat falling asleep after a day outdoors to bird song.

Bald Eagle 130

Bald Eagle Iceland North America Owls 130