10,000 Birds

AUGUST 7, 2013

Fantails are a family that, apart from the aberrant Silktail and Pygmy Drongo, are extremely similar in appearance and behaviour. The family also reaches into India and as far east as samoa and Fiji. Even then they were very quick, and I got many shots like those above.

New Zealand 176

New Zealand Samoa Fiji Killing 176

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) — that towering icon of modern anthropogenic extinctions — was a pigeon.

Solomon Islands 277

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius 2006 277

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Pardalotes are actually their own family, and a family entirely endemic to Australia. Insofar as they relate to other bird families, they are perhaps closest to the thornbills, another family that is mostly Australian but reaches as far as Thailand and Fiji. A Spotted Pardalote ! What a treat!

Australia 172

Australia Fiji Hunters Thailand 172