10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2021

Pough “with illustrations in color of every species” by Don Eckelberry, Doubleday, 1946. The National Audubon Society Birds of North America covers all species seen in mainland United States, Canada and Baja California. The press material says it covers over 800 species, so you know I had to do a count.

North America 278

North America America Birds California Condor 278

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2014

What happens when you visit one of the best birdwatching sites in the region with the highest number of endemic bird species in the Americas in the world’s birdiest country? My group came to Montezuma to spy tasty Chocó endemic tanagers, hummingbirds, and anything else we could lay eyes on. Your mind gets blown.

Colombia 261

Colombia Birds South America America 261

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

If a list also shows the status for each species, birders on their way to Costa Rica would realize that they shouldn’t really expect vireos with white eyes nor blue heads (but would hopefully know that they should very much report those species on eBird so local birders can chase them!). Toucan species with new names.

Costa Rica 197

Costa Rica Birds Owls South America 197

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

The text goes far beyond just those two birds, however, as Doug works his way through the puzzles presented by the incredibly wide diversity of bird behavior, even within species, citing current research and new and old theories, reasoning out the most likely and unlikely answers. Why are all the real tanagers in tropical America?

Science 206

Science Albatross Research Birds 206

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2017

In a time of little published information about the rainforests of Central and South America aside from scientific journal articles and the works of 19th-century naturalists, the “little green book,” as it was called, became a must-read amongst nature-oriented travelers and researchers.

South America 144

South America Ecuador America Reptiles 144

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2014

They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of South America as their destination. We hope that our journey will provide important information about many Neotropical bird species as well as inform conservation.”. Not just any old ant though, you are on the lookout for army ants.

San Diego 183

San Diego South America Costa Rica America 183

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

There were three profound questions my birding group discussed while we birded Trinidad and Tobago, back in December 2012: (1) How many Bananaquits could fit on a banana? (2) It is organized taxonomically, with families identified by first scientific and then popular name. 3) What was the best guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago?

Trinidad 190

Trinidad Birds South America Research 190

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

These arid hills, cloaked in a mosaic of deciduous scrub and desert vegetation, form a northern outpost for several Neotropical species while also harboring several key endemics and southwestern Nearctic species. I had point blank life views of this tricky species from within a few feet.

Mexico 187

Mexico Birds Costa Rica Arizona 187

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Most of these birds are small, finch-like species with thick, conical bills for cracking seeds or eating insects. He goes on to describe how early classifications of the nine-primaried oscines relied on bill shape to determine family boundaries. A new perspective on tanagers Much of the core of the tanager family remains intact.

Sparrows 206

Sparrows 2003 Family South America 206

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2020

Diversity of habitat means, of course, great biodiversity, and the Introduction boasts that Bolivia “is the richest landlocked nation on Earth for bird diversity, the sixth richest overall, and the fifth richest in the Americas” (p. That’s pretty amazing–Bolivia has more bird species than India! ″ x 9.5″x

Bolivia 169

Bolivia Birds Brazil Switzerland 169

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2012

It seems strange that I’ll miss the return of the Sun this year, as I leave this week for a trade show and then a short trip out west to see my family. Right now we’re pretty much a three species town, Ravens with a chance of Hoary Redpolls and a sprinkling of Rock Ptarmigan. “Do you mind? This was a later nest.

South America 159

South America Eggs Family Raised 159

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2014

Eight days with 20 of the world’s top birding guides looking for some 1,000 species and three dozen endemics. You can see as many hummingbird species as the folks at Magee Marsh are seeing warbler species—during 25 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. As the rally tore through its itinerary, the species piled up.

Peru 254

Peru Birds South America Owls 254

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America covers 827 species, including resident, migratory, and common vagrant birds. The end result is that the whole “biographic” area (NCA plus southern Mexico and northern Nicaragua) is home to 41 endemic bird species.

El Salvador 230

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 230

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. But, within the frog group there is a tremendous range of diversity.

Reptiles 182

Reptiles Madagascar Family New York City 182

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2019

For many grassland species, our vast expanses of tilled and plowed fields, orchards and vineyards, pastures and rangeland offer an abundance of convenient food and shelter – and some bolder birds even wander indoors to find these things in our barns and stables. For most of history, beer has thrived in agrarian settings, too.

Belgium 118

Belgium Vermont Farming Europe 118

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

At the very least appreciated for their hard-shell adaptation, the way they quietly survive in ponds, rivers, oceans, islands, forests, even, for a few species, deserts, and, if you are of a certain age, their cultural depiction as ninja warriors. Or that tortoises and terrapins are considered part of the turtle family.

Turtles 190

Turtles Family Tortoises Terrapins 190

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

Found throughout South America in ever-dwindling numbers these extremely beautiful birds – threatened by habitat destruction and collection for the wild bird trade – are often difficult to see and hard to find. That’s right – birds eating clay.

Peru 254

Peru Parrots 2011 South America 254

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2024

It sports the intense purple back and head of its close relative, the Purple Martin , which is found in much of North America (summer) and South America (winter). I have now seen the species in eight different years. Of course, Paso Ancho is also a hotspot for many other beautiful species and endemics.

Mexico 203

Mexico South America 2020 America 203

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

It confirms many of the once-radical notions put forward or refined by Shannon Hackett and her colleagues in 2008, and several since, and it proposes solutions to some of the most deeply unresolved questions about how major bird groups are related to each other. ( ’s bird family tree in a new tab and follow along as you read.

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

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 –especially when reviewing books like A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia or Far from Land: The Mysterious Lives of Seabirds.

Penguins 277

Penguins New Zealand Georgia Albatross 277

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2013

These are the characteristics that generally elevate a species higher in a birder’s wish list, but often times this is not the case. A walk through this land may wake up a family group of Peruvian Thick-knees crouched on their day roost, or flush a flock of Least Seedsnipes taking advantage of the seasonal seed production.

Peru 168

Peru Birds Parrots Chile 168

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with. Some are incredibly rare and hard to find.

Congo 264

Congo Africa South Africa Madagascar 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. In addition, 67 species are listed in a chapter entitled “Marginal, Dubious, and Hypothetical Species.”

America 212

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 212

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2013

And now we enter into a family of birds more or less unknown to non-birders. And truth told, over the years they’ve been something of a square peg for ornithologists too, not fitting precisely into any of the known families of birds. But that’s a group for a different time. Horned Grebe , photo by Julie Gidwitz.

Jordan 188

Jordan Birds Guatemala South America 188

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. A Great Argus in full call, this species’ tail consists of the longest feather in the bird world. The 9 species of whydah are brood-parasitic seedeaters belonging to the Indigobird family.

Papua New Guinea 232

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 232

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

My home country of South Africa can only be described as a birding paradise! Originally considered monotypic, two species are now recognized. Cape (or Rufous) Rockjumper is a true South African endemic and restricted to the southwest Cape. Males of this species are more brightly colored in their non-breeding winter plumage.

South Africa 216

South Africa Lesotho Africa Swaziland 216

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2017

Starting in the mid-1990s, there was a “where to watch birds in…” series of five site guides written by Nigel Wheatley and covering South America (1994), Africa (1995), Asia (1996), Europe & Russia (2000) and Central America & the Caribbean (2001). Family accounts for all 142 bird families recorded from the region.

Africa 166

Africa Botswana Nigeria Namibia 166

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2014

There are approximately 10,000 plant species in the Cerrado. It also supports the greatest variety of large mammals in all of South America, including such iconic species as Maned Wolf and Giant Anteater. A Rufous-winged Antshrike, a typical species of lightly wooded savanna in the lower elevations of the park.

Brazil 167

Brazil South America Collecting America 167

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2019

These are the six species that occur in Costa Rica: Yellow-throated Toucan (Ramphastos swainsonii). About the same size as a crow, this colorful creature is the largest toucan species in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, this species lives in the lowlands and foothills of the Caribbean slope and in parts of the Nicoya Peninsula.

Costa Rica 168

Costa Rica Panama Eating Eggs South America 168

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. One species alive today offers a glimpse of such behavior: the Nicobar Pigeon ( Caloenas nicobarica ). .’s

Solomon Islands 273

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 273

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2014

First off, it seems that New Zealand’s two iconic families of ratites, large flightless southern birds that includes emus, rhea, ostriches, cassowaries and the extinct elephant birds, are not particularly closely related. Moa and Kiwi aren’t brothers and sisters. The kiwi, on the other hand, seem to be closer to emu.

New Zealand 161

New Zealand Penguins Sea Lions Lions 161

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

More than a few groups of birds around the world have been given names with wren in it, almost as if the sight of a very small and active bird automatically associates with the small Winter Wren of England where most of the namers originated. They were generally quite confiding and did not seem to mind me standing around watching them.

Australia 170

Australia New Zealand South America Asia 170

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Duck : “any of various swimming birds (family Anatidae, the duck family) in which the neck and legs are short, the feet typically webbed, the bill often broad and flat, and the sexes usually different from each other in plumage.”. Many individual species get an entry too, though they are generally not capitalized.

Albatross 103

Albatross Bears Ducks Bald Eagle 103

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

The latest edition of the Clements Checklist that I could find, last modified in August 2022, lists 965 species (a little more manageable!), including 355 endemics, 28 introduced species, 6 extinct species, and 77 globally threatened species. There are three to four species on each page, for the most part.

Australia 230

Australia Birds 2017 Groups 230

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2019

I hesitated because a 496-page book about two skulky neotropical bird groups is a little intimidating. And, I looked at my eBird list and realized I’ve seen nine species of Antpitta and one of Gnateater. Antpittas and Gnateaters covers 64 species in six genera and two families. (I Species Accounts.

Research 136

Research Eggs South America Costa Rica 136

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Approximately 2,300 bird species inhabit Africa, however as impressive as that sounds, much smaller South America boasts nearly 1,000 species more. Vangas, asities, mesites, Malagasy warblers, ground-rollers and cuckoo-roller are all mouth-watering groups with very special members.

Papua New Guinea 213

Papua New Guinea Africa Madagascar Equatorial Guinea 213

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2015

Picidae, Woodpecker, is one of those charismatic bird families that everybody gets excited about. Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide is the first major guide to family Picidae in 20 years. The Species Accounts vary in length from one to three pages. The taxonomy is tricky, as Gorman notes in the introduction.

Woodpeckers 236

Woodpeckers Europe 2002 Research 236