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
The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. They are usually found in small family groups perched atop bushes or short trees, from whence they sally out to catch their prey.
I can’t honestly remember what the current Russian Doll arrangement is for the skuas, gulls, terns and skimmers, so they are either their own family or a type of skua, gull or tern. Close examination of this photo may reveal a Collared Pratincole.
A lot of destinations were mentioned, with Central and South America leading the way, New Guinea, Indonesia and Australia appearing only at the middle of the list, and African countries (South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar) lagging at the end of the list.
True geese belong to the tribe or sub-family Anserini within the larger family Anatidae that encompasses ducks, geese and swans. And the Magpie Geese of the same country are believed to be neither ducks nor geese nor swans and are now placed within their own family Anseranatidae.
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. A Family of Little Grebes – YC Lee, Bird Ecology Study Group.
The broadbills are always a family* that birders visiting South East Asia want to see, and who could blame them? I’m not sure if they are as difficult a family to spot in the wild, but I certainly have had little luck with them in the past. I never saw one in all the time I lived in Africa, in forests where they could be seen.
For example, I was going to add “no tail” to the list of features above, what all frogs share, when I remembered that there are indeed a small family of Tailed frogs, four species in New Zealand and two in North America (though, the tails are quite tiny). But, within the frog group there is a tremendous range of diversity.
Its mostly found on the ground in thickets or the edges of dense vegetation and usually in small family parties. Puffbacks belong to the bush-shrike family Malaconotidae and this group are called puffbacks due to several of the species forming a habit of puffing out their fluffy white back feathers during display.
Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. Its range also extends to nearby Madagascar. This colossal bird is now placed in its own family Balaenicipitidae and it forms an ancient link between storks and pelicans.
In one of the first of Dee’s observations about gullers he calls them: “men leaving their homes and their families to spend time peering at arsey birds in some of the arseholes of the world.”. At some stage, in the darkness with Claire and Callan, Tim Dee was stalking a nightjar in Madagascar.
This clade, Mayr says, is “most likely the sister taxon&# of Madagascar’s terrestrial mesites (!). The relationships among these families have been pretty well sorted out, and the entire clade belongs in a clade of landbirds ( passerines, parrots, diurnal raptors, mousebirds, owls , etc.)
They are Ecuador for the Galapagos, Gabon for the bais, Madagascar, New Guinea and New Caledonia for everything. Given that they are a family of obscure deepwater whales that are very hard to see, I would imagine this is a contender for one that will never leave my list. A beaked whale. Any beaked whale. Hammerhead shark.
Filming the plovers of Estero Lagoon Plovers are a significant part of the shorebird family, comprising 66 species worldwide. James has led professional wildlife and birding tours for 15 years and his passion for birding and remote cultures has taken him to far corners of the earth from the Amazon and Australia to Africa and Madagascar.
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 lived on Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It gave up flight long, long ago.
1300kms off the coast of East Africa and over 1000kms NE from Madagascar is a tiny speck in the ocean. They are all recognisable from their families in Africa and are simply referred to by prefixing with “Seychelles” With most species being the only representative of their family, it made identification easy.
James has led professional wildlife and birding tours for 15 years and his passion for birding and remote cultures has taken him to far corners of the earth from the Amazon and Australia to Africa and Madagascar. We can all play our part by choosing operations that give back.
And, as a bonus, your spouse/partner will probably want to go birding with you more often… Tags: Portugal , Worldwide Birding Adventures • Camping tents - Check out our pop up tents , family tents , and more! These Blasts From The Past Sometimes you just have to smile!
The Peterson Reference Guide to Seawatching offers two types of information: Species Accounts–descriptions of 112 birds within 15 families as they appear over and on the water, and Where to Watch, brief descriptions of 47 sites on the North American eastern coast and interior recommended for seawatching.
Some entire family groups are unique to the region, this holds true for the genus Cinclocerthia – tremblers. The tiny islands of the southern Caribbean are much more famous for sprawling white sand beaches and azure water as they are for birds; but there are several regional endemics that thoroughly stir the imagination.
Retz’s Helmetshrike is one of the 8 helmetshrikes within the larger family of Vangidae – apparently, a family that evolved from a single Madagascar-based species. I guess this is the wind, not a highly individualistic hairstyle. Typical for the wonderful world of ornithology, it is not a shrike.
Both men lead trips for tour company Tropical Birding (Barnes is a founder), and they have also co-authored Wildlife of Madagascar (another WildGuide volume, 2016), Birding Ethiopia (with Christian Boix, 2010) and Wild Rwanda (with Christian Boix, 2015). Warbler Rainfrog is one of the few rainfrogs that prefers disturbed habitats.
But there is one kind of tick that I genuinely do enjoy, and as I do more and more birding it becomes harder and harder to get; new families. Getting entirely new families is easy when you start birding. Sometimes you may even lose them, like the aforementioned woodswallows which are probably no longer a family.
Madagascar has 2 species of weaver, Sakalava in dry country and Nelicourvi Weaver from the rainforest zone. Image taken by Adam Riley in Perinet, Madagascar. The masked weaver complex of yellow weavers with black faces consists of numerous species. Photo taken by Adam Riley in South Africa. Image taken in Samburu, Kenya by Adam Riley.
Veraguan Mango by Carlos Bethancourt Although the Neotropical region supports fewer bird families than Africa, there are considerably more bird species here than anywhere else on earth. This means that there are some astoundingly large families of birds in Central and South America.
Here is the answer: Sunbirds and spiderhunters are both part of the Nectariniidae family, but they have distinct differences in terms of their morphology, behavior, and habitat preferences. So, I did what everyone would have done short of reading a book (god forbid!) – I asked ChatGPT.
It’s actually a member of the family Artamidae, which includes the woodswallows (not actually swallows), the butcherbirds (not actually shrikes) and the peltops (which actually are peltops, since there are no others). The Australian Magpie is not actually a magpie, a fairly common state of affairs for birds from the colonies.
I have thoroughly explored vast parts of the continent as well as neighboring Madagascar, in the process seeing over 2,000 birds on the continent and all but one Malagasy endemic. Madagascar’s mammals are equally remarkable; over 100 species of endearing lemurs and bizarre carnivores amongst them!
While the HBW describes the bulbul family as “often rather plain”, I find them usually quite attractive, though in an understated way that may not appeal to the flashiness-seeking HBW authors. The Black Drongo is a very common member of the family. Going with a Chinese friend or guide is thus recommended.
Can the whole family live together in harmony during the school holidays? Madagascar Turtle-Dove – Streptopelia picturata. Is it wrong of me to go birding to get away from the kids now that they are at home all day? August is the make or break month for relationships. Bravo if you have. Lesser Noddy – Anous tenuirostris.
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.
Let's personalize your content