10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2015

When it comes to individual North American species, the old reliable trick of naming them after physical traits is in full effect. From his name is derived the name of the order Piciformes , the family Picidae , and the genus Picoides (as well as the genii Picus and Piculus , which include no North American members).

North America 157

North America Woodpeckers America Family 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Marybeth learns as she birds, embraces listing goals as a means of engaging with community, unabashedly enjoys a little competition, struggles to balance her absolute joy in birding with unexpected, life-and-death family obligations. Adventures of a Louisiana Birder: One Year, Two Wings, Three Hundred Species. And there are the birds.

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 27, 2012

One of the sweetest subsections of the duck family has to be the sawbills, formally known as mergansers. Mergansers are a family of diving waterfowl in Merginae , the seaduck subfamily of Anatidae. Anyway, the hoodie is the only merganser endemic to North America. Notice the sawbill?

North America 246

North America Thailand Russia Ducks 246

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 10, 2014

Across the world’s northern oceans, 24 species of auklets, murres, puffins, guillemots, and related seabirds make a living catching food beneath the waves and breeding, often in large colonies, on coastlines and islands. Alcids form a distinctive family within the shorebird order Charadriiformes. © David J. See Cairns et al.

Penguins 252

Penguins Puffins 2008 Sharks 252

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. Woodpeckers are a family of focus for Tuttle-Adams.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 285

Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Family Collecting 285

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2013

The smellier the better, particularly as, unusually for birds, many species can boast a robust sense of smell. In any case, our hang-ups with vultures clearly stem from our own issues rather than any inherently bizarre trait of the species themselves. Vultures famously feed on carrion. Dead things. millions years ago.

California Condor 209

California Condor Turkey North America Jordan 209

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

This group — dubbed the bombycillids , from the waxwing genus and family name — appears to fall near kinglets and a large group containing thrushes and muscicapids (Old World flycatchers and chats) in the passerine tree. Here’s the only known video footage of that species: Kauai Oo. Spellman et al. Spellman et al.

Saudi Arabia 244

Saudi Arabia 2008 Indonesia Colombia 244

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2014

These bark-burrowing beetles, which apparently hitched a ride in cargo shipments from their native Asia, have been starving the ash trees of eastern and midwestern North America to death for a dozen years now. … Here at 10,000 Birds 20 July – 26 July is Invasive Species Week. Enter the woodpecker.

Woodpeckers 273

Woodpeckers Illinois Chicago Kentucky 273

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2011

Anyone who has gone bird watching in North America, however, knows another kind of phoebe, a bold little genus that turns up with remarkable frequency from the arctic circle to the equator. Phoebes are proud members (at least they seem so) of the Family Tyrannidae , the tyrant flycatchers. with its eastern cousin.

Argentina 239

Argentina United States North America America 239

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2011

But the new second edition of Watching Sparrows * by Michael Male and Judy Fieth, who have a whole series of bird films already produced or in production , not only kept me staring at the screen but drew in family members to see what I was watching, to say nothing of my cats, who were enthralled by the sparrows singing on screen.

Sparrows 198

Sparrows North America United States America 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

It’s mid-July, which among other things means that those of us in North America are starting to check local mudflats for returning shorebird migrants and waiting impatiently for the AOU to hurry up and create five species from the Clapper-King rail complex (the reasons for which we covered last year ). Gowen et al.

Elephants 224

Elephants New Zealand Sparrows Ostriches 224

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.

North America 279

North America Research Birds America 279

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2012

Colombia is not only home to nearly 20% of all avian life on the planet but this birding mecca also accommodates an incredibly high percentage of highly sought after species. Nearly 80 species are endemic and found nowhere else in the world. But we just could not ignore the plentiful antpitta species too.

Colombia 261

Colombia Ecuador South America North America 261

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2015

Gordon, president of the ABA, an Introduction, Species Accounts, Acknowledgements, Image Credits, a Checklist of the Birds of the state, and a Species Index. Species Accounts in both titles are arranged loosely in ABA Checklist order, with some flipping around of order within each family.

Colorado 261

Colorado Florida New Jersey North America 261

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2011

They are part of a family of New World Quail which includes Gambel’s, Mountain, Scaled and Montezuma Quail, as well as the Northern Bobwhite. The family stays very close to cover for several weeks, getting bolder as the young develop. The family group pictured below has been visiting my yard recently.

California 249

California Gophers Rattlesnake Eggs 249

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2013

It’s among a handful of species — American Robin, Black-capped Chickadee , the unholy trinity of House Sparrow – Rock Pigeon – European Starling , a few others — that have been everywhere I’ve ever lived. In North America, that is. As you travel south, everything gets all higgledy-piggledy.

Connecticut 202

Connecticut Baltimore North America New York City 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

I’m a big fan of the antelopes, a group that is most commonly associated with Africa but which also occurs in Asia and, if you stretch the term to be cladistically meaningful, Europe and North America. By this I mean applying the term antelope to cover all of the family Bovidae, which would include the sheep, goats and ox.

Africa 189

Africa Wolves Goats Sheep 189

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

In all of North America, only one avian species serves as both the beloved mascot of seven states as well as the totem to two professional sports teams (and an infinity of amateur ones!) The family Cardinalidae encompasses a plethora of New World passerines. However, Cardinalis phoeniceus is a South American species.

St. Louis 200

St. Louis United States Belize Guatemala 200

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2022

Towhees are large, ground-hugging sparrows that occur only in North America. Earlier this month, I came across a family of Spotted Towhees (Olive-backed) with a couple of other strange aspects. The first was strange only on a personal level, as I had never before seen a juvenile of the species.

Mexico 247

Mexico North America Sparrows 2015 247

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. I would never have believed it, but if the science says so who am I to argue otherwise?

Jordan 218

Jordan Guatemala South America Birds 218

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Guiding aside, Howell is a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences and the author of many books, including Petrels, Albatrosses, and Storm-Petrels of North America (Princeton). We have tended to a liberal (= realistic) direction when recognising species.” Well, this is one interesting claim.

Chile 237

Chile Birds South America Albatross 237

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

This particular species is not native to New Zealand (similar to its status in North America). A European Starling in New Zealand made the news this week. The woman in the video found it as a chick at a few days old and hand reared it. In areas where starlings are introduced, the laws for keeping them as pets are relaxed.

New Zealand 173

New Zealand North America Laws Raised 173

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 242

Mexico South America 2020 America 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

This is the first identification guide that I know of that covers Mexico (technically North America but rarely included in North American raptor guides) and Central America. Like Peterson’s Hawks of North America, 2nd edition (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), which Clark co-authored with Brain K.

Mexico 186

Mexico America North America Falcons 186

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

Many Neotropical families and genera have some of their northernmost members here, such as the spinetails ( Rufous-breasted Spinetail ), Tangara tanagers ( Azure-rumped Tanager ), and guans ( Horned Guan ). the species suffering most from deforestation). This is a fascinating area of transition. We were off to a great start.

Honduras 244

Honduras El Salvador Costa Rica Arizona 244

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Dale Dyer put in years working on his paintings for Birds of Central America , both in the field and in the museum. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Not every bird.

Costa Rica 242

Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 242

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. Honesty requires that I confess to having seen none of these species. These species are visually very similar, with subtle differences in their tail patterns.

Mexico 218

Mexico Indonesia Arizona North America 218

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2024

It’s a decidedly different direction for the author of Kingbird Highway (1997), Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America (2005), and A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration (2019), to cite just three of his books, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed, underlined with energy, and am still thinking about.

Philadelphia 246

Philadelphia Birds Investigation North America 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 17, 2015

I recently returned from my family’s annual spring trip to Florida, and unlike years previous I didn’t get any special time set aside to bird this time round. I guess our early March time-frame is a tad on the early side for them to return from South America, so you can imagine I was pretty stoked to see this one.

Florida 201

Florida North America Neglecting South America 201

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2021

Insects and a host of other invertebrate life have evolved with these plant species, and thus depend on them. Tallamy encourages the planting of Oaks across North America as they are the greatest of trees in their ability to support biodiversity, as they provide the biggest caterpillar boost to a local ecology. POST SCRIPT.

North America 264

North America Wildlife Mammals Breeding 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2012

I have been a fan of the Kaufman Guides since I bought the Field Guide to Butterflies of North America , for a birds and butterflies trip to Colorado. The following section on Habitats serves to provide the larger picture, frameworks in which to root the hundreds of individual species to follow.

Massachusetts 214

Massachusetts Rhode Island North America Reptiles 214

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

The hope and claim is that transferring this process to gull identification works more easily and just as accurately (at least for species) as an examination of plumage and molt patterns. Species Accounts. Gulls Simplified covers 25 species. From the Laughing Gull species account. These vary according to species.

North America 213

North America El Salvador America Nicaragua 213

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2014

A little research revealed that these are old names of birds that have been split into different species. Water Pipit is now known as a European species; the American subspecies became the full species American Pipit in 1989. Scientific names don’t reflect the massive changes to species in the warbler family.

2006 225

2006 2014 Connecticut North America 225

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Written in the tradition of the classic Hawks in Flight , but very much a product of the experiences of its birder authors, this is a groundbreaking book that offers a new way of identifying migratory birds at sea to all of us who observe the waters of eastern North America with expectation and excitement. No rails or gallinules.

Ducks 246

Ducks Groups North America North Dakota 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2011

Getting to know the subtleties in differences between closely related species takes years of dedication and practice. Thirdly, many species of shorebirds display such vast differences in their summer and winter plumages that it is always interesting to note how some birds in the same flock are in contrasting stages of plumage.

Florida 220

Florida South Africa 2011 Africa 220

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2021

All sorts of exotic and beautiful species may be seen. This would sound attractive even to me, except for one fact: almost all of those exotic and beautiful species are common down here in central Mexico. Southeastern Arizona is unusual, precisely because its species mix is as much Mexican as it is American.

Arizona 264

Arizona Mexico Los Angeles Houston 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

I stopped at the Red Crossbill , realizing that the species indeed “occupies an immense range, including North America, Eurasia, and northern Africa” (HBW) – including Baxi forest, China. It is hard to see any scientific value in defining a bird species as a country endemic. Progress of sorts, I guess.

China 259

China Birds Nevada North America 259