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. Fantails don’t do necks.

New Zealand 174

New Zealand Samoa Fiji Killing 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2011

The two endemic species found in Tonga are not found in these islands, and the other species present are also found on more traditional destinations of Fiji and Samoa. Seeing Buff-banded Rails in Tonga is harder than seeing the extinct species would have been, as they have not lost the wariness that keeps the family often highly cryptic.

Tonga 165

Tonga New Zealand Samoa Fiji 165

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 275

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius 2006 275

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Both Puerto Rico and the USVI have active birding communities that are currently excluded from full membership in the ABA family. All Americans Should be Full Members of the ABA Family. Adding Puerto Rico and the USVI would largely achieve the goal of bringing all Americans into full membership of the ABA family.

Puerto Rico 151

Puerto Rico Virgin Islands Hawaii United States 151