10,000 Birds

JANUARY 25, 2015

A new paper out this month attempts to paint the most comprehensive picture yet of the origins and diversification of the American sparrows, wood-warblers, blackbirds, cardinals, tanagers, and their kin, an enormous group of birds more than 800 species strong. We now know a lot more about who is a tanager vs. a sparrow vs. a cardinal.

Sparrows 256

Sparrows North America South America Blackbirds 256

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2023

Between March and May, we say goodbye to more than half our duck and wood warbler species, as well as about half of all our shorebirds, vireos, hummingbirds, buntings, sparrows, and orioles, and many members of other avian families. And there is some sweetness in these bittersweet months. They are our summer consolation prizes.

South America 171

South America Pigs Mexico Species 171

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

It is a common bird of humid, lowland forest in Central and South America where it is usually found in the lower storey. It belongs to the Parulidae family, but along with the rest of the Basileuterus genus is non-migratory. This is a Golden-crowned Warbler , Basileuterus cucilivorus. The Rufous-capped Warbler, B.

South America 100

South America Argentina Stray Arizona 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2022

Wood-Wrens , birds of the family Henicorhina , are very small wrens of Central and South America that like to live very close to the ground, in dense forest underbrush or elfin forests. It’s a long drive, at least an hour of steadily climbing twists and turns; but there are high-altitude species I can only see there.

Mexico 195

Mexico South America America Species 195

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. ’s bird family tree in a new tab and follow along as you read. Now we move on to the Neognathae , which also has two very deep branches that lead to all the other living species of birds. Open Jarvis et al.’s

Family 279

Family Parrots 2014 Birds 279

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2023

If you have much interest in birds, you may well have seen videos of the very comical mating dance of male Red-capped Manakins , a species whose range stretches from southeast Mexico to South America. For example, highland Michoacán has two gorgeous trogon species. This tree’s roots can be pretty cool, too.

Mexico 171

Mexico Woodpeckers South America Species 171

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 Madagascar Kenya 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Schmitt is a lecturer on Ponant Antarctic cruises who lived in Chile from 2005 to 2015, and helped develop the eBird online birding tool for Chile and the rest of South America. The authors wrote: [Species] “are the currency of field guides and of birding, but deciding what to treat as ‘species’ is inevitably a subjective endeavour. …

Chile 205

Chile Birds South America Albatross 205

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2020

I had a very nice visit with his family — so nice that I didn’t get to do all that much birding. I think I do a pretty good imitation of several other species, but, unlike the Trogons, they never seem to think the same.). I’ve shown this species before, but they keep begging me to take adorable pictures.

Mexico 173

Mexico South America United States Mammals 173

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2019

However, as DNA and morphological studies have indicated, despite the barbets of Asia and Africa looking quite like the ones in the Americas, they aren’t closely related to each other. The two families of New World barbets, the Capitonidae and the Semnornithidae, are actually more related to toucans. and the Prong-billed Barbet.

Costa Rica 171

Costa Rica Colombia Ecuador Panama 171

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

According to the HBW, there are 41 species of African Barbets and 34 species of Asian Barbets. There are also 14 species of New World Barbets and 2 species of Toucan-Barbets (all in South America). T he Golden-throated Barbet (Baihualing, Yunnan) has an interesting species name, franklinii.

South Africa 210

South Africa Africa India China 210

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2022

Or would be, had I encountered more of them – so far, I have seen only a very small share of the approximately 233 woodpecker species, and got decent photos of an even smaller number – not much more than 10% of all of them. So, writing a post about them is easy.

Woodpeckers 236

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 236

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 263

Arizona Mexico Los Angeles Houston 263

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2020

When our local government called for Michoacán’s residents to stay at home, I said goodbye to some 250 regional species, and shut myself in at home with the other 30 that regularly visit my neighborhood. And on this particular trip, I could see all these species on a single kind of tree. And what species!

Squirrels 171

Squirrels Sparrows South America Mexico 171

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2017

I was looking for a new project to write about on Wikipedia, something unusual, and this species appealed for reasons I can’t quite define. The migration within South America of local birds, as opposed to North American visitors, is poorly understood for many birds (as in Africa). It was both mysterious and plain. .

Science 109

Science Argentina South America Uruguay 109

10,000 Birds

JULY 30, 2015

Growing up in South America, I distinctly recall the arrival of “the swallow with a deeply forked tail”. They fly from extreme northern North America to the southern tip of South America and are seldom seen perched during migration. I later learned about the Barn Swallow’s amazing annual migration.

South Dakota 168

South Dakota South America North America Wyoming 168

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2014

Proving that cruelty knows no bounds, some (language unsuitable for a family blog) in Virginia Beach is shooting blow darts at birds. Meanwhile, an Oregon farmer caught a beating from a neighbor irritated by his loud “bird cannons.” (Who Who knew there was such a thing?).

Israel 196

Israel Science Hawaii South America 196

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 226

Penguins Puffins 2008 Sharks 226

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 201

Costa Rica Owls Panama South America 201

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 219

Science Albatross Research Owls 219

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 172

Africa Botswana Nigeria Namibia 172

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2020

Cuba (twice), South America (twice), Europe and Morocco (once) and Bali (once). The third weekend of January, I travelled to the coastal city of Acapulco to give a seminar on family finances at a church there. And my one lifer for the trip was a family of Rufous-naped Wrens that apparently live in the same garden.

2006 162

2006 Morocco Birds Mexico 162

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 195

Jordan Guatemala South America Birds 195

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2013

As a hanger-on of my wife’s family I find myself this week in Aruba, one of the ABC islands just off the coast of northern South America. Is it it’s own species? While Caribbean has many great and wonderful birding islands, Aruba isn’t really one of them. Where others are lush, it’s dry.

South America 169

South America Netherlands America Sparrows 169

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? Several generations of Leopoldina’s family operate the lodge, serving delicious food and hospitality in a clean, comfortable environment.

Colombia 265

Colombia South America Birds America 265

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 155

South America Ecuador Reptiles America 155

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2014

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. This isn’t even the prettiest species they have!

Madagascar 167

Madagascar Malaysia New Zealand South America 167

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 190

San Diego South America Costa Rica America 190

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 19, 2013

This is a Green-barred Woodpecker , common and widespread throughout South America to the south of the Amazon River and to the east of the Andes. This form is thought to be a different species and the name Golden-bellied Woodpecker has been adopted by some.

Woodpeckers 166

Woodpeckers Argentina South America Adoptable 166

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2013

The Common Black Hawk earns its name by being common throughout at least part of its wide range, being black or very dark as adults, and being a hawk in the family Accipitridae. Southwest all the way down through Central America to parts of South America and the Caribbean. Immature birds are streaked brown and white.

Chicago 246

Chicago South America Illinois 2013 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2012

Woodpeckers are phenomenally well-represented in Colombia and the country holds anything from 42 to 44 of the world’s woodpecker species, depending on which list you follow. The piculets are a distinctive and unique sub-family of woodpeckers that are best represented in South America. www.youtube.com/watch?

Colombia 174

Colombia Woodpeckers South America Asia 174

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

First published in 1973 in association with the Asa Wright Center, the book focuses on species descriptions, with illustrations grouped together in plates positioned in the center of the book. It is organized taxonomically, with families identified by first scientific and then popular name. The AOU has not accepted that split.

Trinidad 198

Trinidad South America Birds 2011 198

10,000 Birds

MARCH 26, 2016

The Sporophila family contains exclusively Neotropic species (within the flexible Thraupidae ) and S. caerulescens can be seen within the middle third of South America, predominantly to the east of the Andes. eBird claims 331 species for the site.

Argentina 100

Argentina South America America Family 100

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 214

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214

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.

2003 215

2003 South America Sparrows Family 215

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 168

Brazil South America Collecting America 168

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2014

There are some pretty cool tropical forests in Tiquicia (a local name for Costa Rica) and that’s where you need to go to see most of the bird species. Although it looks sort of like an exotic grebe, this fine, funny bird is in the Finfoot family. The Sungrebe doesn’t bask in the sunlight nor is it a grebe.

Costa Rica 170

Costa Rica Tigers Chickens Panama 170