10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

But it also occurs in the Indian Ocean, from Aldabra near Madagascar to Western Australia. Here a bunch of them are investigating one such burrow. The species ranges widely across the Pacific, as its scientific name suggests, from the Revillagigedo Islands off Mexico to the Japanese Bonin Islands to New South Wales in Australia.

Albatross 227

Albatross Madagascar Breeders Mexico 227

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

It really puzzles me, why they go all the way across the Sahara and Eastern Africa to overwinter as far as Madagascar, instead of staying somewhere closer, in continental Africa? Madagascar must have separated from Africa long before they evolved. Eleonora’s Falcons are migrants themselves. How old are they as a species?

Greece 252

Greece Falcons Madagascar Africa 252

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

One of these clades holds a diversity of Old World species in several distinct groups, including an Australasian clade, the green-pigeons, the emerald- and wood-doves, the imperial-pigeons and fruit-doves (favorites of mine), and the subjects of our investigation today, the 15 known members of the Raphini. It gave up flight long, long ago.

Solomon Islands 279

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius 2006 279