10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2020

The first, A Guide to the Birdsong of South America , was released in 2015 and helped raise nearly $15,000 for a pair of non-profit environmental organizations in South America; Aves Argentinas and the Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco in Ecuador.

Costa Rica 243

Costa Rica Nicaragua Cuba Mexico 243

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Guyana’s capital city of Georgetown, a quaint, sprawling network of roads and waterways is a regulated introduction to the country’s 800+ species of birds. Wing-barred Seedeater was formerly a common sight on Tobago but intensive trapping for the pet trade has extirpated the species from that island.

Guyana 198

Guyana Parrots Trinidad South America 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 5, 2024

These species are not only beautiful or charming, but have a personal resonance for me. It turns out this species is very difficult to see — everywhere except in my territory, since to date I have now seen it 64 times within an hour of Morelia. But I will still provide one.)

Squirrels 231

Squirrels Mexico Kansas South America 231

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Trinidad and Tobago has historically had seventeen species on record, sixteen on Trinidad and six on Tobago. Oftentimes even the uncommon to scarce residents play nice, one can easily view fifteen species on a single visit to the twin island republic. Most of these are common residents and can be seen all year round.

Trinidad 262

Trinidad South America Venezuela 2019 262

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2023

On the slow crawl into the farm, the first sighting was a small group of Green Ibis – a new species for me. Endemic to the Guianan shield, this species has captivated me since I first laid eyes on a photograph of it. Most notably of which was a pair of Blood-colored Woodpeckers.

Farming 227

Farming Guyana Birds Trinidad 227

10,000 Birds

MARCH 28, 2024

And Chilean Flamingos should be found, well, in Chile, as well as much of southwestern South America. After birding and passing through a large number of habitats, our total for the day was 109 species.) Of course, when a group sees 109 species, there are many highlights for the day. Flamingos !”

Mexico 201

Mexico Cuba Chile South America 201

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Originally, I was going to highlight one of the species endemic to the islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean; but once I typed in “Lesser Antillean”, six species popped up. Interestingly, this species has been split into two distinct subspecies, one for each of the islands on which it is found.

Puerto Rico 180

Puerto Rico Grenada Barbados Trinidad 180

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

I’ve been fortunate to see two Penguin species in the wild (African and Galapagos) and have dreamed of seeing more–maybe even all!–especially –especially when reviewing books like A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia or Far from Land: The Mysterious Lives of Seabirds.

Penguins 278

Penguins Georgia Albatross New Zealand 278

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

More than 20 species are recognized, many look similar and to throw a bit more challenging flavored sauce into the Megascops mix, there might be a few more species awaiting description. One of the more recently, officially recognized screech-owl species is the Choco Screech-Owl.

Costa Rica 203

Costa Rica Owls Panama Argentina 203

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2021

In Costa Rica, with around 50 hummingbird species on the list, we have our fair share of minute feathered stars. I feel fortunate to see one or more of this species on a daily basis. Being smaller than the other species, it seems to sneak in and out of their territories. Cinnamon Hummingbird. Plain-capped Starthroat.

Costa Rica 263

Costa Rica South America Arizona Species 263

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. cabanisi group is found in southwest South America and the birds seen in Central America will be from the B.c.cucillivorus group. This is a Golden-crowned Warbler , Basileuterus cucilivorus.

South America 100

South America Argentina Stray Arizona 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Although we have been seeing shorebirds for a while now (and an infuriating Northern Waterthrush near to where we are staying who refuses to have its picture taken), the uptick in uncommonly seen species began in late October with three Bobolinks. So the truth is – I wasn’t really sure if I had seen this species before or not.

Trinidad 241

Trinidad Argentina South America Bears 241

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. Several Empidonax flycatcher species also leave for the north… But I can’t get too sad about that.

South America 173

South America Pigs Mexico Species 173

10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2021

They’ve not wasted any time, having drifted northward from mainland South America only a few weeks ago. Some species have already fledged their young and are in the process of feeding the juveniles. I saw one adult male along with this young male, learning the musical ropes of this rarely seen species.

Raised 264

Raised Breeding South America Family 264

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 174

Mexico Woodpeckers South America Species 174

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 198

Mexico South America America Species 198

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

There was one odd reprint in 2018, when the Subalpine Warbler was split into the Eastern and Western species, but the changes in the guide weren’t sufficient to call it a 3rd edition, so it remained the updated reprint of the 2nd edition. I haven’t noticed changes in the few descriptions of harder to ID species that I compared.

Europe 259

Europe Birds Woodpeckers Ireland 259

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2020

This sort of biozone mixing can create a tremendous richness of species. Each of these habitats attracts its own group of species. I mentioned last week the Jamaican Nettletree, whose tiny fruit was attracting all kinds of species — even some I thought did not eat fruit or seeds. This one was a true lifer for me.

Mexico 249

Mexico Nicaragua Lamb South America 249

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2020

Birders normally care about species and make species lists, how do families fit into those? Adding more species brings a lot of excitement, as long as you bird your own country or a continent. 11,000 species require lots of money and a good portion of one’s life. That gamble is rigged, so the house always wins.

Family 296

Family Birds South America Breeding 296

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Two weekends ago I was scheduled to take part in a live birding video, one of twenty birders from across North and South America who were out and about looking for good birds to share with the world through Swarovski Optik Birding’s Facebook page. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Nelson’s Sparrow sit up so long.

South America 274

South America Sparrows Birds America 274

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.

Sparrows 259

Sparrows North America South America Blackbirds 259

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2019

Reachable by direct flights from Portugal, the island country of Sao Tome and Principe lying in the Gulf of Guinea, in the armpit of Africa, has about 140 bird species and 28 endemics – more endemics per square mile than anywhere else on Earth. The main island of Sao Tome has about 100 species and 17 endemics among them.

Costa Rica 197

Costa Rica Sri Lanka Rwanda Papua New Guinea 197

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2019

From the Amazon basin through the towering Andes to the endemic-rich Choco, it is possible to observe 600 species in two weeks and even 800 in three weeks – they could all find themselves on your life list. Robin Restall is an acclaimed bird artist, whose works include the Helm’s Birds of Northern South America (2006).

Ecuador 154

Ecuador South America 2006 Venezuela 154

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2022

I spent a few hours on Mauritius flying from Shanghai to Cape Town, South Africa, and decided to use this time for a short trip to a nature reserve on Mauritius, the Black River Gorges National Park. Being an island, Mauritius has its share of endemics, extinct endemics (the dodo again), and introduced species.

Mauritius 233

Mauritius 2000 Birds Madagascar 233

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

It’s also a big time for bird movements, a period punctuated by waves of migrants, first the early ones, then a time of many species, and finally, those last “late” migrants moving north. While our winter residents bulk up to head north, they are joined by other species coming from South America.

Costa Rica 142

Costa Rica Tennessee South America Philadelphia 142

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2021

Fortunately, China itself has a large number of bird species and habitats. According to a Wikipedia entry, China has 1413 bird species – though strangely, another list found online, purportedly based on Birdlife International, claims only 1288 species. One of my target species for the trip was Indian Blue Robin.

China 264

China Pandas Birds Zoos 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

This is my best place to pick up species that inhabit, or visit, the border between the Hot Country thorn forest and highland pine-oak forest habitats. It wasn’t the most colorful species of the day. And how am I doing on my species race for the year? But its rump was somewhat bright, I suppose.

South America 201

South America Sparrows Mexico Bears 201

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

This species loves to sing while high up in pine trees. But I was delighted to see a Black-chinned Sparrow near the shore; this is only my eighth sighting of this species. With 60 mostly-high-quality species on my first visit, you bet I will! It’s a rare treat to see a Mexican Violetear low enough to give a good view.

2020 274

2020 Reptiles South America Birds 274

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 207

Chile Birds South America Albatross 207

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 240

Woodpeckers South Africa China Singapore 240

10,000 Birds

APRIL 19, 2013

This photo could have been taken in Florida’s Treasure Coast during the winter months or in South America during the same period. And by similar, I mean the species and abundance of shorebirds and gulls. In Florida, there is a resident small gull, two species of large gulls, and one species of gull that is abundant.

Chile 193

Chile Peru South America Florida 193

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2022

In Costa Rica, we have our pewees, 6 species of them. Millions of pewees fly over and stop in Costa Rica on their way to and from South America. A common bird of hot, tropical habitats, it is very much an edge species. Eastern Wood-Pewee. The original pewee is one of the migrants that passes through in large numbers.

Costa Rica 269

Costa Rica Pennsylvania South America Panama 269

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 214

South Africa Africa India China 214

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

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 169

South Dakota South America North America Wyoming 169

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

If you are like me, it is likely that you usually have a target species or two for each of your outings. Baird’sSandpipers can only be seen here in August and September, as they stop on their way from the Arctic Circle to southern South America; they do not normally visit central Mexico on its way back north.

South America 233

South America Ducks 2020 Mexico 233

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2019

The Yellowthroat group is an odd collection of bird species. The one migratory species, aptly named the Common Yellowthroat , can be seen almost anywhere in North America. Another one, the Masked Yellowthroat , can be found in five unconnected resident territories over much of South America. See the difference?

Mexico 197

Mexico Bahamas South America Panama 197