10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2013

A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg. The biggest bulls of Madikwe reach only 3.5

Africa 229

Africa South Africa Elephants Rhinos 229

Critter News

AUGUST 16, 2008

The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Geneva voted in favour of China becoming a licensed importer. It will allow China to bid for more than 100 tonnes of ivory stockpiled in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe through culling and natural deaths.

Elephants 100

Elephants China Zimbabwe Namibia 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The Latin species name vermiculatus (worm-like) refers to the markings on the upperparts. Of course, the second explanation makes a lot more sense.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Benin South Africa Birds 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

The reserve, in the eastern corner of Botswana near Zimbabwe and South Africa, isn’t open to the public in general, so I figured I’d share a few images here by way of showing off. As well as birds, the reserve holds endangered species like African Wild Dogs. I mean education. Brown-hooded Kingfishers hunt far from water.

Zimbabwe 102

Zimbabwe Botswana South Africa Endangered Species 102

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2015

But I have visited Guatemala, Lesotho and Zimbabwe to actually visit them and count them, even though I spent less time in them than I did Zurich. I slept in hotel in Zurich but didn’t leave the airport or even clear immigration, so I can’t really say I’ve been to Switzerland either. It’s arbitrary, but there you go.

Botswana 162

Botswana Lesotho Elephants Bald Eagle 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. A Great Argus in full call, this species’ tail consists of the longest feather in the bird world. The 9 species of whydah are brood-parasitic seedeaters belonging to the Indigobird family.

Papua New Guinea 260

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 260

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2018

It divides countries into categories, where the next category has 200 more species. In some cases the data are outdated, e.g. Costa Rica has 900 and not 800 species, but I made no corrections, remaining faithful to the original map data. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands.

Equatorial Guinea 233

Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Central African Republic Guyana 233

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2020

The simple answer is monetary gain, there is a global black market for these items, regardless of the species’ vulnerability for extinction. He traveled to the United Kingdom, the Rhondda Valley in Wales, Zimbabwe, Chilean Patagonia, and Dubai. And yet, it doesn’t quite seem to be enough.

Falcons 257

Falcons United Kingdom Zimbabwe Eggs 257

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

And so, back to political entities, this field guide covers Namibia , Botswana , Zimbabwe , the southern half of Mozambique (south of the Zambezi River), South Africa , Lesotho and Eswatini ( Swaziland ). Distribution maps show the relative abundance of a species in the region and also indicate resident or visiting status.

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Swaziland Lesotho 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2015

Whoever is in charge of names in the area had abandoned an unwise relationship with compound names ((meaning Redwinged Starlings were Red-winged Starlings again) and seemed to have shifted the names of lots of species around in the hopes of aligning them with the IOC (goodbye louries). There had also been a number of splits.

Africa 159

Africa South Africa Zimbabwe Penguins 159

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2024

Phoebe Snetsinger was an American birder who first passed the 8,000 species mark. Before leaving the safety of the car I heeded the park’s advice and checked for animal tracks belonging to any biting, gnawing, mauling, trampling, stabbing or disembowelling species. She died in a car accident during a birding trip.

Mozambique 246

Mozambique Ghana Namibia Birds 246

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2023

They were barely mentioned in The Voyage of the Beagle and not at all in On the Origin of Species. It’s now known that Charles Darwin did not (contrary to what was once a settled idea) assign great importance to the Galapagos birds that came to be called “Darwin’s finches” (though they’re not true finches at all).

Bald Eagle 187

Bald Eagle Montenegro Zambia Zimbabwe 187

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2016

We are facing a plague of poaching that is again decimating the species. Will the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference delegates up-list them to Appendix I of the Convention, forbidding any future sale over international borders? One may say so.

Elephants 223

Elephants Botswana Zimbabwe Africa 223