You are browsing the archives of 2004 December.

The Core Team has been on holiday, visiting with family throughout the upper reaches of Pennsylvania and New York and celebrating Christmas over and over. Now that the yule festivities are over, we can get down to toasting in the New Year. But first, we had to take a stab at adding some final birds [...]

Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
Lagos, Nigeria. December 2004
 
The Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis is a very widepsread species found from southern Europe (increasingly it looks like it may be well on its way to permanently colonising Britain) to Japan, throughout most of Africa, is increasingly rapidly thoughout Canada and the US (from its initial foray into the [...]

Hong Kong, Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve
25 December 2004
 
Tai Po Kau is Hong Kong’s largest and best site for forest birding. An easily-accessed valley between relatively steep hills the Reserve is split into a number of well-signed nature-trails and circuits - eg the Tai Po Kau Nature Trail (left), Red Walk and the Yellow Walks [...]

Abuja, Nigeria
11 December 2004.
 
At about 1200′ above sea-level, Abuja officially replaced Lagos as the capital of Nigeria in December 1991 after 15 years of planning and construction.
The city is located in a scenic valley of rolling grasslands in a relatively [sic] undeveloped, ethnically neutral area. Thus, planners hoped to create a national city [...]

We may have lost yet another endemic Hawaiian bird with an unpronounceable name. The Associated Press reported yesterday that one of Earth’s rarest birds might have gone into extinction following the death of one of the last known  Po’ouli:

The aging male po’ouli died in captivity Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday. It [...]