An iPhone 4S is an amazing tool for birders, as Sharon Stiteler has already let readers of 10,000 Birds know. And while using the iPhone in conjunction with optics is pretty cool, I have discovered that sometimes you don’t even need to use anything but the phone itself. Still pictures are fine but using the [...]

It is May! For those in the northern hemisphere migration fever is upon us and employers who employ birders are wondering where everybody is. Have the birds really started moving where you live? Both Mike and I were on the road this weekend. I was in Chicago (actually, I might even still be here by [...]

Queens, New York, Spring 2010 This blog post has one purpose and one purpose only; to showcase the amazing array of wood-warblers that made their way to the Forest Park waterhole during spring migration in 2010.  There are a couple of species of which I wish I had gotten better pictures (especially Cape May Warbler), [...]

Queens, New York, May 2009 May is the month of migration in North America.  Sure, some species move earlier and, of course, in the fall everything turns around and goes the other way, but May stands out as the month when birds that haven’t been seen since the previous fall come back in natty new [...]

…much to the dismay of the folks in Florida growing blueberries commercially.

The famed swallows of San Juan Capistrano in California are eschewing their normal haunts. The solution? Play mating calls with the hope that the Cliff Swallows will be enticed to return!

The International Ornithologists’ Union has a newly-updated checklist and website. It makes browsing all the world’s birds easier and includes range information for every subspecies. It is awesome and I highly recommend a visit.

Queens, New York, May 2010 At one time there was an airport in northern Queens called Flushing Airport.  It was shut down in 1984 due to frequent flooding, a fatal plane crash in 1977, and the growth of LaGuardia Airport.  The land has since started to return to something approaching a wild state.  Unfortunately, developers [...]

“This is not just regular duck. This is an infestation, they come by the thousands.” That is the defense of Lloyd “Chip” Badeaux, a city councilman in Thibodaux, Louisiana, for killing 48 whistling-ducks at a friend’s house. State law allows 6 dead ducks per day. Badeaux, who claims to never have violated hunting laws before this incident, [...]

“Sweet-sweet-sweet I’m so sweet!” “Sweet-sweet-sweet I’m so sweet!” “Sweet-sweet-sweet I’m so sweet” When you are walking through habitat suitable for Yellow Warblers in late April and throughout May you can be forgiven for thinking that the little yellow birds want you to lick them like a lollipop. They sing hidden behind thick tangles and perched [...]

Have some time to spend looking at someone else’s wonderful images of birds, dragonflies, damselflies, and butterflies? Check out The Mulberry Wing, the website of Queens-based photographer Steve Walter (who you will remember from this post).

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular American poet during the nineteenth century though as the years have passed his star has dimmed in comparison to other poets of the period. Many see his work as derivative of the European poets, unoriginal, and suitable only for children. His most famous work today is probably “Paul Revere’s [...]

This will be a quick and happy tale. I was at work in New Jersey. An email went out over the listservs that Eric Miller had found a Golden-winged Warbler at Crocheron Park in Queens. I got out of a work a bit early and drove to Crocheron Park. After about a forty-minute vigil the [...]

Wait. What? What did Walter come across? Do people walk their birds? And does this law apply to wild birds? Or is this all the work of vandals, in real life or in photoshop? So confusing… …

One of the most exciting aspects of bird migration in a coastal location is the potential for large numbers of birds to find themselves over the ocean when dawn breaks. They get to land as quickly as they can and sometimes can be found concentrated in large numbers. This isn’t fallout in the strictest sense, [...]

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.         – Chinese proverb attributed to both Maya Angelou and Lou Holtz   While spring in New York City is great for birders because of the wide variety of colorful migrant birds moving through it is [...]

It’s been a heck of a week, hasn’t it? The amount of bird love that was on this blog was absurd and the fear is that 10,000 Birds will now be considered some kind of sick fetish porn site. Which, if you think about it, we kind of are already if only in a very [...]

Birds make other birds.  This is a simple fact of life.  Birders watch birds.  This too is a simple fact.  Sometimes birders watch birds making other birds.  This is kind of cool, kind of creepy.  Sometimes birders take pictures of birds making other birds.  This is kind of weird.  Sometimes birders share the pictures of [...]

The first Crested Ibis chicks to hatch in the wild in Japan in 36 years were caught on camera on 22 April. The birds, reintroduced from captive-bred stock from China, are perhaps the most Japanese of birds, with the scientific name Nipponia nippon.

Most encounters people have with turkeys either involve a dead, roasted bird on a dinner table or sliced turkey between two pieces of bread. Neither are very attractive. Of course, a live male Wild Turkey isn’t generally considered very attractive to people either, with the big hairy “beard” growing from their chest and caruncles and [...]