I’ve long felt that birders, as a group, should have a greater appreciation for the book as a physical object – all those years of choosing field guides that have high-quality color prints and will hold up to rough use ought to lead in that direction. Looking at a book like Barn Owl by David [...]

Few issues of our day are as huge, in scope or in implication, as climate change. The task of wrestling this topic down into something that the human mind can manage, without losing sight of the big picture because it’s snowing in Buffalo, is likely to be the task of a lifetime for many science [...]

“An island in the Adriatic Sea, called Diomedea, is home to a great number of shearwaters, which, it is said, neither harm the barbarians who live there nor come close to them. If, however, a Greek comes ashore, the shearwaters approach and stretch out their wings as if they were hands, welcoming the stranger.” Thus [...]

When my friends over at YourBirdOasis sent me a super squirrel-proof bird feeder to review, I had to think about who I knew who could really put the device to the test. After all, I have my local white squirrels well in hand. My good buddy Seth, on the other hand, does not. So here’s [...]

Feathers are the unique ingredient when it comes to birds.  Platypus have bills, bats and bugs can fly, and reptiles lay eggs, but only birds have feathers.  Despite feathers being such a large and essential aspect of birdness I did not know much about them, at least until I read Feathers: The Evolution of a [...]

Birders around the world are united by their passion for glass, by which I mean high-end optics. We crave ever more advanced binoculars, spurring our favorite optics manufacturers to increasingly miraculous innovations (insert your favorite new binocular here!) So why do so many of us still carry our marvels of modern optical technology around our [...]

Philosophy and I have always had a rather fraught relationship. I love grappling with big ideas, but dislike the tendency to extrapolate endless sky-bridges of thought and constantly redefine terms. You’d think, then, that applying science to philosophy by studying the evolutionary underpinnings of thought and behavior across species would be right up my alley. [...]

Here at 10,000 Birds we have already reviewed Watching Sparrows, Watching Warblers, and Watching Warblers West.  Somehow, we never got around to reviewing Watching Waders, another in the series of excellent films by Michael Male and Judy Fieth.  Watching Waders is chock full of great footage, as one learns to expect after having seen other films [...]

The second edition of the Crossbill Guide to Extremadura has just been released and – to my delight – a copy arrived in the post for me the other day. In preparing for our birding trip to Extremadura this February (as part of the EL50 Swarovision launch), I had bought a copy of the first [...]

I never would have thought that a film that focused entirely on North American sparrows could be so delightful.  But the new second edition of Watching Sparrows* by Michael Male and Judy Fieth, who have a whole series of bird films already produced or in production, not only kept me staring at the screen but drew [...]

How many birding reference guides pack the visual punch of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds? Not many, that’s for sure! That’s why we wanted to find out some of your favorite plates in Crossley’s new opus as part of our Fun, Fun, Fun Crossley ID Guide Giveaway. Are any of these plates your favorite? The photos [...]

My birding adventures this week, while Western, were far from Interior (three words for you: Black-bellied Whistling Duck). Fortunately for you, though, when I got home I found a review copy of National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America by Jonathan Alderfer and Paul Hess ready and waiting to be dissected for [...]

“Our dream is to inspire a nation of potential birders who will delight in the beauty of Brazil’s abundant birdlife and become interested in helping to protect Brazil’s vibrant ecosystems and natural heritage.  It is our hope that this volume will provide the first sparks.” – John Gwynne and Martha Argel What does a field [...]

The Crossley ID Guide from Princeton University Press has long been anticipated and has certainly been the subject of many discussions among birders across North America.  Now that it is in the hands of reviewers across the country we can see that it is unlike any other field guide we have ever seen.  It is [...]

“The most outstanding binoculars I have ever seen” and “unexpectedly comfortable and stable”.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this recently. Which is a good thing. It helps me sleep and puts my little heart at ease. The last couple of weeks have been nuts. The EL50 Swarovisions went in to [...]

The idea that tiny songbirds that weigh far less than the change found in the average pocket manage to migrate 600 miles across the Gulf of Mexico was long considered fanciful.  It was assumed that a few, at most, might make such flights, but most birds were thought to be circum-gulf migrants rather than trans-gulf [...]

No one who has read this blog for any length of time will be surprised that I was very excited to hear that a collection of Emily Dickinson’s bird-related poems was being released and a copy was on its way to me to review.*  After all, I have already discussed on this blog what is [...]

Why would Swarovski Optik decide to completely revamp their classic EL line of binoculars?  Birders all over the world can be forgiven for asking this question, as the original ELs are renowned for being a quality piece of glass.  The reason, of course, is that the engineers and mad scientists squirreled away in Swarovski Optik’s [...]

With a release date of 25 October 2010, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America will likely be showing up on the wish lists of many a North American birder this holiday season.  Entirely illustrated by photographs, the main selling point of the new field guide is the sheer number of species [...]

Are you a birder with relatives who constantly call to ask you what the weird bird at their bird feeders is?  Do you have a child in your family who you think is on the cusp of becoming interested in birds?  Is there a blank spot on your wall that is just begging for something [...]