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Rarely can an author crack my list of favorites with just a single work but somehow, Lyanda Lynn Haupt did. More than 3 years ago, I reviewed her fabulous narrative of Charles Darwin’s explorations of the Americas, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent. I’ve thought often of that book since then, savoring the memory of [...]

While I was in Cape May this past weekend I came across a trio of Fish Crows, two of which quickly took off and flew a short distance away from me.  The third held its ground and proceeded to pick through sticks, bark, and other objects on the ground, seemingly trying to decide if any [...]

It was extremely difficult to decide a winner of the Corvus: A Life with Birds giveaway.  Five stellar entries were received and all are deserving of victory but there can only be one winner.  Fortunately for this overworked and underpaid blogger I got to remove a couple of the entries from competition based on technicalities [...]

It has been awhile since I reviewed Esther Woolfson’s Corvus: A Life with Birds (I liked it), but the American edition has just been published by Counterpoint Press and, fortunately for you, they have agreed to work with 10,000 Birds to give away a copy of Corvus: A Life with Birds to one of you!  [...]

Living in a house with uncaged birds is not for everyone and that goes double for those brave enough to live with corvids.  Usually ranked up there as among the smartest of birds, corvids, which include jays, crows, magpies, and ravens, are fascinating creatures that have been mythologized, persecuted, deified, and hunted throughout human history.  [...]

Daisy recently decided to get a tattoo.  And not just any tattoo, but a tattoo of a magpie, drawn by her, and turned into a tattoo by Daisy’s sister’s boyfriend, Sean, who has done a tattoo featured here before.  So, once again I photographed the tattoo process so all you loyal 10,000 Birds readers can [...]

One of the most difficult of all things to endure for a crow, a raven, a wolf, or a human is to feel alone and separated from one’s own kind. A sense of belonging is one of the most universal of all feelings. — Lawrence Kilham

Two ravens just glided passed my window, really nothing more [...]

The ‘alala is a matte-black crow endemic to Hawaii’s Big Island. This noisy, social, and exceedingly clever corvid, classified by Western ornithology as the Hawaiian Crow (Corvus hawaiiensis) was once plentiful throughout Hawaii’s upland `ohi`a or `ohi`a-koa forests, a constant companion to denizens as recently as the mid-20th century. Today the species teeters on the [...]

The family of birds known as corvids is well known for what is kindly referred to as character. Put bluntly, these birds, which include crows, ravens, magpies, and jays, can be real jerks. They harass others with their raucous cries. They loot bird feeders and, even worse, bird’s nests. Bullies and thieves pure and [...]