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I’d just posted the article about the Critically Endangered Madagascar Pochard this morning when I was told that an embargoed press-release was being - er, released by Durrell and WWT this very evening. What was the news? Well, it’s very, very good indeed, so why not click along to Saving the Madagascar Pochard and find [...]

Much of the following article is based on information from Dr Glyn Young of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, who has been extremely generous both with his information and time. Our thanks go to him.
 
In 2006 the Madagascar Pochard Aythya innotata - one of the world’s rarest birds - was listed by the IUCN as [...]

Yesterday, Sunday, three days before I was scheduled to be a dad (still not yet!) I was out and about in Nassau County with five other birders on the Queens County Bird Club’s “South Shore Potpourri” trip, a yearly search for waterfowl both rare and common in the assorted small parks and ponds that are [...]

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, The Peregrine Fund and the Madagascar Government are undertaking a joint project to save the Critically Endangered Madagascar Pochard Aythya innotata - the rarest duck in the world, no more than 25 are left in the wild - from extinction. A recent survey trip to Madagascar [...]

I’ve been trying to find time to post some photos from my recent trip to Cape Town for a while now (wait until we tell you what we’ve been organising for April and May on 10,000 Birds - Why wait? Oh, okay, well - we’re featuring Puerto Rico and its biodiversity throughout May, have exclusive [...]

Many North American birders (I think I’m right in saying) think of the Barrow’s Goldeneye Bucephala islandica as a primarily western species of rocky coasts and large bays and harbours, but this lovely duck actually breeds in most of arctic coastal North America and also in sw Greenland and Iceland (where it is common, and [...]

Yesterday I posted a short series of photos of a male Varied Thrush Ixoreus naevius I took in Vancouver’s Stanley Park two days ago. Whilst the Varied Thrush was the “bird of the day” the bird that’s caused me the most head-scratching is the Mallard Anas platyrynchos in the photos below. When I first noticed [...]

The Grey Teal Anas gracilis - not perhaps the most spectacular of the world’s anatidae it has to be said - is found in open wetlands in New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Sexes are alike. In Australia it is nomadic, rapidly colonising suitable habitat following rain: conversely in 1957 large [...]

Found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific the Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa is closely related to the Mallard A. platyrhynchos (some female Mallards can closely approach the head pattern of a Pacific Black Duck), and in many respects is the Mallard’s southern equivalent. Unlike [...]

The rather lovely Hardhead Aythya australis is the only true diving duck found in Australia, and will be immediately recognisable to birders familiar with eg the Ferruginous Duck as an aythya pochard. Common in the south-east of Australia, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin, they are moderately nomadic in normal years, but disperse widely in times [...]

It occurred to me recently that I’ve still been missing something rather obvious - as the majority of visitors to 10,000 Birds are based in the US and I’m based (at least part of the year) in the UK, I really ought to be taking more photos of birds that I see regularly that birders [...]

Some days this blogging lark really is tough. I mean, I get to Toronto, it’s cold, and instead of being able to pass the time watching a fascinating TV channel all about the spending of local government in Mississauga I feel compelled to force myself to make the 10 minute walk down to the Toronto [...]

It’s that time of year (at least in the northern hemisphere) when birders fortunate enough to visit the coast once again get a chance to see one of the most funky ducks in the world - the marvellous Surf Scoter Melanitta perspicillata. Surf Scoters breed in Alaska and northern Canada (they’re the only species of [...]

One of my favorite ducks is the Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). Something about their namesake, absurdly long, shovel-like bills, elegant plumage, and cool vocalizations make me want to see them on every birding excursion. Or maybe it is their clever methods of eating, whether straining the water with their bills or swimming in [...]

Diabolical. Truly diabolical. That’s how I felt, anyway, when I made up the Diabolical Female Waterfowl Quiz. But, once again, some dedicated birders have proven themselves up to the challenge by managing to correctly identify all five partial pictures of female waterfowl, truly a magnificent accomplishment. To see for yourself the [...]

If previous incarnations of the Diabolical ID Quiz left you scratching your head this one might leave you wanting to cut it right off your shoulders.  Female waterfowl, also called hens, are usually drab colors, the better to hide themselves when they are incubating their eggs.  They are still beautiful, but in muted tones that [...]

The Diabolical Waterfowl ID Quiz was both more and less diabolical than I had intended.  It’s surprising how drake ducks, with their bright colors, can still be so difficult to identify if one only has a small chunk of the bird to use for one’s identifying attempt.  Nonetheless, correct answers were, eventually, given for each [...]

The Pochard is a diving duck of Eurasia, similar to the North American Redhead and Canvasback. Somehow, despite having visited several good locations like the Gulper See that should have had at least a few, no Pochard was kind enough to swim or fly through my field of view. Until today, that is, [...]

In the photo below - taken in Vancouver, Canada on September 31st - there are six ducks. So far, so straightforward - but how many species are there and what sex are they? One species - the Mallard, two males (drakes) and four females perhaps? Or a mixed bag of indeterminate mallard-like birds which could [...]

So the Anaheim Ducks have won the 2007 Stanley Cup, their first in franchise history. I don’t know what’s funnier: that a team named after a duck took the championship, that a southern California hockey team beat a Canadian team, or that the 2007 champs, formerly owned by Disney, used to be called the Mighty [...]