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When I was in Toronto a few days ago (I’ll get a report online at some point I hope!) I came across a small sparrow foraging in some grass that I found difficult to identify at first. It became apparent what it was when it was joined by a (very worn) adult, but to begin […]

Every month we sweep clean our main 10,000 Birds Clinic page and compile the questions and answers into a handy, bite-sized “round-up”.

Please feel free to add additional comments to the published answers - we’re all on the same learning curve round here - and if you’ve a question you’d like to put to the team […]

For the uninitiated, the word “coot” calls to mind nothing more than doddering old codgers and curmudgeons. Nature lovers, on the other hand, are privy to an entirely new complement of coots, a collection of charming charcoal wading birds found throughout most of the world.

American Coots
Coots are mid-sized waders in the genus Fulica. Technically rails, […]

There are just two common species of coot in the whole of the northern hemisphere - the Eurasian or Black Coot Fulica atra and the American Coot F. americana (the Red-knobbed Coot F. cristata is found throughout Africa and reaches southern Europe, but nowhere north of the equator is it found in such huge numbers […]

I’ve just spent a rather interesting morning wandering round the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Philly (a trip report is coming soon) before working a flight back home to the UK in the early evening. Under cloudless skies (after a somewhat foggy start) I’d found some great birds, including such Nearctic beauties as Parula Warbler, […]

With the thoughts of birders all over the northern hemisphere turning to migrant shorebirds, I thought I’d post a photo I took a few years ago of a shorebird that really got me stumped for a while. Once you know what it is the identification becomes very obvious (like one of those trompe d’oeil paintings […]

I spend a fair bit of time surfing and flicking through various Bird Fora/Forums, and it’s striking how many queries there are from birders who’ve been completely stumped by finding an odd duck on their local pond that doesn’t seem to resemble anything in their bird books.

We’ve all been there, no doubt. One day we’re […]

Female/immature Amur Falcons Falco amurensis
South Africa, March 2007

Closely related to the European Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus, the beautiful and agile Amur Falcon breeds in northern Asia and Siberia and winters in southern Africa. After breeding Amurs undertake what is probably the longest regular overwater passage of any raptor when they cross the Indian Ocean […]