What was your first bird of 2014? Hopefully it was better than a pigeon! Let us know in the comments…and, if you wrote a blog post or have a picture of your first bird of the year online somewhere, well, leave a link in the comments too.
Happy New Year from all of us at 10,000 Birds! And here’s hoping you see many great birds, including lots of lifers, in 2014! After all, 2013 was a pretty great year and there is no reason 2014 can’t be the same!
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Fluffy-backed Tit-babbler was the first I saw, a lifer no less. The first I heard was a Short-tailed Babbler. Quite a babbling day at Danum Valley!
Downy Woodpecker pecking downily in my back yard.
For me it was a Mourning Dove – not a crude old pigeon. Sitting on a branch looking balefully at the snowy ground below hoping something to eat would show up soon
Downy Woodpecker at feeder. Komoka, Ontario
Common Eider in Maine!
The same noisy Magpie-lark that woke us at 5am Christmas Day http://10000birds.com/christmas-day-birding-around-broome.htm ….but it got a whole lot better after that! 🙂
On my way out early to check waterfowl, a Great Horned Owl was sitting on the 3rd telephone pole out of town. He didn’t fly and I got great looks for about 10 minutes. A great way to start the year.
First Bird of 2014: American Goldfinch.
First Awesome Bird of 2014: Winter Wren…in my backyard!
I had a Short-eared Owl! Sure, I had to leave my house before dawn and sit in my car with the windows up to avoid hearing anything before I saw an owl, but my strategy worked!
Here I am in the great birding region of Michoacan, Mexico. So what were my first birds of the year? House Sparrows! (Of course, the only way to avoid that result would be to wear blinders until getting far away from my home and garden, where dozens of these birds nest.)
A Red-Headed Woodpecker did a ‘fly-over’ and landed on a feeder. A Blue Jay attempted a landing but was quickly intimidated by the woodpecker. Smithville, Oklahoma.
Spotted Dove in my compound in Shanghai..
And also, @Duncan, I’m planning to go to Sabah soon- how are the birds showing at the time of year? I’ve found no records of birding the area in January- are most of the birds findable?
First birds or the year were a pair of Buffleheads. But, it was shortly followed by an awesome bird, a Snowy Owl. Photos and blog post at DelmarvaBirding.com
If we’re talking heard, then the Short-tailed Babbler. In fact one in five of the birds I heard or saw on 1 Jan were babblers. Yay lowland rainforest!
Larry, the birds are certainly findable, and supplemented with migrants. I managed to see three different pittas and broadbills, and six hornbills. I can elaborate more by email, don’t want to spoil my posts.
First heard: European Robin in Provence, France. First seen: chaffinch minutes after the Robin. I’m counting “heard”, so the Robin is it.