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Breeding New Jersey Species 
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 13, 2012
It’s tough being a New Jersey birder. Jersey has always gotten a bad rap in general (the smells of the turnpike, the Jersey shore, the governor), and in the world of birding, the state often seems to be symbolized by two words: Cape May. Press, 2003). published by Princeton University Press.
250 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 16, 2012
The pine barrens of New Jersey look rather plain and boring if you only see them while driving past on the Garden State Parkway or New Jersey Turnpike. By the time urban and suburban sprawl started to reach New Jersey’s pine barrens they were largely protected and today over 1.1
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10,000 Birds
MAY 10, 2012
Warbling Vireos are found breeding in open deciduous woods, often riparian, across Mexico, the United States, and southern Canada. Their fondness for open woods means that they often adapt well to breeding in parks and it was Van Saun Park in New Jersey’s Bergen County that I found the individual shown in this blog post.
248 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 3, 2012
Last week a mystery bird from New Jersey rightly caused a fair bit of confusion among birders of the Garden State and beyond. There’s a little hint of white in the malar and throat too, which would seem to be a problem for the species Black- chinned Sparrow. New Jersey mystery sparrow.
255 
10,000 Birds
MAY 18, 2012
When they are not getting ready to breed they are a pretty bland brown-and-white bird. The bird in these photos was foraging in the pond at the south end of Van Saun Park in northern New Jersey, a place I often stop to bird briefly on my way to work.
234 10,000 Birds
MAY 11, 2019
With birds bedecked in their breeding best and filling the air with song, this is migration at its loveliest. A wonderful variety of bird species are waiting to be seen and among them are many a birder’s favorite avian group, the wood-warblers. In the birding world, May is the beautiful time. Great Green Macaw!
203 10,000 Birds
MARCH 3, 2012
And there were several birds, often feeding close to shore, much different from my first encounter with the species along another fabled wildlife drive, the one at Brigantine in New Jersey. They do tend to wander after breeding which explains my first encounter with that New Jersey bird.
237 
10,000 Birds
JULY 3, 2012
Of course, I jest a bit in the above paragraph because as a sometime New Jersey birder I have birded the Delaware Bay and seen sights such as the memorable image below, in which thousands of Red Knots, Dunlins, and Short-billed Dowitchers fly up as if connected telepathically.
237 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 18, 2014
Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the “Rufa” population of Red Knot ( Calidris canutus rufa ) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia. Photo: Ron Knight.
10,000 Birds
APRIL 9, 2012
In New York, as is the case across most of the area where the “eastern” wood-warblers migrate, there are four species that are almost always the first to appear. All of the images in this post were taken over the last week with my digiscoping rig in New York and New Jersey.
241 
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 12, 2013
Phaetusa simplex is the only species in its genus and it seems very unlikely that it will be confused with another tern species. One has been seen in New Jersey in 1988 , in Illinois in 1949, and in Ohio in 1954 (Links are PDFs.) – interestingly, all in May.). And that is when I saw my first Large-billed Tern !
231 
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 6, 2015
Like the two previous books in the series, the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New Jersey by Rick Wright and the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Colorado by Ted Floyd (photographs for all three primarily by master photographer Brian E.
267 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 12, 2012
But Gotham’s many parks have some very suitable habitat for birds from the family Picidae and a birder in any borough of New York will generally find at least a couple of species during an average morning’s birding. Only six regularly appear in the city, however, and only four are year-round residents.
262 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 2, 2011
Any day of birding in New York State that includes a sighting of a Vesper Sparrow is a better-then-average day. Fortunately, they are still common across the Great Plains and the species as a whole does not seem to be in trouble, just the eastern populations. What has caused the decline? What has caused the decline? … a.
165 
10,000 Birds
MAY 20, 2023
Pelee National Park – Ohio Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge – Texas These locations offer a variety of habitats including marshes, wetlands, forests, coastal areas, and deserts, attracting numerous bird species throughout the year. Please note that the availability of specific bird species may vary depending on the season.
162 10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
Because I did not have to arrive at my office in Emerson, New Jersey until 9:30 AM on Wednesday I planned a pre-dawn assault on the Croton Train Station, which, timed correctly, would give me over two hours with the bird before I had to skedaddle off to the salt mines for another day’s labor. And I even got to work on time!
215 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 20, 2012
The very first thing we notice about this large member of the Galliformes is that there is a wild version and a domestic version, and although the two are rather different, they are both given the same species name, Meleagris gallopavo. Photograph of a Wild Turkey at Flatrock Brook Nature Center, in Englewood, New Jersey, by Corey.
260 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 11, 2019
A biologist friend of mine recently moved from New Jersey (where she visited the estuaries to study hundreds of thousands waders at close range) to Belgrade where I showed her some inland birding sites with two shorebirds here and one or two more over there. So far, 33 species have been eBirded in Serbia. Black-winged Stilt.
202 
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 2, 2018
I was on New Jersey Audubon’s Grand North Dakota birding tour this past July, driving along dirt roads through the prairies of western North Dakota. I wanted to see prairie birds and I wanted to experience a new state. Since 1966, when the Breeding Bird Survey first began monitoring, numbers have declined 79 percent.
197 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 17, 2015
The Refuge is now home to nearly 200 species of birds, over 50 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of insects, fish and plants. The Louisiana black bear’s threatened status warrants protection under sections 7 and 9 of the Endangered Species Act.
185 10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 4, 2018
Kevin Karlson is co-author of The Shorebird Guide , Birding by Impression , and The Birds of New Jersey. The hope and claim is that transferring this process to gull identification works more easily and just as accurately (at least for species) as an examination of plumage and molt patterns. Species Accounts.
214 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 6, 2011
I had a beautifull view on 5 horned grebe here (one in breeding plumage), in Ann Arbor Michigan, for the 3 seconds it lasted, until I heard a huge “CRRACK&# , and I fell through the ice. On Sunday at Kissena Park I saw five species of sparrows. And my first Killdeer of year! I see why people sometimes call them gray ghosts.
200 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 4, 2014
There were birders from a wide cross-section of the United States: Colorado, Ohio, Idaho, Iowa, Wyoming, Washington State, Pennsylvania, New York State, New Jersey, California, Texas, Florida. Betty’s Bay was also a great place to see all of South Africa’s cormorant species, including the endangered Bank Cormorant.
255 
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 3, 2017
I started the year in Florida, traveled to India with the ABA in February, combined family and birding in an August trip to California, and in-between saw very good birds in New York and New Jersey. The year list total is 709 countable and 2 non-countable birds. I like to add, “But I’m not a lister!”
167 
10,000 Birds
MAY 3, 2016
It was my second field guide, and I quickly gave it that worn look I imagined all “real” birder’s field guides had by dropping it into the creek at Allaire State Park in New Jersey (by accident!). Species accounts include common name, scientific name, measurements, text, images, and range maps. ” Thank you, David Sibley!
189 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
There are 35 raptor species that have a presence in the United States and Canada, 56 (more or less) if you count by subspecies, and they are all covered in admirable, exhausting, unbelievable detail in B irds of Prey of the East: A Field Guide and Birds of Prey of the West: A Field Guide by Brian K. Species Accounts.
203 10,000 Birds
JANUARY 2, 2018
New York City apartments don’t allow feeders to be hung from fire escapes (though I know certain birders that skirt that rule), and it wasn’t until I had already been birding for four-and-a-half years that I obtained a small yard in central New Jersey in which I could place a feeder or two or three.
189 
10,000 Birds
MAY 22, 2011
Ruddy Turnstone is a Species of Least Concern according to BirdLife International. It has an enormous range, occurring in such far-flung locales as New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Alaska, Greenland, and Brazil, to name just a few. It is one of two turnstone species, the other being the Black Turnstone A.
157 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 9, 2018
To get there we would need to get out of New York, through New Jersey into Delaware, and then on through Maryland and Virginia until finally reaching our destination. We broke the drive down into two segments: from New York to Delaware on 31 March and from Delaware to North Carolina on 1 April.
100 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 10, 2011
There were a host of great shorebirds in New York’s Orange County on Thursday early in the day but reports of roads being flooded out and the rather long distance, almost two hours travel from Queens, made that idea a reject. What was this particular ibis doing in northern New Jersey?
248 10,000 Birds
APRIL 21, 2013
Atlantic Coast subspecies crepitans in New Jersey by Corey Finger. So, Maley suggests recognizing four species, instead of the two currently recognized. These are brightly colored birds that breed in freshwater environments. I should also note that the abstract for the Condor paper proposes five , not four, species.
265 
10,000 Birds
JULY 2, 2024
Taking inspiration from Matthiessen’s 1967 book (long out of print), which combined his natural history essays with species accounts by Ralph S. Species Profile, Black-necked Stilt, p. 57; © 2024 by Pete Dunne and Kevin T.
264 10,000 Birds
JULY 21, 2014
There is another area of the Queens County CBC where a team will also likely see Monk Parakeets , Myipsitta monachus , but I am seriously determined to count that bird for my area, Coastal Flushing, a section of northeast Queens, New York, that includes Whitestone, home of one of the loudest invasive bird species in the U.S.
257 
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 7, 2020
The book is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Avifaunal Overview,” and “Species Accounts.” The authors’ detailed delineation of problems with the accuracy of NYC breeding bird surveys or with the limits of historical writings may test a reader’s patience. Most birders will go straight to the “Species Accounts.”
227 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 20, 2011
In New Jersey, police shot a Wild Turkey that was causing a few fender benders. These are just quick turkey car accident links I’ve found on my usual birding news feeds, but I’m sure many more are out there. I think the main reason turkey/vehicle collisions are more noticeable this time of year are breeding hormones.
257 10,000 Birds
JUNE 28, 2019
A thrill to see, especially to see well, the Cape May Warbler is most commonly spotted as a passage migrant or as a winter resident, considering that its breeding area is the spruce-fir forests of Canada and some of the northernmost parts of the United States. Go ahead, ask a Cape May birder about birding in Cape May. I dare you.
202 10,000 Birds
MAY 30, 2012
The last time I saw a Mississippi Kite was way up in Root, New York, back in 2009. There was a pair that were believed to be breeding and the following year successful breeding was confirmed, the first record of the species breeding in New York State.
230 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 2, 2019
I like observing them, reading about them, grappling with species and subspecies identification, and even—on a good day—talking about sparrow taxonomy. Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.
201 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 23, 2014
I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). The experience, the place, and the bird combine to make this my BBOTY.
245 
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 15, 2022
The Latin species name of the Kalij Pheasant is leucomelanos , meaning “white” (leukos) and “black” (melanos, both Greek words). thesis on the “Social Behavior and Cooperative Breeding of Kalij Pheasants” in a place with much nicer sanitary facilities than where I saw the bird (in rural Fujian).
147 10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
… Matthew Anderson [of Audubon] said proponents of colonies are putting the interests of one invasive species — cats — over the hundreds of other native ones that are their prey. But about two-thirds of the people speaking supported the new measure, including Dan Niziolek, director of Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.
256 10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 5, 2017
I grab my binoculars, camera, and field guide and drive 2-and-a-half hours to southern New Jersey. The 7th edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America covers 1,023 species that reside, migrate, or have been documented as accidentals or exotics in North America. Forsythe NWR.
190 10,000 Birds
JANUARY 26, 2012
Seeing this bid brings back memories of those times living on the east coast and birding New Jersey where I wish I would’ve payed better attention. Ultimately, this species can look drastically different in their molting phases, but this bird should prove to be a male. However difficult they are to see!
189 10,000 Birds
JANUARY 1, 2019
Evening Grosbeaks are large, stunning birds, especially the males, with their distinct plumage and massive bills; I haven’t been fortunate enough to see any of the Evening Grosbeaks that have made their way south to NYC and New Jersey (yet), so I’m very happy I was able to spend time with these beauties this summer. Another sparrow!
202
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