Jamaica’s Endemic Birds Part 4

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by Rich Hoyer on May 15, 2012 · 0 comments

in Birding Neotropics

This week I’ll discuss another five bird species endemic to Jamaica, the first half of the oscine passerines. Also called songbirds, these more “advanced” passerines don’t all actually have nice songs, though when analyzed, their voices are usually quite a bit more complex than those of subsocines. On Jamaica, however, some of these have wonderfully [...]

Tagged as: Blue Mountain Vireo, Jamaica, Jamaican Crow, Jamaican Vireo, Rich Hoyer, White-chinned Thrush, White-eyed Thrush, WINGS birding tours

World Series of Birding Movie

Thumbnail image for World Series of Birding Movie by Gunnar 12 May 2012

I have arrived at Cape May after a lovely week at the Biggest Week of American Birding.  Many lifers, both birds and birders. Lifers were Greg Miller, Kenn and Kim Kaufman, Dawn Fine, Linda Rockwell, Doug Gochfield, Birdchick, Mark Beaman, Adrian Binns, Mike Watson, Lena Samsonaenko, Nemesis birders, etc.  Also several year ticks such as Jeff [...]

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Biggest Week alerts to your cellphone

Thumbnail image for Biggest Week alerts to your cellphone by Gunnar 7 May 2012

There is a new service called If This Than That which basically creates RSS feeds for different internet services and which works like a charm for Twitter hashtag alerts sent as SMS to your cell phone. Learn how to use it!

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Jamaica’s Endemic Birds Part 3

Thumbnail image for Jamaica’s Endemic Birds Part 3 by Rich Hoyer 4 May 2012

The next five Jamaican endemics I’ll talk about are all suboscine passerines. I’m a compulsive categorizer of everything, and it is so gratifying to know how birds sort themselves out into families and orders, if not so cleanly into species. So if you’re not familiar with the concept of “suboscine passerine,” a very quick lesson [...]

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Spring mania

Thumbnail image for Spring mania by YoavPerlman 2 May 2012

Yoav Perlman shares his exciting spring migration experiences from southern Israel Israel is world-famous for the huge volume and variety of migration, as entire populations flying between Eurasia and Africe funnel through the country twice a year. This amazing phenomenon is what makes Israel so great for birding, and as a young birder I grew up [...]

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Snowfinch: THE bird of the Alps

Thumbnail image for Snowfinch: THE bird of the Alps by DaleForbes 29 April 2012

The White-winged Snowfinch (Montifringilla nivalis) has got to be just about the most mountain-y bird found in the Alps – occurring exclusively above 1800m above sea level. Where trees stop, the Snowfinch stops. In fact I have only once seen a Snowfinch near a tree and that was in the depth of winter when three [...]

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Jamaica’s Endemic Birds Part 2

Thumbnail image for Jamaica’s Endemic Birds Part 2 by Rich Hoyer 24 April 2012

In this second installment featuring Jamaica’s endemic bird species, I’ll complete the non-passerines, which includes some of the most exciting species on the island. The following photos are mostly digiscoped, taken over the past 14 years I’ve led tours here. The Jamaican Owl is surprisingly widespread and tolerant of a wide variety of habitats, though [...]

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RSPB Spring Concert in Suffolk

Thumbnail image for RSPB Spring Concert in Suffolk by TomMckinney 23 April 2012

Well this isn’t so much a blogpost, but more a shameless act of bare-arsed, narcissistic self promotion. Anyway, it’s my blogpost, so I can write what I like. On Saturday 28th April the City of London Sinfonia are performing their annual spring concert for the RSPB near Aldeburgh at Snape Maltings in Suffolk. The concert [...]

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Featured Bird Photographer blogger ~She gets down and dirty

Thumbnail image for Featured Bird Photographer blogger ~She gets down and dirty by dAwN FiNe 22 April 2012

Mia McPherson is a nature lover, wildlife watcher and bird photographer. Birds fascinate, delight and intrigue her which is why she devotes many hours learning about them, observing their behavior and photographing them. By learning more about each subject, she can anticipate their behavior and create opportunities to obtain better images of those species. Mia enjoys sharing her photos, photographic skills and techniques with those individuals who are serious about their own bird and wildlife photography.

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Jamaica’s Endemic Birds – The First Six

Thumbnail image for Jamaica’s Endemic Birds – The First Six by Rich Hoyer 16 April 2012

Rich Hoyer highlights endemics from Jamaica, including Black-billed Parrot, Yellow-billed Parrot, Jamaican Lizard-Cuckoo, Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo, Ring-tailed Pigeon, and Crested Quail-Dove from his WINGS Birding Tours.

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Could Lytro Camera Revolutionise Digiscoping?

Thumbnail image for Could Lytro Camera Revolutionise Digiscoping? by DaleForbes 15 April 2012

The new Lytro Light Field Camera has just started to ship, and for those of you who have not heard of it yet, it uses a completely new technology and approach to image capture to create something of a living image. No, nothing from or for the Daily Prophet, but a clickable image that will [...]

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Sh*t birders say – for non birders

Thumbnail image for Sh*t birders say – for non birders by Gunnar 7 April 2012

Viral birding . There have been pretty amazing few days lately checking out how Jason Kessler’s short 3 min video about birding talk has gotten 40,000 views as I write this (10 days later).  I think the video could reach a far larger audience, so I have asked people if they would pass this on [...]

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* insert witty title with a pun in or something *

Thumbnail image for * insert witty title with a pun in or something * by TomMckinney 2 April 2012

The other day I had an email asking why I haven’t written a post for some time. I was asked whether I’d stopped birding. Well no, I haven’t stopped birding. It is actually possible to go out birding without having to write a blogpost, Tweet or Facebook status update about it. So yes, I am [...]

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Mystery Song From Carara is Rufous-breasted Wren

Thumbnail image for Mystery Song From Carara is Rufous-breasted Wren by Rich Hoyer 1 April 2012

Judging from the very few daring guesses, this was a real tough sound quiz. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I was quite surprised when I looked up to see that this nearly ultrasonic song was being given by a Rufous-breasted Wren, Pheugopedius rutilus. As a reminder, here is the song from last week: [...]

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Mae Wong got Alive!!!

Thumbnail image for Mae Wong got Alive!!! by Alex Vargas 31 March 2012

Mae Wong National Park, really became the hotspot for a couple of months with many cool birds showing super well… I’ll show you some… Located between Kampaeng Phet and Nakorn Sawan provinces, Mae Wong covers about 900 km2 and is part of the western forest complex, said to be the largest remaining patch of forest [...]

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Carara National Park – A Sound Quiz

Thumbnail image for Carara National Park – A Sound Quiz by Rich Hoyer 27 March 2012

Rich Hoyer posts an audio quiz from Costa Rica plus a few birds from Carara National Park.

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Stars of the night

Thumbnail image for Stars of the night by YoavPerlman 27 March 2012

Israel nightbirds Daytime birding in Israel is as exciting as it gets in the WP. Migration in full swing, rarities being found every ten minutes, great birders from all over the world (many Finnsticks among them). But the real action begins when the sun goes down. Night birding is so full of adrenalin. The main [...]

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Sh*t Birders Say!

Thumbnail image for Sh*t Birders Say! by Gunnar 26 March 2012

This is too funny – if you are a birder! This is just too funny by Jason Kessler of Opposable Chums fame. This is a great video of the strange and somewhat contradictory talk of birders. You shall recognize this if you are a birder – or if you know a birder just a little [...]

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THE 7 ELEMENTS OF A GREAT BIRD PHOTOGRAPH

Thumbnail image for THE 7 ELEMENTS OF A GREAT BIRD PHOTOGRAPH by GlennBartley 24 March 2012

Bird Photography Basics. In order to create beautiful images of birds on a consistent basis it is important to understand the many elements that combine to make a good photo. These include the exposure, composition, light, sharpness, perch, pose and background. These components are not absolute rules that must be followed in every image. As [...]

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Scotts Miracle-Gro – the bird-killing company?

Thumbnail image for Scotts Miracle-Gro – the bird-killing company? by Grrlscientist 21 March 2012

Corporate crime – bird killers! SUMMARY: The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company pleads guilty to knowingly selling poisoned birdseed, and lawn and garden care products containing undocumented pesticides to an unsuspecting public I recently heard about the most astonishing corporate crime: the American company, Scotts Miracle-Gro, violated US federal environmental laws by manufacturing and selling poisoned birdseed [...]

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