Allgemein EN

Biggest isn’t always best

Size isn’t everything, especially when it comes to binoculars. I have always been amused and bemused by the fact that in movies whenever people use bins they are enormous. The bins, that is. By BILL ODDIE Fair enough if it is a black and white naval saga – binoculars were […]

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What did the DSP ever do to Them?

One of the unique and most charismatic birds in South America, high if not top on any birders’ list of target species when they visit its range, is Phegornis mitchellii, long known as Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, or affectionately abbreviated as DSP. Its long and droop-tipped bill is unlike that of typical […]

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Army Ants and Antbirds

We were bumping down the road in the pick-up when suddenly Domi stomped on the brakes, put the truck in park, and jumped out of the driver’s seat. “ARMY ANTS!” he exclaimed in an excited voice, quickly pulling down the ladder to let our group climb down out of the […]

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Counting spoonies

Geoff Hilton is Head of Research & Chief Scientist at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. The work of Geoff and his team supports the conservation of numerous species including spoon-billed sandpiper, Madagascar pochard, Greenland white-fronted geese, red-breasted geese and common scoter. The Gulf of Mottama is the ideal place to […]

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Assumptions versus the dark-morph Pink-footed Shearwater

Whether Pink-footed Shearwater has a (very rare) dark morph, or whether occasional individuals are melanistic, are interesting semantic questions. But the bottom line for field observers is that apparently dark-plumaged Pink-footed Shearwaters are out there, and they could be confused with Flesh-footed Shearwater. Although some have questioned this assumption (e.g., […]

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Forging Champions

In August 2013, my friend Jonathan Meyrav of the Israel Ornithological Center approached me at the British Bird Fair & first told me of the Champions of the Flyway. A fantastic new bird race (or Big Day) to benefit bird conservation along the flyways between Africa & Eurasia. The event […]

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