The Birdist asked and answered the question, “Which Bird Has The Weirdest Range?” The answer might surprise you.
Related Posts
Welcome to 10,000 Birds! Learn more about our site and our team of Beat Writers.
Feel free to contact us and to subscribe using the form below.
Newsletter
Signup and receive notice of new posts!
Thank you!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
Well, as long as you do not expect to get paid, that is. We are looking to add new writers. Please contact us for details if you are interested.
Beat Writer Posting Calendar
Monday
7 AM: Kai Pflug
Tuesday
7 AM: Donna (first each month)
Wednesday
7 AM: Aleksandar Topalov (biweekly)
1 PM: Faraaz Abdool (biweekly)
Thursday
7 AM: This could be you!
Friday
7 AM: David Tomlinson
Saturday:
7 AM: Luca Feuerriegel (biweekly)
7 AM: Peter Penning (biweekly)
All times are Eastern US, as the US still rules, apparently ...
Any-Time Contributors:
Jason Crotty
Mark Gamin
Paul Lewis
Angela Minor
Clare Morton
Dragan Simic
Featured Post
































That’s awesome. I often wonder how much of that is an artifact of birder behavior. That one dot in upper Michigan appears to be over the Whitefish Point/Sault Ste. Marie area, which is one of the most heavily birded areas of the midwest.
I would have said the Azure Magpies. Whether you split them into two species or not, you can’t beat one population in China, and one in Spain, and nothing in between.
I assume they don’t count cause they aren’t in the US. 😛
@Kirby: I wonder – good question!
@Duncan: There are places outside of the United States?
@Duncan- I was going to suggest Azure-winged Magpie too. When I heard about that distribution for the first time I thought it was a joke.
Regarding Azure-winged Magpies: and they are very nice birds, too! Not like a certain heron who pals around with Yellow-crowned Youknowwhats!
I am not entirely sure but think I read somewhere that fossils of the magpies had been found in some areas between China and Spain/Portugal, supporting it is a natural distribution pattern and not – what has been / still is an alternate hypothesis – an early example of escaped captive birds from China establishing “wild” populations a long, long, long time ago.
It’s clearly an artefact of contraction, given that DNA analysis shows they have been apart for a million years. A more confusing disjunct distribution are the Cyanoramphus parakeets, which are found in New Zealand and New Caledonia and the surrounding islands, and were found in the Society Islands, but nowhere in between, even in the fossil record.