10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

If Mexico City itself was not high enough, the mountains to the south rise above 12,300 feet and I was there looking for a Sierra Madre Sparrow to confirm a sighting of this rare and local sparrow from 15 years ago. As I write, Popacatapetl, the volcano 50 miles south-east of Mexico city, is grumbling outside the window.

Costa Rica 249

Costa Rica Taiwan Mexico Honduras 249

10,000 Birds

JULY 12, 2024

As I have mentioned repeatedly over the past months, life this spring has gone topsy-turvy in central Mexico, as we experience what has certainly been one of our driest years in history. We had good sightings of a pair of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers , one of central Mexico’s few summer-only migrants.

Mexico 246

Mexico South America 2020 America 246

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2020

This Chat winters along the coast of Mexico and throughout Central America. You may not know that Mexico is part of North, not Central, America.) Nevertheless, I have seen it often in my area, far from the coast, in every month from October through April, and even once in August.

Mexico 322

Mexico United States 2019 America 322

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

So I am writing these words on Tuesday night in my home in Mexico, rather than waking up in Paris prior to flying to Istanbul. My one sighting of the little-known Sinaloa Martin outside of summer had occurred on a 29th of February, and I hoped to repeat that experience. Three years of my experience shows that they most certainly do. (On

Species 232

Species Mexico Jordan Turkey 232

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2020

These birds also invite one to sites that are unique within the United States – the climate, vegetation, and landscapes all add context and heighten the experience of seeing one’s first Elegant Trogon or Painted Bunting. New Mexico Nature & Culture. So let’s look at this sampler, shall we? Painted Bunting by Carlos Sanchez.

America 264

America Arizona North America Texas 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

So have birders extraordinaire Amy, who is Canadian, and Jorge, who is from Mexico’s southeastern state of Yucatán, and goes by the nickname “Yuca” On any given year, you can find them at the very top of eBird’s “Top 100” birders for Mexico. So are several other members of the forum/chat.

Mexico 243

Mexico Birds California Spain 243

Critter News

AUGUST 19, 2010

Bill Richardson is asking to tour a former medical research lab in southern New Mexico that houses more than 200 chimpanzees. The animals can be used again for medical experiments if transferred to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas. From the AP.

New Mexico 100

New Mexico Mexico San Antonio Medical Research 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2024

Here in central Mexico, we have one such case that is so notable that it has been the subject of a good deal of scientific study. and eastern Mexico has an all-black head, a black back with bright white spots, and orange flanks. I have accused bird-namers of being biased to their United States experience of birds.

Mexico 246

Mexico United States 2019 Research 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Now, it is much easier for me to achieve first-time sightings of species in Europe than it is in Mexico, at this point of the game. You can get a sense of the breadth of my European birding experience by how many of my lifers have the word “Common” in their names. Next week, we will be back to Mexico.

Spain 255

Spain Mexico Europe North America 255

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2013

San Blas, situated on the north-western coastline of Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit is one such place. Inland are the the San Cristóbal and El Pozo mangrove estuaries, two of the most biologically important estuaries in all of Mexico and home to a wide variety of wading birds, parrots, and endemic birds like Rufous-bellied Chachalacas.

Mexico 264

Mexico United States Woodpeckers Sanctuary 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

The Colima Warbler has a distinction shared with no other species in the world: It is fully migratory, but both its summer reproductive range and its winter range are almost entirely within Mexico. (A and Canada, and winter in Mexico, or breed in Mexico, and winter in Central and South America. So, lucky me!

Mexico 226

Mexico South America Birds Turkey 226

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2023

While our compatriots seem only to want to visit Mexico’s touristy beach cities, we would rather go anywhere else in this country. Indeed, even though I just celebrated 40 years of living in Mexico, we have never been to Cabo San Lucas, and our only experience with Cancún was going though immigration in that city’s airport.

Mexico 264

Mexico Birds Turkey Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2024

The fact that Mexico recently abandoned daylight saving time has made this problem more serious.) A brief mixed flock experience included this Grace’s Warbler , which is one of our relatively few resident warblers down here. (In And this Monday was not a spectacular birding day. And a few birds did gift me some photos.

Abandon 246

Abandon Abandoning Abandonment Mexico 246

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

I truly do hope I am not tiring 10,000 Birds’ readers too much with my obsession with Michoacán’s ongoing drought, the disappearance of Lake Cuitzeo (Mexico’s 2nd largest lake, in normal years), and our own micro-endemic Black-polled Yellowthroat. But obsessed I am. And it brought friends.

Mexico 246

Mexico Investigation Science Experience 246

10,000 Birds

APRIL 23, 2013

Isla Isabel, a picturesque volcanic island situated 15 miles off Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit coast, is just such a place. Lastly, due to its previous inaccessibility to humans and the absence of natural predators, the wildlife is bizarrely unafraid of humans, allowing for a truly unforgettable experience.

Whaling 267

Whaling Whales Sharks Marine Life 267

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2024

Being a westerner — raised in California, and now living in western Mexico — I was perhaps most excited about the migratory birds that breed in eastern North America. And the Baltimore Oriole is an iconic eastern bird, which winters along Mexico’s east coast, but never in the west. Then, around 4:00 p.m.,

Mexico 246

Mexico Birds Raccoons Baltimore 246

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2013

” When we think of going birding in Mexico we often think about the colorful tropical species; Russet-crowned Motmot , Eared Quetzal , Black-throated Magpie-Jay …However, searching for rare and little understood species can perhaps be even more exciting and rewarding. Birds Mexico rare birds Sinaloa Martin swallows'

South America 242

South America San Diego Mexico America 242

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2019

It’s a rush any new birder experiences: that of every species being a lifer. Once you’ve been around the birding block a few years, your appreciation for the lifer experience deepens greatly. Which is why we all eventually turn to the one way to combine old-birder experience with new-birder opportunities: travel.

Spain 214

Spain Europe Sparrows Mexico 214

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

(Someday I will get up the nerve to write about the ten, yes, TEN Empidonax species I believe I have seen in my little corner of Mexico. Birders throughout the Americas can experience the chalenges of Gull, Tern, New World Warbler, and Tyrant Flycatcher identification. As is this one. Little Brown Job!

Mexico 198

Mexico Argentina Groups Experiments 198

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2021

They were a fairly common species from my childhood in California, but I had not expected them to turn up in central Mexico. I did manage photos of other flagship species of the Mexico’s highest mountains. Plus, they look a bit different here, with an oddly-shaped crest and bright white eyebrows.

Mexico 237

Mexico California Species Groups 237

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2020

For those of us with the great good fortune to bird in Latin America, or other less-studied biological regions, my experience suggests that we are much more likely to benefit from the new species created by such splits. But you pretty much must come to Mexico to see the Mexican Duck , which I see every time I go to our nearest lake.

San Diego 253

San Diego San Francisco Baltimore Mexico 253

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2024

I had waited so long to meet you: In May and June, I made a pair of work trips to Mexico’s tropical state of Tabasco. This was Mexico’s absolutely hottest time of the year, but a full 30 lifers made it worth it. It would take video to really show the experience, so you’ll have to take my word for it.)

Morocco 242

Morocco Turkey Mexico Birds 242

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. In fact, the main point of Warbling Vireos seems to be providing a tabula rasa onto which birders can project their wish of seeing a Philadelphia Vireo. Some think that the three western subspecies - V.

New Jersey 248

New Jersey Philadelphia United States Canada 248

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2024

Last week, I failed to produce a post, because I was getting ready to spend a week in Mexico’s tropical state of Tabasco. We were happy to experience three birds of prey on this jaunt. Two classic birds of Mexico’s east coast are also present. … And sometimes that’s a lot.

Barn Owls 246

Barn Owls Mexico Parrots ALA 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Lesser Ground-Cuckoos occur along the Pacific slope from Mexico to Costa Rica in tropical lowland thorn and deciduous forest up to approximately 1800 meters. Having failed many times already to see the Lesser Ground-Cuckoo throughout West Mexico, we headed down towards Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico to try again.

San Diego 211

San Diego Mexico Costa Rica South America 211

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Rather, I am speaking of what a certain group of birds must experience every day. Here in central Mexico, the masters of inverse perching are the Nuthatches, and the winter-only Black-and-White Warbler. Still, in spite of the thrill we share with each lifer, that is not the rush of blood to the head to which I refer in my title.

Mexico 208

Mexico Horses Groups Species 208

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2022

Most of our readers are not likely to be able to ID this bird, because it only occurs in Mexico and Guatemala. But previous experience with Ejido Triquillo taught me that another species might turn up during the spring. Fortunately, I had managed a collection of very bad photos before the bird flew off. That’s a Hooded Grosbeak

Mexico 257

Mexico Guatemala South America United States 257

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Although, technically, I mostly felt your pain… for the past four months, while about a dozen beautiful migratory Wood Warblers were nowhere to be found here in central Mexico. What my previous experience had not prepared me for, was that this summer I would see many of those species for the first time all at once.

Mexico 248

Mexico Nashville Virginia Shelters 248

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2022

But there are almost no ways to buy bird-friendly native plants down here in Mexico, so I’m still doing it on the cheap. My first experiments involved rooting cuttings of several of Michoacán’s dozens of Salvia species. These days, money is not so much of an issue. To my surprise, one plant survives.

Mexico 278

Mexico ALA Collecting Sparrows 278

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 29, 2023

As I mentioned last week, the world seems to have turned upside down lately, at least here in central Mexico. One of my companions said that in his region of Mexico, this type of rain is called a “ mojapendejos ” rain.

Mexico 236

Mexico Birds Shelters Species 236

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2019

” So, it is established: this is a film about migrant birds and the people who work to protect them in south Texas and northern Mexico. The experiences of children observing birds, touched on in the U.S. Birders is directed by Otilia Portillo Padua of Mexico, and was funded by a grant from the Sundance Institute.

Advocacy 268

Advocacy Mexico United States Sanctuary 268

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

Here in the highlands of central Mexico, we can see (rather easily, as I mentioned above) two trogons: the Mountain Trogon , and the Elegant Trogon. The Elegant Trogon prefers drier habitats, with a predominance of oaks rather than conifers, and in my experience is much harder to find. Wikipedia has been used.). Which you should.

Mexico 258

Mexico Indonesia Arizona North America 258

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2024

This surprises me, because I have spent a fair number of days outside of the state (both in Mexico’s state of Tabasco, and in California). Now, I have met quite a few biologists over the past few years who lacked field experience, or weren’t really interested in birding. How can that be in such challenging circumstances?

Virginia 246

Virginia Mexico California Species 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2011

Right now great flocks of wood-warblers are making their way north from the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to breed across the United States and Canada. Read about them here but also get out and experience them. You won’t regret it! ———————————————————————————————————————————————— a.

United States 242

United States South America Cooking 2011 242

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2024

My only other experience with an Audubon Club field trip anywhere, on a cold October morning in the American Midwest, was frankly kind of a bust. But this one was a wonderful experience. In theory they can be found in central Mexico, but I’ve only seen a couple there.) At Jasper Ridge, we saw 20.

San Francisco 246

San Francisco California Woodpeckers Turkey 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

And my decision to take this as a learning experience led to some interesting conclusions — and even some pretty cool birds. The former are supposed to fly south only to and along Mexico’s coasts, while the latter should barely reach this far south strictly along the Mexican coast for the winter. But so worth it!

Blackbirds 264

Blackbirds Shelters Ducks Mexico 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2021

It was a very disorienting experience. I used eBird’s species map option to confirm that in other recent years, only a few Cedar Waxwing sightings were reported in Mexico from January to May. But this year, the map of Mexico is a sea of purple (the color they use to indicate a sighting).

Turtles 264

Turtles Mexico Sparrows Branding 264