10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Fortunately, at this time of year there are also a good number of high-quality migratory species: Least Flycatcher. Hey, even the common species give good photos in Paso Ancho! That could be because Mexico’s lowland Tierra Caliente (Hot Country) has a Very Bad Reputation. Is it safe to bird in Mexico?

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Mexico Colombia Africa Experience 235

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Birding Expeditions is a Guatemalan tour company created to help birders to have an unforgettable experience in the Mayan World. Our company is based in Guatemala but also offers tours in Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico. We work hard to provide the richest and most rewarding experience of the Neotropics.

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Guatemala El Salvador Belize Honduras 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2020

North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. 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.

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America Arizona North America Texas 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

To the relief of Mexican birders everywhere, this species was split several years later into two species; the black-and-white eastern race is now Morelet’s Seedeater , and the more colorful western race is now the Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater. What I didn’t know was that this is a very special species.

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Mexico Birds California Spain 243

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. So I might have assumed I would not see new species in the Palmones wetlands. The first gave me eight new species for Spain, of which four were lifers. But this time, I could.

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Spain Mexico Europe North America 255

10,000 Birds

JUNE 13, 2024

If you have birded very long, you are probably aware that members of closely related bird species, when their ranges overlap, sometimes love each other very much, and have babies. When this happens particularly often, such hybridization processes can result in entirely new species.

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Mexico United States 2019 Research 246

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.

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Mexico Birds Turkey Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

When I got back into birding about six years ago, I would not have predicted the personal bonds a birder can form with certain species. While all birds bring us joy, and we certainly want to see as many as we can, some species just seem more… special. I’ll start with two species that are especially hard to find.

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Mexico South America Birds Turkey 226

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.

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Whales Whaling Sharks Marine Life 267

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2013

San Blas, situated on the north-western coastline of Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit is one such place. The San Blas Christmas Bird Count is a popular event amongst international birders and close to 300 species have been recorded during a single day. The beaches and coves provide sanctuary to a nice variety of seabirds.

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Mexico United States Woodpeckers Sanctuary 264

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2024

The fact that Mexico recently abandoned daylight saving time has made this problem more serious.) I love to see the new growth on our dozens of oak species. A brief mixed flock experience included this Grace’s Warbler , which is one of our relatively few resident warblers down here. (In

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Abandon Abandoning Abandonment Mexico 246

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.,

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Mexico Birds Raccoons Baltimore 246

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2020

For, in birder lingo, a split occurs when subspecies are determined to be, in fact, entirely separate species. If you happen to have seen both species, your life list can increase without you even leaving the house. Two former species can also be joined into one, the same way. And there was great rejoicing thoughout the land!)

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San Diego San Francisco Baltimore Mexico 253

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2013

En route they will be “birding in nearly every country in mainland North and South America,” and, as they say on their excellent blog , “Our journey is about collecting valuable data on bird species, their status and distribution, current conservation issues, and more along the way. Sinaloa Martin Progne sinaloae.

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. But the opportunities to see new species become more difficult with each one seen. Those Snowy Egrets ?

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Spain Europe Sparrows Mexico 214

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2021

That is because this site’s height of 3,000 m (about 10,000 feet) offers me certain species that I can’t add to my year list anywhere else. They were a fairly common species from my childhood in California, but I had not expected them to turn up in central Mexico. I could swear it was following me.

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Mexico California Species Groups 237

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. Many of these species are common and widespread, making them just that much more challenging. Not to mention the four Myiarchus flycatchers present in the same area. Thanks again, Fabián!

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Mexico Argentina Groups Experience 198

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.

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Mexico Investigation Science Experience 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2024

David Tomlinson wrote this week about how many and which species he has seen so far this year, and I can do the same. Especially since, to my surprise, it turns out that I am somehow picking up species faster this year, here in Michoacán, than in any other year. How can that be in such challenging circumstances?

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Virginia Mexico California Species 246

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.

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Mexico ALA Collecting Sparrows 278

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.

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Mexico Nashville Virginia Shelters 248

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Rather, I am speaking of what a certain group of birds must experience every day. These are the few species who prefer to spend their lives hanging upside-down. We each have reasons to give special love to certain species. And those species that like to hang upside-down definitely amuse me.

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Mexico Horses Groups Species 208

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

Honesty requires that I confess to having seen none of these species. 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. These species are visually very similar, with subtle differences in their tail patterns. Which you should.

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Mexico Indonesia Arizona North America 258

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 5, 2024

I have seen few species with the word “House” in their English names ( House Sparrow , Wren , and Finch ), as well as a couple of “Barn” birds ( Barn Swallows and Owls ). 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. But it was close.

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Morocco Turkey Mexico Birds 242

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 it wasn’t the day’s first FOY species. As it turned out, these were not the only bad photos to help me flesh out my 2022 year list that day (species 201-211, on February 12th).

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Mexico Guatemala South America United States 257

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2021

It was a very disorienting experience. I saw 57 species in the area, which is pretty good for the church neighborhood. Three species especially stood out. 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.

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Turtles Mexico Sparrows Branding 264

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. I saw 32 species here in my first 24 hours, some of them exciting ones. We were happy to experience three birds of prey on this jaunt. Two classic birds of Mexico’s east coast are also present.

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Barn Owls Mexico Parrots ALA 246

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. The Warbling Vireo is a Species of Least Concern according to BirdLife International because of its huge range and large and increasing population. Some think that the three western subspecies - V.

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New Jersey Philadelphia United States Canada 248

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. And indeed, it did rain just enough to keep us consistently wet, but we were too pendejo to seek shelter.

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Mexico Birds Shelters Species 236

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2011

We will have posts on a variety of individual species of wood-warblers, wood-warbler taxonomy, searches for difficult-to-find wood-warblers, and a host of other topics. Many other non-migratory wood-warbler species are living their lives across the neotropics, doing their best to survive and pass on their genes.

United States 242

United States South America Cooking 2011 242

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

More than 20 species are recognized, many look similar and to throw a bit more challenging flavored sauce into the Megascops mix, there might be a few more species awaiting description. One of the more recently, officially recognized screech-owl species is the Choco Screech-Owl.

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Costa Rica Owls Panama Argentina 262

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

En route they will be “birding in nearly every country in mainland North and South America,” and, as they say on their excellent blog , “Our journey is about collecting valuable data on bird species, their status and distribution, current conservation issues, and more along the way. What an amazing experience!

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San Diego Mexico Costa Rica South America 211

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2014

There’s no species of bird more associated with the North American desert than Greater Roadrunner. But Warner Brothers cartoons aside, Greater Roadrunner is a much more adaptable species that we give it credit for. But Warner Brothers cartoons aside, Greater Roadrunner is a much more adaptable species that we give it credit for.

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Missouri Mississippi Agenda Rodents 256

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In this first installment, I will focus on my impressions and experiences in the highlands portion of our tour. One of these islands may have been the present day Northern Central American Highlands which includes Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of extreme southern Mexico (Chiapas). This is a fascinating area of transition.

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Honduras El Salvador Costa Rica Arizona 254

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

This is my best place to pick up species that inhabit, or visit, the border between the Hot Country thorn forest and highland pine-oak forest habitats. It wasn’t the most colorful species of the day. And how am I doing on my species race for the year? But its rump was somewhat bright, I suppose.

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South America Sparrows Mexico Bears 261

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. According to my list, which somehow ended up being the official group list, we saw 41 species in about four hours. Both were welcome additions.

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San Francisco California Woodpeckers Turkey 246

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2021

But he is a biologist whose specialty is botany, and he requested my help rounding out the list of 80 bird species he had already seen along the river. We saw 50 species in around five hours, which is a solid number for a summer outing. Species totals can climb by about 50% in the winter, when we receive many migratory birds.).

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Protection Guatemala Mexico Woodpeckers 279