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They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of SouthAmerica as their destination. The non-breeding distribution is virtually unknown, although they are suspected to winter in northern SouthAmerica (Howell and Web 1995). Very little is known about this enigmatic species.
I’ve been learning to band birds at the South Florida Bird Observatory. But hands-on bird experience has been a major gap in my knowledge to date and I’m astounded at how much more I’m discovering about birds. I hope to have another experience with ole Bucket Mouth when I’m next out at the nets.
These thirty-eight years of experience went fast but that is what happens when you have fun, right? Brazil has the largest number of endemics of SouthAmerica. Please consider using the services described in this post or any of the other posts we are sharing this February. My name is Paulo Boute. The food is fantastic.
Three similar subspecies are distributed regionally from the Caribbean to SouthAmerica and the Galápagos Islands. Paradise Island in the Bahamas is, in my experience, a perfect place to spy these pintails.
Taxa that could end up being split into one species occurring north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and one south of the isthmus. (2). A species that lives in both Costa Rica and SouthAmerica but might be two separate species. (3). One of the South American songs of Tawny-throated Leaftosser.
Podilymbus podiceps is most certainly common in my experience, able to be seen consistently across varied habitats throughout nearly all of North America and much of SouthAmerica. The Pied-billed Grebe , a most wondrous waterfowl, perfectly exemplify the distinction between common and mundane.
But my experience suggests there is a fair amount of geographical overlap between the two ranges in my area. Like the Common Yellowthroat , the Yellow Warbler breeds no further south than the central Mexican highlands. swee swee-swee-swee-sweeziweet. Its insect-like buzz reminds me most of the Grasshopper’s Sparrow’s song.
The many islands of the Caribbean Sea are as unique a place to experience the amazing potential for speciation and diversity as the more famous Galapagos and Hawaiian islands are. As a hanger-on of my wife’s family I find myself this week in Aruba, one of the ABC islands just off the coast of northern SouthAmerica.
He happily commented: “I am now well ahead of Noah’s pace, while I haven’t even started my journey through Africa and, last but not least, the most bird-rich continent of all, SouthAmerica. My Big Year is such a succession of new experiences that there is simply no time to think of other things.
They are species that breed in the US and then spend the winter in Central and SouthAmerica, eating what’s avialable–especially fruit. Nyjer (aka Thistle) for goldfinches was introduced from Nigeria–someone had to experiment with that. Grape jelly for orioles was an experiment too.
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. Unlike the Purple Martin , however, it has a bright white belly, with males showing a sharp and elegant division between the two colors.
completed the experience. The experience, as magical as it was, feels far from complete. Trips Cerro Montezuma Choco Region Colombia SouthAmerica' The illustrious 89 Butterfly ( Diaethria euclides phlogea ). Actually, that last statement was misleading. On top of Cerro Montezuma… oh, what a feeling!
Right now great flocks of wood-warblers are making their way north from the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and SouthAmerica 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.
Grant McCreary of The Birder’s Library , who shared the experience with me, probably has pretty much the same problem. Purple Gallinules live in marshes in the southeastern United States, Central America, northern SouthAmerica, and the Caribbean. What do you do with hundreds of picture of Purple Gallinules ?
The dichotomous republic of Trinidad and Tobago may be something of a cipher to anyone unfamiliar with the point where the Caribbean ends and SouthAmerica begins. Now I’ve finally spent time at Asa Wright, I understand why. I’m sure you’ll be as glad as I was.
It was eventually accepted as a separate species after genetic studies also revealed large differences (over 8%) between birds from central Panama to northern SouthAmerica and birds from western Panama north to Mexico. Check out the proposal and votes for this split at the AOS classification comittee site.
Approximately 2,300 bird species inhabit Africa, however as impressive as that sounds, much smaller SouthAmerica boasts nearly 1,000 species more. I cannot but admit that SouthAmerica is the “bird continent” but as Peter Kaestner, one of the world’s top listers, so eloquently put it, Africa is nevertheless the “birding continent”.
and Canada, and winter in Mexico, or breed in Mexico, and winter in Central and SouthAmerica. Just a week later, I had a similar experience with an Olive-sided Flycatcher. This species mostly winters in SouthAmerica, but migrates through all of Mexico, and a small population winters on Mexico’s west coast.
In this first installment, I will focus on my impressions and experiences in the highlands portion of our tour. The region is also especially rich in trogons and motmots, two decidedly tropical families with a longer evolutionary history in North America than SouthAmerica. Trips Honduran birding La Tigra motmot'
And understanding habitats in detail is essential to any birder who wants to get the most out of his experiences in the field. Page 101, chapter Habitats of the Neotropics, lovely photos of a Cougar and a Resplendent Quetzal , and a bit of a smallish map of biomes of Central and SouthAmerica.
Right now great flocks of wood-warblers are making their way north from the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and SouthAmerica 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.
They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of SouthAmerica as their destination. What an amazing experience! Like so many trips this one is more about the journey than the destination which brings us to why they have a guest post (hopefully the first of several) on 10,000 Birds.
I guess our early March time-frame is a tad on the early side for them to return from SouthAmerica, so you can imagine I was pretty stoked to see this one. There are few birds in North America that can elicit a subconscious smile in every single birder regardless of experience or skill, but this one has to be it.
They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of SouthAmerica as their destination. A bite from an army ant can really pack a punch; I speak from experience. If you are lucky, you will find an ant swarm before they find you, which is a preferable method for sure.
A wonderful Audubon magazine article on birds’ bills (“ Pecking Order “) notes that individual Great Tits in England experience a change in bill shape between summer and winter as their primary food sources shift. Odd little grassquits singing from power lines in SouthAmerica’s great cities.
These striking and inquisitive jays were perhaps the bird of the trip for me, and we took our time to soak in the experience of encountering these wonderful birds. It did not take long before we had a family group of Tufted Jays right by the side of the road (KM 216) and an uncommon Gray-collared Becard at the same spot.
Guianan Cock-of-the-rock by David Shackelford Suriname is the only Dutch-speaking country in SouthAmerica, part of the Amazonian basin and geographically one of the southernmost members of the Caribbean Community. We had a fantastic experience watching these little toucanets.
Oddly enough, it is the Western Bluebird that bears the taxonomic name of Sialia mexicana ; but in my experience, the Eastern Bluebird ( Sialia sialia ) is much more common in most of Mexico. While Michoacán doesn’t offer the spectacular tropical tanagers of Central and SouthAmerica, those we have are also very colorful.
These birds had much smaller bills and were clearly a different species: Rusty-margined Flycatcher I couldn’t even think of going birding anywhere in SouthAmerica and not see a Roadside Hawk. Lesser Kiskadee A pair of very similar looking birds flew in to confuse things even more.
But previous experience with Ejido Triquillo taught me that another species might turn up during the spring. The Olive-sided Flycatcher breeds in Canada and the western United States, and winters mostly in northern SouthAmerica. The Greater Pewee is guaranteed to turn up in our pine/oak forests here.
Perhaps just once in a decade, the UK experiences an invasion of Painted Ladies , Vanessa ( Cynthia) cardui. The Painted Lady is thought to be one of the world’s most succesful butterflies with a range covering the globe apart from Antactica and SouthAmerica. Painted Ladies are part of the Aristocrat group of butterflies.
Millions of pewees fly over and stop in Costa Rica on their way to and from SouthAmerica. In my experience, it seems to sing more during the spring months and this of course is a great help in locating this unobtrusive bird. Eastern Wood-Pewee. The original pewee is one of the migrants that passes through in large numbers.
Galápagos: A Natural History, Second Edition by John Kricher and Kevin Loughlin gives the traveling naturalist the tools needed to fully appreciate and experience the Galápagos Islands. I wish I had read this book. He’s also Professor Emeritus of Biology at Wheaton College, Massachusetts. They complement Kricher’s text.,
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. There is a third subspecies that occurs from southeastern Mexico through SouthAmerica which I have yet to see.).
It’s been my experience that for every 1 person I know who thinks a certain way, at least 12 others in my circle agree. If Starling has been to Central and SouthAmerica to watch birds, what kind of vibe has been put out by this person when they interact with the guides and hosts down there.
They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of SouthAmerica as their destination. Like so many trips this one is more about the journey than the destination which brings us to why they have a guest post (hopefully the first of several) on 10,000 Birds. But at last we were in El Triunfo!
Right now great flocks of wood-warblers are making their way north from the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and SouthAmerica 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.
The only thing that could have made the experience with Tryngites subruficollis better would have been some sunlight. Buff-breasted Sandpipers are hardy little birds, migrating yearly between their grassland wintering grounds in SouthAmerica and their tundra breeding grounds in the high Arctic.
It’s a strange experience looking up from a city street to gaze at birds native to SouthAmerica; even more ironic considering humans drove the only native parrot/parakeet species, the Carolina Parakeet , to extinction. Austin had one more life bird in store for me.
However, if out of courtesy one of the other woodpeckers switches the talk to another favorite topic, ants, the Ground Woodpecker is happy to share its experience. Piculets are a subfamily of woodpeckers – most of its 25 species live in SouthAmerica.
National Geographic’s “Digital Nomad”, Andrew Evans, is on a trans-Atlantic journey from SouthAmerica’s Cape Horn to Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Along his journey (as with most of his adventures) he stops to hang with local animals, and to share his experience in his blog.
Tamanduas are native to the forests of Mexico to SouthAmerica. Discovery Cove is an all-inclusive experience in Orlando where guests can swim with dolphins, snorkel among tropical fish and interact with animals. They use their sharp claws and 16-inch-long tongue (41 cm) to eat up to 9,000 ants in a single day.
Although some might have already reached their final wintering grounds, others like Common Nighthawk and Blackburnian Warbler would continue all the way into SouthAmerica — and it was great to see them on the Central American leg of their journey. Trips Central America cotinga Honduras Pico Bonito' Photo by James Adams.
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