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I got back into birding less than a decade ago, long after moving to Mexico in 1983. This would sound attractive even to me, except for one fact: almost all of those exotic and beautiful species are common down here in central Mexico. When they go low… How about the Tyrant Flycatcher family? I love Red-faced Warblers !
But how many species can one see over a few hours in the highlands of central Mexico? I should mention, in passing, that this number of species would be considerably larger in Mexico’s tropics. There were lots of Hammond’s Flycatchers around… along with 11 other members of the Tyrant Flycatcher family.
In the mean time, a family group of Black-throated Magpie-Jays were frolicking in the breeze high over the dry valley, showing off their exorbitantly long tail streamers. 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.
Back in early March, Andrew Spencer asked me if I would like to go birding in western Mexico with him and another friend in May. Before I knew it, it was late May, and I was on the road in Colima, Mexico with Andrew Spencer and Nathan Pieplow on a birding adventure! I could not refuse. Time flew by. Photo by Nathan Pieplow.
So naturally, I got to thinking about kinglets, and their Palearctic kin, the “crests,” and where they belong in the avian family tree. The family Regulidae comprises six small, hyperactive species that range through the great boreal and temperate forests North and Middle America, North Africa, and Eurasia.
Called home to the Oregon Coast to operate the family motel, in her free time she leads Tufted Puffin walks and escapes to guide at birding festivals and explore the world as often as possible. The first we went to was a family home with generations of mezcaleros and the process being completed in their front courtyard.
Ourselves, for instance; just consider how many sweet or gritty stories you’ve seen about Olympic athletes’ family backgrounds over the last few weeks. We’re going to look at its family tree today, at where it fits in the grand avian assemblage, at what makes it at once unique yet not so alone after all. But not all.
Raptors of Mexico and Central America by William S. This is the first identification guide that I know of that covers Mexico (technically North America but rarely included in North American raptor guides) and Central America. Interestingly, Raptors of Mexico and Central America does not cover vocalization. Wheeler and William S.
Tabasco is probably the wettest state in Mexico. During Mexico’s dry season (which is just now ending), most of the country turns brown, as our plants survive the annual drought by dropping their leaves. And the final species, seen in the neighborhood in which I was housed, gave me my 500th species in Mexico. Good choice!
In autumn and winter, they descend these high ridges to avoid the worst of the high winds and blowing snow – sometimes to feeders such as Sandia Crest in New Mexico, where there is a long ongoing study on these fascinatingly tough songbirds. New Mexico Nature & Culture. Want to see rosy-finches on a Naturalist Journeys tour?:
Animal Equality in Mexico is shaping the future for farmed animals with legislative reform. With rich emotional lives and unbreakable family bonds, farmed animals deserve to be protected. Advocates are working on two levels—reshaping the food system and plant-based options nationally, while strengthening farm rules locally.
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.) They were also believed to be part of the Wood Warbler family.
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.
This elegant bird is part of a small family, unrelated to other birds called “flycatchers”, but including the Phainopepla of the American southwest. The Rusty Sparrow is a bird of Mexico and Central America that looks remarkably like the Rufous-crowned Sparrow , but is considerably larger.
So I contacted him for the exact location, which turned out to be a beautiful 14-acre property that belongs to his family, and he kindly invited me over. and Canada and winter in northeastern Mexico, while the sedentary wrens of central Mexico, Central America, and South America are now to be identified as Grass Wrens.
Cedar Waxwing: For most birders in Mexico, 2021 will be remembered as the year of the Waxwings. This is the only migratory warbler to live entirely within Mexico, breeding in the northeast and wintering in the southwest. White Ibises belong down on the coast of Mexico, which requires a 4-5 hour drive that I rarely make.
Our company is based in Guatemala but also offers tours in Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico. Whether you are traveling with your family, in a small group, or alone, our tours are customizable to suit your every need and wish. Guatemala has the most reliable places to observe the mythical Horned Guan.
And figuring out the IDs for wild plants in central Mexico on my own is difficult. As we walked up the “beautiful river” (which is what “Río Bello” means) Nacho pointed out trees from the dogwood, holly, and linden/basswood families. I should know, I’ve tried. This one had a more subtle beauty.
I even made one trip with the specific purpose of birding on Mexico’s much wetter eastern coast, visiting different sites along the very stretched-out state of Veracruz. That is because, like the skin of the gringos who visit Mexico’s beaches, the Palo de Gringo’s bark is red, and peels.
The best laid plans… Last week, I had hoped to get permission to get onto the campus of one or Morelia’s many universities, to look for a family of Wood Ducks that apparently have arrived to spend the winter in its unusual habitat of marshy forest. While some American Kestrels breed in central Mexico, most are migratory.
Down here in central Mexico, the Canyon Towhee is a constant presence in open areas, including in my garden and around our church. Earlier this month, I came across a family of Spotted Towhees (Olive-backed) with a couple of other strange aspects. The Spotted Towhee (Olive-backed) is a regular in pine-oak and pine forests.
As I mentioned last week, social distancing is widespread but still voluntary here in Mexico, so there are no limitations on being able to get out and enjoy nature. Living in central Mexico, I’m not a big fan of random encounters with passersby. This has determined which places I visit, and which I avoid.
It wasn’t a lifer — I had seen one on Mexico’s east coast several years before — but it was a big surprise to find one in Michoacán. One group that was mostly absent was the hummingbird family. So I will have to show you colorful birds from other families. It turns out they also winter in my state.
It is worth pointing out that titmice belong to the family Paridae , an expansive international clan made up primarily of what we call “chickadees” in the states but are known as “t**s” in the Old World. This bird ranges from southeastern Arizona down through interior Mexico.
Then we threw together a semi-planned family-related trip to the States in early December. I often write about Lake Cuitzeo, which is near Morelia, and is Mexico’s second-largest lake. Lake Chapala is near Guadalajara, and is Mexico’s largest lake. But my wife’s and my lives have been rather chaotic of late.
It may seem like cruel and unusual punishment for we denizens of the New World to spend an entire week celebrating what is surely the coolest family of birds in the world, a family that is sadly absent from the Old World, but it can’t be helped.
The Trogon family (and order, since the order only includes one family) is quite widespread, being found in all the tropical (and some subtropical) regions of the world. 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.
Here in central Mexico, the winter season always seems to begin with the arrival of various members of the sandpiper family. In the waning days of July, a birder friend from north-central Mexico sent out the first report of such wading birds arriving in his own wetlands. Let that be a lesson, to me. Definitely an adult.
The most common one, Manila tamarind, is wildly inaccurate, since the tree is native to southwestern Mexico, not Manila, and its only connection to tamarind trees is that both are in different subfamilies of the huge legume family. Pithecellobium dulce is a tree with many English names.
The fact that Mexico recently abandoned daylight saving time has made this problem more serious.) A family of endemic juvenile Spotted Wrens really knew how to show off their warm brown colors. And this Monday was not a spectacular birding day. In contrast, we receive many winter migrant species.)
If asked, we would answer, “We’ve come from Mexico.” But mostly, planning this trip was hugely stressful because I had to renew my passport beforehand, and it turns out that process is tremendously backed up here in Mexico. and Mexico won’t allow them to be shipped here. ” It’s not a lie.)
Wood-Wrens , birds of the family Henicorhina , are very small wrens of Central and South America that like to live very close to the ground, in dense forest underbrush or elfin forests. The only one that occurs in western Mexico, where I live, is the Gray-breasted Wood-Wren. I saw a few more Little Friends on this trip.
The male bird’s scarlet plumage and pert crest was reminiscent enough of a Roman Catholic cardinal’s colored robes to earn it, its family, and its genus the name they all share. The family Cardinalidae encompasses a plethora of New World passerines. The Northern Cardinal is literally the cardinal of cardinals.
Last week, I failed to produce a post, because I was getting ready to spend a week in Mexico’s tropical state of Tabasco. There is also a family of Barn Owls on the premises, and I have briefly seen the largest of them (enormous!) Two classic birds of Mexico’s east coast are also present. flying by at night.
inches) and Mexico’s largest hummers ( Rivoli Hummingbird and Blue-throated Mountain-Gem , 6 inches — although they can’t compete with the Andes’ Giant Hummingbird , which is 9 inches long!). 21 species is less than 6% of the total number of hummingbird species in the Americas.) It occurs nowhere else in the world.
I often find myself discussing this subject with my birder friends in other regions of Mexico, when they excitedly comment on seeing a bird that I could see any day, anywhere — or vice versa. The Groove-billed Ani is an odd-looking member of the Cuckoo family. The same could happen with U.S. birders, to an even greater degree.
The first words describing this species in Wikipedia are “poorly-documented” Before 2015, when I first saw it in Paso Ancho, it had only been reported twice on eBird outside of its Sierra Madre Occidental breeding range: once from Taxco, Mexico, and another report from Nicaragua. This fellow, however, was the real deal.
The family has representatives throughout the forests North America, Eurasia (including North Africa), and Indomalaya. They identified the populations as follows: Eastern clade; Pacific clade; Eastern Sierra Nevada clade; and Rocky Mountain, Great Basin, and Mexico clade.
Sometimes called “Poor-me-ones&# on account of their haunting calls, these bizarre denizens of the night come in 7 different flavors from the family Nyctibiidae within the order Caprimulgiformes. A Northern Potoo by Nick Athanas Northern Potoos are found from Mexico to Costa Rica and on the islands of Jamaica and Hispaniola.
I have commented before on the privilege and pain of living in a state (Michoacán, Mexico) which hosts 10 out of the 15 Empidonax Flycatchers , as well as at least 4 of the 22 Myiarchus Flycatchers. But those are not the only taxonomic families in which Michoacán has an embarassment of (difficult) riches.
Most of this travel was in Mexico, but I also visited different regions of the U.S., The third weekend of January, I travelled to the coastal city of Acapulco to give a seminar on family finances at a church there. And my one lifer for the trip was a family of Rufous-naped Wrens that apparently live in the same garden.
” 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. Birders is directed by Otilia Portillo Padua of Mexico, and was funded by a grant from the Sundance Institute. ” and then adds, “The border wall is no barrier to birds.”
Proposal 2013-A-2 would split the “Guatemalan Pygmy-Owl” ( Glaucidium cobanense ) of southern Mexico and northern Central America from the widespread Northern Pygmy-Owl ( G. Let’s take a look at some of what lurks inside: Pygmy-owl split. gnoma ) on the basis of vocal differences and a discrete range. Sandwich Tern split.
I studied music in an American college, but ended up devoting myself to church work in Mexico. While in Mexico, I made a very intentional decision to not seek any music ministry; I would only accept one if it found me through no effort of my own. People told me I had to record the songs I was composing. So that happened.
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