Bulletin 295 - Guatemala 2017 #1 - Wrens and Thrushes

I went for a second visit to Guatemala at the end of May. Once again, I used the wonderful local guide Knut Eisermann of Cayaya Birding. On this visit, we concentrated on the western highlands and Pacific lowlands along the Mexican border, as several Mexican species just make it into Guatemala here. I had a list of 10 species in particular I wanted to see and we got 9 of the 10 and saw the other, but I was not able to get a photo of the bird.

Wrens are small active brown birds. Many of the tropical rain forest species are very wary and difficult to see and photograph. However with perseverance, you can see and photograph them. On last years trip to Colombia, I got 6 new species and added 3 more on this trip. There are 86 species worldwide, all but 1 in the Americas, and I now have 31 photos.

The 5.5" Banded Wren (Thyrophilus pleurostictus) has a brown back, gray breast and extensive horizontal black barring across the belly. He perched nicely on a fence post for me.

Banded Wren

The 4" Rufous-browed Wren (Troglodytes rufociliatus) has a rufous head and throat.

Rufous-browed Wren

The last new wren for the trip is the inappropriately named 8.5" Giant Wren (Campylorhynchus chiapensis). It is no larger then our Cactus Wren (same genus) in sw USA. One sort of expects a bird with name like that to be the size of a Blue Jay or so. Anyway, from the name you can see it is a resident in Chiapas, Mexico and just crosses a couple miles into Guatemala, although many guides list it as a Mexican resident only. It responded nicely to the tape and a pair flew in. It is brown above and plain white below.

Giant Wren

The 5.5" Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) is a resident from sw Canada to Costa Rica, but this was only me third time to see this bird. It is an easy wren to see as it is usually perched in the open on a rock. This bird had a nest near by and was carrying a worm to her babies.

Rock Wren

A surprising bird for me to find was our 6.5" Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). It ranges as far south as Nicaragua. The male of course has a sky blue back and rufous throat.

Eastern Bluebird - male

It was my first time to photograph the juvenile bird which has a spotted breast typical of many thrushes.

Eastern Bluebird - juvenile

The 10" Rufous-collared Thrush (Turdus rufitorques) I had seen on the previous trip as well. The male is brown with a bright rufous collar around his neck.

Rufous-collared Thrush - male

The female is similar but duller.

Rufous-collared Thrush - female

The 7.5" Spotted Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus dryas) was a life bird. It has a black head, orange bill, yellowish underparts with olive spotting. This is a very difficult bird to see, but we walked into a woods and one was sitting in open on a post singing. Another lucky birding day for me, as we had spent an hour on the other trip and the bird never came into the open even to see it.

Spotted Nightingale-Thrush

We also saw a Black Thrush which was another lifer, but I missed the photo.

I have put the different bird families in single folders for easy perusal.

Here are the 31 wrens.

And I have 36 of the 180 worldwide thrushes.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2017 David McDonald

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