Bulletin 220 - Best of 10 years #3 - waders, water and marsh birds

In this edition, I will look at my favorite photos of the groups that include cranes, waterfowl, herons and rails etc. Many ducks are beautiful in the breeding plumage. The first is the amazing Wood Duck. I photographed this bird in Hermann Park in downtown Houston in 2008.

Wood Duck - male

The next one is the Ruddy Duck. The male in breeding plumage is rusty red, with a black and white head, stiff black tail and blue bill. I saw this bird in Carmel California in 2007 and is the only one I have ever seen in this plumage.

Ruddy Duck - male

The next two birds were photographed in Barrow Alaska in 2010. The male King Eider has a colorful face.

King Eider - male

The Long-tailed Duck was formerly know as Oldsquaw. The breeding male here has a black head and neck with a white face. The body is brown and of course he has long spiky tail feathers.

Long-tailed Duck - male

The Nene is the state bird of Hawaii and it is a handsome goose. The easiest place to see it is on Kauai as there are no introduced mongoose. They can be seen around the resorts etc. On Hawaii and Maui, they are high up on the mountains to avoid predation by the mongoose, so are much more difficult to find.

Nene

The 52 " Whooping Crane is the tallest bird in North America. It is also one of the rarest birds in the world with a wild population less than 500 birds. In the 1941 the population fell to just 23 birds and a joint USA and Canada project was launched to save the species. They summer in northern Alberta and winter on the Texas coast. Attempts are being made to establish other flocks in Florida, Louisiana, and a migratory flock in Wisconsin that was taught to migrate to Florida using an ultralight aircraft as was pioneered in the movie 'Fly Away Home'. See the article in Wikipedia for more info on these efforts.

Whooping Crane
Aransas NWR - Texas

Herons and egrets are very common in the Houston area so we get kind of blase about seeing them, but I have selected 4 for inclusion in my favorites, 2 from my local area, and 2 from Panama.

The most difficult to find member of this family in the USA is the secretive 13" Least Bittern. Fortunately, Anahuac NWR is considered the best place in the USA to look for them. In the summer of 2008, my goal was to get a good photo of this bird. I went there Saturday and Sunday for 2 weekends in a row, but just got some mediocre photos. The next weekend, I tried again. I parked my car at the boardwalk and I guess this bird felt sorry for all my efforts as it climbed up on the reeds to eye level right in front of my car, 15 feet away.

Least Bittern - female

The Reddish Egret is a salt water bird. It occurs around the Gulf coast, and on the Pacific coast from Mexico southwards. Some of the birds are pure white however, and they are rare. Sibley says about 2-7% of the Gulf coast birds are white. None of the Pacific coast birds are. This bird was reported on Bolivar flats in July 2008, and I went the next weekend and found it. It is the only pure white morph bird I have ever seen. So how does one ID this all white bird as this species rather than some other common white heron or egret. First by the size, it is large 30" and much taller than 24" Cattle or Snowy Egrets. Also the location, along salt water. But the pink lower mandible is a clue as the Great Egret has a yellow bill. Also the shaggy plumes on the neck and chest are diagnostic for this species.

Reddish Egret - white morph

The Capped Heron is a really pretty bird with its blue skin around the eye, black cap, yellowish neck and long plumes. It is a South American bird whose range extends into Panama. We only saw this one bird, but he sat still and allowed multiple photos.

Capped Heron

The last heron is the Boat-billed Heron. This nocturnal bird uses stays hidden during the day, but the guide in Panama knew of a roosting place and we saw perhaps 20 birds, both adults and juveniles. It is similar to the common Black-crowned Night-Heron, but has the peculiar enormous bill. I think I had seen this bird only once before in Brazil.

Boat-billed Heron - adult

The rails, coots and gallinules make up a family of chicken-like marsh birds. The coots and gallinules are common and easily seen in the open. Rails, however, are secretive and in general hard to see as they stay in the reeds. My best rail photo in the USA is this Virginia Rail that I photographed in Carmel, California in 2010.

Virginia Rail

The most easily seen rail in the Central America is the 15" Gray-necked Wood-Rail. I had seen it several times before, but on the Costa Rica trip, I got my fist photo of this bird.

Gray-necked Wood-Rail

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe

Bulletin 182 - Kauai #2 - endemics and others

The endemic forest birds of Kauai are among the most endangered of any on the Hawaiian Islands. 3 or 4 species have gone extinct since 1990. Most of the rest are expected to disappear by 2020, so if one wants to see them, one needs to plan in the next few years.

Lisa, Seth and I hired local guide Jim Denny to take us to find the endemic forest birds.

The Iiwi is almost never seen in Kauai any more. The larger of the 2 native thrushes (Kamao) of Kauai went extinct after the hurricanes in the 90s hit Kauai. The smaller one (Puaiohi) may still be present in small numbers in the wild, but it is being raised in captivity. We didn't see any of these on the trip.

The Kauai Amakihi (Hemignathus kauaiensis) is the largest of the 3 species of Amakihi in Hawaii. It is yellow-green with curved bill and black mask. We just saw a couple of them.

Kauai Amakihi

The smallest (4") of all the Hawaiian honeycreepers is the Anianiau (Hemignathus parvus). I have a problem with pronouncing the names of the birds as written. It is good to go with a guide who knows how to pronounce them. This is pronounced ani-ani-ow. The male is bright yellow and the female is duller. We saw 2 or 3 of them, but managed only a couple of photos.

Anianiau

Another very rare honeycreeper the Akekee put in a brief appearance while I was photographing the Anianiau above. The guide saw it, but none of the rest of us saw the bird as we were focused on the Anianiau.

The most common of the endemics was the Kauai Elepaio (Chasiempis sclateri). We saw a number of these and had good photo opportunities as they were not concerned with our presence. The aduts are mostly gray with a brown wash on the throat, and are the plainest of the 3 species. It belongs to the Monarch Flycatcher family. The cocked up tail is the most distinguishing feature.


Kauai Elepaio - adult

The juvenile however, is a very bright red brown.

Kauai Elepaio - juvenile

And another of a bird right over my head.

Kauai Elepaio - juvenile

After struggling for more than 15 years to see a Nene (Branta sandvicensis) on Hawaii or Maui, they are all over the place on Kauai. The reason for this is there are no mongoose on the island to raid the nests. As on the other islands, they are almost all banded.

Nene

There are a number of introduced birds on Kauai as on the other islands. The new ones we saw include the Red-crested Cardinal (Paroaria coronata). The adults have a red head and crest, dark gray back and white underparts. They are native to South America.

Red-crested Cardinal - adult

The juveniles have an orange-brown head and crest.

Red-crested Cardinal - juvenile

The other was the White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus). This large (10") songbird is native to Malaysia and was introduced to Kauai in 1931. The male is black above, orange below and has a long tail.

White-rumped Shama - male

The female is gray above rather than black.



White-rumped Shama - female

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 167 - other Maui birds

One of the Hawaiian birds that has been a nemesis bird for me, is the Nene or Hawaiian Goose. The best spot to see the bird is in Haleakala National Park on the summit of the volcano. I had been to Maui previously and missed it on at least 2 occasions. Finally, on my second drive up the mountain I found it just as I was leaving.

The Nene (Branta sandvicensis) is a medium sized brown goose with black head and face and a beige neck with deep dark furrows giving a striped appearance. They are endangered but captive breeding programs have enabled them to be released back into the wild. This population on the volcano in Maui has retreated to the higher elevations (6000-8500') to avoid predation from the introduced mongoose. This bird is banded as can been seen so was probably a released bird. They are often seen along the road, eating the lush green grass along the shoulder of the road. The Nene is the state bird of Hawaii.

Nene

The Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvilliana) is also known as the Koloa. They look like female Mallards, and are usually are found in pairs. I found this pair at the Kaelia Ponds. It was a lifer for me.

Hawaiian Duck

An unusual find at the Kaelia Ponds was a pair of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi). This wader from the USA and western Mexico must have been blown over in a storm. I was lucky to see such an unusual bird in Maui. Of course it is a local bird here in the Houston area.

White-faced Ibis - Kaelia Ponds Maui

As oceanic islands, Hawaii has a number of seabirds. Surprisingly, there are no gulls except an occasional North American gull that arrives in a storm. However, they do have a number of oceanic seabirds and many species nest in the chain of islands. I found a number of these birds on offshore rocks along the coast on the famous 'road to Hana'. All 3 were lifers for me.

The first was the Black Noddy (Anous minutus). The local name is Noio. Noddies are closely related to terns. This charcoal bird has a white top of head. The race on the main islands has orange legs, while the others have black legs. This species occurs rarely in the Florida Keys in the ABA area.

Black Noddy

The local race of frigatebirds is the Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor). The local name is Iwa. These long-winged slender black birds harass other seabirds to release their catch, which the frigatebird then swoops down and seizes. They are black with the male having a red throat patch. Females have white breasts and the immatures have white heads and breasts. They also have deeply forked tails. Here is a female.

Great Frigatebird - female

The last seabird I managed to photograph was a Red-footed Booby (Sula sula). This is a juvenile with some brown streaking on the body.

Red-footed Booby - immature

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gail.com

photos copyright 2012 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.