Bulletin #111 – Spring Migration #6

David McDonald Photography

Friendswood Texas
May 11, 2010


Bulletin #111 – Spring Migration #6


Hello friends,


Spring migration is winding down here on the upper Texas coast. However, last Saturday was still pretty exciting.


I am going to highlight various birds that I photographed over the course of the spring that I didn’t have an opportunity to include in previous bulletins.


Here is a Yellow-throated Warbler (Dendroica dominica). It is an easy ID with gray back, black and white breast and bright yellow throat. This is another of my nemesis birds. It is a common early spring migrant, but I have not seen a single bird in the last 3 years until last Saturday.

Next is an even better photo of a male Bay-breasted Warbler (Dendroica castanea) than the one in the previous bulletin.

This is the best photo I have ever obtained of a male Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula). This well known bird has a black head and wings with white wing-bars. The rest of the body is bright orange.

The female is duller orange with just a smattering of black on the head. This bird is disheveled as she had just finished bathing.

The male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) is all blue without wing-bars.

The Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) is a brown backed flycatcher with gray throat and yellow belly. It is a long time favorite of mine as they nested in a birdhouse in our yard when I was growing up in Ontario. I still remember their harsh song and I can ID this bird by voice (one of the few bird songs I know).

Another flycatcher is the dapper Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus). It looks like he is wearing a tuxedo. The white tip on the tail confirms the ID.

Lastly, we have a non-passerine migrant, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus). It is a long-tailed slender bird with brown back, white breast and yellow lower mandible. When flying, the rufous color on the wings is visible.

Now, to identify the Quiz bird from Bulletin #108, we need look closely at the few parts of the bird that are seen. It has a thin bill, some black on the face, yellow cap and a white wing bar can be seen on the right wing. The bill suggests a warbler rather than vireo or finch. There are only 2 species (golden-winged and chestnut-sided) that have yellow caps. Both can have black on the face, but the golden-winged has bright wide gold wing patches, while the chestnut-sided has white wing-bars. This bird however, has no chestnut bands along the flanks. But if you look at the first winter female in Sibley, she lacks these chestnut stripes. So, our bird is a first winter female Chestnut-sided Warbler. Thank you to those who responded to the Quiz. Almost everyone, who answered, got the correct ID – congratulations.

So here is a new Quiz. This bird puzzled me at first when I saw it last weekend. Please email me with your answers.

I will be leading a 9 day bird photography tour to Costa Rica in conjunction with Lillian Scott-Baer of Baer Travel March 3-11, 2011. We have worked out an itinerary to visit La Selva Preserve, Savegre Mountain Hotel in the central mountains for Resplendant Quetzal and other montane species and Wilson Botanical Gardens (Las Cruces). We have also retained the services of local guide Rudy Zamora to accompany us and locate and ID the birds for us to photograph. We will also have beautiful flowers and hopefully some mammals - tamanduas, monkeys etc.

I will be giving several talks in the evening on bird photography, Photoshop etc.


The price will be $1960 double to $2380 single. This includes hotels, all meals, guide, transportation in Costa Rica etc. The only other cost will be airfare and personal purchases (alcohol, souvenirs etc) . Space is limited to 10 persons to maximize our opportunity to see and photograph the birds. I have birded in Costa Rica previously. It is a wonderful country to visit and the bird life is exceptional. I hope that you can join us.


Here is the schedule of payments for the trip.


$ 25 reservation fee (not refundable)
$ 575 due April 30, 2010
$ 600 due July 30, 2010
$ 740 due January 15, 2011
Please send deposits to:


ScoBar Inc.
34 Galway Place
The Woodlands, TX 77382


Note - we will try to pair up singles and triple would be $1890 per person.


There are only 2 spaces left for this trip as of today, so please email me, if interested.


All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2010 David McDonald

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

Bulletin #94 – October birds

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood Texas
November 1, 2009

Bulletin #94 – October birds

Hello friends,

Since back from my trip to Maine, I have gotten out to bird for at least a few hours each weekend. I am preparing for a talk on Winter Birds of the Houston area to be given at Webster Presbyterian Church on Nov 10th from 7-8:00 pm. This church is just of I-45 in the NASA/Clear Lake Area. If interested in attending , please call the church office at 281-332-1251.

As I talk about a number of birding locations, I am trying to visit most of them before the talk to see what winter birds have already arrived in the area.

Brazos Bend State Park (BBSP) had several interesting birds. It is the only place in the Houston area that regularly has Least Grebes (Tachybaptus dominicus). This tropical bird has been breeding in the park for only the past decade and always in the same small pond (Creekfield Lake) across from the visitor center, so they are easily found. Currently there are 2 adults and 2 juveniles in the family group. At only 9.5 inches, this cute bird is the smallest grebe in the world and reminds me of the rubber ducks we put in children's bathtubs.

Here is an adult covered with duckweed. The yellow eye and small size are an easy ID.

Here is a juvenile. It is distinguished by the striping across the face. He is really covered with the duckweed.

Another good bird at BBSP was a Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris). This was the first appearance of this tropical bird in the park in 5 or more years. It was also my first time to see it on the upper Texas coast. For those unfamiliar with this bird, it is a member of the cuckoo family and 'ani' is often used in crossword puzzles with the clue as cuckoo. It is a thin black bird (13.5" long) with large bill. The upper mandible had horizontal grooves. Sibley describes it as appearing disheveled. This one fits the description as it appears to need its breast feathers combed to smooth them.

A migrant in the park was this winter plumaged Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria). It is browner in basic plumage than breeding plumage, but the spotted back, prominent eye-ring and yellow legs confirm the ID. It was my first encounter with this bird in this plumage

There are Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) everywhere now. This is the only winter resident flycatcher except for an occasional vagrant or straggler. They bob their tails and call incessantly, so are easy to confirm the ID. They have no eye-ring and no wing bars and have a dark head.

A problem for many birders and especially novices, is fall plumaged warblers. If you look at Peterson's Eastern Birds field guide, he has a page called 'confusing fall warblers'. He coined that term, and everyone seems to have picked up on it and many birders fell intimidated by it. I know I was initially.

However, when I got the Peterson's Advanced Birding field guide written by Ken Kaufman, it gave me hope that I would be able to ID warblers in fall migration. In it, he states that the warblers all molt just before heading south in fall migration, so have fresh plumages. But more importantly, many adult warblers look exactly the same as in spring. So that leaves just the juveniles that may look drab, but they mostly have a few of the adult ID marks to help sort out the ID problem.

So, here are some fall warblers I found at LaFitte's Cove (#68 on UTC Birding Trail) on west Galveston Island. Here is a Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens). It is an easy ID as the yellow face, green back and some black on the throat are same as in the spring.

This Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) looks just the same as in the spring - bright yellow, bluish wings with white stripes and the black line eye-line to the beak. It isn't an ID problem.

Palm Warblers (Dendroica palmarum) are duller in the fall, but they still have yellow rumps and yellow undertail coverts. They have a bit of a brown cap with white eye-stripe on their head. They also bob their tails unlike most other warblers. Here are 2 different birds, one much paler than the other(may be light differences as well).

Here is the Tennessee Warbler (Vermivora peregrina). They are among the plainest warblers even in breeding plumage with gray heads, pale eye-stripe and greenish backs. In the fall, the adults look almost completely green on their head and back, but they still have the pale eye-stripe. Also, notice the bright white undertail coverts. This is another important ID mark.

I was fortunate to have an expert birder with me yesterday when I took these 3 photos of the Tennessee Warblers, as I had not seen them in fall plumage before and probably would not have known what they were.

Here is another confusing plumaged Tennessee Warbler. It is mostly yellow, but the eye-stripe is still present. In Sibley, he calls this a 1st winter female.

Lastly, is a tiny bird that is often confused with warblers. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) is only 4" long vs almost 5" for warblers. However, they are insect eaters, so they flit through the branches and may fly-catch just like warblers. It is a very common winter resident here. It is IDed by small size, olive color with wing bars and yellowish tinge on wing feather edges, and broken eye-ring. Kinglets also have the habit of flitting their wings continuously as they move through the trees

Like many birds, they are named for their most obscure field mark. These birds only raise their red feathers when excited. Here is an old photo with the ruby crown feathers displayed.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonaldemail: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2009 David McDonaldTo have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.