Bulletin 316 - Guatemala 2018 #2 - Thrushes, Tanagers, Warblers

I went for a third visit to Guatemala in May. Once again, I used the wonderful local guide Knut Eisermann of Cayaya Birding. On this visit, we went to new locations to get different species.

Thrushes are one of my favorite family of songbirds as many are amazing singers and some are colorful. Growing up in Canada, it was always a treat to see the first American Robins as they announce spring.

On this trip I picked up the last 3 thrushes to be found in Guatemala. The 6" Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus mexicanus). It is a brown backed bird with black head and red bill, eye ring and legs.

Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush

The 9" male Black Thrush (Turdus infuscatus) is a plump black bird with yellow bill and orange legs.

Black Thrush - male

The female is brownish.

Black Thrush - female

The solitaires are generally the most difficult of the thrushes to see and photo. However I lucked in with this 8" Slate-colored Solitaire (Myadestes unicolor) as he sat and sang incessantly. he is an easy ID as he is uniformly gray with a broken white eye ring.

Slate-colored Solitaire

I got 2 amazing tanagers on the trip. The first is the beautiful 7" Gray-headed Tanager (Eucometis penicillata). This is a yellow bird with all gray head. This bird follows army ant swarms and unless you have some ants, you will never see it. I saw it first in Costa Rica but did not get a photo. This time he hung around the ants and I got him!

Gray-headed Tanager

The 8" male Black-throated Shrike-Tanager (Lanio aurantius) is a black and yellow bird similar to our orioles. I did not see a female, but she is brownish.

Black-throated Shrike-Tanager - male

The saltators, which were in the cardinal family, have been moved to the tanager family. The 9" Grayish Saltator (Saltator coerulescens) is gray overall with a white eye strip and throat, and rufous belly and undertail.

Grayish Saltator

There were also a couple of warblers for the trip. The 4.5" Crescent-chested Warbler (Oreothlypis superciliosa) is gray with greenish back, yellow underparts, dark red chest spot and gray head with white eye stripe. This is my best photo of this bird.

Crescent-chested Warbler

This was my most difficult warbler ever to photograph.On my trip last year, we spent an entire day from dawn to dusk trying to photograph this species. Despite seeing several of them, none would sit still in the open long enough for me to get a pic. My guide Knut knew how frustrated I was and he told me he found a new location where the birds were a little more cooperative. Bingo success. Here is the 6" Fan-tailed Warbler (Basileuterus lachrymosus), If his Latin species name means tears, then he is well named.

Fan-tailed Warbler

And another photo, I was so excited to finally take this one off my bucket list.

Fan-tailed Warbler

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

I have photos of 42 of the 167 species of thrushes

I have photos of 103 of the 384 species of tanagers

I have photos of 74 of the 120 species of new world warblers

Happy birding and photography,


David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

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