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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Bulletin #223 - Best of 10 years #4 - Flycatchers and Thrushes

The Tyrannidae family (Tyrant Flycatchers) of the New World is the largest family of birds with some 430 species. Although many are rather plain brown or olive, a few are quite beautiful.

The beautiful Scissor-tailed Flycatcher occurs on grasslands from Kansas to Texas. This male has a pearly gray head and body, salmon underwing and exceptionally long tail feathers. I photographed this bird on the coast during spring migration.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - male

The male Vermilion Flycatcher of the USA southwest is another amazing bird. He has a brown back and wings with red head and underparts and a brown stripe through the eye.

Vermilion Flycatcher - male

This third flycatcher is the cute little Black Phoebe. It is a resident from west Texas to California. It likes to be near water. I photographed this on a rock by the Pacific in Monterey California. He let me walk right up to him and take his photo.

Black Phoebe

The Great Crested Flycatcher has been a life long favorite. It is a resident of eastern North America. We had a pair of them nesting in a bird house for many years when I was growing up in Canada. Flycatchers will eat fruit at times and I photographed this one at High Island during spring migration with a bright red mulberry in his mouth. He is typical of the myiarchus genus with brown back, gray breast and yellow belly. I framed a photo of this and put it in my office and some people noticed a whole parade of bugs walking on the underside of the branch. I hadn't seen the bugs!

Great Crested Flycatcher

The thrushes are a worldwide family of 180 species. They are familiar to everyone in North America as the American Robin and bluebirds are thrushes. Many thrushes are beautiful singers.

The Varied Thrush is a bird of the mountains from northern California to Alaska. I have only seen it twice and I was lucky to get this male on the ground in Alaska. It resembles a robin, but has a stripe across the chest and wing bars.

Varied Thrush - male

The Omao is the thrush on the Big Island of Hawaii. As I talked about in bulletins of Hawaii birds, extinctions have been rampant in the Hawaiian Islands. There were 4 thrushes, but 2 have gone extinct in last 30 years and a third one is critically endangered and being raised in captivity to save it. The Omao is the only one that can be seen.

Omao

The La Selle Thrush is an endemic to Hispaniola. It also sort of resembles an American Robin with the red breast. One has to go to the Dominican Republic to see this bird. I had one morning to see it, and was successful.

La Selle Thrush

The Bicknell's Thrush is a small thrush that is the hardest to find in North America as it nests on mountain tops in New England and New Brunswick, Canada. I had not made a trip to see it. I was pleasantly surprised when I was in Dominican Republic last November, to discover that 90% of the birds winter there. So I was able to add photos of this species.

Bicknell's Thrush

A cousin of the Bicknell's is the Hermit Thrush. I had seen this bird several times in California, but never in Texas until I found this one in my back yard, one Thanksgiving weekend. He spent the winter in my yard and I photographed him many times. Some mornings I would hear him singing his beautiful song. This was the best of hundreds of photos and was right outside my kitchen window. He had become used to me and I could approach to within 15 feet of him. This photo made it on the Houston Audubon web site as well.

Hermit Thrush

The last is the male Eastern Bluebird. In 25 years of birding in Texas, I have seen it in my yard 4-5 times. This one landed on my bird bath and stayed long enough for me to run and get the camera set up and take his photo. What a treat to have such a beautiful bird by your house.

Eastern Bluebird - male

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 #148 - local birds

I have had a few good photos of local birds over the past month.

(Click on the photo to enlarge it)

This winter has seemed to have an influx of western birds into the Houston area. There have been several Sage Thrashers, Green-tailed Towhees and Harris's Sparrows. I have only seen Harris's Sparrows (Zonotrichia querula) on 2 occasions, both times in the far west Houston area. I can never remember reports of them on Galveston Island. So I was very surprised to find this adult at LaFitte's Cove in November. This 7.5" bird is our largest sparrow. He is IDed by the black face and pink bill.

Harris's Sparrow - adult

A flock of 6-7 birds was found a short distance away. The 1st winter bird has a white throat.

Harris's Sparrow - 1st winter

Also at LaFitte's Cove was this very pale American Robin (Turdus migratorius). I suspect this is probably a first winter female.

American Robin

Another bird I had not previously seen in Galveston was the Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus). Usually one sees their bulky stick nests on transmission towers and the birds perched on wires. I was surprised to see a flock of about 20 birds on a grassy median in the road, as I drove through Galveston. I stopped and got out to take a photo, but the flock spooked and flew away. I couldn't refind them. 2 hours later as I drove back the same way, the birds were back on the ground in the same place. Fortunately, it was Sunday morning with no traffic and I just stopped the car and took some photos through the open window. This bird is IDed by the gray face and breast and bluish wings.

Monk Parakeet

Fortunately, the fall has brought us a normal amount of rain and all the usual wet areas and ponds have filled up again. I had 2 duck species at LaFitte's Cove that were unusual. The first was 2-3 female Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola). Buffleheads at 13" in length are our smallest ducks. The females are IDed by the small size, and brown head with a  horizontal white patch.

Bufflehead - female

The other was a small group of Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis). The females are brown with a white patch at the base of the bill. The bird in front shows a peak or corner at the rear of the head. This is the most reliable field mark to differentiate Lesser from Greater Scaup.

Lesser Scaup - female

For only the second time in 14 years, I had some Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) in my yard. I happened to look out and see 3 birds in the bird bath. I got my camera ready and they returned several times to drink over the next couple of hours. Unfortunately they didn't stay around, but I did see one bird again several weeks later.

Eastern Bluebird - male

Eastern Bluebird - female

Happy birding and photography,
David McDonald
davidkmcdmd@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2011 David McDonald

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