10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The Durango Highway is arguably one of North America’s great birding roads due to the great variety of habitats, the spectacular mountain scenery of the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the numerous Mexican endemics one can target. There are many dusty side roads in this area, many of which offer productive birding.

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Mexico Costa Rica Arizona Birds 237

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

I truly do hope I am not tiring 10,000 Birds’ readers too much with my obsession with Michoacán’s ongoing drought, the disappearance of Lake Cuitzeo (Mexico’s 2nd largest lake, in normal years), and our own micro-endemic Black-polled Yellowthroat. But obsessed I am. A Marsh Wren was the first to greet me.

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Mexico Investigation Science Experience 246

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

It was apparently all the way back in 2012, when I was first getting back into birding after a 30 year hiatus, that I took a sad little picture, with my sad little camera, of a cute little bird that seemed to not show up anywhere at all in my field guide. My birding buddies from the forum/chat include quite a few more biologists.

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Birds Mexico California Spain 210

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2024

Last week, I failed to produce a post, because I was getting ready to spend a week in Mexico’s tropical state of Tabasco. So I was delighted when the Seminary grounds turned out to host at least 6 of these beautiful birds. We were happy to experience three birds of prey on this jaunt.

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Barn Owls Mexico Parrots ALA 246

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Birds of Belize by Steve N. Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. Dale Dyer put in years working on his paintings for Birds of Central America , both in the field and in the museum. Two books, two authors, two countries bursting with neotropical avian diversity. Why are these issues?

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2024

This is not a birding trip; we are trying to deal with many logistical life issues that have accumulated over the past several years. But will I bird? My only other experience with an Audubon Club field trip anywhere, on a cold October morning in the American Midwest, was frankly kind of a bust. Of course I will!

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San Francisco California Woodpeckers Experience 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2020

I have commented before in my posts that most of our Warblers here in central Mexico never actually warble. But my experience suggests there is a fair amount of geographical overlap between the two ranges in my area. southwest, but it is a permanent resident in western Mexico and parts of Central America.

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Mexico Honduras South America America 359

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Now, it is much easier for me to achieve first-time sightings of species in Europe than it is in Mexico, at this point of the game. This bird may be “common”, but it is also stunning. The Lesser Kestrel was another bird I may have seen before, but without proof. But this time, I could.

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Spain Mexico Europe North America 234

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

That could be because Mexico’s lowland Tierra Caliente (Hot Country) has a Very Bad Reputation. State department travel warnings, Mexico as a whole has a bad reputation. I have lived in Mexico for almost 37 years, and in Michoacán for 25 years, and yet I have never witnessed a violent crime. Is it safe to bird in Mexico?

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Mexico Colombia Africa Experience 196

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2020

North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. These birds also invite one to sites that are unique within the United States – the climate, vegetation, and landscapes all add context and heighten the experience of seeing one’s first Elegant Trogon or Painted Bunting.

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America Arizona North America United States 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Cedar Waxwings have come back to central Mexico. But in 2020 I personally saw thousands of Waxwings in a dozen or so sites, and every one of my birder friends across the country had a similar experience. Certain kinds of birds, such as finches and Snowy Owls , may go for years without travelling outside of their normal ranges.

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Mexico 2020 2012 Parrots 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Perhaps those people have never had to personally experience increasingly erratic climate patterns. And now, in my long-term home of Michoacán, Mexico, we have experienced a one-year drought unlike anything I have seen in my 30 years here. So when there is no Lake Cuitzeo on which to winter, where do all these birds go?

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Ducks Mexico California Fish 130

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

So I am writing these words on Tuesday night in my home in Mexico, rather than waking up in Paris prior to flying to Istanbul. My one sighting of the little-known Sinaloa Martin outside of summer had occurred on a 29th of February, and I hoped to repeat that experience. Three years of my experience shows that they most certainly do. (On

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Species Mexico Jordan Turkey 192

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 23, 2022

I was wishing I had a birding buddy with me as a mixed flock overwhelmed my abilities. Suddenly, a large bird, which seemed to have a bright yellow breast and black head, flew overhead to a point behind multiple branches. And then the bird was gone. There are many reasons to take bird photos. They may even fear you.

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Mexico Guatemala South America United States 240

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

We all have them: families of birds that are maddeningly similar, forever leaving nagging doubts about our identifications. Someday I will get up the nerve to write about the ten, yes, TEN Empidonax species I believe I have seen in my little corner of Mexico. New World Warblers in non-reproductive plumage. But you will not see it.

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Mexico Argentina Experience Experiments 172

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2021

Perhaps the most iconic birds for me here are the Steller’s Jays that immediately greeted me the very first time I first reached the park. They were a fairly common species from my childhood in California, but I had not expected them to turn up in central Mexico. I could swear it was following me.

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Mexico California Species Groups 200

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2020

Back in 2013, as I was gradually getting back into birding, I found myself trying to ID a tiny bird that had visited my garden. (It Adorable birds, but that’s another story.) Last week, I went birding with Jonathan, one of my chat friends. This Chat winters along the coast of Mexico and throughout Central America.

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Mexico United States 2019 America 286

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2020

And I love making my little garden (some 1400 square feet) more attractive to birds. But I would never have imagined how important it would be to my emotional well-being to have a bird-friendly garden during lockdown. In recent years, I have moved much more in the direction of plants that attract birds.

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Birds Woodpeckers Madagascar Nashville 180

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2024

Work brings me regularly to Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, northern Mexico. And if you like birding, it’s a good place to spend time before or after meetings and explore. And if you like birding, it’s a good place to spend time before or after meetings and explore. It was David’s first time birding.

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Parrots Woodpeckers Industry Fast Food 212

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2019

And yet, the non-birder’s eyes started glazing over at the mere mention of the bird’s call. Rather, I am speaking of what a certain group of birds must experience every day. Of course, birds that are rare, new, or especially beautiful are beloved by most birders.

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Mexico Horses Species Groups 166

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

They also remind me why I love birding in Michoacán. I would love to know how the order spread across these regions, since that spread must have involved either crossing oceans or the frigid regions that these birds avoid. Both are large, stocky birds, with a large head and long, squared-off tail. Those are good numbers.

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Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 241

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2020

If you read my last post, you will know that my last three weekly outings were not overly productive, as far as birds are concerned. But any birder can tell you that a bad day birding is better than a good day almost anywhere else. For me, that has a lot to do with all the beautiful places I get to be, while looking for birds.

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Turkey Birds Elephants Eggs 264

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

You know how you plan your regular Monday birding outing in spite of a category 2 hurricane making landfall on the coast, 135 miles away, because the rain bands are supposed to finish impacting your area at around 7:00 a.m.? And then the hurricane stalls, and the rain continues until noon, but you go birding anyway? Which I did.

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Blackbirds Shelters Ducks Mexico 263

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

I love living in central Mexico, and miss very few things about living in the U.S. Of course, I also love birding in Mexico, with its 1,000+ species, and seemingly infinite variety of habitats. Mexico, like many developing countries, has a terrible problem with habitat destruction. So how do I get my natives?

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Mexico Species Bears Experience 230

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2016

There are a lot of side benefits to birding. But, while we are making sacrifices for the avian quest, we also experience side benefits much less trying in nature. It was spring migration and they weren’t birding but he greeted me with open arms and a hug. He asked and I told him my name and that I was watching birds.

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Birds Costa Rica Chickens Goats 188

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2022

In any case, screech-owls are birds of the Megascops genus, small nocturnal owls found in wooded habitats from southern Alaska to northern Argentina. The Megascops from southern Costa Rica, this bird was at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. Check out the proposal and votes for this split at the AOS classification comittee site.

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Costa Rica Owls Panama Argentina 254

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2021

Last week, I took you to the La Mesa reservoir, the higher-altitude of the two thorn-forest sites on my regular birding rotation. This site is near and dear to my heart, and not only because of its birds: It is the area immediately around the auditorium of the church my wife and I pastor, Comunidad Vida (Life Community).

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Turtles Mexico Branding Sparrows 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

The full title of this exceptional book by Marie Read is Mastering Bird Photography: The Art, Craft, and Technique of Photographing Birds and Their Behavior. As a birder who photographs, rather than a bird photographer, this never occurred to me before and I find the idea intriguing.

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Birds Ethics 2019 Experience 203

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

I dipped on one of my favorite birds from this area, the Lesser Roadrunner , as well as the marvelous Sparkling-tailed Woodstar (a long-tailed hummingbird). But the day did provide me with a parade of some of Michoacán’s most colorful birds, some of them migratory, and others local specialties.

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South America Sparrows Mexico Bears 252

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In September, I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to an increasingly popular destination for birding: Honduras. Chris Lotz, the owner of the international bird tour company Birding Ecotours , invited me to join him on a familiarization trip that included several highland sites as well as Pico Bonito Lodge.

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Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 253

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2021

Last week he messaged me to ask if I could go birding with him just south of Morelia’s urban area. My new birding buddy, Ignacio Torres, knew of this area because a company had built a large partially-paved access road as part of a plan to build a housing development on a pristine, wooded hill. It was a great morning out.

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Protection Guatemala Mexico Woodpeckers 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2019

. “Where they stop and water and get some food before they continue their migration,” the voice continues, and, if you’re not a birder you could be excused from a sense of confusion–is this a film about migrant birds or migrant people? ” and then adds, “The border wall is no barrier to birds.”

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Advocacy Mexico United States Texas 268

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2021

“This beautiful and singular bird, although a constant resident in the southern extremities of the peninsula of Florida, seldom extends its journeys in an eastern direction beyond the State of North Carolina. It is rarely seen in the interior of the country at any distance from the waters of the Atlantic, or those of the Gulf of Mexico.

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New York South Carolina North Carolina Massachusetts 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2020

Last week I wrote about my first experience with a new site that a friend thought looked promising when he saw it on Google Maps. This experience of finding an entirely new, but very birdy, site is nothing unusual for me. And E-Bird only listed a couple of high-quality sites back then. My friend was right. Find some new ones!

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San Francisco 2020 Experience Experiments 169

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2015

Birders head to Costa Rica to see stunners like Resplendent Quetzal , Three-wattled Bellbird , Orange-collared Manakin , fancy hummingbirds , tanagers, and literally hundreds of other birds. This bunch of possible Costa Rican crypto birds can be grouped into four main categories: (1). Bird species that require further research.

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Costa Rica Species South America America 253

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

My area of central Mexico has a true monsoon climate. It is deeper than the saucer shown above, so I have placed a handmade, curved roof tile in the middle for birds that prefer shallower water. It seems to work well, since we can have as many as 7 or 8 birds bathing in that one little saucer.

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Nashville 2015 Mexico Turkey 213

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2018

In a little less than two weeks my family and I will be enjoying a long weekend on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Having never birded in Mexico at all I was initially concerned about identifying the myriad species that can be seen. Hopefully, I’ll do better than 85% correct when I’m in Mexico.

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Mexico Belize Honduras Science 125