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. That’s the Kingfisher at the right; on the left was one of the area’s many European Stonechats. Gee, I hope I got this one right. Next week, we will be back to Mexico.

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Spain Mexico Europe North America 188

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 348

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2023

While our compatriots seem only to want to visit Mexico’s touristy beach cities, we would rather go anywhere else in this country. Indeed, even though I just celebrated 40 years of living in Mexico, we have never been to Cabo San Lucas, and our only experience with Cancún was going though immigration in that city’s airport.

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Birds Mexico Turkey Species 252

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Algeciras, Spain, to be specific — right around the bay from Gibraltar. It is the western European equivalent of the amazing Raptor River ( Río de Rapaces ) in Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz. A Peregrine Falcon was seen in the distance, one of the day’s few species I could also have seen in Mexico.

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Spain Birds Mexico Eagles 147

10,000 Birds

MARCH 4, 2020

And while it was to be a work (ministry) trip, I had still managed to schedule it right during the migratory peak along these two major corridors. 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. But, alas, the Novel Coronavirus did not respect my plans.

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Species Mexico Jordan Turkey 164

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2019

It’s a rush any new birder experiences: that of every species being a lifer. Once you’ve been around the birding block a few years, your appreciation for the lifer experience deepens greatly. Which is why we all eventually turn to the one way to combine old-birder experience with new-birder opportunities: travel.

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Spain Europe Sparrows Mexico 204

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. and Canada, Waxwings are clearly an irruptive species for Mexico. And, gee, I do hope I am right.

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Mexico 2020 2012 Parrots 147

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

And my decision to take this as a learning experience led to some interesting conclusions — and even some pretty cool birds. The former are supposed to fly south only to and along Mexico’s coasts, while the latter should barely reach this far south strictly along the Mexican coast for the winter. But so worth it!

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Blackbirds Shelters Ducks Mexico 235

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

(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. But I am afraid to post my photos of these with IDs, since I am never quite sure I got them right.). The Ruddy-capped Nightingale Thrush is, in my experience, the hardest of the three species to see.

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Mexico Argentina Experience Experiments 144

10,000 Birds

APRIL 27, 2022

But there are almost no ways to buy bird-friendly native plants down here in Mexico, so I’m still doing it on the cheap. My first experiments involved rooting cuttings of several of Michoacán’s dozens of Salvia species. And the rootballs are at just the right point. These days, money is not so much of an issue.

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Mexico Collecting ALA Sparrows 243

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. My friend was right. 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.

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San Francisco 2020 Experience Experiments 164

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2023

July is the month when some of Mexico’s best birders (and I don’t use that term lightly) ask me to take them to the tiny town of Paso Ancho, in the hopes of seeing the ever-so-scarce and little-studied Sinaloa Martin. This female Streak-backed Oriole is the rightful nest owner. Well, it is July again.

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Mexico Oregon Squirrels Science 155

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Yet they also bring up questions, which I’m going to talk about right now before diving into the specifics of the guides themselves. Steve Howell has spent decades of experience in the field studying the birds of Belize, Costa Rica, and especially Mexico. Why are these issues? Howell turns all that on its head.

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 227

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 6, 2024

Work brings me regularly to Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, northern Mexico. Amazingly, everyone showed up at dawn except for one person, who’d had a near-death experience with me on Colombia’s Sumapaz paramo, an acceptable excuse for a no-show. Several of my clients sponsor a project right near the parrot cliff.

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Parrots Woodpeckers Industry Fast Food 167

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Although, technically, I mostly felt your pain… for the past four months, while about a dozen beautiful migratory Wood Warblers were nowhere to be found here in central Mexico. What I feel right now is joy at their return. The elusive Colima Warbler can be found there, but that sighting is always a stroke of extraordinary luck.

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Mexico Nashville Virginia Shelters 178

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

Oddly enough, it is the Western Bluebird that bears the taxonomic name of Sialia mexicana ; but in my experience, the Eastern Bluebird ( Sialia sialia ) is much more common in most of Mexico. Right down the middle, 176 species so far, which is almost an exact average for January 24th over the past five years.

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South America Sparrows Mexico Bears 206

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2021

It is also fascinating to see how similar Old World trogons look to their New World relatives, right down to the same flamboyant color patterns. Here in the highlands of central Mexico, we can see (rather easily, as I mentioned above) two trogons: the Mountain Trogon , and the Elegant Trogon. Wikipedia has been used.).

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Mexico Indonesia North America Arizona 194

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2024

I flew into Denver from Mexico. I might have to add the Dallas airport staff to the list of things Buffon was right about. My colleague Doug wrote me an email describing the whereabouts of these “rosy finches” and my wife had to manage my excitement with horse tranquilizer… What a fantastic little birds. I can recommend it.

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Denver Colorado Ducks Mules 176

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 12, 2022

He has lots of experience with its close relative in Morelia, the endemic Spotted Wren. So, as they say here in Mexico, we got out of bed on the right side! In spite of our proximity, it spent a good while positioned as if it had eggs there. Was it practicing?

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Falcons Abandon Abandoning Abandonment 194

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2021

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. Sure, we could have turned back home right away after bagging those target rarities so quickly, but we made a half-day of it and spent a few more hours birding around the refuge.

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New York South Carolina North Carolina Massachusetts 264

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2023

.” They conclude that many non-vocalizing Empidonax flycatchers can be identified in the field, but only “when several field characters are used in combination–and after one has gained experience in looking at these characters on singing/calling and captive birds (i.e., known-identity).”**

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Los Angeles North America America Species 225

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 108

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2019

We see a closer shot of the river itself, hawks flying across the span, and then we see that brown line again, close up, a wall of brown panels filling the right side of the screen, continuing into the distance, no end in sight, while a white pick-up truck drives parallel to it at the far left of the screen.

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Advocacy Mexico United States Texas 268

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 12, 2016

But, while we are making sacrifices for the avian quest, we also experience side benefits much less trying in nature. It’s so beautiful in here, all green and beautiful. Let’s stay here for a while and not go back yet, ok?” ” “Sure son but let’s say goodbye to Pat first.”

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Birds Costa Rica Chickens Goats 159

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

Traveling north of La Paz, Mexico, the terrain starts to look very much like an old John Wayne Movie. This diversity makes for a very unique birding experience. One where you get to enjoy the many different local desert birds, right along side the birds that make the warm salt waters they home.

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Mountain Lions Mules Sheep Lions 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2016

My first experience with this bird was near the fishing village of San Evaristo, on the Sea of Cortez, 50 miles north of La Paz, Mexico. In just the right light, they seem to glow. As of a few months ago, there was a sighting of a meransi across the US/Mexico border and up into the San Diego area.

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San Diego Seattle Mexico Oregon 106

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

In this first installment, I will focus on my impressions and experiences in the highlands portion of our tour. One of these islands may have been the present day Northern Central American Highlands which includes Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of extreme southern Mexico (Chiapas). This is a fascinating area of transition.

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Honduras Costa Rica El Salvador Arizona 226

10,000 Birds

APRIL 3, 2018

Many fly through these Texas hotspots, transforming physics into magic right before our eyes! And then there’s rufous, who journeys between Mexico and Alaska twice a year. Of the 300 hummingbird species across the globe, North America only sees fewer than two dozen of them. So let’s plan that trip, shall we?

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Texas North America Alaska America 187

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2022

It stops those thousands of migrating birds flying across the Gulf of Mexico and directs them right onto the trees, fields, sanctuaries, beaches along the Bolivar Peninsula, where they hopefully find food and fresh water. I imagined walking right up to them. This was the High Island Experience, I was told. It was amazing.

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Houston Texas Sanctuary Sparrows 225

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2023

Group patterns of behavior were interpreted as reflections of normal responses to novel situations in the birds’ realm of experience with conspecifics.” ” Sounds more sophisticated, right? in biology at the University of Mexico looking at sexual selection in Golden Pheasants. Jennifer Hill acquired her Ph.D.

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Pandas Research Phoenix Science 130

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 23, 2019

In other words, eBird is effectively a complete history of my birding experiences. Birding trips to Florida , New Mexico , and Texas are obvious too. Moreover, it contributes to science (and economics ) and the price is right. A checklist from Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C. was good for 11 lifers. Our honeymoon in the U.S

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Puerto Rico Virgin Islands Michigan Washington 153

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 23, 2019

The Great Black Hawk – a species with a native range in Mexico to South America – had been spotted in this park for weeks, but not every day. The general mood was one of gratitude, and everyone passed camera lenses and binoculars back and forth to share the experience. Great Black Hawk in Portland Maine.

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Rescue Portland Squirrels Deer 133

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

The section on shooting birds in snow, for example, covers how to expose for snow (to the right), the consequences of different shutter speeds (fast shutter speed to show individual snowflakes or slow shutter speed to show streaks?), Each illustration (and, there are many) is captioned with equipment used and camera settings.

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Birds Ethics 2019 Experience 199

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2020

I was trying to find that answer for a while and it turned into a very annoying experience. Mexico 1120 15. Being a land-locked country with 1400+ species is remarkable in its own right. The first information necessary to start planning your travels is how many birds can be seen in each country. Bolivia 1433 7.

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Uganda Bolivia Ecuador Indonesia 257

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2011

Right now great flocks of wood-warblers are making their way north from the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to breed across the United States and Canada. Read about them here but also get out and experience them. You won’t regret it! ———————————————————————————————————————————————— a.

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United States South America 2011 2012 156

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2011

Right now great flocks of wood-warblers are making their way north from the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to breed across the United States and Canada. Read about them here but also get out and experience them. You won’t regret it! ———————————————————————————————————————————————— a.

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United States South America Cooking Family 190

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. Text is on the left, plates are on the right. One field guide, seven countries. The picture gets complicated.

America 214

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214