Two weeks into January, most birders cannot help but have new birds on their new year list. Lucky are those, though, who have added new birds to their life list since 2017 began. New birds early in new years set an excellent tone for what is to come.

But maybe that’s just my lifer buzz talking. Corey and I just spent our first day blitzing Puerto Rico and pulled some sweet sightings. Anyone who makes the effort will likely find–and fall for–the Puerto Rican Tody, a dazzling member of a charismatic Caribbean genus. Pardon the picture above, which will look much better when we find a better wifi signal!

But our toughest won victory had to be Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo, which almost went down as heard-only until we worked our way into a highly satisfying sighting. Wish us luck with the rest!

How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.