White-tailed Kite

Scientific Name: Elanus leucurus

Population Estimate: 500K-5M

Range / Habitat: Found year-round on open grassland and pastures of California, Mexico, Central America and parts of South America.

Field Notes: Medium-sized hawk with white head, breast and tail with black shoulders, prominent when perched and in flight. Hovers over open land.

Personal Notes:

Ringed Kingfisher

Scientific Name: Megaceryle torquata

Population Estimate: 20M

Range / Habitat: Found in wooded wetlands on both slopes of Mexico through Central America and throughout all of South America.

Field Notes: Large, noisy and conspicuous blue kingfisher. Larger than Belted Kingfisher, with rufous extending to entire belly.

Personal Notes: Seen at Aquacate, Belize and again on Arenal Lake, Costa Rica.

Brown Jay

Scientific Name: Psilorhinus morio

Population Estimate: 2M

Range / Habitat: Resident on eastern slope of Mexico through the Yucatan and into Central America. Found primarily in subtropical and tropical lowland and montane moist forest but can also be seen on dry savanna.

Field Notes: Large, boisterous jay with dark brown head, bill, neck and back. Belly and undertail coverts white. Light morph shown above; there is also a dark morph with dusky belly and all brown tail. Like other jays in this region, juveniles have yellow bills and eye rings which disappear by the 2nd winter.

Personal Notes: Seen at Muyil ruins in the Yucatan and subsequently photographed at the Tikal ruins in Guatemala. Ubiquitous at Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Northern Jacana

Scientific Name: Jacana spinosa

Population Estimate: 500K-5M

Range / Habitat: Resident breeder from coastal Mexico through to Panama. Occasionally found in southwestern US. Also resident on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispanola. Found in wetland habitat.

Field Notes: Medium-sized wader with extremely long legs and toes for walking on top of floating vegetation. Adult plumage unmistakable as above. Juvenile with white underparts, brown back, white supercilium

Personal Notes: Seen mating in Costa Rica on a posh golf resort that DEFINITELY would not have approved of such actions in public.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Scientific Name: Galbula ruficauda

Population Estimate: 500K-5M

Range / Habitat: Resident of southeast Mexico through Central America. Into South America as far as southern Brazil. Preferred habitat is subtropical and tropical lowland moist forest.

Field Notes: Jacamars are elegant birds with long bills and tails. This is the only jacamar in Mexico / Central America and so unmistakable in this range. Can be quite noisy. As with other jacamars, nests in holes in the ground.

Personal Notes: Seen several times (along with several howler monkeys) in a central Belize lowland forest with a lot of blowdown from hurricane Richard and, sadly, a fair amount of illegal logging. We saw this species a second time in Arenal Hanging Gardens, a female seen sitting on a nest at the end of a long hole in the ground.

Jabiru

Scientific Name: Jabiru mycteria

Population Estimate: 10K-25K, but Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Locally common in parts of the Yucatan, Belize, Guatemala. Resident down through South America with largest populations in Brazil and Paraguay. Prefers wetlands and seasonally flooded grasslands.

Field Notes: The largest flying bird in the Americas, males can stand 1.5m. Unmistakable.

Personal Notes: We were fortunate to witness this breeding pair constructing a nest at Aquacate in Belize. There had not been been a breeding pair at this site for several years.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Scientific Name: Amazilia tzacatl

Population Estimate: 500K-5M

Range / Habitat: Resident in southeast Mexico through Central America into northern South America. Habitat is subtropical and tropical lowland moist forest.

Field Notes: Rufous tail is a distinguishing feature with great head and back, white belly. Buff-bellied Hummingbird actually rufous on belly. Cinnamon Hummingbird rufous belly to chin.

Personal Notes: Seen at Chaa Creek Reserve, Belize.

Red-legged Honeycreeper

Scientific Name: Cyanerpes cyaneus

Population Estimate: 5M-50M

Range / Habitat: Resident in low altitude forest edge and plantations in southern Mexico and Central America.

Field Notes: Small size for a tanager, slight decurved bill, yellow underneath, black eyestripe with white eyebrow. Male striking bright blue and black with bright red legs. Female with dark legs. Compared to other honeycreepers in this area, Green Honeycreeper lacks striping on chest. Similar to Shining Honeycreeper but in the absence of seeing the distinguishing red legs, the lower elevation makes this most likely a Red-legged Honeycreeper.

Personal Notes: Seen on the way to Tikal from Belize. Also seen in Muyil in the Yucatan Peninsula and again in costal CR.

Roadside Hawk

Scientific Name: Buteo magnirostris

Population Estimate: 500K-5M

Range / Habitat: Common resident throughout Mexico, Central America and most of South America. Preferred habitat is lowland moist forest but adapted to urban settings as well.

Field Notes: Medium-sized hawk with relatively long tail and short primaries. Head grey and relatively unmarked in adult. Eye, cere, and legs yellow. Belly barred rufous. Differentiated from Grey Hawk by rufous belly and yellow eye.

Personal Notes:

Crested Guan

Scientific Name: Penelope purpurascens

Range / Habitat: Year-round resident of both slopes of Mexico into Central America. Habitat is tropical lowland moist forest.

Field Notes: Large, fowl-like bird with long tail. Dark brown with white streaking, red eye and wattle, grey-blue mask and bill. Differentiated by Highland Guan primarily by habitat.

Personal Notes: Seen at the Tikal ruins in Guatemala.

Common Ground Dove

Scientific Name: Columbina passerina

Population Estimate: 2M

Range / Habitat: Year-round resident in southern US, Mexico, Central American and into northern South America. Resident on Caribbean islands as well. Prefers tropical lowland dry shrub and savanna.

Field Notes: Small ground dove greyish-brown throughout, scaly chest, violet wing spots. White corners on tail and rufous patch in wing visible in flight. Plain-breasted Ground-dove lacks scaling on chest and orange bill. Ruddy Ground-dove with more rufous in male, though female can be difficult to distinguish. Inca Dove larger with longer tail and more extensive scaling.

Personal Notes:

Plain-breasted Ground Dove

Scientific Name: Columbina minuta

Population Estimate: 5M - 50M

Range / Habitat: Resident of southern Mexico through Central America and into South America, excluding Argentina and Chile. Prefers tropical lowland dry shrub and savanna.

Field Notes: Small ground dove with plain coloring. Lacks orange bill and scaly chest of the Common Ground-dove. Lacks the rufous coloring of the Ruddy Ground-dove.

Personal Notes:

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scientific Name: Tyrannus forficatus

Population Estimate: 8M

Range / Habitat: Breeds in the southwestern US and into northeastern Mexico. Forms large premigratory roosts in late summer, with up to 1,000 birds in one flock. Winters in southern Mexico through Central America. Found on dry savanna, grassland, and moist shrubland.

Field Notes: Tyrant flycatcher, grey above and white below with salmon belly. Markedly long forked tail. Winter sympatric with Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Mexico and Central America, which has a black cap and a relatively longer tail.

Personal Notes: Seen on the Mennonite farmland in central Belize.

Fork-tailed Flycatcher

Scientific Name: Tyrannus savana

Population Estimate: 5M-50M

Range / Habitat: Breeds from central Mexico through central Argentina. Known to wander wildly, with sightings in the eastern United States up to Canada. Found on dry savanna and moist shrubland.

Field Notes: Tyrant flycatcher, grey above, white below with black cap and exceptionally long forked tail. Tail longest in males, shorter in females, and shortest in juveniles. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, with whom it overlaps in southern Mexico and Central America in winter, lacks the black cap and has a relatively shorter tail.

Personal Notes: Seen on Mennonite farmland in central Belize.

Scrub Euphonia

Scientific Name: Euphonia affinis

Population Estimate: 500K-5M

Range / Habitat: Both coasts of southern Mexico, the Yucatan, into Central America. Habitat is lowland forest edge and scrub.

Field Notes: Typical euphonia: short and stubby with a prominent forehead spot. This bird frequently associates with Yellow-throated Euphonia, which has a yellow, not black, throat. The sympatric White-vented Euphonia has the black throat but a white vent.

Personal Notes: Seen at Chaa Creek Resort in Belize

Olive-backed Euphonia

Scientific Name: Euphonia gouldi

Population Estimate: 50K-500K

Range / Habitat: Resident from SE Mexico through Central America. Prefers moist lowland forest.

Field Notes: Small, stubby passerine with characteristic forehead spot of the euphonia (not readily seen in the above photos). Distinctive plumage for euphonias: olive-grey throughout, males with yellow forehead and rust belly and vent (bottom photo). Female with rust forehead and vent only (top photo).

Personal Notes: Seen at Tikal in Guatemala.

White-tipped Dove

Scientific Name: Leptotila verreauxi

Population Estimate: 20M

Range / Habitat: Resident of Mexico, though Central America, into much of South America. Prefers lowland scrub and dry forest.

Field Notes: Typical of the genus, has yellow eyes, black bill, and red legs. Tail feathers are white-tipped, which can typically be seen only in flight (or, as in the photo above, you get a view from underneath).

Personal Notes: Seen at Chaa Creek Resort, Belize, then again in Monteverde, Costa Rica

Great Curassow

Scientific Name: Crax rubra

Range / Habitat: Fragmented distribution in lowland rainforest throughout southern Mexico, Central America, and into northern South America.

Field Notes: Large, fowl-type bird, most commonly seen on the ground. Male all black. Female black and brown. Curly crown feathers in both sexes unmistakable.

Personal Notes: As is evident from the blurry photo above, we caught a fleeting glimpse of a group of these birds while leaving Tikal in Guatemala.

Plain Chachalaca

Scientific Name: Ortalis vetula

Range / Habitat: Resident throughout eastern coast of Mexico, Yucatan, and into Central America. Favors lowland shrub and forest. 

Field Notes: Large, noisy fowl-like bird often found in trees. Overall brown with long, broad tail. Face is grey and red gular stripe sometimes apparent. Grey-headed Chachalaca with bright rufous primaries. 

Personal Notes: A surprisingly shy bird for its size and the amount of noise it makes.

Black Catbird

Scientific Name: Melanoptila glabrirostris

Population Estimate: 20K to 50K, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: From Yucatan peninsula in Mexico to Belize and Guatemala. Fairly common resident Cozumel Island and Ambergris Caye, Belize. Found in lowland shrub areas.

Field Notes: Secretive bird, all black with blue sheen. Black eye. Smaller bill than other all-black birds in the same distribution. Grey Catbird can overlap in winter but dark grey with black cap, rufous vent and distinctive call.

Personal Notes: The population in Ambergris and Calker Cayes have some white, which we observed on the wing tips of one bird. We subsequently saw this bird on the El Rey ruins in Cancun, Mexico, where it was delightfully common despite its Near Threatened status. 

Common Black Hawk

Scientific Name: Buteogallus anthracinus

Population Estimate: 2M

Range / Habitat: From southwestern US through Mexico and Central America. Some of the Carribean Islands as well. Common coastal bird, found in mangrove swamps, estuaries, and adjacent forests.

Field Notes: Adult all black above and below with one broad white band in tail and yellow cere and lores. Juvenile with streaked white breast, dark back, several thin white bands in tail. Differentiated from Great Black Hawk by habitat, shorter tail, malar stripe (in juvenile).

Personal Notes: We have only ever seen a juvenile hawk, first on Ambergris Caye, Belize and then on the El Rey archeological ruins in Cancun, Mexico. 

Rose-throated Becard

Scientific Name: Pachyramphus aglaiae

Population Estimate: 2M

Range / Habitat: Resident throughout Mexico and Central America in lowland forest.

Field Notes: Small, active passerines. Male (above) and female (below) are distinct from one another and distinctive from other species. Male with black head, back and wings, light grey breast, rose-colored throat. Female with black cap, brown wings and back, yellow breast.

Personal Notes: Identified by our guide in San Blas, Mexico. We had subsequent opportunity to see both male and female at Chaa Creek resort in Belize.

Bright-rumped Attila

Scientific Name: Attila spadiceus

Population Estimate: 500K to 5M

Range / Habitat: Resident species throughout Mexico, Central and northern South America. Prefers lowland forest.

Field Notes: Large, bulky flycatcher with large head, prominent whiskers and hooked bill. Droopy tail while perched with prominent yellow rump.

Personal Notes: Seen at Tikal Mayan ruins in Guatemala.

Collared Aracari

Scientific Name: Pteroglossus torquatus

Population Estimate: 500K to 5M

Range / Habitat: Resident throughout Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, primarily in lowland forest.

Field Notes: Unmistakable in range, as above.

Personal Notes: We were fortunate to see many of these birds at Chaa Creek resort in the jungle of Belize. They were feasting on palm fruits which happened to be ripe the week we were there. We saw them again at Nayara Hotel at Arenal, where they were much more retiring.

Red-throated Ant Tanager

Scientific Name: Habia fuscicauda

Population Estimate: 500K to 5M

Range / Habitat: Resident species in Mexico and Central America. Found in lowland forest and shrub.

Field Notes: Darker lores and wings than male Summer Tanager and Hepatic Tanager. Also differentiated by all black bill. From Red-crowned Ant-tanager by lighter throat and distribution.

Personal Notes: Seen at Chaa Creek resort in Belize.