New Zealand Falcon

Swan Goose

Seen in captivity at Staglands, North Island, New Zealand.

Cape Barren Goose

Seen in captivity at Staglands, North Island New Zealand, but endemic to southern Australian and Tasmania.

Ruffed Grouse

Monk Parakeet

Red-shouldered Hawk

Zenaida Dove

Grey Kingbird

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Wilson's Plover

Bridled Quail-dove

American Oystercatcher

Mangrove Cuckoo

Green-throated Carib

Black-faced Grassquit

Antillean Crested Hummingbird

Pigeon, Scaly-naped

White-crowned Pigeon

Common Gallinule

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Smooth-billed Ani

Chimney Swift

The chittering of swifts is a most welcome sound of early summer in Minnesota. This is the view from our balcony, where we watched their amazing aerobatic displays.

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Seen, and heard, while hiking along the Ubehebe crater in Death Valley.

Lucy's Warbler

Our one thousandth bird. Seen in May 2015 in Furnace Creek, Death Valley.

Short-billed Dowitcher

Carolina Chickadee

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Fish Crow

Black Skimmer

Boat-tailed Grackle

Xantus's Hummingbird

A chance meeting with a fellow birder led us to the gardens of the Tropicana Inn in San Jose del Cabo where we saw this elusive endemic the morning prior to our departure.

Merlin

Scientific Name: Falco columbarius

Range / Habitat:

Field Notes: Striped tail.

Personal Notes: We've been looking for this bird for a while, but finally found him in the San Jose Estuary.

Black Swift

Scientific Name: Cypseloides niger

Range / Habitat: Breeds in high, rocky niches in the Caribbean and at sites near the Pacific coast of  Canada, US and Mexico. Wintering grounds unknown, but they may travel as far as South America. 

Field Notes: Large, all black, swift which may have some white fringes to underparts. 

Personal Notes: Seen in flying over Maligne Gorge in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. We later saw these marked nest sites further up the gorge. 

Franklin's Grouse

Scientific Name: Falcipennis canadensis

Range / Habitat: Year-round in boreal forests and taiga throughout Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: Medium-sized fowl with heavily barred back and breast. Breeding males nearly black, as above, females lighter brown, as below. Males with white-boardered black throat and red eye combs. Ruffed Grouse larger with a crest and no red eye comb.

Personal Notes: First seen in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. These birds were not shy, often found right on the side of the road, not moving even when we stopped to photograph them. We later found the male on route to Wapta Falls in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Scientific Name: Regulus satrapa

Range / Habitat: Preferred habitat coniferous forest, year-round in the Pacific Northwest and Northeastern US. Summers in Canada into Alaska, winters throughout much of the US.

Field Notes: Very small songbird with grey to olive-green upperparts and buff underparts. Yellow to orange crown patch with black border. White eyebrow and black eye-line. Ruby-crowned Kinglet lacks eyebrow and eye-line.

Personal Notes: Seen in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Northern Gannet

Scientific Name: Sula bassana

Range / Habitat: Breeds on offshore islands and inaccessible cliffs in large, isolated colonies in the north Atlantic, including Newfoundland, Iceland, the UK, Scandinavia, and Russia. Winters at sea in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, reaching down to 45 degrees latitude.

Field Notes: Large white waterbird with black wing-tips. Long bill and pointed tail. Head with orange-yellow tinges. Plunge-dives for food.

Personal Notes: First seen on Heimay Island in Iceland and (barely) photographed five years later on the Reykjanes Peninsula of Iceland.