Black-tailed Godwit

Scientific Name: Limosa limosa

Range / Habitat: Breeds in wet grassland throughout Europe and parts of Russia. Fully migratory. Winters in sheltered estuaries and inland wetlands in parts of southern Europe, northern Africa, Asia and Australia.

Field Notes: Large, leggy shorebird with long, straight bill, orange at base and dark at tip. Breeding plumage with rufous head, neck and breast, otherwise mottled brown. Tail with with black tip. Winter plumage is uniform grey-brown above and lighter below.

Personal Notes: Striking bird seen in the marshy grasslands throughout Iceland in summer.

Painted Bunting

Scientific Name: Passerina ciris

Range / Habitat: Wooded areas in otherwise open habitat. Winters in southern Mexico, including Yucatan, Central America, some Caribbean islands, and the southern tip of Florida. Summers in northern Mexico, Texarkana, and the southeastern coast of United States.

Field Notes: Typical bunting size, shape and bill. Males are unmistakable in range with blue head and neck, rufous chest and belly, yellow and green on the back. Females, as above, are distinctly green to the back and head, yellow to the breast, pale eye ring. Other female buntings are clearly grey or brown in colour.

Personal Notes: A new species for us in El Rey ruins of Cancun, Mexico.

Cassin's Finch

Scientific Name: Carpodacus cassinii

Population Estimate: 1.9M, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in montane pine forests of the American West. Will extend slightly into Canada in summer and throughout the mountains of Mexico in winter.

Field Notes: Somewhat large and lanky for a red American finch, the bright red crown contrasts with brownish cheeks in male. Purple Finch overlaps little but stouter with shorter beak and more uniform red. House Finch with distinct brown streaks on flanks.

Personal Notes: Seen on a lovely hike to Rainbow Lake in the Absoroka-Beartooth Wilderness near Red Lodge, Montana.

Great Tinamou

Scientific Name: Tinamus major

Range / Habitat: Year-round in tropical lowland, moist, mature forest throughout southern Mexico, Central America, northern South America.

Field Notes: Medium-sized plump terrestrial bird with small head and essentially no tail. Overall brownish / grey with dark barring posteriorly. Grey legs. Distinctive call.

Personal Notes: Seen at Carara National Park, Costa Rica.

Black Guan

Scientific Name: Chamaepetes unicolor

Range / Habitat: Found in tropical montane moist forest of Costa Rica and Panama.

Field Notes: Large, all-black bird with blue facial skin, red eye, and red legs.

Personal Notes: Seen at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica. We would never have seen this bird hidden right above us without our excellent guide, Carlos.

Painted Stork

Scientific Name: Mycteria leucocephala

Population Estimate: 25K, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Wet areas in mainland southeast Asia.

Field Notes: Large white stork with long, decurved yellow bill, yellow face, pink tertial feathers. Unmistakable in range.

Personal Notes: Seen at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Ferruginous Duck

Scientific Name: Aythya nyroca

Population Estimate: 160-260K, Near Threatened

Range / Habitat: Inland freshwater lakes in Europe, mainland Asia and into northern Africa.

Field Notes: Medium-sized diving duck with chestnut head and sides, black back and white undertail and belly. Yellow eye.

Personal Notes: Seen at Minnesota Zoo.

Lesser Flamingo

Scientific Name: Phoeniconaias minor

Population Estimate: 2.2-3.2M, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Brackish areas both costal and inland in southern Africa (primarily in Great Rift Valley) and Madagascar, occasionally further north.

Field Notes: Size reportedly overlaps with Greater Flamingo, range may be distinct. Regardless, Lesser Flamingo is overall more pink with black base to bill and pink tip.

Personal Notes: Seen at Minnesota Zoo and then at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Nicobar Pigeon

Scientific Name: Caloenas nicobarica

Population Estimate: Unknown, but Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Lowland forest, shrubland, mangrove on Southeast Asian islands, but also on mainland India and nearby areas.

Field Notes: Large pigeon with dramatic plumage as above.

Personal Notes: Seen at Minnesota Zoo and Disney's Animal Kingdom

Great Argus

Scientific Name: Argusianus argus

Population Estimate: 100K

Range / Habitat: Subtropical / tropical lowland moist forest in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar

Field Notes: Unmistakable in range.

Personal Notes: Seen at Minnesota Zoo. Also known as Malay Great Argus Pheasant.

Ocellated Turkey

Scientific Name: Meleagris ocellata

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

Range / Habitat: Found in lowland moist forest of Yucatan, northern Belize, northeastern Guatemala.

Field Notes: Unmistakable. Named for the orange spots on the head. Very similar to Wild Turkey, though they do not overlap in range.

Personal Notes: Seen all over the place at Tikal, one of the few areas this near-threatened species is protected. Kristen couldn't get enough pics of these blokes!

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. 

Yellow-billed Loon

Scientific Name: Gavia adamsii

Population Estimate: 16-32K, Near Threatened

Range / Habitat: Breeds in Russia, Alaska and Canada primarily on inland freshwater lakes and ponds. Winters at sea mainly off the coasts of Norway and western Canada.

Field Notes: Typical loon shape and habits. Distinguishing feature is large, yellow, slightly upturned bill.

Personal Notes: A rare find in Fairbanks in a fairly small pond. This bird is not usually this far inland.

Emperor Goose

Scientific Name: Chen Canagica

Population Estimate: 85K

Range / Habitat: The range of the emperor goose centres on the Bering Sea in the North Pacific Ocean. It breeds in Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska and along the north-eastern coast of Russia. The majority of the population spends winter along the coasts of the Aleutian Islands, but it may also winter in Canada and the Alaskan Peninsula. Occasionally, individuals have been recorded as far south as California and Japan.

Field Notes: The emperor goose (Chen canagica) is a small, stocky goose that has dark bluish-grey plumage with black barring on the upperparts. The legs and feet of the emperor goose are yellow-orange in colour and the bill is pink. The head and hindneck are striking white, but are often stained an orange-red colour from feeding in tidal ponds where iron oxide is present in sufficient concentration. Juvenile emperor geese have a slightly duller appearance than the adults, with brown barring on the upperparts, grey mottling on the head and foreneck, a black bill and olive-brown legs.

Personal Notes: This bird seen in Tracy Aviary, Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

Sage Grouse

Scientific Name: Centrocercus Urophasianus

Population Estimate: 150k

Range / Habitat: The Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is the largest grouse in North America, where it is known as the Greater Sage-Grouse. Its range is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Field Notes: Birds in known lake areas. Adults have a long, pointed tail and legs with feathers to the toes. Adult males have a yellow patch over the eye, are grayish on top with a white breast, a dark brown throat and a black belly; two yellowish sacs on the neck are inflated during courtship display. Adult females are mottled gray-brown with a light brown throat and dark belly.

Personal Notes: We especially like the bottom three "mug shot" photos!

Chilean Flamingo

Scientific Name: Phoenicopterus Chilensis

Population Estimate: 200K

Range / Habitat: It breeds in temperate South America from Ecuador and Peru to Chile and Argentina and east to Brazil; it has been introduced into Germany and the Netherlands.

Field Notes: The plumage is pinker than the slightly larger Greater Flamingo, but less so than Caribbean Flamingo. It can be differentiated from these species by its greyish legs with pink "knees", and also by the larger amount of black on the bill (more than half). Young chicks may have no sign of pink coloring whatsoever, but instead remain grey.

Personal Notes:

Heermann's Gull

Scientific Name: Larus Heermanni

Population Estimate: 530K

Range / Habitat: Heermann’s gull breeds off the coast of Mexico and in the Gulf of California, particularly on Isla Rasa, where the population has a stronghold. Very occasionally it is seen breeding in San Francisco Bay. Non-breeders spend the breeding season at the wintering sites along the coasts of California and British Colombia.

Field Notes: The Heermann's Gull (Larus heermanni) is distinctive with a dark grey-brown back and wings, pale grey underside and rump, and white head, tips to the tail and wing feathers. The bill is bright red and sometimes tipped with black. The legs are black. Non-breeding adults have grey or brown streaks on the head and immature birds are dark brown all over, with a pale base to the red bill.

Personal Notes:

Elegant Tern

Scientific Name: Thalasseus elegans

Population Estimate: 50K - 90K, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Breeds in dense colonies on Pacific coast and offshore islands of southern US and Mexico. Winters south along Pacific coast to Peru, Ecuador and Chile

Field Notes: Medium tern with grey wings, black legs, shaggy black crest, and thin orange bill which is lighter at the tip and can appear to droop. In non-breeding adults, black cap recedes but still contiguous with eye. Royal Tern larger, darker bill, cap does not extend to eyes in non-breeding adults. Caspian Tern much larger, bright red bill with dark tip, no crest.

Personal Notes: Seen in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Sooty Shearwater

Scientific Name: Puffinus griseus

Population Estimate: 20M, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Sooty Shearwaters breed on small islands in the south Pacific and south Atlantic Oceans, mainly around New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego and also in the Auckland Islands and Phillip Island off Norfolk Island.

 

Field Notes: A large shearwater. In the Atlantic, the only one that appears uniformly dark sooty brown above and below, with silvery whitish wing linings. Bill and feet dark. This slender, narrow-winged seabird skims on stiff wings over the waves, alternately gliding and flapping.

  

Personal Notes:

 

North Island Saddleback

Scientific Name: Philesturnus rufusater

Population Estimate: Unknown, Near Threatened status

Range / Habitat: Endemic to New Zealand where found in native forest and scrub of predator-free islands and mainland sanctuaries on the North Island.

FIeld Notes: Large black birds with chestnut saddle and red waddles. Song a unique "cheet" then descending "te-te-te-te" call. No overlap with South Island Saddleback and no similar appearing or sounding birds in New Zealand.

Personal Notes: Maori name Tieke. One of our favorite birds at Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington.