Western Tanager

Scientific Name: Piranga ludoviciana

Population Estimate: 8.9M

Range / Habitat: Summers in montane forest of western US and Canada. Winters throughout Mexico exclusive of Yucatan.

Field Notes: Breeding male (top photo) with red head, yellow belly and rump. Otherwise black with two yellow wing bars. Female or juvenile (bottom photo) drab olive yellow on head, rump, belly. Still with black back and two yellow wing bars.

Personal Notes: We first spotted the female outside our friend Patrick's window in Puerto Vallarta. We then spotted a male in classic plumage in the courtyard of the Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake City, UT. The top photo was taken en route to Rainbow Lake in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Montana. The light was so bright that morning, the camera had a hard time with the color!

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.

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:

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Scientific Name: Stelgidopteryx serripennis

Population Estimate: 15M

Range / Habitat: Summers in the entire US. Can winter in parts along the Gulf Coast but primarily found in the Yucatan and Central America. Favors inland wetlands including rivers and streams. 

Field Notes: Somewhat dull plumage for a swallow -- brown above and white below. It is similar to a Sand Martin but without the brown band across the chest.

Personal Notes: As our birding skills have increased we have been able to identify this bird on our own. We required a guide the first few times in San Blas, Mexico and Salt Lake City. By the time we saw this bird in Minnesota, it was an old friend.

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

Scientific Name: Polioptila caerulea

Population Estimate: 57M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Their breeding habitat includes open deciduous woods and shrublands in southern Ontario, the eastern and southwestern United States, and Mexico. Among gnatcatcher species, this is in the only one to breed in eastern North America.

Field Notes: Tiny, long-tailed all grey bird, with belly lighter than back. May overlap with Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. May also be confused with Plumbeous Vireo, who has incomplete and thick eye ring, stouter bill, shorter tail, and white wing bars. The Grey Vireo is much less common with limited range, and typical vireo size, stance, weak wing bar, and faint "spectacle" spot in front of eye.

Personal Notes: When we first saw this bird in San Blas, Mexico we thought it looked like a "mini mockingbird." I still think it does.

Western Wood-Pewee

Scientific Name: Contopus Sordidulus

Population Estimate: 10M

Range / Habitat: Summers in western North America, from Alaska to Mexico. Winters in small area of northwestern South America. Habitat is open forests and riparian areas.

Field Notes: Medium-sized flycatcher, olive above, buff below. Faint white wing bars, no eye ring (to distinguish it from the Empidonax flycatchers who have distinctive wing bars and eye rings). Distinguished by voice alone from Eastern Wood-Pewee, though the ranges only overlap appreciably in winter. This species is know for returning to the same perch over and over while hawking. It does not wag its tail while perched, distinguishing it from Phoebe species.

Personal Notes: First identified by guide in San Blas, Mexico, but later seen across the Western US.

Common Tern

Scientific Name: Sterna hirundo

Population Estimate: 1.6M - 4.6M

Range: Breeds inland across the northern US and Canada. Winters along the coast in Mexico, Central America, and into northern South America.

Field Notes: Medium-sized, black-capped tern. Non-breeding plumage as above. Breeding plumage with orange bill and uniform black cap. Forster's Tern with black eye / ear mask in winter, and by brighter orange bill and legs in breeding plumage.

Personal Notes: We found this petite tern among the large gulls along the downtown beach in Puerto Vallarta.

Willet

Scientific Name: Catoptrophorus semipalmatus

Population Estimate: 250K, Least Concern status

Range: Summers in the interior western US. Winters along along the ocean and found from the mid-Atlantic and Pacific Northwest US down through northern South America.

Field Notes: Large, stocky sandpiper. Striking black and white wing pattern in flight. Otherwise nondescript.

Personal Notes: It was a treat seeing theses birds in the tree tops in Rhode Island.

Neotropic Cormorant

Scientific Name: Phalacrocorax brasilianus

Population Estimate: 2M

Range: Year-round throughout Mexico, Central and South America.

Field Notes: Like most cormorants, all black bird with hooked bill with a dull yellow on the base and throat. Eye is blue. Only a small overlap in range with the Double-crested Cormorant and in comparison the Neotropic Cormorant is smaller with relatively longer tail.

Personal Notes: We loved the bottom photo of the cormorant scratching his head!