Wintering warblers

first winter female Magnolia Warbler

Yesterday morning, Oliver, Roselvy and I went out again to bird Zamorano University campus, like we did the week before. This time we explored a couple of new spots and 'ticked off' now expected species at routine spots. Thus, we got to 101 species by 10:30 AM already. A number of birds were new, obviously, and there were also a few obvious misses (like Common Tody-Flycatcher, for example).

We did especially well on warblers. Some are common winter visitors here, like Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Waterthrush  and American Redstart. Others appear to be scarcer in the Yegüare Valley, where Zamorano is located, like MacGillivray's Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Ovenbird, Lousiana Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, and Tennessee Warbler (these last three more common in the surrounding pine-oak forests). Gray-crowned Yellowthroat is resident here.

New birds on our campus list included Bare-throated Tiger-heron; Green Heron; Blue-winged Teal; Crested Bobwhite; Belted, Amazon and Green Kingfishers; Tropical Pewee; Blue-headed Vireo; Masked Tityra; Grasshopper Sparrow; and a few of the warblers mentioned above.