Birding Zamorano campus

male Barred Antshrike

It all started rather innocently, with just a walk around campus for a little birding. We did not bring any water, because we didn't think we would go very far. Five hours later, we were up to almost a hundred species, and were so fired up, that we went out a second time around dusk in search of a few more to get to 100, just for kicks.

Oliver, Roselvy and I went birding today on Zamorano University's campus in central Honduras, where Oliver recently started as a professor.

Zamorano is an agricultural school, not really a birding place per se. Nevertheless, it's got a lot of open space, some orchards and some ponds here and there. A decent number of birds can be found, including residents like Ruddy Crake, Crested Caracara, Nutting's Flycatcher, Yellow-billed Cacique, Grey-crowned Yellowthroat, Blue-tailed Hummingbird, Striped Cuckoo, Anhinga, Least Grebe, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Spot-breasted and Streak-backed Orioles, and Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. Also here are winter visitors like Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Solitary Sandpiper, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Magnolia and Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroat, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Least Flycatcher, Painted Bunting, Indigo Bunting, Dickcissel and Merlin.

We got a pair of Barred Antshrikes coming in on a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl imitation. Going out around dusk we added Tropical Mockingbird and Common Pauraque, but left us still two species shy of that magic number, one hundred.