Strickland's Woodpecker

This handsome woodpecker is a male Strickland's Woodpecker, a shy and little studied Mexican endemic found only in a small part of the central volcanic belt of Mexico, where it occurs in open pine woodland above 2500 masl (Howell & Webb 1995).

Between 1983 and 2000, the AOU considered this and Arizona Woodpecker to be one species, the Strickland's Woodpecker. Arizona Woodpecker reaches down south through Mexico's central volcanic belt, and is replaced by Strickland's Woodpecker in central Mexico, where it has a very small, east-west range.

I found this bird yesterday on the slopes of the Cofre de Perote, a 4250 m peak near the border with Puebla. The high elevation makes for a completely different habitat and bird community, with many species common here that are not found in the coastal plain. Some familiar 'temperate zone' species become mountain dwellers here in Mexico, like for example Golden-crowned Kinglet, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Loggerhead Shrike and American Robin. Here they are found with regional highland endemics such as Red Warbler, Collared Towhee, Yellow-eyed Junco, Mexican Chickadee, Striped Sparrow, and Gray Silky-flycatcher. Early yesterday morning I took the first bus to Perote, and from there a taxi up to a small community called El Conejo ("The Rabbit"), where the forest is mostly spruce and fir going up, and pines mixed with broadleaf going down. Located at about 3000 masl, it's quite a climb and I suffered a bit of altitude sickness when I got there, a dizzy spell that lasted about 30 minutes or so. It was worth it.

Cited literature:
Howell, S.N.G. & S. Webb. 1995. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Olive-throated Parakeet

Besides Eurasian Collared-Dove, another species now seemingly much more common here in the coastal plain of central Veracruz than in previous years, is Olive-throated (Aztec) Parakeet. Noisy flocks of up to 20 individuals can be seen throughout the area. I'm pretty sure I saw them here in 2008 and 2009 also, but not regularly.

These past few days I saw them in La Mancha, in the fields around Chichicaxtle, and even in the town of Cardel.

 This Olive-sided Flycatcher, normally associated with middle and higher elevation pine-oak and evergreen forests, was a noteworthy find in the coastal dunes of La Mancha Saturday.

From rarity to dirt-common

This bird - a Eurasian Collared-Dove, of course - has steadily conquered North America ever since its first release in the mid-1970s in the Bahamas. It is still spreading rapidly, including into areas that already have a rich columbiform avifauna, like Mexico.

In central Veracruz, where I arrived yesterday for another fall season of hawk watching, this bird was still rare as recent as 2008. That fall was my first season here, and around the village of Chichicaxtle, where the Pronatura counters are housed and one of the two count sites is located, I saw it a few times in 2008. Then, in 2009, I found it to be regular in a few isolated spots.

Now, in 2011, this has become the most common dove in the area! Its three-syllable coo and its mewing display flight call is heard constantly throughout the community. That's no small feat in an area where pigeons and doves are both diverse and common.

In 1995, when Howell & Webb's Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America came out, this bird was still unknown from the region.

eBird of course documents the spread of this species wonderfully. Watch an animated distribution map that starts with the period 1900-2000, followed by 1900-2002, 1900-2004, 1900-2006, 1900-2008, and finally 1900-2011.



Image provided by eBird (www.ebird.org) and created 17 August 2011.

Evidently, there were records from Central Veracruz as early as 2002, but the species didn't 'catch on' in the area until the late 2000's. eBird's filter still thought that the 12 Eurasian Collared-Doves I reported today was an "excellent count". I expect the regional editor will soon grow used to (perhaps tired of) approving high counts of this species in central Veracruz, and will adapt the filter.

I'm here for three months and expect to be entering quite a number of Eurasian Collared-Doves this season.

A mini-pelagic

Brown Noddy

Yesterday, Roselvy and I went on a mini-pelagic of sorts, when we boarded a small, open fishing boat and ventured about 5 nautical miles out from Los Cóbanos, on the Pacific coast of El Salvador. Time and money prevented us from going much further, so we didn't see many truly pelagic birds. That said, we did pretty well on this short trip with close looks at a Brown Noddy, prolonged close looks at two immature Brown Boobies, and distant views of two other booby species. The bad news is that one of those distant boobies was too far to pin down to species, and must remain a 'large, black-and-white booby', i.e. either Masked or Nazca Booby. We sighted the bird at some distance, and pursued it, without ever getting much nearer. Our pursuit was curtailed by an approaching booby that turned out to be an adult Brown Booby.

Brown Noddy

The third booby species, close enough for identification but too far for a photo, was Blue-footed Booby.

Brown Booby

The two Brown Boobies, one first-year-old and one older immature, hung around a buoy, where they allowed reasonable close approach.

Brown Booby

Black Tern was the most numerous avian species we encountered in these inshore waters. We encountered small groups of up to 20 individuals throughout the area.

Black Tern

We also saw about 25 dolphins and 5 marine turtles out there. Once back on land, while walking back to the bus, we found a pair of Yellow-winged Caciques in a tree that also had a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl calling. This cacique reaches the southeastern edge of its range in El Salvador, and in that country is only known from this locality. 

Gray-crowned Yellowthroat

Gray-crowned Yellowthroat is a common species in agricultural areas throughout Mexico and Central America. It used to occur in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (Texas) but disappeared for unknown reasons around the end of the 19th century. Since the late 20th century, the bird has been recorded again irregularly in the Brownsville area. Population trends in Mexico and Central America are unclear, but the species may well be increasing, as it profits from land clearings for agriculture. It is often found in early successional grassy habitat and edge habitat, for example around sugar cane fields and in cow pastures.

In a group of very similar species - the yellowthroats of Central America - this bird stands out with its heavy, decurved, bi-colored bill, long tail and different behavior. Not a skulker at all, it likes to perch in the top of shrubs or trees, singing its charming, Blue Grosbeak-like song or giving its distinctive three-note call.

I recorded that call in the same field where I took this photo, through from a different individual. This was on the campus of Zamorano University, in central Honduras, east of Tegucigalpa.



The individual in the photos here, it will be noted, does not actually have a gray crown. It's probably a young male, based on the black, not slaty-gray lores that a female would have. Spring adult males (in alternate plumage) have mostly gray crowns, but in basic plumage the gray is much reduced to only the sides and forehead. On this particular bird, it appears to be completely absent.

Mexican birds have conspicuous eye arcs, much reduced or absent in Central American birds.