« August 2022 | Main | October 2022 »
Why do all types of jays look so, well, feisty?
Here is a San Blas Jay, photographed at the Vallarta Botanical Garden (a great birding spot, and dining spot!) in March, 2014.
I overlooked this photo previously because I rarely, if ever, include bird feeders in my photos.
The food in this feeder, though, looks as colorful as the bird!
Also, it's the only decent photo I have (so far) of a San Blas Jay...
Another armchair life-bird! (see yesterday's post)
Many birders enjoy hearing about species splits, that is, when the birding-powers-that-be (the American Ornithological Society) decide to split one species into two or more. If a birder has seen that bird in the two geographical areas defined by the split, they have an "armchair life-bird," that is, a life-bird they can add to their list without leaving home!
In a similar vein, I can find life-birds just by reviewing photos from previous trips! While I don't keep an actual life-list, it's always a nice feeling to discover a species I don't remember having seen or photographed before.
Since I take more photos than I can easily review in a timely manner, I tend to focus on more artistically photographed birds, and might overlook others. Which can leave some interesting species behind!
Here is just one example, the Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo. (that's a mouthful!)
Since I photographed this bird eight years ago near Puerto Vallarta, and didn't post the photo at the time, I had forgotten ever having seen it. So, when re-viewing the birds of the trip, I was happy to come across it.
Life-bird!
Another gorgeous Orange-breasted Bunting, this time photographed on El Cumbre, near the town of Colima, Mexico, in February 2019.
There aren't many birds a flamboyant as the Orange-breasted Bunting.
Here is one photographed near the town of El Tuito, Jalisco, Mexico in March, 2014.
The Rosy Thrush-Tanager has a small range in Mexico, as well as a scattered distribution with a small range in four other Central and South American countries.
As the Birds of the World website states, "the Rosy Thrush-Tanager can be a frustratingly difficult bird to see in the dense low foliage it inhabits." The Merlin app states that the bird is "skulking and rarely seen."
I can still remember the excitement of our guide, Greg Homel, when he spotted this bird for us at Rancho Primavera, in El Tuito, Jalisco.
Photographed in March, 2014.
