Some birds from Puerto Rico

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chrish
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Some birds from Puerto Rico

Post by chrish »

Just came back from a trip to Puerto Rico. Didn't do great on birds, but got many of the endemics (it isn't hard!). Did worse on herps, of course, but that's for the other forum when I get around to it.

Started off in the dry forests of the Southwest part of the Island (Guanica area), then headed over to the rainforest region of El Yunque before spending a week on the dry/thorn forest island of Culebra (halfway between Puerto Rico and St. Thomas).

Black-faced Grassquits were a major trashbird everywhere -

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Bananquits were common, but no where near as common as the grassquits -

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Gray Kingbirds were a dime a dozen -

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and the Greater Antillean Grackle (my 5th grackle species!) were also easy to spot -

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A bird that I had seen briefly before in Bonaire and was looking forward to seeing again was the Pearly-eyed Thrasher. OK, now I've seen the damn things and heard them 24 hours a day. They were everywhere and they were noisy. I'm over this bird completely (ok, they are still kind of cool)...

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Smooth-billed Ani was also pretty common

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but PR was a land of the columbiform birds. Here's an African Collared-Dove. It is a different species than the feral Eurasian Collared Dove we have here in the US but looks very similar. This one has white undertail coverts. We saw both species.

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Common Ground Doves were....common...

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as were Zenaida Doves -

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We got some new native Columbiform birds as well -

Scaly-naped Pigeon

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and the rare Plain Pigeon. They "go-to" site to find these is in the trees surrounding a baseball field in a small town up the mountains. That's where we went and that's the only place we saw them.

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Speaking of having to go to particular spots to see an endangered bird, there is a hardware store in the southwest part of the island that has a feeding station in a narrow alley between the store and a soccer field. That is the best and most predictable place to see the endangered Yellow-shouldered Blackbird. We went, they were there as promised.

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We saw some ducks, including the lifer West Indian Whistling Duck

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White-cheeked Pintails -

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and one of my favorites, the Masked Duck (this is how you typically see Masked Ducks - just a head poking out of the weeds)

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We saw lots of flycatchers besides the Gray Kingbirds, including:

Caribbean Elaenia (with a band!) -

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Loggerhead Kingbird -

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Puerto Rican Flycatcher -

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Lesser Antillean Pewee -

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Of course there were Hummingbirds, but I only got a decent photo of one species -

Antillean Crested Hummingbird -

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This is an Antillean Mango....no, really...it was.. :oops: (we saw it much better than this)

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In the wetter areas, we saw a lot of Red-legged Thrushes

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We also saw some "Puerto Rican" birds including

Puerto Rican Tanager -

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Puerto Rican Spindalis -

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Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo -

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And two birds I had picked out of the field guide hoping we might see them...

Puerto Rican Bullfinch (stunning birds in person) -

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and the amazing Puerto Rican Tody (I had no idea these birds were so tiny!)

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PR has its share of introduced birds, of course.

"Red Junglefowl" were abundant on the island of Culebra -

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We ran into this pair of Nutmeg Mannikins at the edge of the rainforest -

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and we had hoped to see this bird, the Pin-tailed Whydah. We only saw two, in prime habitat - an overgrown empty lot next to between a Walgreen's and a Home Depot in the middle of a large city :lol: .

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Any trip where you see a tropicbird is automatically a good trip (White-tailed here) -

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and I will leave you with this photo, which may be my most important photo of the trip -

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Why is it important? Because this f&%#$# species has tormented me for 30 years of birding :x . It is, of course :lol:, the Black-whiskered Vireo. I have chased this bird in several times Texas and Florida (where they are accidental, but regular) and had others see them in the same day and place where I was looking, I spent a good 45 minutes trying to see one that was calling just in front of us when we were in Bonaire but saw nothing, and finally on this trip, on the last day of birding as we literally were getting into the car to go back to San Jose to get ready for our flight home we heard and photographed (?) this damn bird. I am so glad to never have to chase this stupid species again!

Chris
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Andy Avram
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Re: Some birds from Puerto Rico

Post by Andy Avram »

Those are really some cool birds, Chris. Loved the ducks (except Masked Duck), but those Pintails have always been a duck I would like to see, maybe one day the wife will drag me to the Caribbean and I'll see one.

You mention that Black-whiskered Vireo is accidential in Florida. I thought they were established breeders there and relatively easy to see. I am supposed to visit FL next year and that species is high on my list.
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chrish
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Re: Some birds from Puerto Rico

Post by chrish »

Andy Avram wrote:You mention that Black-whiskered Vireo is accidential in Florida. I thought they were established breeders there and relatively easy to see. I am supposed to visit FL next year and that species is high on my list.
I am actually not sure of its status in FL. It might be more regular than that. I do know that I couldn't find one there.
Matt Buckingham
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Re: Some birds from Puerto Rico

Post by Matt Buckingham »

This is awesome. That Puerto Rican Tody shot is spectacular. That's a species that is VERY high on my list. It would be worth the trip to PR even if I didn't see any other birds!!
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chrish
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Re: Some birds from Puerto Rico

Post by chrish »

Matt Buckingham wrote:This is awesome. That Puerto Rican Tody shot is spectacular. That's a species that is VERY high on my list. It would be worth the trip to PR even if I didn't see any other birds!!
They were high on my list as well. PR Todies were not only common in the forested areas, they are also stupid easy to photograph. I had always wondered why I so saw many great photos of the species. They like to land on open branches, right about face level and will sit on a branch and make their buzzy call to help you locate them. They are not shy and will sit on a branch 5 feet from you. You can take 4 or 5 shots with your flash on even and they just sit. When they fly away, they fly at face level so you can follow them and land on another equally open branch across the trail. After about 50 Tody photos I had to stop myself.
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