GET YOURSELF TO ECUADOR

PIB has great trips to various habitat zones in Ecuador. And there’s a book you want to take with you. It’s the first-ever, one volume nature guide for anyone headed to Ecuador’s wondrous mountains and rain forest and arid western slopes:
Wildlife of Ecuador:
A Photographic Field Guide to Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, and Amphibians
Andrés Vásquez Noboa. Photography by Pablo Cervantes Daza. Princeton Press. 2017. $29.95.
I wish I’d had a book like this when I was in Ecuador…or even Panama where I got far too close to a pit viper without recognizing it. The bird section is fine but the real value is in all those other critters: face-to-face shots with snakes. It’s the head that matters…look for the heat-sensing pits. You may want to keep your birding guide nearby or back at the ecolodge because only breeding plumage shots are given for most avian species.
Now I know there are two species of agouti in Ecuador and I saw the black in Coca. Not sure even my bird guide knew there were two, certainly didn’t tell us.
Superbly clear range maps. Both English and Latin indices.
My favorite Ecuadoran bird is at the top of page 140…the Collared Inca.
ECUADOR GALLERY FROM MY VISITS:
Yellow-tufted Woodpecker:
Great Ani:Hoatzin at Sani Lodge:Squirrel monkey:
Swallow-tailed Kite over Napo River in Amazon Basin:

BIKING ACCOPANIED BY BIRDSONG

The well-known, often published birdsong expert, Dr. Donald Kroodsma and his son biked across the nation, starting on the East Coast and ending in Oregon where Kroodsma first studied ornithology in graduate school.  The resulting book is an exciting and useful introduction to birdsong, where and when and how to listen.Here’s a sample page, and publishers have now graduated from CDs to on page links to websites with all the relevant birgsongs, accessible for free:

Listening to a Continent Sing:
Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific
By Donald Kroodsma

Princeton Press.  Hardcover | 2016 | $29.95 | £22.95 | ISBN: 9780691166810
336 pp. | 6 x 9 | 125 line illus.

WHAT THE FLOCK IS HAPPENING AS WINTER APPROACHES?

ASHLAND, OREGON, US, NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, JUST ABOUT HALF-WAY FROM EQUATOR TO NORTH POLE

For some birds this is the season of togetherness. Parents and juveniles, families and cousins, unrelated birds of same species, even several species ganging together. What the flock?
Here is a small group of female Hooded Mergansers near a pair of sleepy female Bufflehead on Ashland Pond. A common winter sight that is not to be found during breeding season.

Above, Tundra Swans on Emigrant Lake (they are no longer there) showing three adults and four gray-headed juveniles. Parents and offspring? Here are Snow Geese (still at Emigrant Lake today). Two white adults, two grayish juveniles who may be their off-spring. Below, small flock of Green-winged Teal; they even fly in tight formation when they take off. Covey of California Quail. Historically these coveys included numerous family groups and would grow to the hundreds in food-rich habitats before gunners and feral cats came on the scene. Before Europeans arrived Native Americans could hunt quail with nets because the flocks were so dense.

This is a Solitaire in Harney County, OR. At the Sage Hen Rest Stop on US20 where I took this shot there were also Starlings, Cedar Waxwings, Robins, Mountain Bluebird and Varied Thrush all sharing the healthy juniper berry crop. Very mixed flock.

Above, a group of Elegant Terns loafing in Monterey after breeding season is over.
There are many working theories about why birds of a feather flock together. None are more together than some small shorebirds or Cedar Waxwings. The latter often be identified in flight at great distances simply by the cohesion of the flock. Mutual alert system? More eyes to find the food source? Safety in numbers? We should ask the birds…but maybe they have little self-awareness. Among Corvids there is “deliberate” or at least instinctive food-sharing rather than secretiveness. Again this may insure more survival for more individual birds. Fifty Ravens have a better chance of finding a fresh carcass than any single bird, then the croak goes out and the flock gathers to feed.

Certain families of birds in North America are almost always in flocks when not breeding: Acorn Woodpeckers (even putting all their eggs into one basket), Bushtits, most sparrows (except Song), finch family members from siskin to Evening Grosbeak, swallows, Robins, Icterids (blackbirds and meadowlarks), most Corvids (magpies to Crows), chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglet, pipits, starlings, swifts, Burrowing Owls, nightjars, waterfowl, shorebirds, cormorants, gulls and terns, pelicans, grebes.

Some other families of birds may join mixed species flocks but aren’t highly tolerant of their fellows from the same species: tyrant flycatchers#, nuthatches, most raptors*, hunting herons and egrets (though many nest in colonies), vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, shrikes, cuckoos, many woodpeckers, most owls.

For some interesting musing on mixed-species flocks, check out this piece by Jack Connor in Cornell’s LIVING BIRD magazine.

* There are colonial members of the falcon family that flock together: caracaras, Little Kestrel in Europe, Eleanora’s Falcon. But DNA tells us falcon have more in common with woodpeckers than with a Red-tailed Hawk or Osprey.

# When was the last time you saw ten Black Phoebe sitting on a telephone wire lined up like Tree Swallows or blackbirds?

BIGGEST WEEK, DAY #1

Today was the opening of the Biggest Week in American Birding festival here inn northwest IowaOhio. The four of us from Partnership for International Birding and Neblina Tours of Ecuador have already seen 110 species. Some samples:Evenb here the increasingly scarce Upland Sandpiper is considered a good fine. These two were walking in the grass along the road margin today. Winter here has lingered and the birds could find grass tall enough to hide in.

Blue-headed Vireo, the eastern counterpart of our western Cassin’s Vireo.

Chestnut-sided Warbler gives me the eye.

Eastern Kingbird

You know how much I love owls if you read my blogs. Eastern version of Screech-Owl.

Ovenbird feeding on the forest floor.

Purple Martin atop martin housing development at Ottawa NWR. They are big and aggressive e enough to drive off the real estate greedy House Sparrows.

Swainson’s Thrush along the Magee Marsh boardwalk. All these birds are within a mile of the south shore of Lake Erie where the winds comes whipping off the waves.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ FOR NEXT SEPTEMBER

I will be leading a trip along the California Coast next September. It will be at the height of shorebird migration: Black Turnstone, Wandering Tattler, Red-necked Phalarope, Surfbird, Marbled Godwit, various sandpipers and plovers. Click here for itinerary.
Of course, we will cruise along Big Sur, a magnificent coastal highway, in search of North America’s largest bird (by wingspan).

These Condor pictures were taken on the same route a couple years ago. There are now more condors flying free than are in captivity. A remarkable story of saving an endangered species that once got down to less than 20 individuals.

Click here to see what’s up on the Ventana Wilderness Society’s CONDOR CAM.

The trip will also take us in pursuit of California’s two endemic Corvids (no other American state has even a single endemic): Island Scrub-Jay and Yellow-billed Magpie. Other hard-to-find birds we will seek: California Gnatcatcher, Oak Titmouse, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, California Thrasher, Hermit Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, Heermann’s Gull and Cassin’s Auklet. Come enjoy some California sun and birding.

NEOTROPICAL BIRD GUIDE ONLINE

Cornell University’s Ornithology Lab is putting together a comprehensive list and description of Neotropical birds online. Here is the link. I am about to get my first look at Panama’s avians so this site has been fun to explore. I’m on one of our PIB trips with a great local guide.
This Neotropical site works very much like the Birds of North America Online which I find to be a valuable resaource when I am writing about our native birds here in the U.S. The Noetropical site already has 4000 species, more than 4 times the total on the older BNA site. Such is the species diversity of Central and South America plus the Caribean Islands. We regularly get four breeding species of tanager in North America, further south there are many dozens. Even more flycatchers in Latin America than any other family, nearly 400 species.

CALIFORNIA BIRDING

I just got back from leading a six-day birding trip across Central California. We hit San Francisco, Pt. Reyes, Livermore, Sierra Foothills, Monterey and Big Sur. We had 149 species before six of our birders took the extension pelagic trip with Debbie Shearwater out of Monterey Harbor.
Biggest bird, of course, was a pair of California Condors about sixty feet overhead. They turned out to be father and son. Each free-flying condor carries a wing number.


Some other highlights included such California specialties as Oak Titmouse, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, the endemic Yellow-billed Magpie, California Thrasher on Mines Road south of Livermore, Townsend’s Warbler (a wintering species), Tricolored Blackbird on Pt. Reyes Peninsula and California Towhee.
Uncommon migrants included 2 Harlequins at Pt. Reyes, a Pectoral Sandpiper at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove and a Chestnut-sided Warbler at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
Birds that are generally not found east of the Sierra Nevada included: White-headed Woodpecker, Hermit Warbler, Sooty Shearwater, Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Black Oystercatcher, Heermann’s Gull.
Other birds of limited range included Elegant Tern, Marbled Godwit and Snowy Plover.
We saw hundreds of Red-necked Phalarope:

Altogether we had two dozen shorebird species on this trip.

BEACH BIRDS AND MORE

“Wish they all could be California birds….”                  –Beach Birds

Some general information: Whenever we are within ten miles of the coast, a cool wind and/or fog is possible. The northern Pacific Ocean does NOT warm up each summer as do the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico or southern Pacific. Due to currents and upwelling the surface of the Pacific along the Northern California Coast stays very close to 55 degres year round. Clearly that moderates the weather nearby. The cold water and upwelling make for very rich fishing waters which in turn makes for very rich coastal birding. It will make for very cold birders if you come dressed for a day on the beach in Florida.
We will try to be at dinner by 630PM each night. At dinner we will go over the day’s bird sightings and update our checklist(s).

We’re putting together a trip around Northern California for some folks who live east of the Rockies.  Here’s what we’re up to:  Birders arrive at SFO on the morning of September 9.  By noon we will be birding along Ocean Beach in San Francisco.  There’ll be Brandt’s Cormorant, Surf Scoter, Common Murre, Heermann’s Gull, Black Oystercatcher, Marbled Godwit, Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Wandering Tattler.  A little uphill from the ocean: California Towhee (see picture below), Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Black Phoebe.
SEPT. 10 We will be at Pt. Reyes, one of the finest birding venues on the Pacific Coast. We will be there for the height of fall migration. Vagrants always possible. In addition we will find some of the local specialties: Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Pelagic Cormorant, Western Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Hutton’s Vireo, California Quail, White-tailed Kite (see picture). Western Sandpiper is also likely. se wil lbird at Pt. Reyes and nearby Bolinas Lagoon.
SEPT. 11 We will move inland from the coast. Along the way we should find Oak Titmouse, Yellow-billed Magpie (a California endemic, see picture below) and maybe even a California Thrasher. We stay this night and next in the Central Valley.
SEPT. 12 We will bird in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. This is our day to find White-headed Woodpecker, Hermit Warbler, and some fall migrants that stick to higher elevation. Perhaps a Green-tailed Towhee or Western Tanager. This will be our best chance for a Dipper as well.
SEPT. 13. We head back to the coast at Monterey. In addition to the irresistible sea otters we should find plenty of migrating shorebirds including Red-necked Phalarope, any gulls or loons we may have missed further north, and a chance for wandering sea birds like Black-legged Kittiwake and Parasitic Jaeger that sometimes come near shore. The gull is an adult Western in bright plumage.
SEPT. 14 We will bird Highway 1 along the scenic Big Sur Coast. Our target of the day: California Condor, the largest, self-powered flying animal in North America. The Condor’s return to living and breeding in the wild is a major conservation success story of our generation. We may also find Dipper, Pileated Woodpecker, Rufous-crowned Sparrow and Wrentit (America’s only member of the Babbler family).
SEPT. 15 Departure day or optional pelagic birding with Shearwater journeys out of Monterey. Those on the pelagic trip should see Ashy Storm-petrel, Sooty and Buller’s Shearwater, Black0tailed and Laysan Albatross, all three jaegers, Arctic Tern, Sabine’s Gull, Cassin’s and Rhino Auklet, Red Phalarope. Whales and dolphins are also likely on this trip.
If this sounds interesting, contact us at Partnership for International Birding.

WINTER BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

UPDATE: SIGN-UPS FOR THIS TRIP CLOSE ON NOVEMBER 15, 2011.  This coming January PIB and Minneapolis Audubon are teaming up on a trip to the Pacific Northwest.  For Minnesotans the weather will seem mild despite the rain.  The wintering birds will agree.  Most have come down  from the Arctic to enjoy the temperate weather of coastal Oregon and Washington State.  The trip will begin and end in Portland.  For a complete itinerary, dates and list of target birds click here.

Here are soe pictures taken by birder Bob Shade on one previous trip:

Male Barrow’s Goldeneye on Hood Canal.

Black Turnstone on the rocks at Seaside, Oregon.

Pair of Harlequin Ducks just off the ferry dock at Keystone Harbor on Whidbey Island, WA.  This photo by tour leader, Harry Fuller.

A Pacific Wren in brush at Fort Lewis, OR, near the mouth of the Columbia River.  And a Surfbird with its gray back on the same stretch of beach as the turnstones.

A bunch of Brant watching a bunch of birders near Hama Hama, WA.

Other birds we see on this trip include: Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Black Oystercatcher, Long-tailed Duck, Pigeon Guillemot and Rhino Auklet, Glaucous-winged and Western Gulls, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Anna’s Hummingbird.  We will also visit Ft. Clatsop where Lewis & Clark spent the winter 1804-5 and a Native American cultural center for the S’Kallam Tribe.

Here’s a link to blogs done during last year’s trip.

NORTHWEST WINTER BIRDS: A GALLERY

Our Colorado birders got 114 species on the Oregon/Washington State trip last week.  As we headed south from the Olympic Peninsula we got our final two species at the Wild Birds Unlimited Store along Hwy 101 southeast of Sequim.  Pine Siskin and Cassin’s Finch were among the crowd in the garden full of feeders there at WBU.

Look at the beak on this fella.  It would make a House or Purple Finch jealous.  It’s a serious seed-crunching implement.

Amonmg our 114 species: five alcids including a few fly-by Cassin’s Auklets and good look at Rhino Auklets. There were twenty-nine species of waterfowl from Trumpeter Swans to Eurasian Wigeon, three mergansers, two goldeneyes, Harlequin, Long-tailed Duck and both scaup in large numbers.

You got your Wood Duck, your Mandarin Duck, your Cinnamon Teal or even your Red-breasted Goose.  But this guy in full breeding regalia…Parisian courtiers could not conceive of such glamor.  Neither could I until I finally saw this duck up close a few years back.  This male and his mate paddled around the Keystone Ferry harbor, Whidbey Island, within thirty feet of us for half an hour.  An ecstatic half-hour for our birding group.

We did OK on raptors, with over sixty different Bald Eagle sightings. 

And we enjoyed some pretty good land-birding as well, from Pileated down to Pacific (nee Winter) Wren and both kinglets at close range.  And then there is the Northwest’s scenery where snow, fog, steep mountains, volcanoes and blue seas combine for a panorama not found in most of the world.

Not the overcast skies but no rain.  While the Coloradans’ friends and family struggled with blizzard and sub-freezing, we breezed around the Northwest under mild temps of 45-55 degrees and only a half day of rain in seven days afield. 

Finally there were several satisfying looks at Varied Thrush, including one in the garden at Wild Birds our last day.

The park is named for the Dr. Tolmie who gave his name to the Latin binomial for MacGillivray’s Warbler.

This group of VATH was in the shade beneath the Sitka spruce at Tolmie State Park near Olympia, WA.