25 May - 1 June 2000

by Daniel M. Brooks

We just returned from a couple of trips to Veracruz.  We were accompanied by our friend Fernando Gonzalez-Garcia (Inst. de Ecologia, Xalapa) and one of his students, Gerson, on the first trip to Amatlan.  Below is what we saw:

KEY:

numbers = individuals seen
(parenthetical numbers = individuals heard)
~ = approximate
? = not bona-fide, but reasonably confident
* = sound recordings archived at Texas A&M Univ. Bioacoustics Lab., Corpus Christi.
- = precedes anecdotes for certain species

25 May 2000 - Casually observed birds, seen en-route from Veracruz City to Amatlán

2 Red-billed Whistling Ducks
4 Red-billed Pigeons
8 Ruddy ground Doves
2 Red-lored Parrots
3 Great Kiskadee
1 Social Flycatcher
1 Rusty Sparrow
3 Melodious Blackbird
~300 Great-tailed Grackles
 

25 May 2000 - 10 km S. Cordoba, Amatlán, E. of Cemetery, end of road (~190N, 970W, montane shade coffee plantation)

(1)* Thicket Tinamou
~200 Black Vultures
1 Zone-tailed Hawk - in huge flock of Black Vultures
(3) White-tipped Doves
(1) Squirrel Cuckoo
5 Chestnut collared Swifts?
8 Vaux's Swift
5 Rufous-tailed Hummingbird?
1, (5)* Violaceous Trogon
1, (5)* Blue-crowned Motmot
(1) Collared Aracari?
(~15)* Golden-fronted Woodpeckers
1 Golden-Olive/Bronze-winged Woodpecker
1, (1)* Yellow-olive Flycatcher
2 Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
(2) Dusky-capped Flycatcher
1, (1)* Boat-billed Flycatcher - chasing Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher out of territory
2?, (1) Masked Tityra
3* Brown Jays -observed singleton foraging on Cecropia
2, (4)* Band-backed Wren
(1) Spot-breasted Wren
(8)* White-breasted Wood Wren
(1) Clay-colored Thrush
3 Yellow-throated Euphonia
2 Common Bush-Tanager
1, (4)* Black-headed Saltator
2, (2) White-collared Seedeater
(2)* Olive Sparrow
5, (8)* Melodious Blackbird
(2) Yellow-billed Cacique
 

26 May 2000 - Veracruz Airport

1 Great-tailed Grackle - leucistic; perhaps interesting because last albinistic mutation Grackle I saw was also in Mexico, in Monterrey on the 7 October 1999 - on foot 09:45-12:30.

1 June 2000 - Casually observed birds, seen en-route from Veracruz City to Las Barrancas

2 Great Egrets
6 Cattle Egrets
10 Red-billed Whistling Ducks
1 Muscovy Duck
5 Black Vultures
~10 Inca Doves
1 Red-billed Pigeon
2 Great Kiskadees
2 Northern Rough-winged Swallow?
1 Brown Jay
~100 Great-tailed Grackle
 

1 June 2000 - ~30 km E Veracruz city, Las Barrancas (~19.30N, 970W, seasonally inundated, grazed, short-grass savannah).  Walked about 4 km round-trip, and drove slow another 3 km looking for birds - 07:30-09:30.

4 Great Egrets
~50 Cattle Egrets
1 Black Vulture
2 Turkey Vultures
2 Crested Caracara
2, (3)* Bobwhite
5 Northern Jacanas
~8 Inca Doves
~5 Groove-billed Anis
(2) Great Kiskadees
6 Fork-tailed Flycatchers
1 Rough-winged Swallow?
(2) Brown Jays
(1) Greyish Saltator?
~7 White-collared Seedeater
1 Grassland Yellow-Finch
~5, (~10)* Meadowlark - though Howell indicates Eastern, they  sounded like Western
(1) Red-winged Blackbird?
~200 Great-tailed Grackle

Daniel M. Brooks
E-mail: dbrooks@hmns.org