23 - 26 August 1996

by Roger MacNeill

I have been fortunate to travel to Honduras, C.A. on business over the last few years and usually try to get up early and bird the Marandon in San Pedro Sula before work.  The Marandon is a protected water shed located just above the city and can hold quite a few birds.  The following is a trip report from this most recent visit 9/23 through 9/26.

I have traveled all across Honduras on weekends and find it mostly denuded of forest.  Those areas that remain are very difficult to get to, or are falling victim to the machetche; as is the case with the once beautiful Lancetilla.  A side trip to Guatemala and Tikal produced a greater variety of birds, a trip list I will post next.

With out a doubt the birds of the trip were found at the La Lima Rice Fields near the SPS airport.  A flock of five Grassland Yellow-finches allowed very close observations.  These three adults and two young birds should not have been any where near the country of Honduras, much less in the Sula Valley.

Brown Pelican
Olivaceous Cormorant
Magnificent Frigatebird
Bare-throated Tiger Heron
Little Blue Heron
Green Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Gray Hawk
Roadside Hawk
Crested Caracara
Plain Chachalaca
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Black-necked Stilt
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Dove
Red-billed Pigeon
Inca Dove
Gray-crested Dove
Ruddy Ground-Dove
Plain-breasted Ground-Dove
Olive-throated Parakeet
Squirrel Cuckoo
Groove-billed Ani
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
White-collard Swift
Long-tailed Hermit
Little Hermit
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Blue-crowned Motmot
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Ringed Kingfisher
Olivaceous Piculet
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Barred Antshrike
Greenish Elena
Yellow-bellied Elena
Mountain Elena
Brown Creasted Flycatcher
Great Creasted Flycatcher
Ochre-bellied Flycatcher
Social Flycatcher
Tropical Pewee
Eastern Wood Pewee
Black Phoebe
Common Tody-Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Masked Tityra
Gray-breasted Martin
Norhtern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Green Jay
Brown Jay
House Wren
Plain Wren
Rufous-naped Wren
Spot-breasted Wren
Swainson's Thrush
Clay-colored Robin
Red-eyed Vireo
Tawny-crowned Greenlet
Lesser Greenlet
Blue-winged  Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-&-White Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Rufous-capped Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
Louisiana Waterthrush
Yellow-breasted Chat
Blue-grey Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Summer Tanager
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Red-throated Ant-Tanager
Grayish Saltator
Black-headed Saltator
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Rusty Sparrow
Variable Seedeater
White-collared Seedeater
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Grassland Yellow-Finch
Red-winged Blackbird
Melodious Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Spot-breasted Oriole
Altamira Oriole
Northern Oriole
Motezuma Oropendola
House Sparrow

Sincerely,

Roger McNeill
motmot@interpath.com
Reidsville, NC