Garden birds from Cochabamba, November 2009

Rusty Flowerpiercer

Sayaca Tanager in strong light.

Yellow-browed Tyrant

Santa Cruz airport, Bolivia (Second Part)

Grassland Sparrow, this is a small sparrow, and it is possible to see the yellow lore on this bird. Grassland Sparrow could be confused with Yellow-browed Sparrow. However, the Yellow-browed Sparrow has more yellow on the face, and lives in a different habitat.
Bobolink, northern migrant in its winter plumage.

Wedge-tailed Grassfinch (next two photos), it's possible to see the pointed tail at the second photo, and at the first photo the birds shove the prominent black streaking at the back.

Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher.

Some more pictures from this day with clouds and rain 09 of November 2009. The pictures are not very colorful, but they might help you to identify passerines in pastures a rainy day in this area.

Santa Cruz airport, Bolivia (First part)

Fork-tailed Flycatcher, there were several around perching together with Eastern Kingbirds.

Enough food!

Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

I stayed several hours at the airport 09 of November 2009. This is a good place to spend some hours watching birds. Unfortunately it was cloudy with some rain in the air as you can see from my photos.

Boca del Rio, Tacna 03.04.10

Ruddy Turnstone

Pectoral Sandpiper (picture 3 &4), although the jizz, black bill and the feathers at the back bothers me, this must be a Pectoral Sandpiper. The breast and olive legs points toward this species. Pectoral Sandpiper can also have a black bill.

Unknown from Colombia II

This bird shoved up in the hotel garden close to the airport in Medellin, July 2008. I never managed to see the face well. From the pictures it is possible to see the reddish at the crown and wings. The breast is and throat looks all dark grey. The bird seems to be a Spinetail, and the best alternatives are Azara's, Silvery-throated. Ash-browed or Slaty Spinetail. The tail is unusually long and Tit-Spinetail shaped (probably because the tail is worn), and could indicate a Silvery-throated or Azara's Spinetail (the somewhat reddish tail seems to indicate the latter). The tail is probably to long for both Ash-browed and Slaty Spinetail, but the coloration of the breast could indicate that this is Salty Spinetail (although the length and colour of the tail don't fit with this species).

It looks like this is Azara's Spinetail, also from one comment I have received.

Unknown from Colombia

This is an unidentified bird from Laguna del Sonso en Colombia, 21. July 2008. The bird had the size of a Kingbird and the bill was dark and strong. It might be a common bird, but I have not managed to identify it yet. I was thinking about Hooded Tanager, but the colour of the legs and eye is wrong (it is also to high or this species). Any suggestions?

Richard Johnston suggests that this is Cinereous Becard, and I think he is right. I miscalculated the size though.

Some more Loreto birds, november 2009

Rufescent Tiger-Heron

Solitary Sandpiper, the only shorebird in the area.
Yellow-billed Tern

Flycatcher ID

Some pictures from Loreto, Bolivia, 07. November 2009.

The first bird is a Boat-billed Flycatcher. The strong bill easily identifies the species. The next bird is a Great Kiskadee, often identified by it voice when it is repeating the second part of its name. The Great Kiskadee has a large bill, but far from the size of the Boat-billed Flycatcher.

This short billed bird is not as easy to identify as the two first. It is a Rusty-margined or Social Flycatcher. There is much overlap among this two species. My guess is that this is a Rusty-margined Flycatcher mainly because of the coloration on the wing, the black crown and plain wing coverts. It also looks like the Rusty-margined Flycatcher has a darker eye than Social Flycatcher on many illustrations (Birds of Peru, Songbirds of South-America), but this is not mentioned in the text.

Saltators I

Grayish Saltator, Trinidad, Bolivia

Buff-throated Saltator, Mizque, Bolivia

During my first years in Peru I did not have any bird book were Buff-throated Saltator was illustrated. The first time I saw the species I was not sure if it was Buff-throated or Grayish Saltator. Here you have both species.

Mejía January 2010

Oasis Hummingbird

House Saprrow, whit a "bocadito"

Lizzard

Sunset 1

Sunset 2

Purple-collared Woodstar, Mejía January 2010

Burrowing Owl, Mejía 2009/10

Close to the beach

Along the entrance to the Sanctuary. This bird nests along the road, but it is easily overlooked.

Beach area north of Mejía.

Burrowing Owls at the entrance to their nest, they are nesting next to the beach north of Mejía.

Some common birds, Mejia

Pied-crested it-Tyrant is a quite common bird in the area, but this is my first photo of the species. The next bird, Rufous-collared Sparrow, is a lot easier to photograph.

Vermilion Flycatcher, Mejia 02.01.10

Birds along the shore, Mejia

Guanay Cormorants from Boca del Rio, 02.01.10. More than 10.000 of this species migrating south 03.01!

Black Skimmers, we saw several thousand in the Sanctuary 02.01.

Black Skimmer

Whimbrel

Band-tailed Gull

Killdeer

Close to Mejia I found a pair of nesting Killdeers with three juveniles on farmland 30.12.09. This is one of three places I have found nesting Killdeers the last years. Two of the pairs located their nests on farmland and the other one next to the beach.
Adult bird (above)

Juvenile

Juvenile

Snowy Plover

Another local bird present along the beach 30.12.2009 was the Snowy Plover. I found three nesting couples during my walk. I also found one non breeding bird, and I spent some time taking pictures of it. Here you can see some of the results.