These final six endemic species of Jamaica fall at the end of the taxonomic order of birds (as listed by the American Ornithologists’ Union) and all but the last are part of the group known as the “nine-primaried oscines.”

At one time they were even placed in the single giant family Emberizidae, but current practice has them split into five families – though even that arrangement is in flux.

The Arrowhead Warbler – named for the arrowhead-shaped markings over its entire body – is definitely a parulid, so no question about its familial relationships. It has a distinctive foraging behavior, hopping along branches, pumping its tail, and peering underneath leaves and twigs for food. It doesn’t seem to flit, dart, or hover like a typical hyperactive warbler. Thanks to Brennan Mulrooney for this difficult-to-photograph species.

Another unquestioned familial relationship is held by the Jamaican Spindalis, a recent split from what used to be called the Striped-headed Tanager. Compared to the others, this one is a giant, and the plumage of the female is only a little duller than that of the male. In the other species, the female is much drabber.

With the Yellow-shouldered Grassquit we start to get into the confusing relationships. Shaped like a number of other emberizids such as seedeaters and sparrows, this endemic has been long recognized as belonging to a distinct grouping noted, for one, for the dome-shaped nests made by all species. Sooty and Yellow-faced Grassquit are two familiar mainland species that belong to this group, but nearly all others are island inhabitants. Another unifying characteristic of this family that I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere is the highly modulated notes of the songs, being more of a blurry, atonal hiss to our ear, rather than the sweet, melodic whistles of typical emberizids. Not surprisingly, genetic studies have now confirmed that this whole grouping is actually nestled within the tanager family Thraupidae, in general a group of songbirds with simple, high-pitched calls and songs. And now that we know that bill size and shape can evolve virtually overnight, it’s no longer a challenge to disregard these features used by early ornithologists to place this group within emberizidae and look at more meaningful (i.e. slow-to-evolve) characteristics such as voice, nest-building behavior, and internal morphology.

The Orangequit is a true oddball among Jamaican endemics. It’s distinctive enough to have been placed in its own genus (Euneornis), and you’d be hard pressed to come up with any bird as an obvious closest relative. There just isn’t any. But genetics has shown this to also belong in the “dome-nest builders” clade of finch-like tanagers, including all those other Caribbean grassquits, bullfinches, probably the Bananaquit, as well as all the Galapagos finches and a few mainland oddities such as Peg-billed Finch. “Quit,” incidentally apparently comes from an African word for “little bird,” and describes this species’ penchant for eating oranges, not for the rusty-orange spot on the throat.

The Jamaican Blackbird is an oddball among icterids. It has been surmised that its closest mainland relative is the Solitary Black Cacique, but in voice, habitat, and behavior there are few resemblances. This bird fills the niche of mainland foliage-gleaners or tuftedcheeks, rummaging around in bromeliads and vine tangles up high in trees. That plus the fact that both members sing in a short duet suggests that perhaps Yellow-billed Cacique might be a better bet. This is one of the scarcer endemics, being restricted to taller, wetter forest where there is an abundance of their epiphyte foraging substrate.

The final endemic in this list is the Jamaican Euphonia. Once thought to be tanagers, euphonias are now recognized as being close relatives of the siskin and goldfinch group of true finches. A typical euphonia in most respects, its dull, gray plumage may be enough to demonstrate that the Plumbeous Euphonia of northern South America is the closest relative. Common island-wide, this endemic is likely to be found in any clump of fruiting mistletoe.

So far, these are the 27 AOU-recognized endemics, plus another form of the Streamertail, adding an obvious 28th species to the list. Next I’ll show some of the subspecies found only on Jamaica that may very well be distinct species.

Photo at top: The Jamaican Spindalis is the largest of the former “Striped-headed Tanager” group.

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Every winter season (November – April) we get the colorful visit of many nice birds in Thailand, but none as friendly and showy as the Mugimaki Flycatcher and the White-throated Rock-Thrush in Khao Yai.

I was very exited the first time I saw and got some lousy images of a White-throated Rock-Thrush in 2007. Then, in 2010 when I got a beautiful male of the species -just- a few meters away, couldn’t help to a feeling of accomplishment… Same is the story with the Mugimaki Flycatcher, which I had tried unsuccessfully a couple of times earlier, and got super well and close in 2010… But the really cool thing, is that both stories happened at the same time, as this great migrating jewels were competing for my mealworms and had done the dance for three years in a roll!

Mugimaki Flycatcher - male by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

White-throated Rock-Thrush by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

If you come right now (April 2012), you can find them at the very same spot, perched and staring to each other near the house 109 of Khao Yai National Park; a marvelous UNESCO site… a birding paradise…

All this images were taking the very same day, December 13th 2011

Mugimaki Flycatcher by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

White-throated Rock-Thrush - back view by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

After a while sharing with photographers, this guys can become real trusty and get real close… Just make your own numbers: I couldn’t fit the whole 13 centimeters bird with a 300mm lens!

Mugimaki Flycatcher - portrait by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

Some other birds come along by the feeder station from time to time. The most common “outsider” is the Radde’s Warbler and the new one this season -super shy- is the Blue Rock-Thrush

Radde's Warbler by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

Blue Rock-Thrush by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

During the season of 2010 – 2011, an Asian Brown Flycatcher was also established at the spot, but the continuous harassment of the Thrush, kept him form coming back this season…

Asian Brown-Flycatcher by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

I hope you friend enjoyed the friendly and beautiful birds of Khao Yai

White-throated Rock-Thrush - portrait by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

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This week I’ll discuss another five bird species endemic to Jamaica, the first half of the oscine passerines.

Also called songbirds, these more “advanced” passerines don’t all actually have nice songs, though when analyzed, their voices are usually quite a bit more complex than those of subsocines. On Jamaica, however, some of these have wonderfully evocative and enchanting songs, creating an unmistakable soundscape that brings to my senses the smells of allspice, a moist tropical breeze, and the lilting Jamaican accent.

Jamaica has two endemic and very distinctive vireos. The Jamaican Vireo, known locally as “White-eyed Vireo” is one of the most common and adaptable of endemics, occurring at every elevation and habitat type, as long as some native plants are around. (The most destroyed region of south-central Jamaica, around the city of Christina, is perhaps the only place on the island where I imagine there are none.) The song is not particularly pretty but it is fascinatingly variable. Each phrase is a simple, typically vireo-scratchy phrase repeated 3 or 4 times almost endlessly. But after a few repetitions, a bird will switch to a very different phrase and repeat that for a while. A single bird can sing dozens of different phrases, and there seems to be endless variations found around the island. If I ever hear a song I don’t recognize in on Jamaica, it has to be a Jamaican Vireo. Photo © Maggie, aka bitemesucker2000 on Flickr.

The Blue Mountain Vireo is very different. It stands out among vireos in having neither facial markings (no eye ring or eye line) nor wing bars. It’s also one of very few members of the genus that bears pink rather than blue feet. Its song is also very atypical – a smooth, purring trill that lacks the burry quality, repetition, and complexity that most other vireos possess. It’s one of the few endemics on the island that doesn’t seem to have any close mainland relatives, either having been on the island so long to have evolved far from its ancestors, or perhaps indicating that its most recent mainland ancestor has become extinct without trace. This bird is so different from any mainland species that I’d not be surprised to see it placed in its own genus.

There’s not much that can be said about the Jamaican Crow other than that its babbling voice always elicits a smile from birders. Probably closely related to the similarly babbling Cuban Crow, the local name for it is the “Jabbering Crow,” and while formerly quite restricted to areas of good forest, the species has been spreading to more altered habitats and can be found in the outskirts of Montego Bay and Mandeville. This digiscoped video just barely managed to capture the sound.

The two thrushes on Jamaica have the best songs of all.The White-eyed Thrush brings to mind the Song Thrush of Europe, endlessly repeating melodic phrases, but it also has a curious secondary song consisting of two pure whistles a full tone apart, repeated back and forth. This species requires good forest, forages in the canopy, and is very shy, flitting off every time it sees binoculars being raised. I’ve found that Marshall’s Pen is the best place for seeing this bird. It doesn’t seem to be very much like any mainland thrush, but I suspect the White–necked and White-throated Thrushes are close. Photo © Víðir Óskarsson, aka Vidiro on Flickr.

The song of White-chinned Thrush is rather similar to the White-eyed’s (and equally charming) but is bit more variable, isn’t so strict about repeating each phrase, and has more high-pitched twittery sounds mixed in. It also behaves very differently from the White-eyed, often hopping on the ground (hence one of its local names, Hopping Dick). This is a very familiar bird to Jamaicans island-wide, and is probably most closely related to the Red-legged Thrush on other islands, not having any obvious mainland relatives.

Next blog I’ll talk about the final six endemics, all belonging to the nine-primaried oscine assemblage.

Photo at top: The White-chinned Thrush is a common and easy-to-see bird on Jamaica, its dawn song being a particularly beautiful island sound.

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I have arrived at Cape May after a lovely week at the Biggest Week of American Birding.  Many lifers, both birds and birders. Lifers were Greg Miller, Kenn and Kim Kaufman, Dawn Fine, Linda Rockwell, Doug Gochfield, Birdchick, Mark Beaman, Adrian Binns, Mike Watson, Lena Samsonaenko, Nemesis birders, etc.  Also several year ticks such as Jeff and Liz Gordon, Dale Forbes, Mark Hedden, Rafa Campos, Kevin Loughlin, Steve Ingraham…. The list goes on and on and on. Many friends from the Facebook and Twitter were seen and  new were added.
Now it is the World Series of Birding.

A couple of weeks ago Jason Kessler (remember Sht birders Saythat we featured here and here?) sent me a low resolution copy of his film Opposable Chums about the World Series.  It was a great film. The cuts was similar to Sht Birders Say in that scenes were changing fast and this gave a nice flow to

It gives a good idea what the World Series of birding is all about. Here is a sample from the Jason’s Channel. Make sure to watch all the 8 episodes. And if you want to buy the full video,  try the web-page.

Our team – The Biggest Day

The world series of birding is the biggest Big Day competition in the world. I got a small team together and am pleased to announce that Jason Kessler is joining our team The Biggest Day.  So is New York hot shot birder Isaac Grant.  We got a team!.
We have no pretension of winning, as we are only doing the southern part of New Jersey state.  But we shall try to raise some money. How many species do you think we can get?

Pledges for Colibri Cloudforest on Satipo Road

The world series of birding is a great fundraiser for bird conservation.  In total over the 29 years around 9 million dollars has been raised for bird conservation locally and internationally.  All the teams recruits pledges among friends and  businesses to donate to i.e. a dollar or a dime  for all birds recorded in 24h. The best teams can get around 230 birds in the state. We will be happy if we get half of that.

Help us out and support the Colibri Cloudforest

• Pledge 1 a dime for every  bird we record.  (we think maybe 120 species of so) $120
• Pledge 2 a quarter for every bird we record. Roughly $30
• Pledge 3. a dollar for every bird. Roughly $120

Join a birding tour to Peru in which a part of the fee goes to Colibri Cloud Forest.  There are mainly two tours that we promote for Colibri Cloudforest. It is likely that Birding Adventures TV will be filming from these two tours.

1. The Biggest Day. Sep 16-29. $331 of the cost of the tour would go to RP if booking between May 1-May 30.
2. Central Peru which include Colibri Cloudforest Oct 2-9. $300 of the fee would go to the Colibri Cloudforest. We are still looking for a specific page to make donations for this cause. Please contact Niyanta Spelman Niyanta@rainforestpartnership.org for more details.

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Biggest Week of American birding – a case scenario

Many years ago in the infancy of Twitter (like 3 years ago),  I wrote a blog post on my blog called Twitter for birders part 2. Rare Bird Alerts with Twitter which explained that Twitter hashtags (#subject) could be used together with a RSS reader as rare bird alerts. This still work as described, although few have put the system to the test.

Now I am in Ohio at the Biggest Week of American Birding helping out with the guiding representing my bird tour company Kolibri Expeditions. It works like charm. I provide guiding, get exposure and meet loads of  friends from Facebook and Twitter. Life is good.

Most of us guides are using Twitter to tweet out observations and news about the event on the official Biggest Week Twitter channel. However, there is no good way for the public to communicate sightings of good species. Some visitors have tried sending @replies to @biggestweek, but the guides that use Twitter have  not enough experience to check @replies yet (some just learnt how to tweet) or there is a serious delay between checking the @replies and re-tweeting.   Another factor of course is that it probably is not desirable that the official Biggest Week Twitter channel tweets out unconfirmed sightings of rare birds.  Nevertheless, it is important that information gets out there and that it reaches birders fast.

Hashtags are often used by events to communicate to participants and to connect them with each other.  There are still relatively few here in Ohio that do so, so hopefully this tutorial will get more people sharing their BiggestWeek experiences and especially tweet out sightings.

If this than that

So what to do? Dawn Fine told me about a new service called If This Than That that basically creates RSS feeds for different internet services (too many to go into in detail) which works like a charm for a Twitter hashtag alerts sent as SMS to your cell phone.  Everyone with a Twitter account and a cellphone at The Biggest Week should set this up.  It is FREE!

This is how to do it.

1. Sign up for an account on ifttt.com. Just follow the instructions. Don’t forget to check your email and confirm your account before starting
2. Create a Task – click
3. A big “If This than That shows. Click “This” and choose Twitter
4. Click to “New Tweet  from Search”
5. Select either just biggestweek or #biggestweek (the former is more ample)
6. Click That in If this than That
7. Choose SMS and enter your cell phone number and your are ready to go.

New alerts come with maximum 15 minutes delay, which in average will mean 7-8 minutes delay. That is fast if there is Kirtland Warbler showing right now.

If you don’t want to go through all these instructions, just copy this Recipe I made.

http://ifttt.com/recipes/33992

Everybody Tweet Now!

So when tweeting from the Biggest Week, include hashtag #biggestweek to make sure everyone sees it. It will also alert all the leaders (which after posting this also hopefully signs up to this service) to re-tweet on the official BiggestWeek Twitter channel.

If This Than That could be used for more specific rare bird alert or observations in the future. For instance rather than having one hashtag #biggestweek that would include a lot of noise not specific to bird observations, there could be a specific hashtag only for the birds that people could subscribe to. Maybe something for next year? Do see my original article from Twitter Stone Age to get examples.

Happy tweeting everyone!

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The next five Jamaican endemics I’ll talk about are all suboscine passerines. I’m a compulsive categorizer of everything, and it is so gratifying to know how birds sort themselves out into families and orders, if not so cleanly into species.

So if you’re not familiar with the concept of “suboscine passerine,” a very quick lesson follows. First, all birds can be sorted into passerines and non-passerines, based on genetics (but originally recognized and defined based on morphology). While passerines are a unified group of closely related birds also often called “songbirds” or “perching birds,” the term “non-passerine” is a shortcut term for lumping all other orders birds, whether they be related to each other or not. The previous two blogs in this series dealt with five different orders of non-passerines (parrots, pigeons, owls, hummingbirds, and woodpeckers), none of which are particularly close to each other. In fact, the parrots (order Psittaciformes) are now thought to be the closest relatives of the order Passeriformes.

In any event, the passerines, usually considered the most recently evolved group of birds, can also be divided neatly into two suborders – the suboscines and oscines. Jamaica has only two families of suboscines, the older lineage of songbirds, the largest diversity of which occurs in the American tropics.

Jamaican Elaenia is a good illustration of how the island was colonized by mainland species. On the mainland, there are other members of the genus Myiopagis, all quite similar in many ways to this one – the coronal stripe (often hidden), the pale edges to the wing (no wing bars), and the high-pitched, buzzy voice are all holdovers shared by Greenish, Gray, Forest, and other mainland species. On Jamaica, this bird seems to occur in almost any forest type, but it’s never common, and the inconspicuous song makes it tricky to find.

Jamaican Pewee is perhaps a little less common than the elaenia, but much more conspicuous. They are quite confiding, feeding at lower levels of the forest, and while obviously a pewee (genus Contopus), their piping song is very different from mainland species, hinting at perhaps a very long history on the island.

Sad Flycatcher is one of two Myiarchus endemic to the island and is clearly a close relative of the mainland Dusky-capped Flycatcher. Small size and the voice are very similar, and it’s one of the more common and widespread endemics. The calls actually sound quite happy or excited to my ears, so I don’t know why it was given this name.

Rufous-tailed Flycatcher, also a Myiarchus, is quite a bit more distinctive, suggesting that its ancestor arrived on the island longer ago than that of the Sad Flycatcher. The larger size and amount of rufous seem to point to a common ancestor with Great-crested Flycatcher, but the voice is radically different. It’s not quite as common as Sad Flycatcher, requiring wetter, taller forest, but is usually pretty conspicuous and not a difficult endemic to find.

Jamaican Becard is the only suboscine in the entire Caribbean not in the tyrant-flycatcher family – it’s in the relatively newly created family Tityridae, which includes the schiffornises and tityras. It’s obviously close to Rose-throated Becard, the voice being especially similar, but it’s also clearly different in plenty of ways. One can only wonder how it came to be on this island, while no other island has been successfully colonized by this genus.

Photo at top: Rufous-tailed Flycatcher is perhaps the most distinctive of the endemic suboscine passerines in Jamaica.

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Yoav Perlman shares his exciting spring migration experiences from southern Israel

Israel is world-famous for the huge volume and variety of migration, as entire populations flying between Eurasia and Africe funnel through the country twice a year. This amazing phenomenon is what makes Israel so great for birding, and as a young birder I grew up into this spectacle. Migration is visible anywhere around the country, but spring migration in southern Israel tops the cake. Huge numbers of migrants occupy every green spot in the desert, be it an agricultural field, city garden or sewage farm.

Spannish Sparrow flock feeding in a wheat field near Yotvata, southern Israel

Overhead, enormous thermals (or kettles if you’re American) of raptors rise from the mountains and head north in great speed. My biggest day this year was with about 100,000 Steppe buzzards! At the same time, our desert species, adapted to live in the harsh desert conditions, enjoy the little germination and flowering of desert bushes to produce another generation.

Bonelli’s Eagle soaring over a canyon above the Dead Sea, Israel

European birders have been traditionally visiting Eilat in spring for many years now, enjoying both the spectacle of migration and a variety of species rarely seen in western Europe. But since 2007, the main birding event of the spring is the Eilat Bird Festival – this outstanding event attracts many birders from all around the world and from Israel, and gets them together for a week full of field trips: day and night, short and long, for the amateur and for the hardcore. Together with evening programs this is a great event. I have been guiding for the Festival since it started, and I am very pleased to see it grow from year to year. Every year we are joined by some celebrity birders and bird-writers, and this year we were pleased to host my co-birdblogger Martin Garner.

This year, spring migration was even more powerful that normal. Not only our guests but also myself and the other guides just could not get enough. Birding was so rapid and so much fun, and while being out birding it was sometimes hard to keep up with the speed of new birds popping up every second. I just did not know what to look at first. Numbers of common migrants were phenomenal, in volumes we haven’t experienced in Israel for many years. Every tree, bush, garden, city roundabout and field were just packed full with birds – warblers, wheatears, pipits, buntings, shrikes.

Rueppell’s Warbler singing from a Capparis decidua bush at Eilat, Israel

The most impressive show in March was given by wheatears – they were just everywhere in huge numbers. Two species that are normally rare vagrants to Israel – Cyprus Wheatear and Pied Wheatear, showed in hundreds! I will never look at a Pied Wheatear the same way again…

Cyprus Wheatear in the southern Arava Valley, Israel

Pied Wheatear of the rare white-throated morph ‘vittata‘ in a date plantation near Eilat, southern Israel

One of the most exciting birds found during the Festival was a Basalt Wheatear, in the Uvda Valley of the southern Negev. This valley normally attracts large numbers of larks and sandgrouse feeding on seeds in dry wadis. This beautiful wheatear spent a couple of weeks in a small bunch of  bushes, and showed well to its many admirers. This very distinctive taxa / morph / form / whatever is probably a cryptic species, that stayed under the radar of ornithologists for some hundreds of years. It is currently lumped with Mourning Wheatear, but it so different in all aspects – morphology, vocalisation, migration ecology etc. It just has to be a different species. It breeds in the remote basalt desert of northern Jordan and southern Syria, and its wintering grounds are not fully known – it’s a rare winter visitor to southern Israel and Egypt. I trapped it together with Hadoram Shirihai, who’s working on this issue at the moment. We took DNA samples from this bird, and hopefully this new data will shed some more light on the taxonomy of this bird.

Basalt Wheatear taking off at Uvda Valley, southern Israel

In April, massive migration continued with unbelievable waves of Blackcaps and Lesser Whitethroats – tens of millions I guess. They were accompanied by enormous numbers of Ortolan Buntings, Tree pipits and many others.

Ortolan Bunting in the northern Negev, Israel

Massive migration should continue until mid May, with Blackcap, Thrush Nightingale, bee-eaters and shorebirds expected to arrive in the largest numbers. Then things should slow down a bit for a short period – in late June we receive the first returning migrants, heading south…

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater in the Arava Valley, southern Israel

I suppose you’ve noticed how many times in this post I used the words huge, massive, enormous, spectacular – well it was spectacular indeed. More to come.Random Posts:

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The White-winged Snowfinch (Montifringilla nivalis) has got to be just about the most mountain-y bird found in the Alps – occurring exclusively above 1800m above sea level. Where trees stop, the Snowfinch stops. In fact I have only once seen a Snowfinch near a tree and that was in the depth of winter when three birds visited a sunflower feeding in Axamer Lizum skiing area.

The easiest time of the year to see Snowfinch is certainly deep winter, when they seem to flock and visit a few selected high altitude ski resorts to feast on the seeds provided in special bird feeders.

My favourite place to find Snowfinches here in Tirol is Kühtai – a small ski resort not far from our house – and a combination of a bit of birding and good skiing make for an enticing combination. Some winters draw huge numbers of birds, peaking in January and February. A few winters ago I saw a flock of 2-300 birds, an incredible sight.

In deep winter, the Snowfinches all have bright orange/yellow bills and as spring draws closer, the bill darkens to black.

By April, there are usually only a few birds left around the skiing areas and these are only seen when the weather gets really poor. A couple of weeks ago I went back up to Kühtai to see if I could find a couple of late birds in the area. Lucky for me the weather was ghastly – blizzard conditions with thick fog and only about 15m (50ft) visibility. But despite the weather, it did mean that there were a few Snowfinches about.

In order to get any photos at all, I had to be really patient to get really close to the birds. And after a few hours in the freezing cold, I decided to leave the digiscoping, disgusted with what I was seeing on my camera’s display. And despite the pistes being in incredible condition, there was no point unpacking the skis as I could hardly see my feet, let alone where I would be skiing.

It was only at home, that I saw how much I was able to pull out of the images in iPhoto.

what the photo looked like on the camera

All images Digiscoped with a Swarovski Telescope & Canon 7D. Copyright me.

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In this second installment featuring Jamaica’s endemic bird species, I’ll complete the non-passerines, which includes some of the most exciting species on the island. The following photos are mostly digiscoped, taken over the past 14 years I’ve led tours here.

The Jamaican Owl is surprisingly widespread and tolerant of a wide variety of habitats, though the presence of at least some large trees is probably a requirement. I’ve seen them at all four of the various hotels that I’ve used in the Port Antonio-San San area, as well as every year at Marshall’s Pen. It was formerly placed in its own genus, mango, until Striped Owl was moved into it, but some have contested that treatment. It was based on genetics, but given how different the two are otherwise in distribution, plumage, and voice, I’d like to see a more robust sampling revisited.

The Jamaican Mango is the original mango hummingbird – Anthracothorax mango. I’m not sure why it was given the name mango (a fruit from Asia), but from it’s general shape and proportions it does indeed seem related to the mainland members of that genus, the overall coloring being quite different.

The Streamertail is the Jamaican national bird, known in most parts as “Doctorbird.” The two forms, Black-billed and Red-billed, are almost certainly different species, despite what has been published about hybrids and an overlap zone. In reality, there have been no major changes or barriers erected or destroyed in the past centuries, and were there free interbreeding, one would have long ago swamped out the other into oblivion. The presence of hybrids means nothing, giving how easily hummingbirds of very different species (and even genera) will hybridize. So while common sense tells us that there are indeed two species of Streamertail on the island, the AOU continues to recognize only one. Both are easily found on the island, with the Black-billed restricted to the wetter, more forested eastern tip of the island, common around Port Antonio (especially if there are feeders) and on the Ecclesdown Road.

Red-billed Streamertail by Rich Hoyer

The Jamaican Tody usually garners the most number of votes as favorite bird of the tour each year. They are so adorable, colorful, easy to see, and somehow perfectly cute. There are only five species of today, all found in the Greater Antilles, but fossils from Wyoming, France, and other places hint at an interesting and quite possibly complex former biogeography of which we see only the final dribs and drabs.

The only woodpecker on the island is the Jamaican Woodpecker – from plumage as well as voice clearly related to the complex of species that now includes Red-bellied, Gila, and Golden-fronted, along with a few other Middle American species. This is one of the more conspicuous and widespread endemics on the island.

Next week I’ll cover the suboscine passerines.

Photo at top: Jamaican Tody is the only member of its small family on the island.

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Well this isn’t so much a blogpost, but more a shameless act of bare-arsed, narcissistic self promotion. Anyway, it’s my blogpost, so I can write what I like.

On Saturday 28th April the City of London Sinfonia are performing their annual spring concert for the RSPB near Aldeburgh at Snape Maltings in Suffolk. The concert is organised by Viking Optical, and this year I’m playing with the orchestra, along with three of the very best guitarists you’ll EVER hear, in this programme:

J.S.Bach Works for solo guitar
Boccherini Grave and Fandango from Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D
Rossini Overture from Italian Girl in Algiers
Vivaldi Concerto for 4 Guitars RV580

Interval

Telemann Viola Concerto in G
Vivaldi Concerto for Guitar in D RV
J.S. Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

The guitar quartet pieces in the first half are hardly ever heard, and to hear them played by Craig Ogden, Gary Ryan, Amanda Cook and me is an experience that I would suggest will be life changing for anyone in the audience. A musical epiphany of Biblical proportions, like being smacked repeatedly in the face with a big stick – in a really good way. And even if you don’t enjoy the concert, there’s a pub just next to the hall, so you can get smashed out of your skull on Strongbow and come back in and heckle.

If you can make it then come along. There’s some good birding on the marsh at the back of the hall as well (Marsh Harrier, Barn Owl, Bearded Tit, Avocet, Med Gull…).

And as an added incentive, anyone who comes along having read this blogpost, gets a free alcoholic drink bought for them by Craig. Just come up to me after the concert and say, “Tom, I read Birdingblogs and would like to claim my free alcoholic drink bought for me by Craig.”

Tickets and more details HERE

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Featured Bird Photographer blogger

Howdee all,

Yep its me…Dawn….dusting myself off and oiling my finger joints after a long hiatus from Birdingblogs.

I have a few excuses~ a head injury in my family…lots of traveling and birding… but mostly its laziness.  I will give you no more excuses for my delinquency here.

I am now rust-free and ready to introduce to you an amazing Bird Photographer and Blogger.

I am thrilled to present to you~

~Mia McPherson ~On the Wing Photography~

With Mia its all about getting up close and personal with the birds~

Mia Mcpherson copyright-Adrian Burke

Mia likes to get down and dirty when she takes her photos~

“Many yards away from the birds I dropped down to my knees then laid on my belly and slowly sand-crawled within range.  Sand-crawling is not just a way to get closer to your subject it is also low cost dermabrasion for your elbows, tummy feet and any other exposed part of your skin. It probably took me over 10 minutes of wiggling my way forward in the sand to get into a slight depression where I was close enough to the birds and low enough to get the low angle I wanted for my images.”

Mia’s blog is very organized with many Drop down menus..

Mia’s Photographic Styles and Methods drop down menu might be of interest to you photographers out there.  Mia covers such topics as Angles and Perspectives ~ Depth of Field ~ Exposure Compensation ~ Frustrations in Bird Photography ~Habitat ~ High Key ~ Low Light ~ Rotation Adjustment ~White Balance Adjustments.

Here are some of the other drop-down menus on her blog with many subjects covered ~Birds~ Bird ID~ Critique Forums~ Critters~Humor~ Locations~ Man & Nature~ Photographic Styles and Methods ~Scenics~ Seasons and Wildlife Ethics

Mia offers her readers some beautiful Bird and nature wallpapers. Check them out and get yours too. Besides her own blog Mia is a monthly contributor to BirdingIsFun.com.

I know you will love Mia’s photos and blog as much as I do.

Mia never fails to WOW me!

~Read more about Mia here~

Mia McPherson

Mia is a nature lover, wildlife watcher and bird photographer. Birds fascinate, delight and intrigue her which is why she

devotes many hours learning about them, observing their behavior and photographing them. By learning more about each subject, she can anticipate their behavior and create opportunities to obtain better images of those species. Mia enjoys sharing her photos, photographic skills and techniques with those individuals who are serious about their own bird and wildlife photography.

Great-horned Owl Juvenile

Mia is self taught and has never attended a photo workshop other than the ones she has given. She practiced a lot when first photographing birds because they are such a challenge but she enjoys strengthening her skills. Mia prefers to photograph birds doing what birds do and where they want to do it which means long but enjoyable hours in the field. She photographs in all kinds of light, the golden light of dawn, sunsets, low light, snowy and foggy images and has learned to work with the light, not fight it.

Her blog “On The Wing Photography” features her photos and the stories behind the photos plus information about many of her favorite photographic locations. Mia finds that her journeys into nature bring a sense of peace and balance to her busy life and tries to show that with her images along with the beauty of the natural world.

Rainbow over Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge from the Lower Lake

Please enjoy these featured posts…click on the links to go to the original post.

So ya think ya want to be a bird photographer?

“Read up on species in your local area, find out when they are there. Birds do migrate, some don’t. Learn to recognize them by sight and find out what season you might expect to see them. And even better, study their behavior because that can help you get some great action photos.

Learn about exposure, white birds should look white and not muddy or gray in appearance. Black birds should look dark but not so dark as to not show any feather detail.

Know what the color a bird actually is for post processing later. An American Kestrel; for instance, shouldn’t look like it lives at a nuclear power plant by glowing far too brightly or if it is WAY too colorful to be natural & realistic. A Snowy Egret should not look like it fell into a vat of pale grey paint.

If the techs aren’t good and the exposure is bad nothing you do in PhotoShop is going to make a poor image great.

Seriously, would you rather spend two hours trying to fix an image that is poor in quality and even after that amount of time invested still isn’t going to be great or spend that two hours in the field trying to create that great image right out of the camera?? That is an easy answer for me. Get it right in the camera to save time on post processing later.

Review each of your images prior to deleting and ask yourself “What could I have done to make this image better?” Learn to develop a love/hate relationship with culling. I love it when I nail shots all day long, I hate it when I have messed up more images than I care to count.

Develop a callus on your behind because when you mess up you’ll spend a lot of time kicking your own butt.”

Dawn says…..As you read Mia’s blog you will enjoy not only her photography but her fun sense of humor..What you waiting for..go check out more photos by clicking on the link above!.

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) in flight
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County Florida
Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1500, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 175mm, natural light
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My Love Affair with Fort DeSoto

“I unashamedly admit that I have an ongoing love affair with Fort DeSoto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida.

There are a few places I have been to or lived near in my life’s journey that simply feel like “home” to me. Places where I am completely at ease, where I am enthralled by what my eyes drink in, where the smells are familiar and the paths that I take are forever etched into my spirit.  Fort DeSoto County Park is one of those locations for me.

It is a place where I feel welcomed by the birds & wildlife, where the sand between my toes reminds me of well-worn bedroom slippers and the sound of the waves on the shoreline a lovely melody.”

Dawn says……I adore Fort DeSoto too~We were there for the first time this year and plan on going many more times. Click on the link above to see more magical photos and a very cool photo of The Green Flash .

A stormy but colorful sunrise at Fort DeSoto’s North Beach
D200, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 200, Nikkor 18-70mm at 18mm, natural light
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Burrowing Owl juveniles

“If you have never had the opportunity to photograph Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) juveniles I would suggest you find a burrow and be prepared to laugh yourself silly. The adult Burrowing Owls are gorgeous but they seem slightly less animated than the juveniles.
Juvenile Burrowing Owls appear to parallax more than the adults, twisting, turning and bobbing their heads.  There are times that the juvies look so funny it is difficult to hold the camera and lens still because of laughing.”

Dawn Says…..Terrific! I love these shots! Click on the link above to see more photos guaranteed to put a big smile on your face!

Juvenile Burrowing Owl parallaxing
Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah
Nikon D200, f5.6, 1/1000, ISO 250, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited.
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Short-eared Owl female – 13 minutes of joy

“A  foggy morning at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge brought me 13 minutes of joy after spotting a shape on the gravel road, it was a female Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) and she flew up  and landed on a post not too far from the road.
The fog was swirling around her, at times she would be clear of the mist and the post would be shrouded by the fog, other times she would be partially obscured and the post would be in the clear. The female owl was at the very edge of the miasma with the rising sun starting to burn it off .
Photographers dream about the “sweet” light usually found early in the morning or late afternoon. I know I appreciate that light too but I also love testing my skills  by photographing birds in difficult lighting situations while attempting to create compelling images. Photographing birds in a fog is one of those situations.”

Dawn Says…..Be still my heart!~Check out more of these “sweet” light photos..click on the link above.

Female Short-eared Owl parallaxing
Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Montana
D200, f7.1, 1/350, ISO 400, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, +0.3 EV, natural light, not baited

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Rough-legged Hawk – Kiting, Being Bit and Eating on the Fly

“I was out looking for birds to photograph on December 21, 2011 when I spotted this Rough-legged Hawk flying close to where I was located.  With enough time to stop, get my camera settings straight and get into position it wasn’t long before I was able to focus on the hawk through my viewfinder to see that it had a Vole in its talons along with grasses it had plucked up when it grabbed the rodent from the ground.”

Dawn says….Now this is fun!  You must click on the link above to see what went down.

Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) with a Vole in flight ~ Davis County, Utah
Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 400, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited …………………………………………………………………………

Wild and Wonderful – Antelope Island State Park – The Birds

“This is the third post in my series about Wild and Wonderful Antelope Island State Park, I’ve saved the best (and longest) for last. The Birds! Okay, maybe they aren’t the best thing about Antelope Island State Park, but I am a bird photographer and they are what I am most passionate about!”

Dawn says..I have never been to Antelope Island State Park….after reading Mia’s blog and looking at her gorgeous photos..Its on our list of must see places. Click on the link above and see for yourself.

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) adult
Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, not baited
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Nesting Black-billed Magpies

“These images of nesting Black-billed Magpies (Pica hudsonia) would not have been possible without my powers of observation.  Black-billed Magpies are common in Utah, western Canada, the west and southwest US and can range as far north as Alaska. In some places, like Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone magpies can be fairly easy to approach, I don’t find that to be the case in my local parks, wildlife refuges and nature preserves. Magpies are very wary of people here.

One day while out on Antelope Island State Park while looking for other birds to photograph from a distance I noticed a Black-billed Magpie in flight and it appeared to have something in its bill. Then I saw it land on a sagebrush and disappear inside the branches. I wondered about it for a few seconds then saw the bird leave the sage brush and it didn’t look at all like it had anything in its bill. Then I saw another magpie fly into the sagebrush  with a small twig in the bill. Also from that distance I saw what looked like a nest so I had to get closer.”

Dawn says…..A wonderful series of photos….Click on the link above to see more of the nesting Magpies.

Black-billed Magpie on top of the nest

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American Coots – Birds to Rail About

“It is my belief that even birds that people consider too common, plain, drab, or boring can be photographed in ways that create visually compelling images, for instance when I am photographing American Coots I look for colors and patterns that will compliment or be in contrast to thier dark plumage,  appealing settings, great action or an interesting pose.

American Coots are the most widely distributed members of the Rail family in North America and are very abundant in habitats with open water. Some bird photographers pass up on photographing American Coots because they aren’t colorful and are common but if you have been following my blog for any length of time you know that if it has feathers and it is a bird, I’ll photograph it.

These members of the Rail family have large, lobed greenish feet, red eyes, very dark bodies with ivory colored bills topped by a reddish shield. They are often in the presence of ducks and are at times they are mistakenly labeled a “duck” by people not familiar with birds. Coots can make a lot of noise and while they are gregarious they will often chase each other around in displays of aggression which is great fun to watch and photograph.”

Dawn says…There is one photo in this post I adore~ I saved it for you to find. Click on the link above~third photo down.

American Coot (Fulica americana) standing on bronze colored ice and water
Nikon D200, tripod mounted, f7.1, 1/350, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

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The Chukars of Antelope Island – Throughout the Year

“I can recall vividly the first time I saw a wild Chukar (Alectoris chukar) on Antelope Island State Park and remember thinking “Wow, what an exotic bird!“  That thought probably was a bit strange though because at the time I was living in Florida and quite often saw birds there that would definitely be considered “exotic” here in Utah.
The fact is that Chukars are “exotic” any where they are found in North America. Chukars are an introduced upland game bird species that originally come from Eurasia. After introduction to the Great Basin feral populations became established and the Chukars have thrived in certain areas, one of those locations is Antelope Island State Park in northern Utah which is surrounded by the Great Salt Lake.”

Dawn says….Some really super photos of Chukars here. Click on the link above to see more. You wont be disappointed.

Chukar calling on a snow-covered rock
Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah
Nikon D200, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

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California Gulls feeding on the Brine Flies of the Great Salt Lake

“When visiting Antelope Island State Park during the summer I can often see piles of the pupal casings of brine flies on the shoreline that have been blown there by the wind. Perhaps “piles”  is a bit of an understatement since there can be over a billion pupal casings in a one mile stretch of shoreline. They remind me of the mounds of Turtle Grass I’d often see on the wrack line on the beaches of Florida but in this case it isn’t grasses but the shed casings of the pupae of the brine flies.

The shoreline  and the surface of water nearest to the shore is also dark with the newly emerged brine flies themselves, millions of them! They seem to move in choreographed mass when anything approaches them.

Though other bird species feed on the brine flies of the Great Salt Lake I find the way that California Gulls do it in the most humorous and entertaining way. Franklin’s Gulls seem to stay in one place then as the flies move past them they snap their bills to capture the flies.”

Dawn says….Holy Moly! I have never seen anything like this! Click on the above link to see more of this feeding frenzy.

One California Gull (Larus californicus) actively feeding, the other is passively feeding
Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah
Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

…………………………………………………………………………

Some Days are Magic

“There are days when everything seems to go right. The light. The action. The habitat. The company you are with. The birds!”

Dawn says….Magic is right! You have to click on the link above to see the magic for yourself.

Little Blue Heron misses the prey
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
D200, HH, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR at 360mm, natural light

…………………………………………………..

Hungry Yellow-crowned Night Heron

“Adrian Burke and I were photographing together one morning last year on the Gulf coast of  Florida when we came across this Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) stalking a Ghost Crab.  Adrian and I laid down on our stomachs in the sand and got ready for some action.”

Dawn says….A great series of a Yellow-crowned Night Heron downing a Ghost Crab. Click on the link above to see the rest of the story.

The Ghost Crab tries to fight back
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
D200, HH, f8, 1/800, ISO 200, 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Juvenile Black Skimmer

Lazuli bunting

Western Meadowlark

I hope you enjoyed Mia’s Bird Photography blog and visit often…

Don’t forget to leave a comment. Bloggers love feedback.

Happy Birding!

All permissions for this post and photos were given by Mia McPherson

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Jamaica is probably the best Caribbean island for birding.

It’s the only island where it is considered a reasonable task to see all of the endemics, and more endemics can be readily seen here than on any other Caribbean Island or nation. I’ve now led 12 tours here, and I have yet to miss an endemic. My tours take six days to ensure that everyone gets to see them all, but we’ve come close to missing one or two on some tours. Having said that, I once saw all 27 AOU-recognized endemics in 12 1/2 hours one day.

The total number endemics is actually quite disputable, as the current American Ornithologists’ Union list doesn’t agree with some other versions, and there are quite a few endemic forms which seem to have been rather arbitrarily assigned the status of subspecies. This is the case on every one of the Greater Antilles, which include Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.

This week I’ll start with six undisputed endemics, and some rather spectacular ones at that.

Jamaica is unusually well-endowed with Columbids, and two are endemic species. The Ring-tailed Pigeon is a huge, deep-voiced species that is often seen in small numbers in flight either on the Ecclesdown Road at the eastern end of the island or up in the Cockpit Country in the north-central part of the island. Seeing one perched requires luck, but this year huge numbers were at Ecclesdown, often in fruiting trees near the road.

The Crested Quail-Dove is quite a special bird. Not rare where there is good forest with understory, it is still very secretive and can be hard to see. I consider it one of the top 5 missable birds, and this year we lucked into a responsive bird on our first afternoon.

Jamaica has two endemic parrots, and both are rather similar. The Yellow-billed Parrot is a bit larger, has a shallower wingbeat, and in good light shows the paler head and namesake bill at quite a distance.

The Black-billed Parrot is smaller, darker, and seems to be more abundant at Ecclesdown.

There are also two large cuckoos endemic to Jamaica, and unlike some of the other Caribbean species, both are relatively common. The Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo is the larger but shorter-billed species and occurs in a wide variety of habitats almost island-wide. Its nickname, from its throaty voice, is “Old Man Bird.”

The final endemic in this blog is the Jamaican Lizard-Cuckoo, another one of the missable birds. It’s not rare, but the “Old Woman Bird” is a little less vocal and on some tours I’ve only seen one or two. This year we had one on our first afternoon, and on our next-to-last day we found a pair building a nest. One bird sat on the nest while the other went out to snap of twigs, often no more than a few feet from the nest and gave them to its partner.

Photo at top: Jamaican Lizard-Cuckoo is an endemic species that actually does eat lizards, an abundant source of food on the island.

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The new Lytro Light Field Camera has just started to ship, and for those of you who have not heard of it yet, it uses a completely new technology and approach to image capture to create something of a living image. No, nothing from or for the Daily Prophet, but a clickable image that will allow you to reposition the image’s focal point on your computer.

The Lytro Camera is a plenoptic camera which essentially means that the camera’s sensor is recording information about light from various different directions and sources meaning that one could – in theory – convert a single plenoptic image in to a 3D image because of the greater amount of information gathered. If you would like to read more about the technology, check out the company’s “Science Inside” page or have a go at the CEO’s PhD thesis.

click on the water in front of and behind the swan to see how the image changes

But, the reason why the Lytro camera has the potential to revolutionise digiscoping is because the camera collects so much information that it is remarkably easy to re-adjust the focal plain after taking the photo. For anyone who has tried to take digiscoping photos or photos with a focal length of over 1000mm, you will have experienced just how difficult it is to get the focal plain exactly where you want it (on the bird and not on the branch or tree behind it). The Lytro Camera promises to make this a thing of the past.

The two most burning questions for me were:

- would the Lytro Camera work behind a telescope?

- what would the images be like, just how much depth of field play would be available?

So I took it out to one of the local castles to play around with it.

click on the ducks

Behind a Swarovski Telescope and a 30x ocular, there was no appreciable vignetting, but I had to unscrew the eyecup to get just a little closer to the telescope’s ocular. The one thing that did stand out when looking at the images on my computer at home was that if the alignment is not particularly good, then the resulting photo gets strange vertical lines through it. Not sure why.

strange lines creeped in to the image when the camera was not perfectly aligned

But what amazed me the most was just how deep the available depth of field was – normally we would be talking about an image plane of a few centimetres, but with the Lytro Camera and an effective focal length of about 1200mm, I had many metres of focal plane to play with. Of course, this additional depth of field is just available to you to adjust and play with as you wish, but the image viewed at any one time will still have a rather shallow depth.

playing with a line of flowers

Now when testing the Lytro Camera I did it in a similar mind-set as to when I am testing a new prototype of anything – focussing on the core technology or idea and forgetting about all the small details that still need to be worked out or that could be better. I found the handling of the longer camera behind a telescope rather cumbersome and it was not always that easy to make sure that the image was working, especially because the viewing screen is really tiny and the dynamic range was really poor. A lot of what I was experiencing with the Lytro Camera reminded me of the 2 MegaPixel cell phone cameras of old – convenient and quick, but not exactly a Hasselblad.

the trees in the background are about 20m behind the Pinus mugo in the pot

But the core idea of it – the technology and how it worked behind a spotting scope – really did pique my attention. Early criticism of the Lytro light field camera have included that the types of images that work really well with this camera always look kinda setup and stilted: one object neatly in the foreground and a series of interesting things in the background (partially hidden in the bokeh blur, but accessible at the click of a mouse). But, I suspect that as more people use, play with and explore the possibilities of a light field camera, that more and more will be discovered. Just remember what people were saying about digiscoping when it first got started and look where we are now.

I would not suggest rushing out and buying a Lytro camera for digiscoping just yet, but this is definitely something we will want to keep an eye on as it could well get really interesting.

Happy digiscoping,

Dale Forbes

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Viral birding

.
There have been pretty amazing few days lately checking out how Jason Kessler’s short 3 min video about birding talk has gotten 40,000 views as I write this (10 days later).  I think the video could reach a far larger audience, so I have asked people if they would pass this on to non-birders.

Would non-birders at all understand this? I argued, that the film The Big Year and the twitcher documentary on BBC over a year ago, would have primed a lot of non-birders to understand birders better.  Some birder friends said that a lot would still be total jibberish for non-birders. They may be right, and that is why I am writing this follow-up post.

More fun with captions.

Maybe it would be easier to understand the by activating the automated subtitles generated by Google’s speech recognition? Try it! Just press CC and select.  Quite obviously the speech recognition programmers are not birders. This comes out even more funny!  See the top photo for this post.

How to understand birder talk?

Captions won’t do the trick. We need to explain. Let’s make a dictionary for the video. Let’s go through the video bit by bit.

• The title. Plays on the Sh*t ______s  Say meme covering a multitude of stereotypical target demographs. The first one was Sh*t my dad says on Twitter, which turned into a TV series and later Sh*t girls say on YouTube to finally explode  into a Sh*tload people say.  To reach birders it was very smart to play on this meme.
• I lost it. It flew. Many times the birds just are not where they just were. Gone!
• Can you see what color the legs are? Leg color can often give a clue to the identity of the species. Especially true for waders and gulls. But it may not be straight-forward to see the color due to poor light, mud or simply 10% of the male birders are red-green color blind.
• Whoa! May be something good. Most of the time it isn’t.
• 5:30. Crap! Yes, it is absolutely true. The early bird gets the early worm. Birds are most active at dawn. So you should try to get up as early as possible. Every birder knows this. Still hard to get out of bed.
• You see that green tree? The art of giving useful directions to where the bird is. Sometimes it is as hilarious as this. Variations of useless information are: It is over the water. It’s in the tree. Look where I am looking.  Take your pick.  Green laser pointers help nowadays for giving directions.
• Fairly common. Extinct. Fairly Extinct. The field guide tries to give you an indication how common the bird is. The self applied rules birders make (or rather should make) is that the common birds are more likely to see than the rare.  The problem is that the field guide does not know exactly where you are or what you see.  The last “fairly extinct” was the funny punch-line in case you missed that. If you did, skip the video back a few seconds and listen to it again in slow-motion. Did you get it now?
• Did you bring a Sibley’s. There are almost as many field guides as there are birds. Not really, but there are many. And one may ask, why would anyone have more than one field guide when they contain basically the same birds. However, some are more useful in the field than others. Others are so packed with information, large and heavy that they are best left in the car. So for comparison, many birders have a set of books with them for reference.  Here is list of the bird field guides seen or mentioned in the video – with corresponding (affiliate) Amazon-link and a short description about each.
  • National Geographic. It is the first which appear in the flick. A classic and very popular field guide published in many editions. When it came out it much replaced the use of Peterson’s, as it had text, plates and maps on the fold.
  • The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America is the most successful field guide in recent year. With marvelous paintings of the birds made by the author David Allen Sibley. It uses arrows and small text next to the paintings highlighting the field marks.
  • Peterson’s. The Peterson system with arrows pointing to the field marks revolutionized birding. There is a recent updated and improved edition of this classic
  • Stokes flashed by. A field guide based on photos.
  • Golden Field Guides The only one in this lot that includes sonograms of the calls which can be useful to try to learn the birdcalls.
  • Kaufman came up with a new concept. The birds from photographs had simply been cut out and placed on a clean neutral background.
  • Crossley GuideThe same technique Kaufman used was used by Crossley to produce a very different approach to birdbooks. In a background photo which represents the habitat birds from the same species in different plumages and postures are pasted into the photo scene. The result is beautiful.Which is your favorite field guide? Please make comments below in the comments section. Which one would you recommend to someone who just started birding.

   

• Give it five more minutes. Birders have lot of patience and dedication. And they never give up. Five more minutes is rarely just five more minutes, to constant irritation by non-birding spouses accompanying in the field.
• The third left after the cows. There are guides published how to get to the best birding areas as well. Sometimes they are  completely out of date and the landscape has changed. That field of cows may not be there when coming back in winter.
• You’ve got 8s? Constant discussion. 8x or 10x? 8s have better field of view and the viewing experience is brighter. But 10x adds more detail. Although 9s would be a good compromise, they are rarely encountered.
• Psh! Psh! Psh! Psh! – called pishing.  Pishing is supposed to bring the bird closer to the observer. It theory the sound is like alarm calls birds to. In reality there are three possible outcomes from pishing.
  1. The bird comes closer.
  2. The bird stays where it is.
  3. The bird is scared off. In spite of the odds, you often hear birders pishing. The ironic thing is that all that noise often ends in a Shhh – as in the video flick – telling everyone else who has been silent to shut up!
• Birding in the weirdest places.  Although birding among the trash cans in the back alleys is a bit weird, you should not be surprised to find birders in garbage dumps or sewage plants.  The places tend to attract gulls in large numbers.
• I just think we’d be better off if we were seeing other people, it’s just that.. oops… Notice that birders rarely finish a sentence if there are birds around. Birders are always subconsciously looking for birds, even when they are driving.
• This one is supposed to say “twee twee twee”… Field guides often try to describe the calls and songs of the birds. Often it comes out as confusing as this. Best way to learn birdcalls is listening to recordings while checking the field guide’s description of the call.
• Technically, we are not supposed to be here. Birders as a group have made many moves that could justify that comment. That could include tresspasing or call in as sick at work in order to see a rare bird.
• I’m hot. I’m cold. The weather is rarely just right for birders. It is most often too hot, too cold, too windy, too calm, too wet, too much rain, too dry, too much snow, too dark, too bright, etc to see or to find a specific bird.
• Dipped. Birder’s slang. When going to see a particular bird, especially a rare migrant that has showed up all of a sudden, and when getting to the site, you realize that the bird you looked for has moved on and can’t be re-fund, you dipped. You did not find what you looked for. You dipped.
• With special thanks to: This one is for you to figure out! To separate different species you often need to check the color and form of different parts of the bird.

Why sharing?

The more people that understand our hobby, the more new birders will emerge. And the more birders there is, ther more people there would be caring about  bird conservation and ensuring conservation green areas for birdwatching. The birdwatching lobby needs to become larger than the huntng lobby. We can do more good as a mainstream crowd than a marginal movements perceived as weirdos or nerds.  We are moving away from  such perception, but we need to move faster and we need to grow faster and stronger as a movement. This is a good opportunity  to do so.

Now you can share with non birders and make them understand. Remember, we put out a small contest in the last blogpost. Guess how many views the video will have by May 3 and win Jason Kessler’s Opposable Chums DVD. Please enter your guesses in the comment section of this blog (below) or on the  Birdingblogs Facebook page. Don’t forget to like the Facebook page. You have until April 12 to make guesses (yes we expanded the deadline).
Who can get most shares and likes on Facebook sharing this blogpost or the previous blogpost? Post a screenshot of your shared link from your Facebook profile on Birdingblogs Facebook page on before  May 1 (midnight Eastern Time). The winner will also win a dvd of Opposable Chums.  Don’t know how to make a screen-shot. Try this free program called Jing.

Just for the record: Did you share the video with birding friends and non birding friends? Did they like it? What was the most common reaction? Share your thoughts in the comment section below, and let us know if you are sharing this post or the video again.

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The other day I had an email asking why I haven’t written a post for some time. I was asked whether I’d stopped birding. Well no, I haven’t stopped birding. It is actually possible to go out birding without having to write a blogpost, Tweet or Facebook status update about it. So yes, I am still birding / twitching / birdspotting. I might even start writing about it again. Maybe even next week.

Anyway, I bring great news. My wife Sarah is pregnant. Apparently it’s mine as well. So three cheers for my testicles. Don’t worry, after it’s born in September I have absolutely no intention of telling you all about how I’m trying to juggle child raising with birding, and boring you shitless with pictures of my offspring with food all over its grubby little face. For me this is the most exciting and emotional thing to happen in my life since seeing the American Coot on Shetland in 2003 (yes, I really went to Shetland to see that American Coot), but I’m also fully aware that people have been having children for quite some time, about 350 years or something, so I guess it’s a bit passe.

See you soon. How about next Monday? Sounds good to me. Bring biscuits. I’ll bring a flask of tea. Or do you prefer coffee? Not a problem either way. Just let me know.Random Posts:

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Judging from the very few daring guesses, this was a real tough sound quiz.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I was quite surprised when I looked up to see that this nearly ultrasonic song was being given by a Rufous-breasted Wren, Pheugopedius rutilus. As a reminder, here is the song from last week:

And here is a more typical song, recorded earlier the same day, also at Carara National Park, Costa Rica:

And look at the sonogram – there is no overlap in frequencies between the two song types.

Of course, the questions I’d like answered are: What does this odd song type mean? Is it given frequently? Or is it an aberration? Wrens aren’t known to mimic (with the exception of the outlying genus Odontorchilus), so the one suggestion that this might be an imitation of Gray-crowned Yellowthroat probably isn’t the answer (and I don’t think Rufous-breasted Wrens often get a chance to hear them anyway.)

Anyway, here are a few more photos of some of the Carara National Park specialties that one might see on the same trail where Rufous-breasted Wrens are common.

Streak-chested Antpitta is shy and often missed here.

Black-throated Trogon is a classic forest mid-story trogon, clearly preferring to have solid canopy overhead.

Red-capped Manakin is common, but often displays on leks in the upper mid-story, well out of sight.

Photo at top: Rufous-breasted Wren in Panama by Francesco Veronesi, Flickr user name fveronesi1

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Mae Wong National Park, really became the hotspot for a couple of months with many cool birds showing super well… I’ll show you some…

Located between Kampaeng Phet and Nakorn Sawan provinces, Mae Wong covers about 900 km2 and is part of the western forest complex, said to be the largest remaining patch of forest in Thailand.
It has always been a birding hotspot, featuring many cool birds that are hard to fine elsewhere in the country, however it is  as well a pretty challenging type of location for bird-photography… I also hate the tons of biting sand-flies and leeches, so, I haven’t really spent much time up there during my years living here.

But well, destiny calls and that was drastically going to change during february, this year.
With a group of friends, in 2010 we had photographed a bit, the elusive and desired Rusty-naped Pitta, but this year, a beautiful and hungry pair showed so incredibly well, that forced me to travel there with no delays.

Rusty-naped Pitta by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

Amazingly, the Pitta wasn’t the best bird for me that time!… Nan, the friendly – smart Park Ranger on site, had been putting broken corn in a trail, attracting the uncommon Rufous-throated Partridge, which -by the way- was a lifer for me in this visit, although remained far away for the photo…

Rufous-throated Partridge by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

…and to make a happy story, perfect, a pair of Grey Peacock-Pheasant had started to enjoy that corn. That -my friends- that is a COOL bird that I’d wanted to photograph since I got to Asia! The first visit (Feb 03-04) only the female came to the spot, what forced a new trip (Feb 13-15) and this time… BINGO! the male made a great appearance to remind me and reaffirm why is it that I love doing what I do!

Grey Peacock-Pheasant - male by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

Grey Peacock-Pheasant - female by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

Nan had us another tiny but lovely surprise, as he pointed a spot where some quick and hard-to-get Lesser Shortwing where showing nicely and giving you flashes of few seconds to scramble a shot or two

Lesser Shortwing by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

A couple of good looking Flycatchers where also enjoying our mealworms

Rufous-browed Flycatcher by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

Hill Blue-Flycatcher by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011

…and a couple of Laughingthrushes, enjoyed the corn as well…

White-necked Laughingthrush by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

Black-throated Laughingthrush by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

Like if it wasn’t already a sweet birding tell, some amazing Silver-eared Mesia came to the feeding station the last morning… a fantastic little jewel indeed… one of my favorite birds in Thailand

Silver-eared Mesia by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

All this birds are gone now -most probably into breeding-, but February 2012 won’t be easy to forget as a magic time at Mae Wong National Park.

Rusty-naped Pitta - 2 by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

Sorry if have been absent for a while, as I got terribly ill… Felling better now, hope I can keep posting regularly again. Thanks everybody for your support.

Grey Peacock-Pheasant - male 2 by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2012

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To introduce my contribution this week I’ll post an audio challenge.

While leading my March Costa Rica tour this past week, I heard this unfamiliar vocalization which I recorded and tracked down. I was surprised when I saw the culprit. I have uploaded it as a mystery at Xeno-canto. Listen below and post your guesses in the comments section on this blog. It’s the very high repeated notes, not the Dusky Antbird in the background. It’s so high – the main part is between 11 and 12 kilohertz – that the sonogram automatically produced by the Xeno-Canto site cuts it off. It helps to have some German Shepherd in you ancestry to hear this, and most men over 55 will probably not have much luck in any event. Below the recording is an Audacity-generated sonogram that shows that there are actually five notes given in less than 1/2 second in each bout.

Besides mystery vocalizations, the Carara area is good for quite a few birds of open country and rain forest habitats. The trails pass by a couple different leks of the attractive Orange-collared Manakin.

Royal Flycatcher is a regular along the Laguna Meandrica trail, this year with an active nest right next to it.

We got lucky this year to be shown a pair of roosting Black-and-white Owls near the town of Tarcoles. For many years there was a pair easily seen in the central plaza of Orotina, but since the city trimmed the trees they haven’t been around.

We also happened upon this Panama Flycatcher in the mangroves – note the lack of rufous in the wings and tail and, the round, brown crown and face (no contrast), and the average-sized bill.

Photo at top: White-whiskered Puffbird is a regular but easily missed denizen in the denser forest mid-story at Carara National Park.

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Israel nightbirds

Daytime birding in Israel is as exciting as it gets in the WP. Migration in full swing, rarities being found every ten minutes, great birders from all over the world (many Finnsticks among them). But the real action begins when the sun goes down. Night birding is so full of adrenalin. The main reason is that we know so little about our nocturnal wildlife all over the world, and that’s why night animals are often called ‘mysterious’ or ‘enigmatic’. Watching and studying them is challenging, and so little is known about the ecology, status and distribution of nocturnal birds worldwide.

Nubian Nightjar

As part of my work, I am lucky to have the chance to study some of Israel’s best night birds. I monitor and study the critically endangered (in Israel) Nubian Nightjar (see top photo). This small nightjar has a wide distribution in E Africa, but our local subspecies tamaricis is on the verge of extinction. It is a pretty little nightjar, with a vivid rufous collar and nice buff tips to scapulars and wing coverts.

Egyptian Nightjar

We have another exciting nightjar going through Israel this time of year – the Egyptian Nightjar. It breeds in Northern Africa and in the arid parts of the Middle East. It does not breed regularly in Israel, but in March we see some Gippo Nightjars going through, probably to some remote parts of  Turkemanistan, Iran or southern Russia. They are much bigger and paler, have longer wings and have smaller eyes.

Hume’s Owl

One of the most difficult birds to see in Israel is the beautiful Hume’s Owl.  It breeds in remote parts of the Middle East, but is little known and seldom photographed. It is a beautiful owl of pale sandy colours. The dark triangle on its forehead is typical of Strix owls. I was fortunate enough to photograph this very inquisitive male at point-blank range last month:

Tomorrow I will be heading down for the 6th Eilat Bird Festival – a great event. This year we will be joined by Martin Garner. I will post here my experiences and images after I get back next week, and hopefully during the festival on my blog.

Top photo: Nubian Nightjar by Yoav Perlman

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This is too funny – if you are a birder!

This is just too funny by Jason Kessler of Opposable Chums fame.

This is a great video of the strange and somewhat contradictory talk of birders. You shall recognize this if you are a birder – or if you know a birder just a little too well.

Here are some great lines:
“See that green tree over there!”
“You’ve got 10s, I’ve got 8s, I can’t use 10s”
“fairly common, extinct, fairly extinct”
“Someone’s got a Peterson? Someone’s brought a Sibley’s? You’ve brought Crossley’s?”

What are your favorite quotes from birders? Tell us in the comment section below please.

Interview with Jason Kessler

The Internet is amazing. I befriended Jason on Facebook as soon as I saw the video and asked if he would consider do an interview. That was yesterday. The video had around 250 views in 4 hours or so. Now, as I write this it has been viewed 6000 times in two days.

Gracefully, Jason accepted to do the interview.

Who is Jason Kessler?

I’m a birder and filmmaker, though not necessarily in that order.  My most recent documentary, “Opposable Chums: Guts & Glory at The World Series of Birding”  is about the world’s foremost competitive birding events, and it was a blast to make.  In between going broke making my own films, I earn a living making films and videos for New York fashion designers, a gig I’ve held down for far longer than I care to admit.

How did you come up with the idea to the videoflick?

A little too much down time these days…

Can we expect any more birding videos from you?

Yup.  I’ve got some definite plans, but if I talk about them now, then I have to do them, so I’m leaving myself a graceful exit in the form of plausible deniability.

What are your best birding experiences?

Too many to mention, like most of us I suppose.  One incredible day in Cape May, NJ.  One incredible day in High Island, Texas.  One incredible day in Central Park, NYC.  Or perhaps the day, last week, when a Barred Owl sat on a branch twenty feet away at eye level and posed for as long as I cared to watch.  I even went back to my car to retrieve a video camera and shoot the bird.  It was still there in my rear view mirror as I finally drove away.  A rare luxury indeed…

Tell us more about the film about the World Series of Birding.

Filming a WSB was far more intense than participating in one. I was out in the field for much more than 24 hours, and fielding three other crews as well. This doesn’t include the intense planning stages that preceded the event.

At one point during The Day, I decided that, as much fun as I was having, I was about ready for it to be over. I looked at my watch; it was 8am.

Big days and bird races like WSB sounds like madness? Are they?

Big Days are GREAT ways to popularize birding. They get a lot of press, and can really draw attention and money to local conservation issues.

Were you a birder then….or more of a filmmaker shooting an interesting topic.

Top photo: Screenshot from the video. Note the lens caps!

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