Chiapas: La Sepultura, The Finale

As a reader, many of you are thinking I should be done with blog posts on this one day field trip!  Well, it was so special that if I tried to make it all one post, most would have gotten bored very quickly when reading it due to the shear length.  So this will be my third and final blog post on this remarkable day.

We left the pond and traveled just a short distance up the road where we stopped to try for another bird that had been located during scouting trips.  But along the way, I had the opportunity to view some Blue-black Grassquits.  This is a bird I had seen on the El Ocote trip, but since that day was probably my worst day of birding, this time I got to see them and enjoy them and actually get some photos of them.  They are definitely blue/black!!!

 Blue-black Grassquit

 Blue-black Grassquit

Blue-black Grassquit

Now back to the bird we were going to try finding, a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl.  It was found before our gathering and was found on most of the other trips.  I think it was missed on one trip.  It took a while but it finally called from a distance and it eventually moved close to the road.  This is one of the rarest owls to find in Arizona, but they are fairly common in Chiapas.  A very limited range in Arizona, usually near the Organ Pipe National Monument and access to that area has been sketchy in the past.  I still want to try locating one in Arizona, but that will have to wait until my retirement becomes effective and when I have more time to devote to bird trips.  These owls are small at a little under 7" in length and can go undetected very easily.

 Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

From there, we moved up the road a few miles and then traveled down a dirt road that was lined with small ponds of water and trees that were covered in heavy vegetation.  We had to be near some open water as the sky was filled with many water birds including Magnificent Frigatebirds.  This is an unmistakable bird in flight with its long forked tail and long, thin wings.  They are sometimes known as pirates of the sea as they will often harass other birds in flight hoping the other birds will disgorge anything they have eaten, then the frigatebirds will swoop down and catch the regurgitated spoils in flight.  

 Magnificent Frigatebird - Male

 Magnificent Frigatebird - Female

Magnificent Frigatebird - most likely a juvenile male

At one point we actually witnessed one harassing a Great Egret.  Don't think it had any luck in its quest to get a meal, but it was really a neat experience to watch.  Unfortunately, it was a bit too far for great photos, but I had to try and capture some of the action.

 Magnificent Frigatebird & Great Egret

Another life bird that I got to add to my list was the Wood Stork as one was flying over.  I really want to see this bird better than a fly-over and will probably have to make trip to the Gulf Coast to do so.  We also had a fly over Anhinga but it was a bit further away and I had trouble getting it into focus on my camera.

Wood Stork

Finally our day was drawing to an end and as we walked up the dirt road to our van, I heard a chip note in the roadside bushes that sounded a lot like the single chip note of the Verdin that is so common in Arizona, but I knew it was not.  Kind of an unexpected last minute new life bird for us was the Stripe-headed Sparrow.  A rather large sparrow with a large bill and quite attractive at that.

Stripe-headed Sparrow

With this last planned trip, our tours had come to an end, but Chris and I had extended our stay for 2 additional days while most of the crowd headed home.  And I am very glad we did (it was Chris's idea in the first place) as we got more photos and a few more birds on our own.  I have a couple more blog posts planned and they will have some more cool birds included.

Chiapas: La Sepultura Again! Reaching 600 After Hitting 500 Only 5 Days Earlier

After finding the really cool buntings earlier in the day along the road, we then got a bit of a rest before reaching our next destination that was just a few miles from the Pacific Coast.  Once again, we have to thank our fantastic guides, Francesca Albini and Matt Hale, as they had led this trip a couple times earlier and had scouted this area in advance.  Our 'hot spot' for the next stop was a small roadside pond in the grassland coastal plains.  Had I been driving on this road, it could have beeDn easily overlooked and I might have driven right by.  But our guides knew better!

Just a short 5 days before, I had talllied my 500th bird the Altamira Oriole on my first day in Tuxtla and as I got off the van at this small roadside pond, my lifelist stood at 598.  The first bird that caught my eye at this pond was the Bare-throated Tiger-Heron giving me my 599th bird.  My next bird was the Northern Jacana which was a new milestone and my 600th bird.  In all I added 8 new birds to my life list at this pond alone.  

We will start out with the Bare-throated Tiger-Heron which caught my eye immediately due to how big it was.  What a great looking bird!  We observed 2 of them for some time; sometimes posing, sometimes crouching for the hunt, and at least once acting a little silly like it was sunning itself.

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

The Northern Jacana did not want to look me in the eye, but that was OK with me as getting photo of one with its wings spread was a quite impressive sight.  They are gorgeous and a great bird for number 600.

Northern Jacana

We also had the fortune of finding 2 species of seedeaters as well; the White-collared Seedeater and the Ruddy-breasted Seedeater.  The White-collared was definitely a bit more cooperative than the Ruddy-breasted, but seeing both and observing their behavior was very enjoyable and educational.

White-collared Seedeater

Ruddy-breasted Seedeater - Male & Female

In one respect this place was no different than many of the other spots we had visited; we had to have some species of flycatchers.  And our newest flycatcher was a really cool looking one, with a funny name; the Common Tody-Flycatcher.  With its long and flat bill, yellow throat, breast and belly, and then those awesome light yellow eyes, this is a cool looking flycatcher.

 Common Tody-Flycatcher

One more bird that visited this same tree was the Rose-throated Becard.  This bird appears in almost all the US bird guides as it has been seen in extreme southern Texas and extreme southern Arizona.  I think it has been several years since the last report in Arizona, but I do know that a nest had been found in northern Sonora, Mexico only about 50 miles southeast of Nogales, Arizona.  I was always hoping that some day one would show up in AZ and if it did I was going to probably chase it.  We actually had a pair show up; a male and a female.

 Rose-throated Becard - Male

 Rose-throated Becard - Female

Rose-throated Becard - Male

One final new life bird to add to this post is the Giant Wren, another endemic where its range is found only in Chiapas along the Pacific Coast.  This is very unlike most wrens, first because of its large size and secondly, it is decked out in solid colors instead of speckled like most other wrens.  While they did not approach real close for great photos, I can say that we also discovered one of their nests at a distance, so that makes up for it.  This was another cool bird!

 Giant Wren

Giant Wren

Even with all the new birds I got to add to my list and even finally getting some photographs, I did see a few familiar faces among these new birds, such as Tropical Kingbird, Crested Caracara, and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks; all of which can be found in Arizona.

 Tropical Kingbird

 Crested Caracara

Crested Caracara

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

During this entire time we were thoroughly entertained with some Caiman that inhabited this small pond as well.

 Caiman

This day is not yet complete.  Stay tuned, there will be one more post on this fabulous day of birding and great company.

Chiapas: La Sepultura

Our fifth and last field trip had arrived, a journey to the southwestern part of the state of Chiapas.  This journey was labelled La Sepultura due to the fact that we were going to travel through and skirt the edges of the La Sepultura Biosphere on our way to the Pacific coastal grasslands and plains.  This was going to be a totally different habitat experience for us.  I was feeling much better this day and when our group assembled in the early morning, we discovered that instead of 9 or 10 participants, we had dwindled down to 4 participants and we has 2 leaders!!!  Now this was going to be some serious birding!  Fewer people can sometimes lead to better views and sightings.  Our original group consisted of Chris, myself, Mark Davidson, from Canada, and Helen from the UK.  Helen did not attend that last two field trips.  The other group that was assigned to this adventure this day was a team of 5, but only one of them joined us, Tom. Our awesome leaders were Francesca Albini and Matt Hale.  We were in for a real treat. 

Once we left the city of Tuxtla, we had to travel through an area of mountains and it was along this road that we made a couple of stops for some target birds, the first being the much sought after 'Rosita's' Bunting.  Recently the name of this bird has been changed to Rose-bellied Bunting.  Definitely does not have the ring to it like Rosita's Bunting.  Personally, I like the old name of Rosita's Bunting better.  I had seen photos and illustrations of this bird many times and always was hoping that some day, I would be lucky enough to see one in its natural habitat.  Our guides knew exactly where to find them and all of us got great views of them and heard several of them singing.

I think most will agree that this is one very sexy looking bird.  I have to apologize for so many photos, but it is hard to ignore this bird when you see it for the first time.

 Rose-bellied (Rosita's) Bunting

Russet-crowned Motmots were also quite numerous and even though I had seen and photographed this bird a couple of times before, when opportunity presents itself, one has to take advantage of the situation and I ended up with probably one of my better photos of this really cool bird.  They have a very curious behavior of wagging their tails from side to side which is a bit reminiscent of a metronome.  

Russet-crowned Motmot

After enjoying the bunting and the motmots and a couple of other cool birds, we hopped back into our van and headed a bit further down the road to search for another stunning bunting; the Orange-breasted Bunting. This was another drop dead gorgeous bird.  It is hard to decide which one was the most beautiful and it just seemed to be such a coincidence that both of these stunners are found in almost the identical habitat and could be found together.  

 Orange-breasted Bunting

The grand finale in this brief stretch of mountain road, we also had the fortune of seeing and hearing another endemic bird to this area; Sumichrast's Sparrow.  This is another bird that has undergone a name change and it is now know as the Cinnamon-tailed Sparrow, and once again, I like the original name of Sumichrast's Sparrow much better.  Another bird that has a very small range on the Pacific slope of the Isthmus of Mexico.  This bird was very stubborn in showing itself and when it did, it knew that if it had the sun to its back it could see us much better, just like we can see them much better with the sun to OUR backs.  This makes photography difficult with a back lit sky.  Plus they seemed to like perching high in the trees which also made viewing a bit of a challenge.

Cinnamon-tailed (Sumichrasts's) Sparrow

What an exciting beginning to an awesome day.  From here we ventured down to the lower elevations and the flat grasslands near the Pacific coast and near the small seaside town of Puerto Arista.  The continuation of this spectacular day will have to be covered in probably 2 more blog posts which will follow in the next few days.