Areas Birded:  Between Veracruz City and Lake Catemaco and around Mexico City.

 

Dates:   Various dates between December 17th and December 31st, 2004.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

My wife and I took our third birding trip in Mexico.  This time we visited Veracruz in December of 2004.  We did our birding primarily in the Lake Catemaco area in the Tuxtla Mountains.  Some birding was also done in Veracruz City and between the latter and Lake Catemaco and also in the Mexico City area.  We arrived in Mexico City on December 17th and returned to our home, in Boxford, Massachusetts, on January 2nd, 2005.

 

As usual, I only list the birds that I am quite certain I identified correctly.  Many others were seen but were not identified.

 

Preparing for the trip:    We flew to Houston and then to Mexico City via Continental.  They still have food service on the plane but didn’t have a diaper change table in their bathroom for our two year old.  We booked via the web with Alamo rent a car in Veracruz for four days.  See more below about why I’m hesitant to use them again, even though the two times we dealt with them in Oaxaca we had a very good experience.

 

For background reading, once again we made use of the wonderful ‘A Bird-Finding Guide to Mexico’ by Steve Howell.  For north american birds we used the big and superb book of D. Sibley while, for mexican birds, we used the bigger and equally superb book ‘A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America’ by Steve Howell and Sophie Webb.   We spent a good deal of time with the latter, making up a list of possible birds.

 

In Mexico City we stayed at my in-laws home and borrowed their car while in Veracruz City we stayed with relatives a couple of nights and at the Holiday Inn a couple of nights.  The Holiday Inn was fine and reasonably priced.  In Lake Catemaco we stayed at Playa Azul (294-943-0001 or 229-984-0378).  They had a problem with their phone the first night and had only one tv channel, but the room was fine.  As the weekend grew closer, the noise got louder but never too bad. 

 

The weather in Veracruz was reasonable although it rained hard one afternoon and was overcast a good part of the time.

 

MEXICO CITY

 

We were in Mexico City from December 17 to December 20 and from December 27 to January 2.

 

My wife’s family lives in Colonia Unidad Modelo, which is quite well within the city limits.  They have a small garden.  There is an strip of land along the road in front of their house that held a good number of trees and bushes and tall grass.  It now has some of the trees and short grass so it is a little less birdy.  In addition to keeping an occassional eye on the garden, I also spent a couple hours walking around the neigborhood looking for birds.  Seen in the garden:  house finch, wilson’s warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, bewick’s wren.  Seen around the neighborhood:   house finch, house sparrow, song sparrow, canyon towhee, rufous-backed thrush, yellow-rumped warbler, nashville warbler, bewick’s wren, broad-billed hummingbird, white-eared hummingbird, inca dove, rock dove, abeillei oriole.  Also heard an unidentified thrush singing from a yard, possibly caged.

 

On December 29th I went to Bosque del Tlalpan, from 10:45 to 3:45, seeing 37 species, almost all of them in the first three hours.  This was my third trip and my previous two trips were very satisfying.  I made sure to go on a weekday and was intent on taking a look at the part of the park which is to the left of the entrance and reached by going uphill on the left side of the park and then hanging a left.  The area is referred to as Tenantongo and although Howell recommends it I had not visited it before, having visited the part of the park reached by going straight up from the entrance, or to the right.  I spent a total of 5 hours at the park, the first three spent in the Tenantongo part.  In fact, I went to the end of the road in the Tenantongo part, took a rock path that went a little to the left and then took a trail through the grass which wrapped around a hill and made essentially a complete circle.  On the back part, behind the hill, the hill is to your right and to your left, not far from the trail, are walls of houses.  Here I saw, while at this point on the trail, relaxing and sitting on a rock:  nashville warbler, black-throated gray warbler, black and white warbler, wilson’s warbler, townsend’s warbler, olive warbler, orange-crowned warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, rufous-capped warbler, slate-throated redstart, blue-grey gnatcatcher, scrub jay, black-headed grosbeak, blue mockingbird, gray silky, ruby-crowned kinglet, audubon oriole (clearly seen and a little out of it’s range, which is a good ways east and west of here).  The warblers, ten species of which I was able to identify, came in two waves and slowly worked their way through the treesand bushes.  This was the largest quantity of warblers I have seen to date.  The blue mockingbird was my first of two lifers this visit to the park and I really caught my breath when I heard and saw him in a large vertical bush not far from me.  He stuck around while I observed him for several minutes and I saw him again later.  Making my way slowly over to the right hand side of the park I saw:  western kingbird, buff-breasted flycatcher, rufous-crowned sparrow, lincoln’s sparrow, berryline hummingbird, american robin, bush tit, cedar waxwing, bewick’s wren, white-eared hummingbird, abeillei oriole, western tanager, dusky, flycatcher, willow flycatcher, inca dove, house finch.  The dusky flycatcher was calling which allowed me to identify this lifer.  On the right hand side of the park I saw rufous-capped brushfinch and curve-billed thrasher.  I had seen these two species on my earlier visits and was happy to see them again.  I took a trail which runs level, on the right side of the park, along some power lines and in the direction of some large apartment buildings. On my previous two trips I had seen ‘waves’ of warblers on the right hand side, but this time didn’t see any.  On exiting the park I saw a yellow-bellied sapsucker and house sparrows.

 

On December 31st we headed out to Paseo de Cortes, a road which brings you up the middle of the Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes, with the pavement stopping at the summit of the saddle between these two snow-laden mountains.  Howell describes this area as Site 8.3 and it sounded appetizing.  While he advises against going on weekends and although the 31st was a Friday, it was the last day of the year.  However, traffic was quite sparse.  We used Howell’s directions for the most part.  In Amecameca you go straight through the center of the town, around the glorietta or bandstand.  As you continue on it is, as Howell says, about 2km to a large road which goes to the left.  However, it was not signed paseo de cortes, but rather Tlamacas.  It took us about 1 ½ hours to get from my in-laws home in Mexico City to this branch.  You then take the road to the left and keep going, staying to the left when there is a fork in the road after a little ways.  You pass through a little city and keep going to where the forest starts: til this point it is pretty much corn fields.  As the forest started we encountered a gate with a couple soldiers.  I overhead them speaking with the car in front of me about ‘palomas’ and the car made a u-turn and left.  When asked what we were doing I stated we were looking for some birds that were in the mountains, and not found down below, holding up my binoculars and Howell and Webb book.  He asked if we wanted to go to ‘palomas’, apparently a site gotten to by taking a dirt road to the right after the barrier.  I said no and he lifted up the gate and let us through!   On the road below the gate, through the corn area, we had seen great-tailed grackle, western bluebird, house sparrow and loggerhead shrike.  The bluebirds were on top of a cone-shaped arrangement of corn.  The shrike was actually closer to Chalco than Amecameca and was on a utility wire.  We slowly worked our way up the hill.  The birds we saw were, for the most part, on the sides of the roads and there was one good sized wave that we saw.  We saw:  yellow-rumped warbler, hairy woodpecker, ruby-crowned kinglet, orange-crowned warbler, red warbler, red-tailed hawk, yellow-eyed junco, rufous-capped brushfinch, gray silky, robin, rufous sided towhee, buff breasted flycatcher, blue-throated hummingbird, russett nightingale thrush, ruddy-capped nightingale thrush.  We were surprised at how many nightingale thrushes we saw and were able to distinguish the two due to some being out in the sunlight.  The brushfinchs were also a treat as I’ve usually only seen them skulking from within some brush.  I imagine the red warblers will always cause my heart to jump:  like a ruby in an emerald and quite cooperative.  I wonder if these little guys paid any attention to Cortes as he made his way in to Mexico City to do battle with the Aztecs?

 

 

VERACRUZ

 

We travelled to the city of Veracruz on the 20th of December: my wife, daughter, mother in-law and myself.  When travelling with a non-birder I don’t really keep an eye out for birds and pull over when somethings looks interesting: only if it looks really interesting.  Given this, we didn’t take in too many birds en route.  The trip was something like five hours on the toll highway, with the tolls coming out to about forty dollars.  We saw:

turkey vulture, black vulture, cattle egret, kestrel and great-tailed grackle. 

 

Around the city streets in Veracruz City we saw:  yellow warbler, orange-crowned warbler, mockingbird, social flycatcher, clay-colored robin.  The clay-colored robin was seen at the restaurant El Rincon de Oaxaca (The Corner of Oaxaca).  There was one in a cage and one outside the cage apparently visiting the former.  Needless to say, we got excellent looks and also heard the bird singing a good deal.

 

While staying in Veracruz City we also went to the beach a couple of times where we saw:  laughing gull, willet, royal tern and sanderling.  The laughing gulls were by far the most numerous.

 

Las Barrancas

 

On December 21 we headed south out of Veracruz City en route to Las Barrancas, leaving our two year old daughter with our mother in law and relatives in Veracruz City.  The weather was mild.  We took the highway near the beach in town and when we got out of town we saw where route 180 started.  We thought it started in the center of town but it appears to start on the southern part of town.  Like Howell says, the dirt road at Las Barrancas that one is advised to bird along heads towards the see and is a left turn off of route 180 between kilometer posts 19 and 20.  But nowhere did we saw, while on the dir road, any signs of a previous railroad bed.  What was really something is that there seems to be no other public road around that you can turn off onto.  I  hope they don’t close this road.  On the way to las barrancas, along route 180, we saw:  frigatebird, kestrel, say’s phoebe, cliff swallow, fork-tailed flycatcher, white-collared swift, belted kingfisher, brown pelican.  When we got to las barrancas we spent a couple hours on the road, driving slowly and stopping when birds were seen.  We peered into the marshes that were on the north side of the road.  The aplomado falcon was sitting on a pole about thirty yards from the road.  After going a while on the road we made a u-turn and I was looking on the south side of the road to where a couch’s kingbird had flown and spotted, somewhat behind a bush from my angle, two double-striped thick-knees, one keeping an eye out and the other resting.  The falcon and these guys were a reall highlight.  We saw 15 species: green heron, kiskadee, little blue heron, killdeer, couch’s kingbird, groove-billed anni, savannah sparrow, caracara, jacana, aplomado falcon, great blue heron, great egret, double-striped thick-knee, wilson’s warbler, tree swallow.

 

Lake Catemaco and Sontecomapan

 

After our stop at Las Barrancase we were feeling pretty good and headed back on the road to Lake Catemaco; specifically, Playa Azul Hotel.   We stopped at a restaurant at the beginning of the twon of Lerdo de Tejadas on the main highway which had good food.  On the trip to Lake Catemaco we saw:  roadside hawk, laughing falcon, brown pelican, rock dove, white-facted ibis, yellow-fronted woodpecker, tri-colored heron, magnificent frigatebird.  There are some places  near Alvarado where you can drive a very short dirt road over the little hill separating the highway from the ocean.  The laughing falcon was a lifer and was just perched nicely on a leafless tree a ways off the highway.

 

We arrived at the hotel with about an hour to go before the light was too poor to bird anymore.  The hotel was adequate, with a full restaurant.  We stayed for three nights and did a little birding around the grounds, where we saw:  yellow-throated euphonia, royal tern, golden-crowned warbler, tri-colored heron, great egret, hooded warbler, melodious blackbird, belted kingfisher, spotted sandpiper, plain chachalaca.   The pair euphonias we saw just as they were going to bed it appeared.  During the course of our stay we also took a look at the lake from the shore other than at the hotel and saw:  least grebe, lesser scaup, roadside hawk.  There were about a dozen least grebes and fifty or more of the scaup, with the grebes and scaup viewed from the downtown catemaco shoreline.

 

Our first morning at Catemaco we got up at 5:30 and at 6:30 headed to La Jungla, which is quite close, about 15-20 minutes, using the directions in Howell (3 ½ hours, 34 species).  We looked at the Arroyo Agrio bottling plant before stopping at La Jungla, but there was a gate and we didn’t feel too comfortable going over it.  It was still not good lighting when we got to La Jungla.  We parked outside and walked the road all the way to the shoreline.  We birded the shoreline area, which was productive, for a while and then made our way back.  At the entrance to La Jungla it says it is 40 pesos for nature viewing.  At the shoreline there is a nice grass area with trees in which you can camp at.  It’s really quite nice.  And while there are trees there, some have been removed so there is good lighting for birding.  While birding in the camping/shoreline area we were approached and asked to pay the 40 pesos each, and were given two proof of payment slips.  We have birded in jungle before, but on a hillside where there are often spots that light can get through due to the angle.  But on the road at La Jungla it was dark most of the time and the one big wave of birds we saw was tough to get good looks at.  We saw: brown jay, hooded warbler, wilson’s warbler, northern waterthrush, wood thrush, white-bellied wood wren, red-throated ant tanager, rose-breasted grosbeak, golden-crowned woodpecker, montezuma’s oropendula, redstart, kiskadee, social flycatcher, coot, baltimore oriole, catbird, yellow-breasted chat, lesser greenlet, yellow warbler, jacana, ringed kingfisher, least grebe, great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, common moorhen, osprey, plain chachalaca, collared aracari, neotropical cormorant, cedar waxwing, black-throated green warbler, yellow-throated warbler, grey-crowned yellowthroat.  The hooded warblers were easily seen and quite curious.  Wood thrush was seen a few times. The oropendulas were quite active and noisy and the aracaris were seen just as we were leaving, near the paved road.  The grey-crowned yellowthroat was seen in deep grass to the right of the water slide as you’re looking at the lake.

 

After La Jungla we drove a ways around the lake, to Tebanca, where Bastonal is.  We were in a Volkswagon Jetta and weren’t sure if we could give a shot to going up the mountain.  But when we got to Tebanca it was clear we didn’t have a chance at trying.  About half way to Tebanca is Coyame, a village which has a bottled water, and flavored soda, plant.  You can buy their products in stores around the area.  We turned around, drove back by La Jungla and wound up where, in the morning, there is a fork to go to La Jungla or to Sontecomapan.  We now turned onto the branch to Sontecomapan.  We took a look at the only candidate road to Ejido Vista Hermosa, mentioned in Howell, and it didn’t look doable in our Jetta.  We drove into Sontecomapan and were greeted by some children in the street asking if we wanted to go on lanchas, or boats, in the lagoon.  I stated we wanted to go with Ismael, who is mentioned in Howell, and one of the children’s father was Ismael.  We met Ismael and indicated we wanted to see sungrebe.  He said to come back early in the morning when the tide will be low and they will be easier to see.  We planned on being back at the dock between 6:30 and 7am and ate lunch at the restaurant next to the dock.

 

After lunch we decided to go to La Barra de Sontecomapan.  This is where the lagoon meets the sea.  To get there we proceeded as in Howell.  We took the main street which turns to dirt just after the town.  You then keep going on a quite rough dirt road, crossing two little bridges over little rivers and then you cross a larger bridge over a larger river, after which you will take a right hand turn right after the bridge and proceed to the ocean.  The third bridge is made of metal and has grooves in it while the first two are concrete.  None of them are very large.  We took our time after making the right turn and birded this stretch of road on the way to the beach and back and also birded some on the beach, while also enjoying a shrimp cocktail there.  As is the case often in Mexico, you may get the feeling the beach is private, but you can park at the end of the road, making sure not too black anybody, and just walk alongside the restaurants to the beach.  On the way out the day was winding down, but there was really no sign of darkness, and at one point on the road we saw three raptors perched in three different trees, with good simultaneous views from the road.  We saw 25 species, some of them very much enjoyed:  sanderling, black-necked stilt, aplomado falcon, caracara, laughing falcon, frigatebird, pale-billed woodpecker, golden-fronted woodpecker, yellow-throated warbler, gray-crowned yellowthroat, indigo bunting, yellow-rumped warbler, laughing gulls, great-tailed grackle, black vultures, brown jay, snowy egret, great blue heron, cattle egret, little blue heron, hook-billed kite, white-tailed kite, altamira oriole, band-backed wren, bare-throated tiger heron.  Be sure to scan the marshes on the side of the road between the third bridge and the barra; this is where we saw the tiger heron.  The black-necked stilts were seen in a farm pond by a house.  We then made our way to Hotel Playa Azul.

 

On December 23, 2004, we got up at about 5:15am and made it to Laguna Sontecomapan at about 6:40, after leaving the hotel at 6 and not driving very fast.  The boat dock is, again, in the center of this small town and the road is paved all the way until the end of the town.  Ismael got us out on the lagoon at 7:00 and we went up one of the rivers, came back to the lagoon and checked out a birdy sandbar, and then took another river. On the second river, we were stopped after some ways by a downed tree that Ismael knew about and relaxed near it for about 20 minutes.  During this period is when the two toucans flew in and perched with excellent views!  The whole trip was 3 hours and Ismael asked and got 500 pesos.  Ismael is the only boatsman there that knows the birds and when/if he retires it will be a considerable loss.  We got a sungrebe on the first river: what a beautiful/cute water bird!  We also got one on the second river.  Ismael was helpful in not only knowing where/how to find the sungrebes but in having a keen, unaided, eye for birds.  We saw:  ringed kingfisher, amazon kingfisher, grey-headed kite, common black hawk, masked tityra, limpkin, sungrebe, roadside hawk, redstart, red billed pigeon, northern waterthrush, white ibis, neotropical cormorant, brown pelican, osprey, yellow-crowned night-heron, pale-billed woodpecker, grey-fronted woodpecker, keel-billed toucan, montezuma’s oropendula, squirrel cuckoo, violaceous trogon, laughing gull, great blue heron, blue heron, cattle egret, great egret.  There were also a few flybys by parrots but we couldn’t id them as they were fast and the sky somewhat overcast.  The yellow-crowned night herons were seen on the second river and there were many: fifty and possibly more.  We also saw a racoon.  Afterwords we had breakfast at the restaurant by the dock and it wasn’t as good as the lunch we had the day before.

 

After breakfast we headed down the dirt road out of town in the direction of La Barra de Sontecomapan but didn’t turn right after the third bridge but, instead, went straight up into the hills with the road being just barely good enough to get up it with the Jetta, albeit at a snails pace at times.  We were headed to the UNAM Biological Station to get in some tropical mountain birding.  We made the mistake of popping our heads into the building areas.  Two guards said everyone was on vacation and we couldn’t walk on the trails.  We thought about going anyways but they actually left the buildings and were following us at a distance.  From what it seemed you had to go onto the station grounds to access the trails.  So we decided to forget about it.  We continued just a little bit on the dirt road, going downhill now, and took the turn to Laguna Escondida.  It was raining lightly but got heavy now and their was a large downhill portion of the road, at which point we turned around.  We got back on the main dirt road and continued heading to the ocean, which brought us to Montepio.  The road between the station and Montepio is fairly nice.  The rain also let us somewhat.  On the road from the station to Montepio we saw 16 species:  yellow-throated vireo, ruddy ground-dove, black-throated green warbler, black-headed saltator, grey hawk, violaceous trogon, rose-throated becard, baltimore oriole, band-backed wren, yellow-winged tanager, hooded warbler, redstart, kiskadee, roadside hawk, masked tityra, catbird.  By this point we had seen a good deal of hooded warblers and they were all quite curious, responding to pishing.

 

The road in Montepio ends at the beach, where we saw, after walking a little north where there is a little bay/lagoon: laughing gull, franklin’s gull, royal tern, sandwich tern, common tern, forster’s tern, osprey, black-necked stilt, willet, spotted sandpiper.  We asked the owner of a small restaurant on a corner of the main road, just near the beach, if there was another way to get back to Catemaco.  He gave us a local map and showed how we could go along the coast, on what turned out to be a nice highway, and then go west and hook back up onto the highway from Veracruz to Catemaco, not far from San Andres Tuxtla.  We ‘ran into’ two sugar cane trucks and it took a while to pass them, but otherwise the trip was fine.  We stopped in the latter city to pick up a few cigars at a cigar factory on the main highway.  From Montepio to the main highway to Catemaco we saw:  caracara, red-billed pigeon, aplomado falcon, groove-billed anni.

 

On December 24 we checked out of Hotel Playa Azul and headed towards Veracruz, with a planned stop at Las Barrancas again.  En route to Las Barrancas we saw:  black-necked stilt, greater yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs, killdeer, jacana, white ibis, white-faced ibis, eurasian collared dove, roadside hawk, osprey, great blue heron and some unid’d peeps (little sandpipers).  The Eurasian Collared-Doves are not in Howell and Webb.  We saw them south of Alvarado, perched on a wire and got really good looks at them.

 

Las Barrancas

 

While eager to get back to Veracruz City to see our daughter and relatives we stopped at Las Barrancas for a couple of hours.  This stop was, we were surprised, even better than our first.  It helps to really try to look over the land near the road and into the marshes that, in some cases, are a ways away from the road.  We also tried the road that veers to the right and didn’t find it very productive with the exception that we saw an aplomado on the ground very close to the road.  Again it was basically birding from the car except when we saw a wave of birds in some bushes near the car and decided to get out to walk the road a bit; we saw in this wave three male painted buntings, a rose-throated becard, white-collared seedeater and others.  On the way out, with about a kilometer to go to the highway, a group of about a half-dozen birds flushed from the side of the road, showing yellow.  One perched on a wire and we got excellent looks at a grassland yellow-finch, one of the couple of species we were hoping to see.  We saw 23 species:  vermillion flycatcher, yellow-throated warbler, aplomado falcon, kestrel, roadside hawk, tree swallow, northern rough-winged swallow, yellow-crowned night-heron, great blue heron, great egret, cattle egret, rose-throated becard, palm warbler, meadowlark, green heron, little blue heron, savannah sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler, fork-tailed flycatcher, painted bunting, eastern peewee, grassland yellow-finch, white-collared seedeater.

 

Ruins

 

What’s a trip to Mexico without seeing some ruins?  Between our return from Catemaco and our trip back to Mexico City, we decided to spend a day ruin-trekking, on December 26.  The star ruin of Veracruz has got to be El Tajin, but it is a bit too far of a trek north for this trip.  So we decided to check out Quiahuiztlan and Cempoala.  The former is not touristy and resides on an interesting mountain/hill with great views of the ocean and some bird filled lagoons near the sea which we didn’t bird, while the latter is on flat ground, touristy, not birdy, but interesting nevertheless.   Quiahuiztlan is about 1 ½ hours north of Veracruz at most, and Cempoala is even closer.   Both sites play a role in the arrival of Veracruz and my understanding si that both are Totonaca, an indigenous peoples from which Cortez got a good deal of help in fighting Moctezuma.  A few birds at Quiahuiztlan went unid’d, but we did see:  cardinal, blue-gray gnatcatcher, indigo bunting, bell’s vireo, brown jay, eastern phoebe, groove billed anni, white-collared seedeater, black-throated green warbler, yellow-bellied flycatcher, wilson’s warbler, clay-colored sparrow.  At Cempoala we saw white-collared swifts.  Remember: ruins and museums are closed on Mondays in Mexico.

 

 

Sidenote on Veracruz: 

In talking to some folks from Veracruz it seems that the passing of drugs through Veracruz to the USA is increasing.  Indeed, when we went to La Barra de Sontecomapan we were stopped by three vehicles of soldiers who ‘registered’ our rented Jetta.  Basically, they just want to know what you’re doing and they will take a look at the car, possibly looking in the trunk and glovebox.  They were friendly, so we didn’t get very stressed.  Another item which we heard about is the increasing number of persons from Chiapas going to Veracruz to escape poverty.  We were told that a large percentage of the persons selling/performing in the streets are from Chiapas.

 

Here is our list of 167 species.  Somewhere, I can’t recall where, we also saw a group of vaux’s swift flying around.  Tweny five species were new for us; and are in red.  Eleven of the species are endemic to Mexico and northern Central America and are in bold.

 

 

PODICIPEDIDAE

                least grebe

PELICANIDAE

                brown pelican

PHALACROCORACIDAE

                neotropical cormorant

FREGATIDAE

                magnificent frigatebird

ARDEIDAE

                bare-throated tiger heron

                great blue heron

                great egret

                snowy egret

                little blue heron

                tri-colored heron

                cattle egret

                green heron

                yellow-crowned night-heron

THRESKIORNITHIDAE

                white ibis

                white-faced ibis

ANATIDAE

                lesser scaup

CATHARTIDAE

                turkey vulture

                black vulture

ACCIPITRIDAE

                osprey

                grey-headed kite

                hook-billed kite

                white-tailed kite   

                common black hawk

                grey hawk                                                                             

                roadside hawk

                red-tailed hawk

FALCONIDAE

                crested caracara

                laughing falcon

                american kestrel

                aplomado falcon

CRACIDAE

                plain chachalaca  

RALLIDAE

                coot

                common moorhen

HELIORNITHIDAE

                sungrebe

ARAMIDAE

                limpkin

BURHINIDAE

                double-striped thick-knee

CHARADRIIDAE

                killdeer

RECURVIROSTRIDAE

                black-necked stilt

JACANIDAE

                northern jacana

SCOLOPACIDAE

                greater yellowlegs

                lesser yellowlegs

                willet

                spotted sandpiper                                                                               

                sanderling

LARIDAE

                laughing gull

                franklin’s gull

                royal tern

                sandwich tern

                common tern

                forster’s tern

COLUMBIDAE

                rock dove

                red billed pigeon

                inca dove

                ruddy ground-dove

                eurasian collared dove                                                       

CUCULIDAE

                squirrel cuckoo

                groove billed anni

APODIDAE

                vaux’s swift

                white-collared swift

TROCHILIDAE

                broad-billed hummingbird

                white-eared hummingbird

                berryline hummingbird                                                    

                blue-throated hummingbird

TROGONIDAE

                violaceous trogon

ALCEDINIDAE

                ringed kingfisher

                belted kingfisher

                amazon kingfisher

RAMPHASTIDAE

                collared aracari

                keel-billed toucan

PICIDAE

                golden-fronted woodpecker                                              

                yellow-bellied sapsucker

                hairy woodpecker

                pale-billed woodpecker

TYRANNIDAE

                eastern peewee

                yellow-bellied flycatcher

                willow flycatcher

                dusky flycatcher

                buff-breasted flycatcher

                eastern phoebe

                say’s phoebe

                vermillion flycatcher

                great kiskadee

                social flycatcher                                                                  

                couch’s kingbird

                western kingbird

                fork-tailed flycatcher

COTINGIDAE

                rose-throated becard

                masked tityra

HIRUNDINIDAE

                tree swallow

                northern rough-winged swallow

                cliff swallow

CORVIDAE

                brown jay                                                                             

                scrub jay

AEGITHALIDAE

                bush tit

TROGLODYTIDAE

                band-backed wren

                bewick’s wren

                white-bellied wood wren

SYLVIIDAE

                ruby-crowned kinglet

                blue-gray gnatcatcher

TURDIDAE

                western bluebird

                russett nightingale thrush

                ruddy-capped nightingale thrush

                wood thrush                                                                        

                clay-colored robin

                rufous-backed thrush

                american robin

MIMIDAE

                blue mockingbird

                grey catbird

                northern mockingbird

                curve-billed thrasher

BOMBYCILLIDAE

                cedar waxwing

PTILOGONATIDAE

                gray silky

LANIIDAE

                loggerhead shrike

VIREONIDAE

                bell’s vireo

                yellow-throated vireo

                lesser greenlet

PARULINE

                orange-crowned warbler    

                nashville warbler

                yellow warbler

                yellow-rumped warbler

                black-throated gray warbler

                townsends’s warbler

                black-throated green warbler

                yellow-throated warbler

                palm warbler

                black and white warbler

                redstart

                northern waterthrush

                grey-crowned yellowthroat

                hooded warbler

                wilson’s warbler

                red warbler

                slate-throated redstart

                golden-crowned warbler

                rufous-capped warbler

                yellow-breasted chat

                olive warbler

THRAUPINAE

                yellow-throated euphonia

                yellow-winged tanager

                red-throated ant tanager

                western tanager

CARDINALINAE

                black-headed saltator

                northern cardinal                 

                rose-breasted grosbeak

                black-headed grosbeak

                indigo bunting

                painted bunting

EMBERIZINAE

                rufous-capped brushfinch

                rufous sided towhee

                canyon towhee

                white-collared seedeater

                grassland yellow-finch

                rufous-crowned sparrow

                clay-colored sparrow

                savannah sparrow

                song sparrow                                                                       

                lincoln’s sparrow

                yellow-eyed junco

ICTERIDAE

                eastern meadowlark

                melodious blackbird

                great-tailed grackle

                audubon oriole

                altamira oriole

                baltimore oriole

                abeillei oriole

                montezuma’s oropendula

FRINGILLIDAE

                house finch

PASSERIDAE

                house sparrow