Next up for Texas?

JANUARY PHOTO QUIZ ANSWERS Next up for Texas? ’ve heard the call of southern North America for a long time. When I was Ia kid, the electric colors of birds like Pink-headed Warbler, Red-breasted Chat, and Lesser Ground-Cuckoo seemed to jump off the page of my Pe - terson and Chalif Mexico guide. By junior high, I had decided that if I wanted to have any chance of seeing all these crazy, little-known birds when I grew up, I needed to sign up for fresh - man Spanish. Once I got into college and headed south with friends one Christmas vacation, there was no look - ing back. I was hooked. That first trip into northeast Mexico was an eye-opener. At a random stop Quiz Photo A—September. alongside the road not far south of Brownsville, and out of what seemed inadequate, dry scrubby habitat popped a glorious ball of laven - Quiz Photo A der, blue, and black with a yellow handkerchief: a It is this last group to which Quiz Bird A belongs. Yellow-winged Tanager. If this bird could exist here , If you’re like most North American birders, you’re would it be much longer before one flew another thinking, “He’s kidding, right? That’s obviously a 120 miles north across identical habitat to rest at Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. They migrate, and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge or a backyard nothing else looks like it.” Well, almost. There are in suburban Brownsville? Ever since, I’ve been in - two smaller lookalikes: Variegated and Piratic Fly - terested in how close many “Mexican” species catchers, both considered to be of casual occur - come to the U.S. border. Last April, I found a Blue- rence (“Code 4”) in the ABA Area. Besides size, gray Tanager as far north as that both of these have contrasting solid, dark caps and Michael L. P. Retter Yellow-winged Tanager. Every small bills. Our bird has a massive bill, so Varie - year, birders find more tropical gated and Piratic are out. In fact, could it be too 3346 Peppermill Drive species on the seemingly unstop - massive? There also appears to be a fleshy base to West Lafayette, Indiana 47906 pable march north toward the as- the (lower) mandible. Looking closer, there are [email protected] yet-unfinished border fence. These other details that are wrong for Sulphur-bellied. species can be assigned to one of Our bird has a faint malar stripe that blends into three categories: resident species that are expand - the other relatively thin streaks on the underparts, ing north, probably due to climate change; eleva - not the bold, thick malar stripe and breast streak - tional migrants that breed in Mexican mountains ing of a Sulphur-bellied . While Sulphur-bellied but are pushed into the lower elevations (irrespec - has white edges to the wing coverts, our bird has tive of latitude) by unusually cold winter tempera - a noticeable cinnamon tinge to the edges of the tures; and boreal migrants that breed in northern outer coverts. And come the think of it, where’s Mexico but winter farther south. the obvious sulphur belly? 66 BIRDING • MARCH 2009 There are two species of have much larger bills, and Myiodynastes flycatchers in their wings and tails are pat - North America. One is Sulphur- terned in large, unbroken bellied, and the other is our quiz patches of black and white. Our bird. This Streaked Flycatcher bird’s wings and tail are made (M. maculatus ), the less norther - up of black feathers with white ly of the two, was photographed feather edgings and tips. There by the author on 13 September are only two gray becards in 2007 at the Río Silanche Pre - Mexico. Many ABA members serve in northwestern Ecuador, are familiar with the Rose- where the species is resident. throated Becard from visits to Mexican breeders, however, are Arizona and Texas. Rose-throat - long-distance boreal migrants. ed Becards have unpatterned They breed commonly along the wings and tails, though, and eastern flank of the Sierra Madre lack our bird’s white spectacles. Oriental of Tamaulipas and win - They also have relatively longer ter in South America, a behavior tails. This male Gray-collared shared by Plumbeous Kite and Becard (Pachyramphus major ) Yellow-green Vireo. Red-legged was photographed by Chris Honeycreeper also follows this Sloan in Quintana Roo on 29 general pattern. The vireo is a February 2008. Females and regular vagrant to the U.S. both Quiz Photo B—February. young males are variably rusty as a spring overshoot and a summer/autumn reverse mi - above and buffy below but always share the adult male’s grant. Streaked Flycatcher could conceivably be found in pale spectacles and patterned wings and tail. Texas and along the Gulf Coast as a migrant, or in the sum - The species breeds in the Sierra Madre Oriental very mer in some of the moister patches of Big Bend National close to the U.S., as far north as Monterrey. As with Park’s Chisos Mountains, the northernmost finger of the Streaked Flycatcher, finding one in Texas’s Chisos Moun - Sierra Madre Oriental. tains wouldn’t be out of the question. Gray-collared Be - cards also undergo considerable elevational movements in cold winters, making the species a prime candidate to show Quiz Photo B up in southern Texas during one of those magical rarity- Altitudinal migrants provide southern Texas with some of filled winters. Other altitudinal migrants to keep an eye out its most famous Mexican vagrants, like Crimson-collared for include Brown-backed Solitaire, Black Thrush, White- Grosbeak, White-throated Thrush, and Blue Mockingbird. winged Tanager, Black-headed Siskin, and the incompara - Tropical species don’t deal well with large swings in tem - ble Pine Flycatcher. perature, and when powerful cold fronts, called nortes , sweep into northeastern Mexico, the cold temperatures force montane species into the warmer lowlands. Quiz Photo C Before we look at plumage pattern, let’s try to pin down First of all, what in the world is that nasty green goo hang - a family using shape. Our bird has a clear vertical posture, ing from the branch? Believe it of not, it’s a big clue to the which reminds us right away of the flycatchers. But its bill identity of this bird, but back to that in a bit. Assuming the is on the thick side for a flycatcher. The extensive white in “goodrops” are quite small, we have a diminutive, brightly the wing and the short tail are wrong for every North Amer - colored passerine here. It has a fairly stout bill, so we’re ican tyrannid, most of which are colored in shades of probably not dealing with a warbler or a tit. There aren’t brown, while this bird is clad in gray, black, and white. any emberizids clad in blue and orange, so we’re left with There is a group of mainly black, gray, and white flycatch - cardinalids, finches, and tanagers. Cardinalids all have long er-like birds with thick bills: the tityras and becards. Tityras tails, but our bird’s is remarkably short. So, tanager or WWW.ABA.ORG 67 PHOTO QUIZ ANSWERS finch? Good question! Or - and the bird is, well, just not shiny or nithologists have been won - purple enough. Seemingly everything dering about this themselves about the bird is a boring, flat black. for a long time. The combi - What this bird lacks in looks, though, it nation of powder blue hood, makes up for in voice. If we could hear burnt orange underparts, it, we’d be instantly impressed by its black throat, and (barely dis - rich and powerful yet monotonous cernable in this photo) popping and downslurred whistles, chestnut forehead is unique somewhat resembling a classically in North America and be - trained Great-tailed Grackle trying to longs to the adult male Ele - imitate the introduction of a Northern gant Euphonia (Euphonia el - Cardinal’s song. This Melodious Black - egantissima ), shown here in bird (Dives dives ) was photographed by a photo taken by the author Kevin Watson on 27 March 2006 at on 12 February 2008 in Jalis - Crooked Tree, Belize. co . Females are olive overall Melodious Blackbirds have been rap - but share the adult male’s idly colonizing new areas in Mexico rusty forehead and blue and Central America in the past couple hood. of decades, including areas of central Genetic evidence recently Tamaulipas. Other nonmigratory species persuaded the AOU to move recently noticed on the slow march euphonias from the tanager northward include Bare-throated Tiger- Quiz Photo C—February. family (Thraupidae) into the Heron, Bat Falcon, Sungrebe, Southern finch family (Fringillidae). Like “our” finches, Elegant Eu - Lapwing, Squirrel Cuckoo, Lineated Woodpecker, Boat- phonias often travel in large, roving flocks outside the billed Flycatcher, Scrub Euphonia, and the two tanagers breeding season as they scour the countryside for their pre - mentioned in the introduction. Coincidentally, there’s a ferred food—mistletoe berries in the case of euphonias. Sungrebe in the ABA Area as I type. As Rick Wright said so Has the identity of that green goo crept into your mind yet? succinctly in the last issue’s Photo Quiz Answers, “the fu - Our euphonia is perched in the middle of a mistletoe ture is now.” clump. So even in this photo, microhabitat is helpful in the identification. The green goo is euphonia excrement, made remarkably viscous and green by all those resin- filled mistletoe berries. Gray Silky-flycatchers, Aztec Thrushes, Brown-backed Solitaires, and Scrub and Yel - low-throated Euphonias also love to eat the berries, so it’s always a good idea to check fruiting mistletoes.

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