Red-Crested Cardinal

I graduated from high school in 1975 and in July of that year I moved with my parents to Honolulu, Hawaii where my father served a three year assignment as president of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. I lived with them in the mission home on Pali Highway until September when I moved into the dorms in Laie and spent my freshman year of college at BYU - Hawaii, although every weekend I took the bus home to Honolulu to spend time with my family. Years later, my father was working for Zion Securities, an arm of the LDS Church, and moved to Hauula, near Laie, and lived in a big beautiful home with a private beach. We visited them early in our marriage with young children and spent time at that home. 

During those times in Hawaii I saw quite a few red-crested cardinals. It didn't occur to me that they didn't belong there, they were transplants from South America. 

Illustration from Birds of the World.

Range from Birds of the World. 

Holub's Golden-Weaver

We were in Kidepo Valley NP in northern Uganda in July 2025 with a great guide, William. While traversing a road relatively near the Kidepo Airport William called out a very small yellow weaver, a Holub's golden weaver. I put it on iNaturalist and rjq, the 5th highest identifier of Holub's golden weaver, with 3,649 identifications, disagreed. I kind of gave up on it until recently when I decided I needed to either figure out what kind of a bird it is, figure out why it might be such a weaver, or just remove it from my lifer list. As I looked at photos of Holub's golden weavers and my photo, the thing that really stood out is the eyes. The photos of Holub's golden weavers have distinctive eyes, with a yellow iris and a dark pupil. My photo had a dark iris. I thought that killed my identification. But then I looked for immature birds and found that their eyes are "dark brown" (per Wikipedia and Birds of the World). I went back to iNaturalist and threw out that insight, but so far no responses. So, at least for now, I'm sticking with the identification, but it is hard to go against someone with 3,649 identifications. 

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

It otherwise seems to match the description. There is a photo in Birds of the World that shows one with the dark stripe extending from the eye to the back of the head, which was another potential distinguishing feature. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Downy Woodpecker

On September 28, 2025 I visited the Buckhorn Campground then followed the Pacific Crest Trail/Burkhart Trail down Cooper Canyon to the Cooper Canyon Falls, about 1.5 miles distant. I sat and stood for awhile near the trail above the falls and encountered my first, and so far only, downy woodpecker. 

The white stripe on the back and the white spots on the wings give me comfort that it is a downy. I only have one identifier agreeing with this identification on iNaturalist. 

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World.

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

I'm a little surprised to see their range in Southern California. They are pretty much limited to the coast and coastal mountains. Males are distinguished by a red nape bar which is lacking in females. There are seven subpspecies. I saw ssp. turati which is found in the Cascades in north-central Washington south to northern California and in coast ranges south to southern California. It is on the smaller end of ssp. and the size diminishes as it goes south. 

Black Cuckooshrike

Last summer, in July 2025, we visited Kidepo Valley NP in eastern Uganda. Our guide William identified a black cuckooshrike standing in a tree and iNaturalist also gave a list of possibilities for the bird, the first being black cuckooshrike. No one has agreed to the identification as of yet. I must admit I'm not convinced, but nothing has contradicted the identification yet. 

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Scaled Antpitta

In March 2023 I visited Tinamu Reserve near Manizales, Colombia with Judy and my granddaughter Savannah. One morning I went without about 20 other birders to an area on the edge of the property where one of the guides has developed a relationship with some species of tinamu, a shy and secretive bird that is very difficult to find and see. For about 20 minutes he whistled and did a call without success in luring the bird to the group. However, as we were breaking up the guide, who would be spending the rest of the day with me, called me over and pointed out a scaled antpitta that had come near. It was very difficult to see and I only got one horrible photo of it. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World.

Birds of the World notes that "this species rarely is anything other than a very difficult bird to actually see." It is "generally uncommon."  

Mangrove Yellow Warbler

As noted in my prior post on the migratory northern yellow warbler (Setophaga aestiva), there are now two yellow warbler species, the non-migratory mangrove yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) being the second. It primarily inhabits the narrow strips of mangroves along the coast of North America, the Caribbean, Central America and South America. It has a variable amount of chestnut streaking on the breast and on the head. The streaking is more prominent in adult males and less in females, in fact the chestnut on the head may be entirely absent in females. There are 28 subspecies in this new classification. There is a petechia group that is largely chestnut-capped found in the Caribbean and an erithachorides group, chestnut-hooded, found in coastal Central and northern South America. 

I've seen ssp. aureola, the Galapagos mangrove yellow warbler, found in the Galapagos Islands and Cocos Island off Costa Rica. I saw it in August 2022 near Espinosa Point on Fernandina Island (see four photos below). I saw a male. 

Illustration of ssp. aureola, a female, from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of ssp. aureola, a male, from Birds of the World. 

The one I saw most recently, in March on Caye Caulker in Belize, is ssp. bryanti, found on the Caribbean coast from southeast Mexico (Campeche) south to southern Nicaragua. If it had been a male, it would have had a beautiful chestnut hood, but as a female it had no chestnut on the head at all. 

The range of the mangrove yellow warbler, from Birds of the World, follows:

Note that it is limited to the coastal regions. 

Northern Yellow Warbler

The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) was split into two species in October 2025: the migratory northern yellow warbler (S. aestiva) which breeds across North America and the non-migratory mangrove yellow warbler (S. petechia) which is resident in the coastal mangroves in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. I'd previously done a post on the yellow warbler on March 23, 2025 which really only featured the Galapagos yellow warbler. I've subsequently seen more yellow warblers since then and will do this post on the northern and a post tomorrow on the mangrove species. 

My most recent photo of a northern yellow warbler - in Tikal NP in Guatemala. 

This and the next two photos are of the same bird in Big Morongo on May 20, 2023. 

In Big Morongo on June 15, 2025. 

Illustration of female from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of male from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World.