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. 

White-Collared Manakin

In Tikal NP, on March 19, 2026, I saw several white-collared manakins with my guide Rony. They were imbedded deep in some spindly trees and I was not able to get my camera lens to focus on them and they were gone before I could get my lens on manual and focused. Their yellow bellies and white collars stood out as did a pretty constant clicking noise. 

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

Several years ago I saw a very similar golden-collard manakin in Colombia and got much better views of it. The white-collared and golden-collared manakins are known to hybridize. 

Golden-collared manakin in Colombia. 

I also saw and only got very poor photos of the club-winged manakin and striolated manakin in a different part of Colombia and I now consider the manakins very interesting and difficult to see birds that I look forward to finding and seeing.  

Illustration of a female white-collared manakin from Birds of the World. There may have been females in the grouping I saw, but it was the males with the white-collars, jumping around and clicking, that stood out. It is a bird I would really loved to get a photo of. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

During breeding the males are involved in lekking behavior. A lek is a congregation of males gathered to compete in competitive displays and courtship rituals known as "lekking." The male white-collared manakins congregate on the ground and puff-out their neck feathers and do loud wing-snapping displays. 

Singing Quail

On March 21, 2026, at Finca El Pilar near Antigua, Guatemala, I was with my guide Bobby hiking up a trail that got steeper as we went along. Eventually we encountered wooden steps that we used to trudge more steeply. We were encountering the musical sounds of singing quail. I had a hard time believing it was quail as it was very un-quail-like. Bobby was getting occasional glimpses of them running through the understory, but I was always late for dinner. Finally, Bobby pointed one out to me quite close, below us, and I saw one for a few seconds, but I did not have enough time to memorialize it with a photo before it disappeared again into the bushes. 

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World.

 

Xunantunich - Belize

On March 18, 2026 we visited the Mayan archaeological site of Xunantunich in western Belize, about 70 miles west of Belize City and very near the border with Guatemala. It is on a ridge above the Mopan River near the town of San Jose Succotz and relatively near the larger town of San Ignacio. We started the day in Caye Caulker, an island off of Belize City, took a water taxi to Belize City and then drove to San Jose Succotz. Our guide stopped along the way to show me a jabiru stork, a beautiful bird that was a lifer for me. It was standing quite a distance from the road and took flight, providing me some fun photos.

Jabiru

We got to the Mopan River and had to cross it on a small barge. We had swallows flying about and landing on the barge, above us and below us. I thought they were tree swallows, but it turned out they were another lifer for me, mangrove swallows. 

Mangrove swallow

On the way back across the Mopan River on the barge I encountered more mangrove swallows, but also a beautiful green heron, not a lifer, but I bird I don't see often. 

After the barge on the way in, we parked the car and started an uphill walk to the archaeological site. There was some loud squawking and our guide told me they were brown jays, another lifer for me. I immediately focused on trying to see these loud and elusive birds and over the course of our time there I saw quite a few of them. 

Brown jay

Up among the Mayan ruins the most predominant animal was the black spiny-tailed iguana. We saw quite a few of them. They loved the perches provided by all of the stone. We'd seen them previously on a visit to the Mayan ruins in Comalcalco, State of Tabasco, Mexico, about nine years ago. 

Black spiny-tailed iguana

Inside a recess in the largest monument, El Castillo, our guide pointed out some bats hanging on the walls. I believe they were greater sac-winged bats. 

Greater sac-winged bat

We also saw a familiar turkey vulture and some less familiar golden-fronted woodpeckers. I first saw the golden-fronted woodpecker in Caprock Canyons State Park in the panhandle of Texas, but had just seen them again, for the second time, the day before on Caye Caulker in Belize. 

Turkey vulture

Golden-fronted woodpecker

I was hoping to see more wildlife at Xunantunich, but was thrilled to get two lifers there and one on the road to get there.