How the 2021 eBird taxonomy update will affect your Belize Bird List.

 

White-browed Gnatcatcher

Every year around this time we patiently await the completion of the eBird taxonomic update to match the The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. This year;'s update will cover changes for 2020 and 2021 as there was no updated in 2020.

In this year's update there will be 17 newly described species ( including those from that sweet Rufous Antpitta split) a total of 71 species were split causing 94 species to be gained, and 8 species were lost through lumps. In total we now have 10,824 species world wide. WOW!

Some birders dread when they hear of species being split, which isn't unwarranted as we have to learn the new names, plumage, vocalizations and distributions for these species also field guides that are printed pre-split/lump will have the now archaic names. Personally I enjoy when the supplements are released, it is really interesting to see how these subspecies are elevated to species level due to DNA, geography, plumage, voice etc..

These changes don't happen at random, there is serious research going on. As sated by eBird "Many times new species emerge after years of detective work, examining museum specimens, genetic data, and audio recordings. Other times well-known subspecies are separated after stronger data showing physical, genetic, and/or vocal differences become available."

 So how are we affected by this new update? Let's get into that below.

Grass Wren was split from Sedge Wren

Grass Wren - Payne's Creek National Park

Sedge Wren and Grass Wren are now two separate species. They were split due to differences in vocalizations, plumage and movement. 

The Grass Wren is non-migratory and occurs from South America north to Mexico whereas the Sedge Wren is migratory, breeding in the north central United States and wintering in the  southern United States, the species do overlap in Veracruz, Mexico. So if your are birding in the Bald Hills of the Mountain Pine Ride or the pine savannas of the Payne's Creek National Park you have good chances to come across the highly vocal but shy Grass Wren.

Grayish Saltator was split into 3 species.

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator

The fairly common Grayish Saltator was split into 3 species namely Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Blue-gray Saltator and Olivaceous Saltator. Here in the Belize the species were have will be called the Cinnamon-bellied Saltator( Not a bad name right? I like it a lot better than Grayish Saltator) the Cinnamon-bellied ranges from northern Mexico to western Costa Rica, the Olivaceous from northern Colombia to Venezuela, Trinidad and the Guianas; and the Blue-gray from eastern Colombia, to Bolivia and Northern Argentina. These were split due to differences in genetics, vocalizations and plumage. 

In Belize the Cinnamon-bellied Saltator is widespread found in various habitats from disturbed urban settlements to more mature forests. Be sure to listen for their sweet song. 

Mayan Antthrush was split from Black-faced Antthrush.

Mayan Antthrush

 

This split was long awaited.The Mayan Antthrush is now here. It is split from the Black-faced Antthrush due to the notable differences in the vocalizations. The Mayan Antthrush, which occurs in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and western Honduras give a songs with multiple notes as heard here Mayan Antthrush in comparison to the Black-faced Antthrush which occurs in eastern Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and northern South America as heard here Black-faced Antthrush which has less and more spaced notes.

This is such a fitting name for this bird. Finally we have a Mayan bird! The Maya people are a huge part of our culture and heritage in Belize and this region. I mean it's about time they got a bird, we already had birds named for the Inca and Aztec now we can proudly add Mayan.

The Mayan Antthrush can be found wherever there is good patch of primary or secondary forest, hard to see but very vocal.

White-browed Gnatcatcher was split from Tropical Gnatcatcher

White-browed Gnatcatcher

The Tropical Gnatcatcher was split into two species. White-browed Gnatcatcher (not to be confused with White-lored Gnatcatcher) is found in southern Mexico, Central America and drier regions to the west of the Andes in South America. The Tropical Gnatcatcher is found only in South America. The split comes on the basis of plumage, genetics and vocalizations of the White-browed Gnatcatcher.

 The White-browed Gnatcatcher is found mainly in broad leaf forests but can be found in pines and pine-oak savannas.

 

Tawny-throated Leaftosser  was split into Middle American Leaftosser and South American Leaftosser

Middle American Leaftosser

Tawny-throated Leaftosser is now split into two species. Here in Belize we will have the Middle American Leaftosser. This species is one of the hardest breeding birds to observe in Belize, it has only been recorded from a few of the highest mountains in the country. An expedition to one of these peaks is need to observe this bird (one day 😔). As the names suggest these two species are split by range, the Middle American is found in the highlands from Mexico south to Panama, the South American does enter into eastern Panama, but from there it ranges southward down to Brazil.

 

 The Rufous-capped Warbler was split.

 

Rufous-capped Warbler

 

The Rufous-capped Warbler was split into two species. We here in Belize will stay with name Rufous-capped Warbler its range includes Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. The Chestnut-capped Warbler is found mainly along the pacific coast of Guatemala south to South America so they do overlap at some sites in Guatemala. So for some of us who have birded along the pacific coast of Guatemala we FINALLY got an armchair lifer from this split (about time lol). 

This species is quite common in the Mountain Pine Ridge and the pines atop Tiger Fern and Ben's bluff in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary.

This was just a quick and simple blog post to give over the main changes that will affect Belize

 For more detailed information on these splits you can visit the links below:

https://ebird.org/camerica/news/taxonomy-update-in-progress

 https://ebird.org/news/2021-ebird-taxonomy-update

 

 

 

Photo credit:

Mayan Antthrush (Aaron Juan)

Middle American Leaftosser ( Giovanni Martinez)

Rufous-capped Warbler ( Zhawn Poot)

 

The best Christmas Birdcount in Belize? The Mountain Pine Ridge CBC. Blog #6

Male Collared Trogon

For birders Christmas time is a very important part of the year in addition to the food, family gatherings and gifts, between December 15th and January 5th birders across the world take part in Christmas birdcounts. A Christmas birdcount is when volunteers across the globe go out over a 24-hour period on one calendar day to count birds within their circle. I decided to participate in the MPR CBC, this would be my second time going to Mountain Pine Ridge. I was stoked!

MPR CBC circle

So my journey began in Belize City as per usual. I hooked with Ms Luz's team, another team that was doing the MPR circle, so we boarded the van and headed up towards Cayo. We stopped a Hattieville to stock up on rations for the count I got the usual birding staples bread, cheese and canned sausages. By the time we finished shopping and fueling up another member of the team joined Scott Forbes. On the road again we made another stop at Cheers to pick up Chrissy Tupper the last member of the team and she brought along an ice box full of food, perfect right? We arrived at Hode's place a little after 8pm where we met with the chief Roni to finalize the plan for the next days count. We headed to the Moonracer Farm where we would spend the night, it's just outside the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve and is a great place to stay especially if you're looking for birds (Mottled Owl, Spectacled Owl, Violet Sabrewing on site) and the owners Marge are Tom Gallagher are some great people. Check it out: Moonracer farm

After having some of the wonderful food that Chrissy brought me and Scott went for a short walk to try and find some owls but we only managed to come across some spiders and a couple bats so we headed back and settled in for bed.

My alarm went off at 3:30 am, the time had come for the CBC to begin, by 4:00 we were on the road off the the edge of the MPR reserve off the Depair Cairn. The team I was with included Roni, Fidelio and myself small but strong.

Fidelio, Roni and myself

We began birding before the sun came up, we managed to pick up a pair of Collared Forest-Falcons, Ruddy and Northern Barred-Woodcreeper all by ear. As the sun began to rise over the valleys of the Pine Ride the light got better and the birds began to come in. Early on we had some pine ridge specialist such as Rusty Sparrow, Rufous-capped Warblers and even some Scarlet Macaws.

We continued down the road now by foot as road worse, but the worse the road gets the better the birding usually is. We were now at the edge of the reserve, were the Mountain Pine Ridge meets the Chiquibul National Park. Pristine broadleaf forests, the tropics at its best.

The boundary line 

Birding the edge of the reserve

The migrant passerines were ever present Magnolia Warbler, Summer Tanagers, Black-throated Green Warbler all wintering in our Belizean forests. Present also were our local species we had Crested Guans, Barred Antshrikes and Dot-winged Antwrens. Our count was going well we were constantly scanning the treetops and understory for any signs of movement and our ears were constantly alerted by the calls of flocks of Brown-hooded Parrots and White-collared Swifts. We then came upon a tree with quite some activity a pair of White-winged Tanagers, some good looks at a Yellow-bellied Tyrannulet while I was checking out the Tyrannulet Roni said "guys I think you just missed an Elegant Euphonia" and Fidelio said " I saw it too" so it was just me who missed the Elegant Euphonia, damn! :( the Elegant Euphonia is one of the hardest breeding birds to get in Belize and it slipped away. Well that's one on the list for next time. I did manage to secure two lifers Orange-billed Sparrow and Golden-Crowned Warbler

Rusty Sparrow

Male White-winged Tanager

A bad shot of our most beautiful tanager, the Golden-hooded Tanager

After shedding a tear for the Euphonia and grabbing a bite to eat we continued birding along. Green Shrike-vireos and and a Great Antshrike were almost missed because the Crested Guans were busy calling loudly from the valleys. Moving back up away from the Chiquibul we came across some more activity on the road another lifer for me, a female Green Honey appeared alongside Olive-backed Euphonias a White-bellied Emerald female Wedge-tailed Sabrewing and even a Black-crested Coquette, I would have missed it too if it hadn't been for Fidelio who pointed it out my third lifer for the trip so far. Being the smallest hummingbird in Belize it can easily be looked over.

Male Olive-backed Euphonia

White-bellied Emerald 

If you've been to or just heard of the Mountain Pine Ridge you would know that the roads aren't quite forgiving we had a first hand experinece on the bad roads when the 4WD decided to quit working. We were stuck for a bit but we managed to get out Fidelio and Roni are both MPR specialist so this wasn't their first time getting stuck.

The MPR is a Forest Reserve so logging is still allowed with the proper permits sad but necessary I guess. We came to a clearing that was made by the logging company where is it was perfect to scan for raptors.

Logging activity in the MPR

We were graced by the presence of two beautiful Scarlet Macaws flying overhead, a Double-toothed Kite soaring above alongside a Short-tailed Hawk but the bird that really go us screaming like little Girls was a Black and White Hawk-Eagle right above our heads.

Scarlet Macaws

Short-tailed Hawk

Black and White Hawk-Eagle

High fives were given all around,the Black and White Hawk-Eagle is a top tier raptor (lifer for me) and we were all happy that we could've gotten it on our count. Acorn Woodpecker, Ovenbird and Grace's Warbler were all added to out list to get us up to 100 species. We jumped in the pathfinder again a continued on the roads of MPR  picking up some good species along the way such as Plumbeous Vireo, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl and Olive-sided Flycatcher, sadly no Greater Pewee.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Rufous-capped Warblers

At the end of the Bradley Road we stopped for lunch at a vista overlooking one of the Macal River tributaries. From nearby we could hear the light calling of a Collared Trogon, Roni located it and photographed then I went down to do the same. This Trogon stayed right there and allowed me to photograph him a living breathing creature looking at me with the same inquisitive look I was giving him.

Lunch Lookout

Male Collared Trogon

The next stop was Cooma Cairn a lookout tower and ex British military compound. But we had one little issue it was hot and we driving up some hills and the pathfinder began to heat up so we had to let it cool down a bit perfect excuse for a quite nap. We made it up to Cooma Cairn no issues just the car needed water which we managed to get from some kind gentleman who were working at near the compound.

The beautiful view from Cooma Cairn 

Fully hydrated 

One of the many creeks 

  While taking in the wonderful views at Cooma Cairn we picked up some more species, Philadelphia Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped Warbler all were added to the list before we got on our way back to meetup with the other teams. We drove back almost the entire 5 miles without the engine on just coasting up and down the hills in the MPR  to keep it from overheating. What a way to end the off the birdcount. We had some amazing birds, some of the most beautiful views in Belize and hang out with two of the coolest people I know.

Belize's 1st Pelagic Trip, Warbler Mania on Halfmoon Caye Blog #5

So this has been what many Belizean Birders have been waiting for, a Pelagic Birding Trip. For those of who don't know a Pelagic is a trip that goes out in the open ocean look for seabirds (boobies, shearwaters, storm-petrels etc)

This trip has been in planning from the beginning of the year and thanks to the chief Roni Martinez and the Belize Audubon Society the day has come. We boarded the Booby at the Old Belize Marina to start our journey out to the Lighthouse Reef Atoll we had a pretty solid group of birders Roni Martinez, Fidelio Montes , Isaias Morataya, Diego Cruz, Eduardo Ruano, Marcos Corado, Meshack Eliah, Eric Tut and myself. Before the trip even started Eduardo, Marcos and I managed to stumble upon a Brown Noddy in Belize City.

The Booby 

Brown Noddy 

So we took hour two hour journey and our first stop within the Lighthouse Reef Atoll was at a caye called Northern 2 it was supposed to be some sort of mega resort on the atoll but it never really took off ( thankfully) so now the island is abandoned buildings that have become fishing camps and an abandoned airstrip. A perfect stopover point for migrating birds before long we were picking up migrants such as Palm Warblers, Blue Grosbeak, Dickcissels, Merlin, Peregrine Falcons and my first pair of lifers an Acadian Flycatcher and a Prairie Warbler. Other than birds we stumbled across an Allison's Anole an Anole that's found only on a few Islands in the Caribbean.

Allison's Anole 

Acadian Flycatcher

Royal Tern 

After birding the island a bit we had lunch which for us consisted mainly of bread, canned sausages and cheese followed by some fresh coconut water (can't beat that haha) and some talk about HAARP, conspiracy theories and evolution. After Northern 2 we headed across to Sandbore Caye where I fell of the pier with my camera and phone luckily a managed to save my camera but my phone was finished. Well I little fall can't stop the birding jam so I took off my shoes and continued birding the island where we had good looks at some nesting Ospreys, a whole drove of Palm Warblers and a Yellow Warbler that was having us thinking Orange-crowned Warbler.

Brown Noddy at Sandbore

Osprey 

Palm Warbler 

Confusing Yellow Warbler 

After Sandbore Caye we headed to Halfmoon Caye. On the way we passed a very sad sight, a ship that had run aground on our beautiful Belizean barrier reef. It's quite an eyesore and a remembrance of how we are slowly destroying mother earth. The good thing was that  Brown Pelicans, an Osprey and a Merlin were on the ship.



We docked at Halfmoon Caye, set up camp and went to do what we do best, birding. We managed to pick up some good birds although we were losing light. We had a Mourning Dove, Male Painted Bunting and some more of the warblers we had earlier in the day. The Sunset at Halfmoon Caye was beautiful, so beautiful that I managed to capture just the end of it.




We settled in to camp had some some great birder talk, made dinner with headlamps as there is no electricity for the campsite, the coffee addicts (I wont call any name) made their coffee and we headed off to our tents and hammocks. Halfmoon Caye gets a lot of wind and that night was no different, we had strong winds blowing throughout the night at one point my tent was beginning to collapse on me so I had to get out and fix it. We survived so it was all good.

The wonderful sunrise at Halfmoon Caye

The day was here PELAGIC! time. But before the pelagic we did an early morning walk on the caye, we picked up some great migratory birds like the very shy Swainson's Warbler, a beautiful male Painted Bunting, Black-throated Green Warblers, Palm Warblers, Ovenbirds, Cape May Warbler and the list could go on, by the end of the checklist we has about 24 species of warbler! But the highlight of the morning birding came about when I was showering, Eduardo uttered two words that made the entire team stop what they were doing.... Townsend's Warbler!!!!! Within 10 seconds the whole team was there, some even in their towels haha. The Townsend's Warbler winters on the Pacific coast of Central America but somehow one wonder out to the most eastern part of Belize, amazing stuff. This was the first record for Townsend's warbler for Belize on eBird and we had photos.

Townsend's Warbler

Female Hooded Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Male Painted Bunting

Red-footed Booby

Magnificent Frigatebird

Red-footed Booby

Cape May Warbler

After breakfast and coming down off the high that was caused by the Townsend's Warbler we boarded the Booby once more, our plan was set we were going to head out 5 mile north east of Halfmoon Caye in search of some pelagic birds. The sea was pretty rough but that was expected we were prepared for it  well at least some of us haha. We stopped at 2.5 miles out an tossed some bait fish and waited for a bit, all eyes glued to the horizon scanning diligently for any signs of life. The boat tossed and turned in surf but we continued looking, after we had no birds we continued east another 2.5 miles, by that time one of our birders had already lost their breakfast due to sea sickness. We threw out some more bait fish and waited a bit longer but we hadn't come across any pelagic species except 2 Red-footed Boobies so we turned around and headed back to halfmoon.

The blues of Halfmoon Caye

Back on land we had another 2 hours to spare before we went back to the mainland, we were at one of the 4 atolls that are in the Western hemisphere so we had to get some snorkeling done. The reef right near the island is pretty good for snorkeling we had Barracudas, puffer fish, parrot fish ( a lifer?) and even the very beautiful Rock Beauty.





Back to camp we began packing up to leave one of the most beautiful places in the world. While we were packing up we had an unexpected visitor a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, one of the most beautiful species of warbler. He was right in the coconut tree over Eric's hammock, like he just wanted to tell us goodbye.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

That time had come, back to the city, we were back aboard the Booby getting ready to endure the 2 hr boat ride back. We passed by a flock of terns feeding nothing too special but as we passed near where the cruise ships dock this large bird began to fly towards us, the flight seemed almost falcon like it had white under the wings and was quite brown, it flew right by the boat and Roni yelled "jaeger" (a huge mistake because this was one of the target birds for the pelagic trip so all the birders went to one side of the boat and almost toppled it haha) all of us managed to get some brief looks at it, just as fast as it came it disappeared but we were certain it was a Pomarine Jaeger! pelagic species check! and only a mere 10 miles from the mainland imagine that. That was the icing on the cake for this trip.

The Crew

We managed to complete Belize's first pelagic, we had some amazing birds, everyone had a life birds but most of all a group of people who are passoniate about birds came together and did what we love. Birding is more than just about birds but also about the people we meet and bond with I'm thankful we have such a tight birding community in Belize and I'm looking forward to the next pelagic trip.


eBird Checklists:

https://ebird.org/ebird/camerica/view/checklist/S39821081
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39821451
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39821450
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39821446
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39821387
https://ebird.org/ebird/camerica/view/checklist/S39860258
https://ebird.org/ebird/camerica/view/checklist/S39860261
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39821368
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39821366
https://ebird.org/ebird/camerica/view/checklist/S39821059