as in FONT  E-NEWS  BULLETINS
(relating to upcoming & completed tours)

A FIERY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD
photographed during a recent FONT tour
in Costa Rica. 
This species occurs high in the mountains.

    

NEWS:  

HARPY EAGLES are now at a nest in Brazil. We'll be going there in October 

A NEW BIRD SPECIES (possibly) during a recent FONT tour, in Chile
(go to link below for the Chile 2009 tour)

AN UPDATE REGARDING THE VERY RARE CRESTED IBIS
(go to link below for the Japan May 2010 tour)  

A NEW BIRD BOOK:  "A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil", by Ber van Perlo, Oxford University Press. FONT now has a supply, available at a reduced price, for those going on our Brazil tours, and otherwise.   

During our March 2010 Costa Rica Tour, we visited where ALEXANDER SKUTCH lived.
Click here for: 
a FEATURE about him, his writing, & a gallery of NEOTROPICAL BIRDS 

Information about upcoming FONT birding & nature tours can be found throughout this web-site.
Some, still now (as of July '10), with availability include:

ARIZONA USA & SONORA, MEXICO, August 18-27, 2010 
BRAZIL (Minas Gerais & Rio Grande do Sul), October 16-30, 2010
 with extension to Nov 3 in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul  
ARGENTINA, September 27 - October 10, 2010 
JAPAN, our Winter Tour for cranes, eagles, & more,  January 10-22, 2011
(to be our 36th tour in Japan)
BELIZE,  February 27 - March 7, 2011   

Link:

Chronological Listing of all scheduled up & coming FONT Tours

Links follow below to info in previous FONT E-mail bulletins relating to our recent tours in:

A "New" Wren, Whip-poor-will, & More and 20 Years of Tours

JAPAN  (May 2010) -  Where both Birds & People Traveled Afar
also: some new bird taxonomy & nomenclature & notes regarding the Crested Ibis  

TEXAS  (May 2010) -  a Reunion & Tour Highlights

COLORADO, NEBRASKA, & WYOMING, USA  (April 2010) - for Grouse & More 

COSTA RICA  (March 2010) - in the north & south

BRAZIL  (February 2010) - in the Amazon region, our 47th tour in Brazil

JAPAN  (January 2010) - our 33rd birding & nature tour in Japan 

CHILE  (November /December 2009) - with a special plover, parakeets, penguins, & a pudu
and with a "mystery storm-petrel" that may (or may not) be a new species

Brazil (October 2009) - with nearly 300 species of birds from a penguin to parrots

BRAZIL (August 2009) - with birds with lots of color! 

JAPAN (July 2009) with a Total Solar Eclipse, and birds, butterflies, and more

the CANARY ISLANDS  (June 2009) - a fascinating archipelago with endemic & specialty birds

SPAIN  (June 2009) - with lots of nature, notably birds, & history, culture, & cuisine

ICELAND  (June 2009) - a wonderful place with good birds & wildflowers, & great geology 

NORTH CAROLINA, USA  (May 2009) - for the bird specialties of the pines, swamps, & more

GUATEMALA  (April/May 2009) - in the highlands & lowlands, including the Mayan site at Tikal

COLORADO  (April 2009) - for the Grouse & other birds & nature too

MEXICO  (March 2009) - mostly in the Yucatan; also Cozumel Island

BRAZIL (March 2009)  - during 1 tour: a Jaguar, a Harpy Eagle at its nest, about 40 Hyacinth Macaws, & nearly 400 Jabirus at one place

JAPAN, mostly HOKKAIDO  (January/February 2009)

Northern MEXICO (SONORA) & Southern ARIZONA  (January 2009)

GUATEMALA  (December 2008/January 2009)

MEXICO  (November 2008) - with Jaguar & Jabiru, Orange-breasted Falcon, & many other birds

ICELAND  (September/October 2008)

ARIZONA & MEXICO  (August/September 2008) - with some hummingbirds & other birds either from Mexico, or in it (and a bird that was "first ever" for the US)

BRAZIL & adjacent ARGENTINA & PARAGUAY  (July/August 2008)

MEXICO (June 2008) - with specialty & endemic birds of the Yucatan Peninsula & Cozumel Island

BRAZIL  (March 2008) - with Bobolinks & many other birds; especially notable: a rare Merganser, a rare Eagle, and a non-bird, a rare Sloth 

JAPAN  (January 2008) - Our Tour with Blakiston's Fish Owl, Eagles, Cranes, Mandarins, & More

In the Caribbean, the LESSER ANTILLES: St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica  (December 2007/January 2008)  

JAPAN  (December 2007)

CHILE  (November 2007) - from the Pacific to the High Andes

ICELAND  (September/October 2007)

SWEDEN  (September 2007) - A Wonderful Bird Migration in the Land of Linnaeus

BRAZIL  (August 2007) - with Hyacinth Macaw, Many Other Birds, and a Jaguar!

ARIZONA  (July 2007) - A Mexican Yellow Grosbeak, Montezuma Quail, & More

GUATEMALA  (July 2007) - The Horned Guan, Other Birds, & the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

JAPAN  (May 2007) - A Tour on 5 Islands: Honshu, Kyushu, Okinawa, Amami, and a little island that in the spring is magnet for many birds: Hegura

In the Caribbean, PUERTO RICO  (April 2007)

BELIZE  (March 2007) - A Little Country with a Lot of Nature, from the Reef to the Rainforest

JAPAN  (January 2007)

GUATEMALA  (December 2006/January 2007)

BRAZIL (October 2006) - with the most birds of any FONT tour, in Minas Gerais & Rio Grande do Sul (and that Rio Grande is just "north of the border" - with Uruguay)

FONT E-News, Volume 20, Number 7
August 2010
from Focus On Nature Tours


A New Wren, Whip-poor-will, & More and a Look at 20 Years of Tours

Usually, when people travel with us on tours, they add "new birds to their list", seeing what they have not seen previously.
Sometimes, however, such "new birds" can be added later in the comfort, maybe, of an armchair at home, or at work.
The new 51st Supplement of the AOU (American Ornithologists Union) Bird Checklist has just come out, and among the changes are these:

If you've seen what has been the Winter Wren in parts of Alaska and elsewhere in western North America, you can now mark it down as the Pacific Wren, Troglodytes pacificus.
The Winter Wren continues in eastern North America, but now with the scientific name, Troglodytes hiemalis.
What we've called the Winter Wren in North America, has been "the Wren", in the Old World, Troglodytes troglodytes. Now that bird is the Eurasian Wren. It is the only wren outside the New World. In the Americas, there are about 75 species of wrens.
The Eurasian Wren, however, with a range in places as far flung as Iceland and Taiwan, has about 30 subspecies, and there may yet be more splits relating to it. Subspecies of the Eurasian Wren occur as far east in Siberia as the Kuril and Commander Islands, and the wren that is endemic to the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, off Alaska, may also be one.

If you've seen or heard a whip-poor-will in the American Southwest, or in Mexico or Guatemala, you can now mark it down as the Mexican Whip-poor-will, Caprimulgus arizonae, distinct from the Eastern Whip-poor-will, Caprimulgus vociferus.

There is a feature in this website with more information about these and other taxonomic changes:
"Some New Bird Names & Taxonomic Changes".

Reference is also made in that feature to changes in a book, that is excellent for birding, the "Birds of East Asia" by Mark Brazil.
Referring, among others, to these birds: Spot-billed Duck, Cattle Egret, Water Rail, Common Buzzard, Black-tailed Godwit, Grass Owl, Great Tit, and the Eastern and Western Yellow Wagtails.

Also, in the website feature also, some of the recent AOU adjustments, lately, are noted pertaining to groups (or families) of birds.
Notable is that what we have called "tanagers" in North America, are no longer in the "tanager" family, Thraupidae, moving instead to the "cardinal" family, Cardinalidae.

In addition to the 4 species of "tanagers" normally residing (at least during part of the year) in North America, some others in the Piranga genus in Central & South America are also making the move. Their family ties notwithstanding, they are all still keeping "tanager" as their common names.
The "real tanagers" are now inhabitants of just Central & South America, and some Caribbean islands. 

The McCown's Longspur is now with its own new genus, Rhynchophanes, as it is said to be more closely related to the Snow Bunting. But it is keeping its common name of longspur.

Other birds mentioned in the website feature include the Black Scoter (now split from the Common Scoter of Europe), and these birds with various taxonomic changes:
some gulls, the jackdaws, some New World Warblers (in new genera), some New World Sparrows (also in new genera), the Brown Jay (now with its own genus), the "brown towhees", siskins and goldfinches, and the Red-flanked Bluetail (all going from one genus to another). 

****************************************************************************

Now, in 2010, Focus On Nature Tours is marking its 20th year.

To commemorate this, a new booklet has been made of listing ALL of the nearly thousand birds that have occurred in North America. Now, with the taxonomic updates noted above, some copies are being sent to those who have been our clients over the years. If you have not received one yet, and if you wish a copy, please send us an e-mail.

In addition to noting the birds that have been found during FONT tours in North America and elsewhere, the booklet contains additional information about many of the birds, notably the vagrants.

What is in the booklet is also in the FONT website, on the left-side of the home-page, click the links under "Lists of Birds & Photo Galleries" to "North America Birds". The list is in 3 parts.

During our 20 years, there have been FONT tours in 18 US states & Canadian provinces. And, in all, in 39 countries. Those with the most tours have included Brazil, Chile, Iceland, Japan, Puerto Rico, and Spain.

In total, in the booklet just mentioned, there are 986 bird species for North America (with the Pacific Wren and the Mexican Whip-poor-will added). The most-recent addition to the continent's avifauna has been a Red-legged Thrush, of the Caribbean, in Florida.

As the list was tallied, we found that the number of species (out of the 986) that have found during FONT tours, in North America or anywhere, was 936.

Of course, some such as the Labrador Duck, Eskimo Curlew, Slender-billed Curlew, Great Auk, Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Thick-billed Parrot, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and Bachman's Warbler have to be extracted from the 986, along with some vagrants that have not been seen for decades. And FONT has never done a tour in Michigan or the Bahamas, so therefore no Kirtland's Warbler.

A reason for our figure of 936 is because as many as 210 species that have occurred in North America have been seen during our FONT tours in Japan. Many of them are birds that occur as vagrants in Alaska.

But that 210 is still second to Mexico. 404 species of birds that have occurred in North America have been seen during FONT Mexican tours, in places such as Sonora and the Yucatan.

I became curious as I was compiling the list as to which bird species had been seen at the most places. So, I thought I'd compute. Putting the US states, Canadian provinces, and counties together as "units", the maximum number of places would be 55. But bear in mind, that in New Jersey, only species seen pelagically (at sea) were noted.

If the Feral, or Common Pigeon (or Rock Dove) is to be discarded, and many don't even consider it to be "a bird", it would not be number one (with 49).

Here are the others: the Barn Swallow, not far behind the pigeon, with 47.
The House Sparrow: 45
Followed by:
With 35: American Kestrel, Common Moorhen
With 34: Great Egret, Peregrine Falcon, Black-bellied Plover
With 33: Osprey
With 32: Greater Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone
With 31: Blue-winged Teal, Black-crowned Night Heron
With 30: Pied-billed Grebe, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Spotted Sandpiper.

Some birds, of course, are common and widespread. Others are rare and local. Most are in between.

During our 20 years of tours, the rarest birds have included the Cherry-throated Tanager in Brazil and the Puerto Rican Parrot.

When we saw the male Cherry-throated Tanager in 1998, the species had only been seen once prior to that in the 20th Century, and before that it was known just from a single specimen taken in the 19th century.

We saw the extremely rare Puerto Rican Parrot during 11 of our tours.

Other notable rarities for us, for the years, have included single Siberian Cranes in Japan, Harpy Eagles at their nests in Brazil, and Horned Guans in mountain forests in Guatemala.

And yes, we've seen other some wonderful nature in addition to birds.

Our best in the non-avian category would well be the Jaguars that we've seen a few times.

Looking back over the 20 years, it has not just been the birds and other wildlife. What has been most important have been the people who have traveled with us.

We've tallied birds, but our count of customers has been over 2,000. With more than 1,000 with us more than once. We are indebted to everyone who has joined us, and are most appreciative that they have.

***************************************************************************

A major project that has been underway recently has been a re-do of the photo galleries in the FONT web-site. The endeavor is not quite complete yet. It will be soon.

But the lay-out for the nearly 900 species of birds in photographs taken during our tours and otherwise is now better.

On the left-side of our website homepage, the photos can be viewed in the bird-lists for Brazil, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Mexico, North America and Arizona, Colorado, Texas.

In addition to birds, we have 300 photos of other nature: mammals, amphibians and reptiles, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies, marine-life, wildflowers, and celestial phenomena.

So, if you have some time, in that arm chair mentioned earlier, please visit us and view the show.

****************************************************************************

Regarding some upcoming FONT tours:

We've heard from a contact of ours in Brazil that Harpy Eagles are now at a nest, and should be for a while.

Some have requested that we do a tour to that area soon, in September, which will also include a lodge with Amazonian birding along the Rio Roosevelt, made famous in the fine book, "River of Doubt".

Information regarding that special tour will be in our website later this week. Please let us know by e-mail if you're interested.

There is still some availability on the upcoming tour in Belize, February 28 - March 9, 2011.

And we'll be doing a tour in Argentina, September 27 - October 10, 2010, for endemic and specialty birds in that country.

Among them, the Carbonated Sierra Finch, a sparkling bird indeed!

Thank you for reading. Good birding and good health, wherever you may be.

Armas Hill

Volume 20, Number 6
June 2010
from Focus On Nature Tours
including:

Our May 2010 tour in Japan, where both birds and those who watched & photographed them came from afar

Also noting SOME NEW BIRD TAXONOMY & NOMENCLATURE 
in the link below to "more about the FONT Japan Tour in May 2010"


Japan - May 2010

Our spring tour in Japan in May 2010 was the 34th FONT tour in that country, and the 7th to include Hegura, a small island in the Sea of Japan that is an outstanding place for bird migration in the spring - one of the best such places anywhere in the world. 
Other places that were visited on the main Japanese island of Honshu included the Japan Alps, the rural Noto Peninsula, and forested hills in central Honshu, and reed beds and rice fields in the eastern part of the island.       

Links:

More about the FONT Japan Tour in May 2010

Birds & Other Wildlife during our Japan Spring Tour - May 2010

Cumulative List of Birds during our Japan Tours (with some photos)

Birds during FONT tours on Hegura Island (with some photos)

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Japan  

FONT E-News, Volume 20, No. 5
May 2010
from Focus On Nature Tours, Inc.
including:


Texas - May 2010

Late last spring (in 2009), we did a most interesting and enjoyable birding & nature tour in Iceland, a fascinating place in the world for such a trip. A land, it is often said, of fire and ice. The participants on the tour were a group, of about 20, from mostly south-central Texas.

This spring, with volcanic activity, Iceland has been all the more fascinating, with even more fire!

Also this spring, at the end of our FONT birding & nature tour in Texas, a number of us who were on last year's Iceland tour had the opportunity to get together, not far from Austin, in the community of Wimberley. It was a very nice reunion, and a good get-together after we had first met a year ago on a tour in a distant land.

I just noted that there were about 20 participants on the late-spring 2009 tour in Iceland.

Having that many people is not the case normally with FONT tours in our program, and in our web-site: www.focusonnature.com which have a maximum of 5 or 6 participants, and are thus an optimum size for birding and nature observation.

It has only been our charter tours, over the years, with as many as 20 or so people that have been for groups such as the Wimberley, Texas Bird Society, and others including the Birmingham, Alabama and Venice, Florida Audubon Societies.

In the 20 years of FONT tours to various places in the world, there have been over 2,000 tour participants, and a high percentage of them have traveled with us as repeat customers. These people have been from nearly all of the US states (47 out of 50), and most of the Canadian provinces.

From nearly 20 other countries around the world, there have been FONT tour participants, including people from Australia, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway.

During our tour in Texas this spring, having a tour participant from Norway was a reminder to those of us from the US of the beauty of such birds as the Northern Cardinal and Blue Jay, which can often times be taken for granted.

The largest of the 48 contiguous states, Texas is a land of superlatives. And for birding that is especially true. Texas has the most bird species of any US state, with over 630. New additions have been added just about annually, mostly vagrants from Mexico.

Texas is so much a place for birding that in the early days of the Peterson Bird Field Guides, there was the guide to the East, the guide to the West, and the guide to Texas. That was due in part to East meeting West in Texas (more will be noted about that later in this narrative), but there was certainly enough bird-wise in the state to fill the book!

In Texas, during our May 2010 tour, it was not just the number of species, but the large numbers of some of the birds that was at times so noticeable. There were so many birds.
The state bird, the Mockingbird, was heard singing, again & again & again.
Cardinals seemed to be everywhere, both seen and heard in many of the habitats that we visited.
And more than once, when we stopped, we couldn't help but notice how many Dickcissels were calling in the fields. So many.

Not only were there large numbers of birds, also there were tremendously large numbers of butterflies. And it seemed that wildflowers could not have been more plentiful. There were so many in bloom, and a variety.

In one woods that we visited, there were thousands and thousands of caterpillars. They were falling to the ground off trees, big and small. Many of the trees in that riparian woods were denuded, with trees, big and small, leafless. The caterpillars were "everywhere" on the ground.

As to the plethora of wildflowers and butterflies, we were told that earlier in the spring, before our tour, there had been a good spell of rain, after a long spell of drought, about 3 years. Other than the one denuded forest, there was greenery as we traveled about, along with the multi-colored fields of so many flowers.

Also in a very large number, during our May '09 Texas Tour, in addition to the flowers, butterflies, and birds, there was a mammal.
At dusk, at two locations, literally millions of Mexican Free-tailed Bats were seen, flying out into the evening sky. They were in incredible swarms.

I noted that Texas has more bird species than any other state. It also has more bat species. Of the 45 species of bats in North America, 32 occur in Texas. And as to the number of individual bats, no other state comes close! As there are a number of places in Texas was "incredible swarms" of the Mexican Free-tailed Bats. And what's also "incredible" about them is that spread out during the night, high in the sky, over much of the expansive land called Texas.

Yes, Texas is a land of superlatives. And it is a great place for a birding and nature tour, as we did for about a week in early May 2010.

From the Gulf Coast west, there's an array of various habitats in Texas. These include pine and hardwood forests, prairies, deserts, hills and mountains, lakes and ponds, and farm and ranch lands. Such diversity assures the big variety of birds that occur in Texas.

During our May 2010 tour, we did not cover Texas from one end to the other, but rather we concentrated in south-central Texas, from the Gulf Coast west to the "Hill Country" of the Edwards Plateau. In just that one region of the state, there were nearly all of the habitats just noted (except for mountains).
And in that region of south-central Texas, especially near the city of Austin, for us, and our birding, East did meet West.
From that city east, birds included: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Blue Jay, and Red-bellied Woodpecker.
From that city west, birds included: Black-chinned Hummingbird, Western Scrub Jay, and Golden-fronted Woodpecker.

And to the west and north of Austin, 2 of the truly avian stars of the Texas show occur: the Golden-cheeked Warbler and the Black-capped Vireo, with the warbler nesting nowhere else in the world other than in Texas, and the vireo nearly so.

About an hour east of Austin, we visited a pine forest that's about 200 miles west of any other such habitat. For that reason, the place is called the "Lost Pines". Whether or not lost, the place is good to find. In it, we encountered nesting Pine Warblers, Northern Parulas, singing Summer Tanagers and Carolina Wrens, much as one would hear somewhere in the pines of the Southeast US. After dark, Chuck-will's-widows called, much as they would in a Southeast US pine forest.

Along the Gulf Coast, a nice call we heard, late in the day, was that of the Black Rail. It may have wintered in that marshy area, or it may have been passing through on its way to nest further north.

Numerous birds migrate north along the Texas seacoast in the spring. We enjoyed, as have in the past, such birds during their journey as warblers, flycatchers, and orioles. The Blackburnian and Black-throated Green Warblers were especially nice to see. An Olive-sided Flycatcher was a good find. And one small tree was filled with both colorful Baltimore and Orchard Orioles.

All of those birds would continue north. But some birds that we liked to see had migrated to Texas from their winter haunts.

Particularly notable among them were the many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers we saw. But no matter how many of them we saw, they continued to be good to see - every time.

And there were the numerous Dickcissels. Maybe some of them were to continue north, but others certainly seemed ready to stay, as males were constantly proclaiming their territories.

Onomatopoetically speaking, there were not only the Dickcissels. Also there were the Northern Bobwhite, the Eastern Wood Pewee, and the Killdeer. They were "onomatopoetically speaking" as they all were saying their names. At one time, all 4 of those species, were heard at once.
At other times, other onomatopoetic birds that we heard were the Eastern Phoebe, the Pauraque, and the already-mentioned Chuck-will's-widow.

Along the Texas Gulf Coast, we had a good day with many coastal birds, including numerous shorebirds, long-legged waders, and a half-dozen species of terns and skimmers at once.
Among the long-legged waders, the Reddish Egrets were particularly worth watching for a while. We observed both the dark and white morphs of that species doing their acrobatic antics as they danced about.
Among the shorebirds, we saw a bird that's rare in Texas, the Piping Plover. The total North American population of that species is low, around 5,000 or so. Along the Texas coast, there are not many to see, as we did.

A bird that is not rare in Texas is the Cave Swallow. Not that many years ago, it was said to be in the state in low numbers, mostly in limestone caves.
Now, the species is far from rare in Texas. It is abundant, notably at highway overpasses, or closer to the ground at culverts by, for example, farm ponds. We saw many Cave Swallows during our tour, although the similar Cliff Swallow, of which we also saw many, is still said to be the most abundant nesting swallow in Texas.
It's interesting that now, more than previously, after the breeding season, numbers of Cave Swallows, of the race nesting in Texas, are being found in the late fall further north in the US, especially in the northeast states.

As just noted, the Cave and Cliff Swallows are much alike. Other birds that could be referred to as "similar sibling species" were also noted during our spring '09 Texas tour, such as:
Glossy and White-faced Ibises, Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers, and Boat-tailed and Great-tailed Grackles.
The Boat-tailed Grackle was only seen once, during the tour, along the Gulf Coast.
The Great-tailed Grackle is yet another species of bird that is ubiquitous in the state of Texas, where birds overall would be plentiful even without the grackles - but of course, and especially in the cities and towns, they do add measurably to the total number!

Bird-wise, we'll end with a species that's not plentiful in Texas, but's now more common there, as it is more common now elsewhere in North America than it was a couple decades ago, the Bald Eagle.
One morning, as we were driving along a highway near the coast, an adult Bald Eagle nicely sat for us itself atop a pole.
On the other side of the highway, there was a Northern Crested Caracara, a bird sometimes referred to as the "Mexican Eagle". Actually, by the way, it is the more-westerly Golden Eagle that is the national bird of Mexico, as the Bald Eagle is the national bird of the United States.

Among the mammals and other wildlife during the FONT Texas May '10 Tour, in addition to the Mexican Free-tailed Bats already mentioned, there were: Gray Fox, deer, raccoon, opossum, and American Alligator and various turtles and snakes. 

FONT E-News, Volume 20, No. 4
April 2010
from Focus On Nature Tours, Inc. 

Colorado, Nebraska, & Wyoming - April 2010

During this tour, in April 2010, we traveled in the plains of eastern Colorado and Nebraska, and in the mountains of central Colorado and nearby Wyoming in our quest to see birds and animals, and especially among the birds, the various grouse of the region.
 
All of the grouse that we sought were seen well, including: in Colorado, the Gunnison Sage Grouse, the Lesser Prairie Chicken, the Greater Sage Grouse, and the Dusky (formerly Blue) Grouse, and in Nebraska, the Greater Prairie Chicken and the Sharp-tailed Grouse.

A good number of other birds (about 130 species in all), and some interesting mammals were also seen (among over 20 species of them). 

Greater Sage Grouse in Colorado in April 2010
(photo courtesy of Andre from Canada)

Links:

More about the FONT Tour in Colorado, Nebraska, & Wyoming in April 2010

Birds & Other Wildlife during our Tour in Colorado, Nebraska, & Wyoming in April 2010

Birds & Other Wildlife during FONT Tours in Colorado & nearby states in April

A Cumulative List of Birds during FONT Tours in Colorado & nearby states  (with photos)  

A Feature - the Grouse of Colorado & Kansas 

Mammals during FONT tours in Colorado & nearby states  (with photos) 

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Colorado & nearby States 

Sightings of Pronghorns
were especially numerous during our tour
in Colorado & nearby states in April 2010.
    

FONT E-News, Volume 20, No. 3
March 2010
from Focus On Nature Tours, Inc. 

Costa Rica - March 2010  

During the FONT tours in Costa Rica in March 2010, over 400 species of birds were found.

Mammals, during the tour, included: the Northern Tamandua (or Collared Anteater), the White-nosed Coati, 3 kinds of Monkeys (the Central American Spider, the Mantled Howler,  and White-faced Capuchin), and a wild cat called the Jaguarundi.

Among the more than 400 bird species, there were many highlights.
During our Northern Costa Rica Tour, there were both Great Green and Scarlet Macaws, the Agami Heron, 2 Jabirus (in the large bird department), while in the small bird department there a number of antbirds, including the Ocellated, Bicolored, and the Spotted.

Some of the birds had the adjective Great, and they were these, all seen:
Great Tinamou, Great Potoo, and Great Curassow, with both male and female nicely seen of the last of these.

In far-northern Costa Rica, not far from Nicaragua, 2 species of birds were seen with the adjective Nicaraguan: the Nicaraguan Grackle and the Nicaraguan Seed-Finch, with its huge pink bill.

During our Southern Costa Rica Tour, certainly outstanding were the Resplendent Quetzals that we saw so nicely on tree branches in the cloud forest, when it was not cloudy or misty, but rather as the sunshine accentuated all the more the beauty of the birds.

27 species of hummingbirds were seen during the March 2010 FONT Costa Rica tours, mostly in the southern part of the country. Truly there was a collective splash of color with the half-dozen or so Fiery-throated Hummingbirds, at one time, at one feeder, in the mountains. A throat or a gorget could not be more colorful anywhere than were those of bright red, orange, and yellow. 
Elsewhere, during our Southern Costa Rica tour, another hummingbird was a showstopping star as a solo. It was the small, brilliantly attractive, mostly maroon-colored male hummingbird known as the Snowcap.       

Also in Southern Costa Rica, we visited the home of the renowned naturalist, Alexander Skutch, for the first time for us since he died, after living a century. He passed away shortly after the current century began. We visited his place and him, during some of our previous tours, but until now, in 2010, we did not go back after he passed away. 
Three times during our previous visits with Mr. Skutch, we enjoyed, with him, the sight of a Turquoise Cotinga atop a tree. This time, in March 2010, when we went to the same porch as we had in the past, there, once again, was a Turquoise Cotinga at the top of a tree. With that, for us, the spirit of Alexander Skutch lived on. 

The Fiery-throated Hummingbird

If there's this much color on one bird,
imagine how on 6 or more of them together!

FONT tour participants birding at breakfast
at Laguna del Lagarto, Costa Rica, in March 2010
(photo by Britta Biebach of Berlin, Germany)

Links:

More about the FONT Costa Rica Tours in March 2010

Lists of Birds & Other Wildlife during the FONT Costa Rica tours  - March 2010

Costa Rica Birds   (a list of 863 bird species; about 700 during FONT tours- with some photos)  

Costa Rica Birds during northern Costa Rica tours (605 species)

Costa Rica Birds during southern Costa Rica tours (493 species)  

A Photographic Sampling of Colorful Costa Rican Birds

A Feature about Alexander Skutch, a naturalist in Costa Rica  

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Central America

FONT E-News, Volume 20, No. 2
February 2010
from Focus On Nature Tours, Inc.


Brazil - February 2010

During this tour, in Amazonian Brazil, included a place with both Hoatzin & Harpy - Harpy Eagle, that is. It was a place in a system of Amazon waters, where we traveled mostly by boat along rivers and channels, but also where we hiked on trails in the rainforest.

Among our favorite birds were the Agami Heron and Horned Screamers, which were in addition to a good assortment of raptors, parrots and parakeets, toucans, and trogons. Small birds that were nice to see were the hummingbirds, manakins, and a tame little creature in the forest called the Dwarf Tyrant-Manakin.

But the best of our more than 200 species of birds was the Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock. Not only did we see so very well the brilliantly-colored orange males, like beacons in the forest, we enjoyed the rare sight of a dark, nearly-black,  female Cock-of-the-Rock sitting on its nest, on a ledge of a big rock, at a grotto by the entrance to a cave, in which, during the day, numerous bats were roosting.

Other mammals during the tour included various monkeys: the Golden-handed Tamarins, White-bearded Sakis, Brown Capuchins, and the noisy Red Howler Monkeys. In the water, we saw both Gray Dolphins and Pink River Dolphins. The Amazonian Manatee was there also.

Among other birds (too many to note here), a few, however, should be mentioned, including: the hollering of a group of Red-throated Caracaras, along with the raucous calls of macaws, that late one afternoon, made the normally loud Mealy Amazons and Red-fan Parrots seem rather quiet by comparison. 

Links:

List of Birds & Other Wildlife during the FONT Brazil Tour - February 2010

A Complete List of the Birds of Brazil:
Part 1: Tinamous to Flycatchers
Part 2: Antshrikes to Grosbeaks

Birds of the Amazon Basin

Rare Birds during FONT Tours in Brazil  (with photos)

Mammals & Other Wildlife in Brazil  (with photos)

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Brazil

FONT E-News, Volume 20, No. 1
February 2010 
from Focus on Nature Tours, Inc.

Again, on the snow, during our January 2010 Japan Tour.
there were Red-crowned, or Japanese, Cranes,
known as "Tanchos".

Japan - January 2010

The 33rd FONT birding & nature tour in Japan took place in January 2010. During that tour, a wild creature was seen for the first time during any of our tours in Japan. On the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido, at the easternmost place in Japan, seen from shore were 2 Sea Otters. At another place in eastern Hokkaido, late that same day, as many as 1,000 Sika Deer were seen. 
And these in that part of Japan were in addition to the avian cast of characters that we've always enjoyed seeing, the eagles, both Steller's Sea Eagles and White-tailed Eagles, both seen closely, and the cranes, the Red-crowned, or Japanese, Crane, that were again as stately as they've always been for us, on the snow.        
Among the numerous waterfowl that we saw during the tour were 2 species of swans, 2 species of geese, and numerous ducks. Notably beautiful among the last of these were the Mandarin, Falcated, Long-tailed, and Harlequin Ducks, and Smew. Of each of these, we had wonderful sightings.  
Other interesting and enjoyable sightings during the tour included: Japanese Macaques (or "Snow Monkeys"), Pallas' Rosefinch, Red-flanked Bluetail, and many Daurian Redstarts and Brown Dippers. 
       

Links:

Birds & Other Wildlife during FONT Japan Tour in January 2010

Cumulative List of Birds during our Japan Tours

Rare Birds during FONT Tours in Japan

Upcoming FONT Japan Birding & Nature Tours

During the FONT Japan Tour in January 2010,
2 Sea Otters, known as Rakkos, were seen
from shore in eastern Hokkaido.
The Sea Otter is very rare in Japan.
Only 2 or 3 dozen are said to exist 
in the nearby islands that are part of Russia.

FONT E-News, Volume 19, No. 8
December 2009
from Focus on Nature Tours, Inc.

An extraordinary bird, the Diademed Plover
was seen well
during the FONT Nov/Dec 2009 Chile Tour.

Chile - November/December 2009

The first Focus On Nature tour ever was in Chile in November 1990. 
19 years later, in 2009, from November 22 to December 4, we were there again. Chile was a great destination for our first tour, and in 2009, it still was!

Our highlights in 2009 were many. 

Probably foremost among them was a very close and cooperative Diademed Plover. When we saw that bird back in 1990, its English name was then the Diademed Sandpiper-Plover. About 20 years later, in its preferred name, the "sandpiper" had been dropped. But whatever its common name, that absolutely striking bird of mostly the high Andes was as much of a thrill for us to see in 2009 as it was two decades earlier.

Our 2009 tour was the 18th for FONT in Chile. And, even so, we managed to enjoy a spectacle, and a bird species that we had never previously seen. 
Late one day, with a backdrop of Andean mountains, and purplish-blue twilight sky, we watched as about 500 Burrowing Parrots arrived at their roost for the night. Most flew into their burrows. Some perched on snags on the big cliff that was the dormitory for the birds. Rather like small macaws, the Burrowing Parrots were so raucously noisy that evening across the gorge from us on the large cliff. Our evening with them was another highlight of the tour.

And yet more tour highlights were had during our time on Chiloe Island in southern Chile. During a late-afternoon along the seacoast, when the weather was absolutely beautiful (it is not always that way on Chiloe Island), we enjoyed wonderful looks of both Humboldt and Magellanic Penguins, a family of Kelp Geese, pairs of Fuegian (or Flightless) Steamer Ducks, both Rock and Imperial Shags, a massive swarm of shearwaters and other seabirds, and a mammal never before seen during a FONT tour. That mammal is a counterpart in the Southern Hemisphere of the Sea Otter in the North Pacific. Smaller than the Sea Otter, it is called the Marine Otter, or locally, in Spanish, the "Nutria del Mar" ("of the sea"). It is a rare animal.

Late that afternoon as we were leaving that wonderful seaside-spot, we saw another animal that's rarely seen. A small and shy deer, called the Pudu, it was standing still on the right side of a dirt road in front of our vehicle.

The small, shy Chilean deer called the Pudu

The next morning, further south on Chiloe, we walked along the edge of a mudflat by a sheltered cove of the sea on the east side of the island. It was a nice place that's certainly found to be so by Hudsonian Godwits from North America. There were about 2,500 of them, by us, feeding tamely on the flats.

And yet another highlight of our tour occurred the next day on Chiloe Island. After we stopped our vehicle and got of it in the forest, there was a nearby loud call followed by loud tapping. At eye-level very near us, there were 2 female Magellanic Woodpeckers. We stood rather still, and we were rather quiet. Another loud call was given, a short while later, behind us, followed by a male Magellanic Woodpecker flying in, to also be closely in front of us, at eye-level, and brilliantly seen in the sunlight.     

Here in capsule form, were some of the highlights of our 2009 FONT Chile Tour. You may read more about these birds and mammals, and others, in the narrative reached from the link below.


Links:

More about the FONT Chile Tour in November/December 2009 

List of Birds & Other Wildlife during the FONT Chile Tour - November/December 2009

A Complete List of the Birds of Chile  (with photos)

Mammals & Other Wildlife in Chile  (with photos)

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Chile

A Mystery Storm-Petrel during the FONT Nov/Dec 2009 Chile Tour

During a ferry-boat ride to Chiloe Island, on December 1, 2009, as part of the FONT Nov/Dec '09 Tour in Chile, some storm-petrels were noticed with more extensive white than expected on their vents/bellies.

What we did not know at the time was that earlier that same year, another group of birders, in waters in much that same area, also observed some similar storm-petrels. 

The photos below were taken in the same Chilean waters
a few months before our Nov/Dec '09 FONT tour,
taken in February 2009 by Michael O'Keeffe

This "mystery storm-petrel" was seen during the FONT Chile tour
on December 1, 2009 from the ferry to Chiloe Island.

Link:

More about the Mystery Storm Petrel of South-Central Chile

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