Everyone Loves the Unexpected when Birding
This is a Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus and in much of Central and South America it is a very common bird. In addition to being common, it is loud, perches in plain sight most of the time, and because it is a flycatcher, it sallys off usually from low perches to catch insects, making it very easy to see and photograph. It was one of the few birds I could count on being on almost every, if not every eBird checklist I submitted on my trip to Costa Rica this month.
That said, Great Kiskadee not an easy bird to see in North America. It's range barely crosses the U.S. - Mexico border in southern Texas and outside of the southern half of Texas it is very uncommonly seen in the ABA birding area. On the other hand lots of common North American birds are uncommon to rare migrants in the part of Costa Rica where I visited.
eBird Range Map for Great Kiskidee
It is good to see birds where they are common, i.e. within their expected range, but it's much more exciting to see them in places where they are rare or vagrants. Seeing the expected is less exciting than seeing an unexpected species.
Good birding. Steem on!
It's interesting what we remember of life. When I was a little kid, we lived for a while in Jamaica, and in Kenya... two quite different places from the Pacific Northwest. All these years later, some of the birds are what I remember best of those places... I recognize them in photos, and they trigger childhood memories.
Must have been very cool to experience a set of birds so undoubtedly different, when visiting Costa Rica!
For sure. Thanks for the story.
Kiskidee is looking cute in cute photograph,with map it become easy for birders to find bird this is a good method for birding.Great post with good map.
That looks so cute bird!
yellow colors create awesome feeling!! Deep and beautiful contrast, great capture @ birdbanter, not easy to capture!