As I looked ahead to the list of birds that would be “lifers” (never observed before) for me in the Yucatán peninsula there were upwards of 100 species that I thought I had a fairly decent chance of seeing. This list of 100 species was composed of mostly common to fairly common regional birds with ranges from central Mexico down to South America. However, that group of 100 species also included a subset of around 20 endemic birds that are only found in the Yucatán peninsula. These endemic species ranked highest on my Want-to-See List. And at the Tip-Top of that endemic list were those 8 species with “Yucatan” in their name.
Yucatán Nightjar
Our first day of birding found us driving country roads long before sunrise in hopes of getting either or both members of the Nightjar family, technically called Caprimulgidae. We saw many nightjars on the road that flew up before we could get very close and most of those were clearly Common Pauraque. However I did manage two shots of a Yucatán Nightjar. The two images I have are horrible terrible no good bad photos, but they were enough to show that the bird had no white in the wings or tail and did not have a prominent white throat stripe.
Here is a link to a great image on eBird https://ebird.org/species/yucnig1
Here is my really bad image.
Yucatán Flycatcher
The second bird with Yucatán in its name happened to be a Yucatán Flycatcher. This bird very closely resembles the Dusky-capped Flycatcher that is also found in this area. Identification by their calls is the easiest, but this bird was not giving voice lessons this morning. Photographs however, clearly show the pale gray coloration that encircles the eye and what appears to be a relatively smaller bill.
Yucatán Woodpecker
A short time later in the same general area as the Yucatán Flycatcher, we encountered the Yucatán Woodpecker. Once again, this is one of those birds that closely resembles a another bird that is much more widespread. Ranging from the southern US down to Central South America, the Golden-fronted Woodpecker has the same general color patterns as the Yucatán.
The Yucatán woodpecker is smaller with a more slender bill usually with golden feathers circling the base at the bill. As with the Yucatán Flycatcher, its calls ensure its identification. Fortunately for us, this bird cooperated in giving us its beautiful call.
Yucatán Wren
The final “Yucatán” bird species for the day turned out to be the Yucatán Wren. After spending the morning cruising the back roads of the upper Yucatán Peninsula, we stopped at an intersection with a safe spot to park just outside of Rio Lagartos. There was lots of cactus in the area and before we could get 10 yards from the car, Chino was calling out, “Yucatán Wrens here!”
The Yucatán Wren has a very limited range, only occurring in the dry coastal scrub along north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
To me, this species looked almost identical to the common Cactus Wren of the southern US.
In the images below, a parent Yucatán Wren is feeding a young bird.
Reflections of the Natural World 