Veracruz 2009: You Better Watch Out…

This morning’s return visit to Chavarrillo was nothing short of outstanding. For me, the replacement of Monday’s so-so views of Bronze-winged Woodpecker with great looks at a bird perched and in flight, close and in good light, overshadowed everything else–but who can complain about good views of Barred Antshrikes and Masked Tityras? Certainly not the happy birders on our trip!

We’re a goodly distance south of the US border, of course, but a number of the birds we saw reminded me a bit of birding south Texas. Great-tailed Grackles are abundant everywhere, but it pays to remember that this terrifically successful (and terrifically attractive) species has moved across the Rio Grande in historic times.

The same is even more pointedly true of the demurely plumed and demented voiced Clay-colored Thrush, which not that long ago was a birdline rarity in Texas–and now occurs regularly (and as a breeder at that) north to Corpus Christi.

What will be next? As Michael pointed out in a recent article in Birding, there are several common northeast Mexican species that can be hoped–expected–to show up sooner or later north of the big river. I’ve been paying special attention to one of them this week, resolved not to overlook it should I be so fortunate as to run across one on my next visit to the Valley.

Melodious Blackbird is, I must admit, pretty easy to overlook. It’s big, it’s black, and it’s noisy–the classic icterid–but not, on first glance or third, particularly distinctive. They’re big and heavy, with a noticeably broad tail, and the bill is thick like a grackle’s but much straighter. The dark eye eliminates a number of confusion contenders, too.

This species and many others are on the move north, and the more time we spend looking at them in their current range, the more likely we are to pick them out when they arrive in our current range. At least that’s my excuse for this week in Veracruz!