Index of Interesting/Unusual/Rare birds
Last Updated: May 28, 2021 All birds were photographed in Texas unless stated otherwise:
Nov. 2013: a new section on ESTIMATING BIRD NUMBERS, using photos from a variety of situations: CLICK HERE. |
Two Emperor Geese,
from near Seattle, Washington .
A male American
Wigeon with a striking head pattern .
An American Black Duck from Fort
Worth, Texas .
A
female Common
Pochard from Fort Worth in November 2003
- sadly too far away for definitive pics .
Poor flight pics of a female-type Harlequin Duck near Fort Worth,
Texas .
Female Common
Mergansers at sunset, from west Texas .
A Masked Duck from the Corpus Christi area - plus Lesser Black-backed Gull and Cassin's
Vireofor an unlikely one-day
Photo Triple ! .
A pair of
Masked Ducks from south of Kingsville .
A male Alternate plumage Ruddy
Duck taking a bath, from the central
coast .
A bit of fun with some Least Grebes... .
A Clark's
Grebe at sunset, from west Texas -.
A rare opportunity to photograph six species of grebe including Red-necked
Grebe at Balmorehea Lake, western
Texas.
an immature Brown
Booby from Port
Aransas, Texas.
A Great Blue Heron
swimming with cormorants near Fort Worth .
A group of Snowy
Egrets fishing on-the-fly in San Antonio
.
An Ashy Cattle
Egret from Houston .
A flying Least
Bittern from coastal Texas .
The first ABA Area record of Bare-throated
Tiger-Heron .
A striking Basic I Mississippi Kite from the
central part of the Rio Grande drainage in Texas .
A bit of fun with two Northern
Harriers near Fort Worth... .
Two interesting Northern
Harriers from north-central Texas .
A wonderful hour of hawkwatching that included eight
dark-morph Broad-winged Hawks - six
photographed, plus a nice flock of Wood Storks .
A wonderful ninety minutes of watching more than 35.000 Broad-winged Hawks
lift off and kettle over a McAllen, TX neighborhood .
A January juvenile Broad-winged Hawk from coastal
south Texas .
Two Gray Hawks
from SE Arizona; one a 2CY completing its PB1 molt
An immature Roadside
Hawk from southern Texas .
Two light-morph Short-tailed Hawks from
southern Texas in 2004 and 2013 .
This Bald Eagle
from Alaska is a two-fisted killer! .
A pesky yet impressive Peregrine: you go girl! .
A flying Peregrine
carrying unexpected prey - WARNING: it's a little bit gruesome... .
A flying Peregrine
stirring-up gulls feeding over a pack of cormorants .
A confiding Prairie
Falcon near an Icterid-packed feedlot in
south Texas .
The first Gyrfalcon
for Texas.
Five Whooping
Cranes near Fort Worth; now with sound! .
TWO(!) Common Cranes near Muleshoe,
Texas;.
All three species of Ptarmigan, from Colorado
and Alaska.
The amazing first ABA Area record of Rufous-necked
Wood-Rail from New Mexico!.
Virginia
Rail: headline:- "Migrant
Derailed by Front; Circumstances Grave..." .
A Spotted
Rail from southern Texas - added
December 23, 2020.
A reflective American Avocet from the
north-central Texas.
A white Killdeer
from north-central Texas .
The 1st and 2nd U.S. Collared
Plovers, from south Texas.
Some Collared
Plovers from CHILE
showing broken fore-collars and broad side-collars .
Portraits of some Mountain Plovers from near
Pearsall, south Texas .
Some tail-shaking Mountain Plovers from near
Pearsall, south Texas .
A Mountain
Plover from near Pearsall, Texas; it is
a male in breeding plumage in January - ? .
A Semipalmated Sandpiper wintering
in Texas (it has a deformity).
part of a Megaflock of Buff-breasted
Sandpipers on the Texas Coastal Plain.
A juvenile Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper from the
Texas Panhandle.
A first-summer Surfbird
from the central Texas coast .
Wandering
Tattler - Texas's only record .
Two dueling Solitary
Sandpipers from the central Texas coast
.
Three Ruffs
from Texas .
Three Northern
Jacanas from south Texas .
The first South Polar
Skua for the Gulf of Mexico.
A Little Gull
in full juvenile plumage, from Texas in November .
First-cycle Black-legged
Kittiwakes from the central Texas coast
in early Spring and from south Texas in February .
Five species of
Tern in thirteen days at Lake Benbrook, near
Fort Worth - including Sooty Tern .
Two inland waifs from Hurricane
Dolly in July 2008: a close Sooty
Tern, and a distant Storm-Petrel .
A Brown Noddy
from inshore south Texas waters .
Two male eastern Ruddy
Ground-Doves from southern Texas .
A gray-morph Chuck-will's-widow
from the Texas coast .
Three Eastern
Whip-poor-wills: from Corpus Christi,
Texas.
A wobbling Eastern
Whip-poor-will from our balcony
in San Antonio, Texas - added
May 28, 2021.
Two Snowy Owls
from Texas .
A ghostly pale Great
Horned Owl from west Texas .
A Long-eared
Owl on a day roost in San Antonio, Texas
.
Record pics of a Mountain Pygmy-Owl from Big
Bend National Park, west Texas.
A Northern
Pygmy-Owl from Washington State
.
This Ferruginous
Pygmy-Owl from southern Texas had to
play second fiddle, despite showing very well....
A Plain-capped
Starthroat from SE Arizona .
A male Broad-billed
Hummingbird from OUR
BALCONY (!) in San Antonio, Texas .
A male Broad-billed
Hummingbird plus adult female Magnificent
and male Black-chinned Hummingbirds from SE Arizona .
A male Broad-billed
Hummingbird from Houston, Texas.
A juvenile Magnificent
Hummingbird from near San Antonio, Texas
.
Male Magnificent
Hummingbirds plus adult male Calliope
from SE Arizona .
A male Green-breasted
Mango from South Texas .
A male Buff-bellied
Hummingbird from South Texas .
An adult Violet-crowned
Hummingbird from west Texas .
A female Calliope
Hummingbird from west Texas .
Male Calliope,
Broad-tailed and Black-chinned
Hummingbirds from west Texas .
Four species of hummingbird: Allen's, Calliope, Rufous and Black-chinned (plus a
bonus bird and butterfly!) on a February
day in San Antonio,
Texas .
A "southern" Red-breasted
Sapsucker from West Texas .
Williamson's
Sapsucker a male from west Texas.
A mixed pair of Red-
and Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers
interacting.
Male Elegant Trogon
and Blue Bunting
from south Texas on January 14-16 2005.
A flying female Ringed Kingfisher from south
Texas.
. All four
Texas kingfishers in just over six
hours!
.
A Northern
Beardless-Tyrannulet from south Texas .
A Buff-breasted
Flycatcher from the Davis Mtns, Texas .
A Greater
Pewee wintering in southern Texas
.
An unexpected Thick-billed Kingbird at
Portal, SE Arizona .
Two vagrant Gray
Kingbirds from southern
Texas - added
May 25, 2021.
A couple of Fork-tailed
Flycatchers from Texas .
The first documented record for North
America of Social Flycatcher, from southern Texas .
Poor pics of a
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
from the upper Texas Coast .
A young male Rose-throated
Becard from southern Texas .
An adult male Rose-throated
Becard from southern Texas - added
December 10, 2020.
A leucistic Loggerhead
Shrike from San Antonio .
Three of six Northern Shrikes
in three days in the Texas Panhandle - plus the first
one from the Trans-Pecos in 25 years... .
Two Black-capped
Vireos from the
Hill Country .
A Hutton's Vireo from San
Antonio.
A Bell's Vireo from the
southern coast .
Two Tamaulipas Crows from Brownsville, LRGV .
Two Fish Crows
from eastern Texas in the summer of 2013 .
Some southwestern Purple Martins from southeast
Arizona nesting in Saguaro cactus .
Four western Purple Martins from
southeastern New Mexico .
Two eastern Purple Martins from southern
Texas with very different P-molt timing... .
Pioneering Purple Martins from the eastern
Trans-Pecos of Texas that are nesting inside light pole
fixtures and on ledges under metal canopies .
A Violet-green
Swallow from Fort Worth .
A Violet-green
Swallow from Colorado .
A selection from a huge Swallow drop-in near Fort
Worth - .
A Golden-crowned
Kinglet flashing his crest, from Washington
State .
The first White Wagtail for Texas!.
At last, a Juniper
Titmouse from Texas!.
A comparison of Brown-headed
and Pygmy Nuthatches from Texas and Colorado .
A Brown
Creeper from eastern Texas -.
Phainopeplas
from west Texas .
An American Dipper
from the western Texas, by Willie Sekula -.
The second Texas record of Northern Wheatear
- plus Northern Jacana and
Carolina Chickadee for an
unlikely one-day Photo Triple !
.
Unexpected Western
Bluebirds from San Antonio, Texas .
A White-throated
Thrush from southern Texas .
A gorgeous male Varied
Thrush from San Antonio, Texas.
A thought-provoking Tropical Mockingbird from the
Upper Texas Coast .
A Crissal Thrasher
from west Texas.
A delightful Painted
Redstart in Corpus Christi, Texas .
Another lovely Painted
Redstart - this one from Arizona .
A series of pages of various warblers from an amazing Fallout at
South Padre Island :
- male Bay-breasted Warbler.
- male and female Golden-winged
Warblers.
- male Tennessee, Cerulean and Blackburnian Warblers.
- male Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, and Black-throated Green Warblers.
- male Northern Parula, American Redstart.
- female Cape May Warbler,
Philadelphia Vireo, plus "combos".
A scarce Black-throated
Blue Warbler from the Central Texas
Coast; an educational really dull female! - plus now a male from the same spot .
Yellow-throated
Warblers from the central Texas
coast .
Palm
Warbler from coastal Texas .
Prairie Warbler
A black-throated
Tennessee Warbler from south Texas.
A Hooded Warbler from the central
Texas coast .
A Worm-eating
Warbler from the central Texas
coast .
An unexpected Lucy's Warbler from Port Aransas, Nueces county, plus Bar-tailed
Godwit and Mag. Frigatebird from
the same day!
.
A Colima Warbler
from west Texas .
Northern Parulas
from the central Texas coast .
A Kentucky
Warbler from the central Texas
coast .
A Prothonotary
Warbler from the central Texas
coast .
Mourning
Warbler two Spring males; two "broken
eyering" immatures plus an unusual female from the Fall, from
coastal Texas .
A MacGillivray's
Warbler from the central Texas
coast .
Scarce Cape May
Warblers from the Central Texas Coast .
A nice, clean-looking male Tropical Parula from San
Antonio .
A cooperative Hermit
Warbler from the Central Texas Coast
.
A rare Hermit
Warbler from the Central Texas Coast .
An even rarer Red-faced Warbler from the same
Central Texas Coast spot as the above Hermit
Warbler; at bottom of page .
A Red-faced
Warbler from southeastern New
Mexico .
A lovely male Golden-cheeked Warbler from the Hill Country .
An obliging Swainson's
Warbler from Corpus Christi .
A record shot of a Golden-crowned Warbler from
south Texas .
A lovely Rufous-capped Warbler from
south of San Antonio .
The long-staying Gray-crowned
Yellowthroat from
Sabal Palm, LRGV; but is it a pure bird???
.
An Olive
Warbler from the Davis Mtns, Texas .
A Hatching Year Red-legged
Honeycreeper from southern Texas; a
potential First for the ABA area
.
A cooperative Sagebrush
Sparrow from west Texas .
A nicely-posed adult Golden-crowned Sparrow from
west-central Texas .
Flight shots of the Lewisville, Texas Snow Bunting.
A male Varied
Bunting from the central Texas coast .
A male Yellow-faced
Grassquit from south-central Texas coast
(plus a handful of interesting "photo-mates" from the same
day) .
A male Blue
Bunting from San Antonio, Texas - added February
26, 2021.
A Flame-colored
Tanager from the southern Texas coastal
plain .
Rare on the Texas coast, Western Tanagers; male and
female .
A male Scarlet Tanager with golden wingbars
from south Texas .
Male and female Crimson-collared
Grosbeaks from the LRGV .
A wintering Scott's
Oriole from Tarrant County, TX .
Audubon's
Orioles from Bexar and Frio counties,
TX; north of their tradional range .
A Black-vented
Oriole from south Texas .
A "gray-morph" Orchard Oriole from Corpus
Christi, Texas .
Yellow-headed
Blackbirds in flight (landing) from the
central Texas coast .
Four forms of Rosy
Finch from Sandia Crest, NM;
all 4 types in flight, standing, and together in one shot.
A female Evening
Grosbeak from west Texas .