As I’ve talked about repeatedly over the previous months, life this spring has gone topsy-turvy in central Mexico, as we expertise what has definitely been one in every of our driest years in historical past. So it was with coronary heart in hand that a number of of us drove one hour downhill to the city of Paso Ancho, to investigate cross-check one in every of Mexico’s rarest and least-understood birds.
The Sinaloa Martin is a big swallow, which appears to breed solely alongside a slender band of the Sierra Madre Occidental, within the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, and Jalisco. It sports activities the extraordinary purple again and head of its shut relative, the Purple Martin, which is present in a lot of North America (summer season) and South America (winter). Not like the Purple Martin, nevertheless, it has a shiny white stomach, with males exhibiting a pointy and stylish division between the 2 colours. It’s nearly equivalent to the geographically distant Caribbean Martin. Since this latter martin seems to winter in northern South America, and nobody is aware of the place the the Sinaloa Martin winters, it has been recommended that the 2 species may winter collectively there.
9 years in the past I sighted a handful of Sinaloa Martins within the small Michoacán city of Paso Ancho. I’ve now seen the species in eight totally different years. Since 2020, after I found out that it solely seems there in July, I’ve managed to see it yearly. As different birders accompany me every year on this pilgrimage, and we every file particular person stories, nearly 1 / 4 of all of eBird’s present whole 165 listings for this species are from this one little city. I think that about half of all of the pictures on that platform are additionally from this website. As we now have seen a lot bigger numbers there than have been registered anyplace else, I think that Paso Ancho could also be a spot the place these martins collect, previous to migrating collectively.
We made our 2024 pilgrimage on Monday, July eighth. This time I went with ornithologists Jonathan Vargas and his spouse Fany, botanist Ignacio Torres, and one different newbie like myself. However would we discover our martin buddies, after such a tough yr?
The standard spot for seeing giant numbers of martins (as much as 50, in 2022) yielded solely three people. Two have been immature, nonetheless begging for meals from a single male:
After observing these people for some time, and chasing these or one other three to a close-by website, we observed a bigger focus round a communications tower which I had by no means earlier than observed. It took us some time to entry the tower, by an open gate and subsequent to a pleasant home. We requested the aged couple that dwell there for permission to move, which they kindly gave. Actually, I think that our go to could have been the spotlight of their week; they chatted for so long as we allowed, and invited us again anytime.
This tower appears to be fairly the social middle for the martin season. Children begged, adults fed them, males manifested their extra testosterone by preventing, and grownup females noticed their fight. We counted 12 martins at one time.
Ultimately, we noticed someplace between 12 and 20 people for the day, relying on what number of have been repeats. Not nice in comparison with, say, 2022, however not unhealthy, contemplating 2024’s grim situations.
In fact, Paso Ancho can be a hotspot for a lot of different stunning species and endemics. We had good sightings of a pair of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, one in every of central Mexico’s few summer-only migrants.
The Orange-breasted Bunting is one in every of Mexico’s most stunning endemics. However the Black-chested Sparrow can be relatively good-looking, for a sparrow, and has a fair smaller vary.
Motmots positively make up one of many hen world’s glamour households. Western Mexico provides just one, the endemic Russet-crowned Motmot.
The male Bronzed Cowbird exhibits what a single showy accent, on this case a shiny pink eye, can do for an in any other case drab outfit:
It wasn’t a nasty day for raptors, together with good sightings of two Quick-tailed Hawks, and poor views of a way more tough Hook-billed Kite.
Though our sightings have been too transient for pictures, it’s at all times a deal with to see a gaggle extremely endemic Banded Quails; and the presence of Mangrove Cuckoos so removed from their namesake mangroves is relatively fascinating. The cuckoo’s distinctive name adopted us all through the morning.
A last deal with for the day concerned the chance to buy just a few bonete fruits, named for his or her supposed similarity to the form of a bishop’s bonnet. I personally suppose they give the impression of being extra like aerial bombs. I had questioned about how this fruit tasted ever since I noticed Yellow-winged Caciques and Golden-cheeked Woodpeckers consuming them, after which heard that folks eat them as effectively.
Picture from 2020
Though bonetes are associated to papayas, their taste and consistency seems to be extra like that of a ardour fruit. Not unhealthy, so long as you might have a excessive tolerance to spitting out seeds.
As a last word, Mexico is on its technique to a really strong wet season this summer season. By no means earlier than have I needed for flooding as on this yr.
