Many thanks to Paco Madrigal of Cotinga Tours who corrected the identity of this bird. The original post called this bird a Buff-throated Saltator but it is, of course, a juvenile Black-headed Saltator, which, just to confuse novice neotropical birders, have a buffy patch on their throat!
This post has been submitted to Bird Photography Weekly #31. Go check it out!
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
I kept trying to figure out what species of tanager I was seeing even though the big bills should have clued me in to the fact that I was seeing a saltator, which is the name given to some tropical grosbeaks.
On the upside, some recent phylogenetic studies have indicated that saltators are tanagers, rather than cardinalines.
Great post Corey. You got some nice shots of the Buff-throated Saltator too! It’s amazing the chances we get to see more after having seen the bird in real life and then going back to see the photos. I took some shots of some Common Mergansers the other day and never even noticed the Killdeer standing right next to them as they preened!
And the identification thing, I think we can all identify with that 😉
Great captures, Corey!
Excellent photos Corey!
Very nice photos…That is one strange looking bird.
That is a cool looking bird. Would have been fun to see in real life.
Hello Cory,
I enjoy seeing your pictures. Identifying young birds can be tricky. While I can see why you would think that the bird in your pictures is a Buff-throated Saltator because of the little bit of buff color around the mostly white patch on its throat, but this is actually a young Black-headed Saltator (Saltator atriceps). On the Buff-throated Saltator, the olive green color on its back goes all the way up to the top of its head whereas the Black-headed only has olive green on its back and has a black head.
Happy birding. Hope to see you in Costa Rica some day.
All the best,
Paco Madrigal
Thanks, Paco. That’s the last time I accept someone else’s opinion as the expert one! Correction made…