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The Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) is a most garrulous goatsucker found in the warmer portions of the Americas. From Texas south to Argentina, pauraques populate fields, scrub, and essentially anywhere they may recline unmolested ere they rise for their twilight supper. My experience assures me that the only bird in the genus Nyctidromus isn’t all [...]

Chronicles of my Guatemalan birding adventures are still forthcoming but I thought it might be nice to focus on one special bird from the tropics. The Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa) is a striking wader that ranges from Mexico to Panama. With its attenuated, spindly toes and day-glo orange shield, the jacana looks like a close [...]

As long as the ivory-bill’s existence remains ambiguous, North America’s reigning woodpecker must be the Pileated Woodpecker.  This hulking beauty, black and white with a preposterously scarlet crest, is a most pleasing presence across much of the United States and Canada. That crazy coiffure along with its whinnying laugh betray this bird’s claim to fame [...]