Elf Owl is the smallest of the owls in the world! They have been compared to sparrows in size. Although I have been to a couple locations where they should be seen, I always dipped on them until last year in the Lower Rio Grande where I caught this one poking out just after sunset. They are the only species in their Genus.
I finally got my Northern Pygmy-Owl this past year in Colorado at a beautiful state park northwest of Fort Collins. These tiny owls will call sometimes from a perch out in the open during the day, but they are known to be somewhat of a ventriloquist, throwing their voice around in the canyons they inhabit. Also they are pretty well camouflaged which means spotting one can be very difficult. It took me forever to find this one.
The Santa Marta Screech-owl was only just formally described in 2017 so I was pretty excited to see it on my first trip to Colombia in 2019. Its range is very limited to the Santa Marta mountain range with only an estimated 2300 to 7500 individuals.
White-throated Screech-owls inhabit higher elevation forests of the Andes Mountains in South America. They are fairly widespread and consequently not endangered, but I only ever saw or heard this one while in Colombia. They are one of the 22 living species in the Megascops Genus.
The Short-tailed Hawk sits in the large Genus of Buteo which has 28 species in it. This is one of the few Central and South American Hawks that make it over to North America with a population in south Florida which is "critically imperiled". The name is misleading as the tail is no shorter than most other Buteos in the group, but maybe it was called that because the tail is shorter than other bird predators like those in the genus Accipiter which do have decidedly longish tails. I have seen a couple in Florida but never have obtained a decent picture from there. There is a light and dark morph but I only have pics of the former. Here is a pic from Colombia.
The Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle is in the same genus as the White-tailed Hawk and Variable Hawk. This large South American hawk patrols open areas with low shrubs for small mammalian prey. We saw many in the Paramo habitat in high elevation Colombia where we had the one photographed here. It looks like it has a really short tail but actually its that the wings are very broad and extend to where the tail ends.
The Savanna Hawk is a striking hawk in the genus Buteogallus which includes the Black Hawks. However, the Savanna Hawk has a much more interesting color scheme with a barred rufous body and black linings to the wings. This mainly South American hawk can also make its way into Panama. I have seen them in Colombia and in the Pantanal in Brazil where I obtained these photos.
The Black-collared Hawk of Central and South America is the only species in its genus, Busarellus. I had previously seen them in Colombia but the looks in the Pantanal in Brazil were much better as you can see from these pics. They are primarily fish eaters but will eat other critters too.
I was pretty sure I had seen some Red Kites before in the UK circling high above but it was good to finally get some better looks in the south of France, although still too far to properly crush them. The genus milvus includes Red Kite, Black Kite and Yellow-billed Kite. The Red Kite is the European resident with Black Kites only making it into Europe during breeding season.
The Long-winged Harrier is a raptor of the South American grasslands including the Pantanal where we saw ours. The latin name sounds ridiculous. Circus refers to the tendency for these birds of the open grasslands to fly around in circles looking for small mammals or other prey so I suppose that part of it makes sense. The species binomial of buffoni is a patrynomic based on the Compte de Buffon, but in Italian it means clown which isn't really appropriate for this species. There is nothing funny about these beautiful long-winged hunters.
My first and only view of a Western Marsh Harrier was in the Camargue in the south of France where I got this picture. They are quite large as far as harriers go. This one appears to be an immature male. ID can be challenging in the few areas where this species overlaps with Eastern Marsh Harrier, but luckily France is not one of those places.
The Andean Condor is considered to be the largest bird of prey in the world! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! They have a wingspan of up to 10 feet! They face many of the same challenges as the California Condor but are definitely a bit better off with a world population of about 10k individuals. Andean Condors breed in the mountains sometimes as far up as 16,000 feet and then will forage sometimes at sea level near the coast which is where I saw them in the Beagle Channel between Argentina and Chile. We had them at quite a distance but considering the backdrop it was almost the best way to see them. The adult males have a dull red neck and face skin that can flush to a bright yellow when they are competing with other birds at a carcass or when they are displaying for mating.
An Andean Condor soaring in the thermals in its natural habitat.
The California Condor is a perfect example of how humans can bring a species to functional extinction but also how they can successfully bring them back. In 1987 all wild California Condors were extinct. The few remaining birds were in captivity and with successful breeding programs in place their numbers rebounded to the point that they could be reintroduced into the wild. They are still impacted by lead poisoning from discarded hunting carcasses with lead shot in them, but more hunters are being responsible now and either not using lead shot or properly disposing of the carcass. The world population is estimated to be somewhere between 500-600 birds today. I was lucky enough to see a whole flock of them at the Navajo Bridge near the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
The Whistling Heron is the only species in its genus but it is closely related to the Capped Heron which is another of the sought after herons of South America. Although they are found on either side of the Amazon Basin in agricultural areas, they are somewhat rare in northern Colombia where we saw one away from the llanos and it became one of the birds of the trip. Little did I know that I would see quite a few on my trip to the Pantanal in Brazil a couple years later in 2022 and then again in central Colombia in 2024. The first set of pics are from central Colombia and the last is from the Pantanal.
The Capped Heron has a seemingly huge range in South America but is pretty hard to find. So it was especially cool to find a trio of them that didn't flush while boating around the river systems in the Pantanal. The blue facial skin is quite striking and makes this a very elegant looking heron.
Adult Rufescent Tiger-Herons are easy to different from the other two species of Tiger-Herons (Fasciated and Bare-throated) in the genus Tigrisoma. The young birds are much more difficult to differentiate and they can take up to 5 years to achieve adult plumage. However, in most areas they do not overlap with some exceptions for the Fasciated and Rufescent. In the Pantanal in Brazil, the kind you will see most is the Rufescent where these were all photographed.
Young Rufescent looking like a tiger!
The Black-faced Ibis is the third species in the genus Theristicus that I have seen. These seems to gravitate more to the coastal areas and grasslands in Argentina, Peru and Chile. They are quite similar looking to the Buff-necked Ibis, and previously were one species but now most authorities consider them separate. Matt and I saw ours on the coast right next to the airport in Ushuaia, Argentina.
The Buff-necked Ibis is another one of the 4 ibises in the genus Theristicus. We had a ton of these hanging out in the fields right next to our Pousada (hotel) in the southern Pantanal of Brazil. However, as is frequently the problem with the more common birds on trips to foreign lands, I tend to focus on other birds thinking I will get more chances and then end up never getting good pics at all. I somehow only came away with two pictures of this species despite the fact that large numbers of them were roosting in the trees next to my room, making a racket first think in the morning.
Plumbeous Ibis is super cool looking, like the rasta of birds with the dread locks on the back of the head. They are in the genus Theristicus with 3 other South American Ibises of which the Buff-necked Ibis is the closest living relative. We got good looks at several of them in the Pantanal region of Brazil.
A begging youngster with the adult.
The Green Ibis of South and Central America is the only bird in its genus. Although I have seen it several times in different countries, all of my half decent photos are from my first trip to Brazil. There are quite a lot of them in the Pantanal area but we also saw them down on the coast near Sao Paulo. The "green" is mostly an iridescence on the nape and wings but the legs and bill are also kind of greenish depending on the light.
This retina-searing species of South America is truly a sight to behold and it usually sticks out like a sore thumb among groups of shorebirds and waders. I still hope to get better looks when I eventually get to visit the llanos habitat in Colombia or other South American countries, but I was very happy to see this somewhat distant one in Colombia on the coast.
This is yet another "blue-eyed" shag in the genus Leucocarbo and is very similar to the Imperial Shag although their ranges don't overlap much if at all. The Imperial Shag stays in South American waters and then once you get to Antarctica, the Antarctic Shag is the only cormorant. All photos below are form the Antarctic peninsula.
