Black Solitaire (Entomodestes coracinus) - 14Aug2024

This solitaire can be found in Colombia and Ecuador in montane forests.  We had ours on the Camino Montezuma at the Montezuma Rainforest Lodge in Colombia.

Bicknell's Thrush (Catharus bicknelli) - 11Jul2021

This is one of North America's rarest and localized songbirds, preferring to breed only on mountain tops in the northeastern United States and Canada.  The big challenge with these is that although they migrate over much of the eastern seaboard, they are virtually impossible to ID in the field because they look like Gray-cheeked Thrush and they don't usually vocalize when in migration.  Its highly likely that they have been seen regularly in my home state of North Carolina but are misidentified as Gray-cheeked.  So the best way to see these birds is to head to the top of a mountain in June or July when most of the Gray-cheeked are further north and listen for the distinctive song.  I got mine from the top of Old Speck Mountain in Maine.  

Orange-billed Nightingale-thrush (Catharus aurantiirostris) - 02Aug2019

This reclusive thrush has a fairly large range across Central America and northern parts of South America.  Apparently they are fairly common, but I have only seen one!  This photograph was from my first trip to Colombia in the Santa Marta mountains.

Rufous-throated Solitaire (Myadestes genibarbis) - 29Dec2024

This is a solitaire of the Caribbean isles with populations on Jamaica, Hispaniola and all the way down the Grenadines and St Lucia.   I photographed this one in the Dominican Republic on a hike up Ebano Verde.  They have a beautiful song like many solitaires.  Fun fact from Wiki: "On Dominica the bird is nicknamed the siffleur montagne (or mountain whistler)."

White-banded Mockingbird (Mimus triurus) - 12Aug2022

This species of Mockingbird overlaps a little with the Chalk-browed but mostly it is found to the west and south of that species.  We did have this one in the Pantanal in Brazil, but most of them breed in Argentina.  It is one of the more handsome of the Mockingbird species and this one posed nicely after skulking around for a while.

Chalk-browed Mockingbird (Mimus saturninus) - 13Aug2022

The Chalk-browed Mockingbird has two disjunct populations in South America, one in Brazil's northeast and a much larger one covering much of the southeast and central parts of South America.  They were fairly common on my trip to the Pantanal including the grounds of the hotel at Pousada Aguape which is where I photographed this one.

California Thrasher (Toxostoma redivivum) - 27Nov2019 and 21Sep2013

The California Thrasher is obviously found in California the state, but also Baja California.  Both photos below are from the San Diego area.