aythya_hybrid
real name Jonathan Dean
Peru,
6-22 July 2012
This is a report detailing the various birds I saw in Peru in July 2012. The trip was a package tour, "Majestic Peru", organised by Intrepid. It was therefore not primarily a birding holiday, but a combination of history, culture and some nature/wildlife. Had the trip consisted of wall to wall birding, I would doubtless have seen lots more birds. However, a good selection of species was seen. I'm sure there are lots of common birds I missed, and whilst I did some prior preparation/research, much of my birding time was spend frantically flicking through the Princeton field guide to Birds of Peru, which was an invaluable resource, although some of the illustrations (e.g. Rufous-collared Sparrow and Titicaca Grebe) leave a little to be desired. Most birds I managed to identify ok, although some I only managed to narrow down to species pairs and a few were identified in part on the basis of range and habitat. Thus, although I'm pretty happy with most bird identifications, I concede there might be one or two howlers in there. But I hope not. Please do help out if you spot anything weird/anomalous.
Also, as the trip was not primarily a birding trip, much of the birding was a little constrained and opportunistic. This meant that some birds I only saw for a fairly short period of time (e.g. from a moving bus, or before running to catch up with the rest of the group), and so many species I would have liked to examine in a more leisurely and less frantic manner, but overall I was happy, and I managed to find several star species. Birds I hoped to see but didn't included Peruvian Thick-Knee, Andean Cock of the Rock and Masked Fruiteater.
Peru is amazing for birding: very few species were seen throughout the trip. Instead, each location has a different avifauna.
OK, so, here goes:
7 July
Miraflores, Lima
We arrived in Lima late on the 6th and went straight to our hotel in Miraflores, the affluent neighbourhood by the sea south of the city centre. From our hotel in the morning I saw:
West Peruvian Dove - proved to be abundant everywhere on the coast
Croaking Ground Dove - a smart little dove, also very common in most areas
Bananaquit - common in Lima, apparently a feral population
Vermillion Flycatcher - common in Lima, but most are of the all dark morph. The striking red morph was more common in coastal rural areas.
Blue Gray Tanager - seemingly fairly common in the Lima area, but apparently a feral population.
Southern Beardless Tyrannulet - one in the bush right outside our hotel
Southern House Wren - common pretty much everywhere in Peru
Blue Black Grassquit - seen multiple times in Lima but not elsewhere
Around Miraflores:
Blue and White Swallow - common here and pretty much everywhere in Peru
Black Vulture - common in Lima but gets replaced by Turkey Vulture further south
Pacific Parrotlet - a few seen badly around Miraflores, feral.
Amazilla Hummingbird - one seen fairly well in Parque Kennedy, and odd ones seen around Lima, but not elsewhere
Long-tailed Mockingbird - common in Lima and in all coastal areas
Shiny Cowbird - several seen around Miraflores but nowhere else in Peru
Scrub Blackbird?? - fairly sure I saw at least one of this species near Huaca Pucclana but couldn't rule out above species.
Eared Dove - common in Lima and seen regularly throughout the trip
American Kestrel - seen multiple times in Lima and throughout the ip
Tropical Kingbird - common in Lima
Late afternoon we made our way to the seaside in Miraflores and saw:
Peruvian Booby - common here and everywhere along the coast
Peruvian Pelican - conspicuous here and everywhere along the coast, but less numerous than the above
Grey Gull - a smart gull, and common all along the coast
Inca Tern - superb birds, very common all along the coast but deceptively similar to the above species in flight and at range
Band-tailed Gull - pretty common, not very exciting
Neotropic Cormorant - common here and in most parts of Peru
8 July
Miraflores and Barranco
Today we walked around the lovely Barranco district south of Miraflores. We saw several of the same species from yesterday and I heroically added House Sparrow and the ubiquitous Rufous-collared Sparrow to the trip list. Several Amazilla Hummingbirds, Blue Black Grassquit and Southern Beardless Tyrannulet were seen around Barranco.
9 July
Lima to Paracas
By this time we had met up with our tour group and had a long early morning bus trip to the town of Paracas south of Lima. En route I saw:
Cattle Egret - seen multiple times throughout but never abundant
Grey-hooded Gull - fairly common in coastal areas but also never abundant
Islas Ballestas
A major birding highlight was our trip to the Ballestas Islands, big guano covered rocks off the coast. Our boat trip lasted less than 2 hours but it was a bonanza of seabirds. Peruvian Booby, Peruvian Pelican, Gray Gull and Inca Tern were abundant. New birds seen included:
Snowy Egret - 1 on the beach at Paracas and odd ones seen repeatedly throughout the trip
American Oystercatcher - 1 on the beach was the only one of the trip
Turkey Vulture - very common in coastal areas
Kelp Gull - a few hanging out with Band-tailed Gulls on the beach and on the islands
Guanay Cormorant - a smart bird and super-abundant on some parts of the islands
Red-legged Cormorant - a real speciality of the area and probably the best cormorant in the world. Maybe around 20 seen
Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes - yeah! The first Peruvian endemic of the trip. One seen fairly distantly on the mainland from the boat and then another seen better on one of the islands. Not the most spectacular looking bird though. Looks like a big rock pipit.
Humboldt Penguin - my first wild penguins. Lots of them, probably about 60, the majority hanging out on a pebbly beach, but the closest ones were on a ledge on the main island. Also one seen swimming fairly close to the shore on return journey.
Blackish Oystercatcher - 1 seen reasonably well from the boat.
Sooty Shearwater - about 5 seen from boat on return journey.
Chilean Skua - 1 seen well but briefly on return journey. Not really seen well enough to distinguish from other similar skuas but the only one likely in this area.
Peruvian Diving Petrel - one seen very badly on journey out, another seen much better whizzing past close to the boat on return journey. Would have passed it off as a Guillemot if I had seen it in Europe!
Paracas to Huacachina
From Paracas we drove south through the astonishingly dry and largely birdless coastal desert until we reached Huacachina, a kind of oasis resort. En route I spied a few Groove-billed Anis in roadside bushes, a lifer after having seen Smooth-billed in Brazil (only GBA occurs in this area).
At Huacachina I saw Tropical Kingbird and added the following species:
Moorhen - common in all wet areas
Great Egret - didn't see that many
Black-crowned Night Heron - odd ones seen periodically throughout the trip
White-crested Elaenia - Elaenias are always hard work for any visiting birder to South America, but I was pretty happy with my views of this one individual if the modesta subspecies feeding high in a treetop.
Nazca
Late afternoon we saw the famous Nazca Lines and I added the distinctive Andean Swift to the trip list, which I saw every now and then during the rest of the trip but it was never terribly numerous.
10 July
Chauchilla cemetery, Nazca
Our visit to this spectacular pre Inca burial site in the coastal desert near Nazca produced:
Coastal Miner - about 10 of this subtle but attractive endemic, some showing very well.
Burrowing Owl - 2 perched motionless in the rocky desert.
Puerto Inca
We spent much of the day driving south to the small coastal settlement of Puerto Inca, where we spent the night in a lovely seaside hotel. Lots of seabirds but no additional species: Peruvian Booby, Peruvian Pelican, Inca Tern, Guanay Cormorant, Grey Gull, Blackish Oystercatcher and even a few Red-legged Cormorants.
11 July
Puerto Inca
In the morning I saw more of the same seabirds and also had amazing views of a Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes around the hotel, which at one point even took temporary refuge under our breakfast table.
Over the course of the day we drove along the still largely birdless desert coastline to Arequipa. En route I saw one Little Blue Heron from the bus, and saw my first Variable Hawk just outside Arequipa. The latter was seen now and then throughout, but always from a moving vehicle and so was never seen very well!
12 July
Arequipa
We spent today sightseeing in the lovely city of Arequipa. In so doing I saw:
Peruvian Sheartail - one male with a long tail seen briefly in the main square. Would have liked better views but had sightseeing duties to attend to!
Chiguanco Thrush - a nice species which proved to be one the most common species in the uplands, seen almost every day.
13 July
Arequipa to Puno
Today we cut inland and headed over spectacular terrain to reach Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. En route we stopped at a service area on a high (4000m) plateau where I saw a few nice birds.
Mountain Caracara - I was delighted at how common these great birds were in the highlands. Often hanging out together in big groups
Puna Yellow Finch - a group of about a dozen were feeding together around the car park.
Common Miner - quite a few were seen in the high areas near Arequipa. Quite a bit darker than the Coastal Miners.
Bar-winged Cinclodes - great views of two of these squabbling around some bins near the car park.
Black-billed Shrike Tyrant - I got decent flight views of a Shrike Tyrant species multiple times around the car park. Not really seen well enough to conclusively identify but Black-billed is by far the most likely on range.
Whilst travelling across the high Andean plateau between Arequipa and Puno lots of new birds were added to the trip list:
Andean Goose - common and conspicuous hanging out on the shores of small waterbodies
Chilean Flamingo - a total of about 15 were seen distantly on some of the larger lakes
Andean Coot - common, present on more or less all waterbodies of any size
Ash-breasted Sierra Finch - these were fairly common, but it took a roadside toilet stop for me to see one well enough to identify for sure
Slender-billed Miner - one seen during aforementioned toilet stop, which also featured a brush with a spitting alpaca. Views were poor but apparently the only miner to show a very long bill and rufous upperwing.
Andean Gull - very common throughout the Andean region: not radically dissimilar to Black-headed Gull.
Andean Lapwing - very common, seen most days on the trip. Nice birds.
Puna Ibis - this Andean equivalent of Glossy Ibis proved to be common in wetland areas
Puna Teal - a smart duck, fairly common in wetland areas on the higher ground
Ground Tyrant sp - there was a teacher's strike, which slowed us down on the outskirts of Juliaca. In a nearby field I saw 3 Ground Tyrant sp, either Taczinowksi's or Puna, but not well enough to identify for sure as I was looking into the sun and the crown pattern was not visible, alas.
Sillustani Towers:
Before arriving into Puno we visited the famous funeral towers, which has a bird-rich lake alongside. We saw Puna Ibis and Puna Teal, as well as:
White-tufted Grebe - common on water bodies in the Puno area. A really smart bird.
Yellow-billed Teal - took me a while to nail my first one but proved to be common on highland waterbodies.
Peruvian Sierra Finch - a few of these knocking around, which I initially misidentified as Black-hooded Sierra Finch
Cinnamon Teal - fairly common around Puno/Lake Titicaca, and the first time I've seen full adult males in the wild
Ruddy Duck - common! All are of the dark headed variety, which is actually quite smart..
Andean Swallow - I was a bit slow to notice that the "Blue and White" Swallows in this area actually lack dark vents. Seen multiple times in the high areas but nowhere abundant.
14 July
Lake Titicaca
A great day out on Lake Tticaca in lovely weather, a real trip highlight. We got a boat from Puno out to the floating reed islands populated by the Uros people, before pressing on to Taquille Island. The area near to Puno is a fantastic network of marshland and reeds. I saw: Puna Ibis, Puna Teal, Andean Gull, Ruddy Duck, White-tufted Grebes everywhere, Yellow-billed Teal, Andean Coot. New birds included:
Many-coloured Rush Tyrant - common in the reeds and a really spectacular bird, one of the best birds of the trip.
Wren Like Rushbird - less common, less conspicuous and less inspiring than the above
Plumbeous Rail - several of these comical birds were seen in the reeds, and a few were even seen from the bus en route to Cusco the following day.
Andean Negrito - good views of 2 of these feeding on the ground in the marshy areas near Puno, with another seen on the return journey
Yellow-winged Blackbird - common and conspicuous around the floating islands, but not seen anywhere else
Silvery Grebe - a number of these were seen, none terribly close, the majority near the lake shore on approach to Taquille Island
Titicaca Grebe - it took a while but I was eventually able to see about 8 of the lake's famous endemic grebe. Several grebes were really distant and not identifiable to species, but on the return route from Taquille Island I finally nailed one Titicaca Grebe, and saw 2 reasonably well near the boundary of the reeds and the open water. Looks like a glorified red-necked Grebe.
On the lovely Taquille Island I saw:
White-winged Cinclodes - 2 seen really well, including one on the main square at the top of the island
Spot-winged Pigeon - a bit of confusion arose as this species is shown in the book as not occurring in this area, but it was actually quite common, and to some extent replaces West Peruvian Dove in the uplands.
Grassland Yellow Finch? - got a decent view of a female yellow finch species with a prominent malar stripe. Pretty sure it was this species but wouldn't put my house on it.
Black-throated Flowerpiercer - two seen badly. Smart bird though.
Mountain Sierra Finch - one female see well but briefly, momentarily vying for attention with the aforementioned confusing yellow finch
6-22 July 2012
This is a report detailing the various birds I saw in Peru in July 2012. The trip was a package tour, "Majestic Peru", organised by Intrepid. It was therefore not primarily a birding holiday, but a combination of history, culture and some nature/wildlife. Had the trip consisted of wall to wall birding, I would doubtless have seen lots more birds. However, a good selection of species was seen. I'm sure there are lots of common birds I missed, and whilst I did some prior preparation/research, much of my birding time was spend frantically flicking through the Princeton field guide to Birds of Peru, which was an invaluable resource, although some of the illustrations (e.g. Rufous-collared Sparrow and Titicaca Grebe) leave a little to be desired. Most birds I managed to identify ok, although some I only managed to narrow down to species pairs and a few were identified in part on the basis of range and habitat. Thus, although I'm pretty happy with most bird identifications, I concede there might be one or two howlers in there. But I hope not. Please do help out if you spot anything weird/anomalous.
Also, as the trip was not primarily a birding trip, much of the birding was a little constrained and opportunistic. This meant that some birds I only saw for a fairly short period of time (e.g. from a moving bus, or before running to catch up with the rest of the group), and so many species I would have liked to examine in a more leisurely and less frantic manner, but overall I was happy, and I managed to find several star species. Birds I hoped to see but didn't included Peruvian Thick-Knee, Andean Cock of the Rock and Masked Fruiteater.
Peru is amazing for birding: very few species were seen throughout the trip. Instead, each location has a different avifauna.
OK, so, here goes:
7 July
Miraflores, Lima
We arrived in Lima late on the 6th and went straight to our hotel in Miraflores, the affluent neighbourhood by the sea south of the city centre. From our hotel in the morning I saw:
West Peruvian Dove - proved to be abundant everywhere on the coast
Croaking Ground Dove - a smart little dove, also very common in most areas
Bananaquit - common in Lima, apparently a feral population
Vermillion Flycatcher - common in Lima, but most are of the all dark morph. The striking red morph was more common in coastal rural areas.
Blue Gray Tanager - seemingly fairly common in the Lima area, but apparently a feral population.
Southern Beardless Tyrannulet - one in the bush right outside our hotel
Southern House Wren - common pretty much everywhere in Peru
Blue Black Grassquit - seen multiple times in Lima but not elsewhere
Around Miraflores:
Blue and White Swallow - common here and pretty much everywhere in Peru
Black Vulture - common in Lima but gets replaced by Turkey Vulture further south
Pacific Parrotlet - a few seen badly around Miraflores, feral.
Amazilla Hummingbird - one seen fairly well in Parque Kennedy, and odd ones seen around Lima, but not elsewhere
Long-tailed Mockingbird - common in Lima and in all coastal areas
Shiny Cowbird - several seen around Miraflores but nowhere else in Peru
Scrub Blackbird?? - fairly sure I saw at least one of this species near Huaca Pucclana but couldn't rule out above species.
Eared Dove - common in Lima and seen regularly throughout the trip
American Kestrel - seen multiple times in Lima and throughout the ip
Tropical Kingbird - common in Lima
Late afternoon we made our way to the seaside in Miraflores and saw:
Peruvian Booby - common here and everywhere along the coast
Peruvian Pelican - conspicuous here and everywhere along the coast, but less numerous than the above
Grey Gull - a smart gull, and common all along the coast
Inca Tern - superb birds, very common all along the coast but deceptively similar to the above species in flight and at range
Band-tailed Gull - pretty common, not very exciting
Neotropic Cormorant - common here and in most parts of Peru
8 July
Miraflores and Barranco
Today we walked around the lovely Barranco district south of Miraflores. We saw several of the same species from yesterday and I heroically added House Sparrow and the ubiquitous Rufous-collared Sparrow to the trip list. Several Amazilla Hummingbirds, Blue Black Grassquit and Southern Beardless Tyrannulet were seen around Barranco.
9 July
Lima to Paracas
By this time we had met up with our tour group and had a long early morning bus trip to the town of Paracas south of Lima. En route I saw:
Cattle Egret - seen multiple times throughout but never abundant
Grey-hooded Gull - fairly common in coastal areas but also never abundant
Islas Ballestas
A major birding highlight was our trip to the Ballestas Islands, big guano covered rocks off the coast. Our boat trip lasted less than 2 hours but it was a bonanza of seabirds. Peruvian Booby, Peruvian Pelican, Gray Gull and Inca Tern were abundant. New birds seen included:
Snowy Egret - 1 on the beach at Paracas and odd ones seen repeatedly throughout the trip
American Oystercatcher - 1 on the beach was the only one of the trip
Turkey Vulture - very common in coastal areas
Kelp Gull - a few hanging out with Band-tailed Gulls on the beach and on the islands
Guanay Cormorant - a smart bird and super-abundant on some parts of the islands
Red-legged Cormorant - a real speciality of the area and probably the best cormorant in the world. Maybe around 20 seen
Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes - yeah! The first Peruvian endemic of the trip. One seen fairly distantly on the mainland from the boat and then another seen better on one of the islands. Not the most spectacular looking bird though. Looks like a big rock pipit.
Humboldt Penguin - my first wild penguins. Lots of them, probably about 60, the majority hanging out on a pebbly beach, but the closest ones were on a ledge on the main island. Also one seen swimming fairly close to the shore on return journey.
Blackish Oystercatcher - 1 seen reasonably well from the boat.
Sooty Shearwater - about 5 seen from boat on return journey.
Chilean Skua - 1 seen well but briefly on return journey. Not really seen well enough to distinguish from other similar skuas but the only one likely in this area.
Peruvian Diving Petrel - one seen very badly on journey out, another seen much better whizzing past close to the boat on return journey. Would have passed it off as a Guillemot if I had seen it in Europe!
Paracas to Huacachina
From Paracas we drove south through the astonishingly dry and largely birdless coastal desert until we reached Huacachina, a kind of oasis resort. En route I spied a few Groove-billed Anis in roadside bushes, a lifer after having seen Smooth-billed in Brazil (only GBA occurs in this area).
At Huacachina I saw Tropical Kingbird and added the following species:
Moorhen - common in all wet areas
Great Egret - didn't see that many
Black-crowned Night Heron - odd ones seen periodically throughout the trip
White-crested Elaenia - Elaenias are always hard work for any visiting birder to South America, but I was pretty happy with my views of this one individual if the modesta subspecies feeding high in a treetop.
Nazca
Late afternoon we saw the famous Nazca Lines and I added the distinctive Andean Swift to the trip list, which I saw every now and then during the rest of the trip but it was never terribly numerous.
10 July
Chauchilla cemetery, Nazca
Our visit to this spectacular pre Inca burial site in the coastal desert near Nazca produced:
Coastal Miner - about 10 of this subtle but attractive endemic, some showing very well.
Burrowing Owl - 2 perched motionless in the rocky desert.
Puerto Inca
We spent much of the day driving south to the small coastal settlement of Puerto Inca, where we spent the night in a lovely seaside hotel. Lots of seabirds but no additional species: Peruvian Booby, Peruvian Pelican, Inca Tern, Guanay Cormorant, Grey Gull, Blackish Oystercatcher and even a few Red-legged Cormorants.
11 July
Puerto Inca
In the morning I saw more of the same seabirds and also had amazing views of a Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes around the hotel, which at one point even took temporary refuge under our breakfast table.
Over the course of the day we drove along the still largely birdless desert coastline to Arequipa. En route I saw one Little Blue Heron from the bus, and saw my first Variable Hawk just outside Arequipa. The latter was seen now and then throughout, but always from a moving vehicle and so was never seen very well!
12 July
Arequipa
We spent today sightseeing in the lovely city of Arequipa. In so doing I saw:
Peruvian Sheartail - one male with a long tail seen briefly in the main square. Would have liked better views but had sightseeing duties to attend to!
Chiguanco Thrush - a nice species which proved to be one the most common species in the uplands, seen almost every day.
13 July
Arequipa to Puno
Today we cut inland and headed over spectacular terrain to reach Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. En route we stopped at a service area on a high (4000m) plateau where I saw a few nice birds.
Mountain Caracara - I was delighted at how common these great birds were in the highlands. Often hanging out together in big groups
Puna Yellow Finch - a group of about a dozen were feeding together around the car park.
Common Miner - quite a few were seen in the high areas near Arequipa. Quite a bit darker than the Coastal Miners.
Bar-winged Cinclodes - great views of two of these squabbling around some bins near the car park.
Black-billed Shrike Tyrant - I got decent flight views of a Shrike Tyrant species multiple times around the car park. Not really seen well enough to conclusively identify but Black-billed is by far the most likely on range.
Whilst travelling across the high Andean plateau between Arequipa and Puno lots of new birds were added to the trip list:
Andean Goose - common and conspicuous hanging out on the shores of small waterbodies
Chilean Flamingo - a total of about 15 were seen distantly on some of the larger lakes
Andean Coot - common, present on more or less all waterbodies of any size
Ash-breasted Sierra Finch - these were fairly common, but it took a roadside toilet stop for me to see one well enough to identify for sure
Slender-billed Miner - one seen during aforementioned toilet stop, which also featured a brush with a spitting alpaca. Views were poor but apparently the only miner to show a very long bill and rufous upperwing.
Andean Gull - very common throughout the Andean region: not radically dissimilar to Black-headed Gull.
Andean Lapwing - very common, seen most days on the trip. Nice birds.
Puna Ibis - this Andean equivalent of Glossy Ibis proved to be common in wetland areas
Puna Teal - a smart duck, fairly common in wetland areas on the higher ground
Ground Tyrant sp - there was a teacher's strike, which slowed us down on the outskirts of Juliaca. In a nearby field I saw 3 Ground Tyrant sp, either Taczinowksi's or Puna, but not well enough to identify for sure as I was looking into the sun and the crown pattern was not visible, alas.
Sillustani Towers:
Before arriving into Puno we visited the famous funeral towers, which has a bird-rich lake alongside. We saw Puna Ibis and Puna Teal, as well as:
White-tufted Grebe - common on water bodies in the Puno area. A really smart bird.
Yellow-billed Teal - took me a while to nail my first one but proved to be common on highland waterbodies.
Peruvian Sierra Finch - a few of these knocking around, which I initially misidentified as Black-hooded Sierra Finch
Cinnamon Teal - fairly common around Puno/Lake Titicaca, and the first time I've seen full adult males in the wild
Ruddy Duck - common! All are of the dark headed variety, which is actually quite smart..
Andean Swallow - I was a bit slow to notice that the "Blue and White" Swallows in this area actually lack dark vents. Seen multiple times in the high areas but nowhere abundant.
14 July
Lake Titicaca
A great day out on Lake Tticaca in lovely weather, a real trip highlight. We got a boat from Puno out to the floating reed islands populated by the Uros people, before pressing on to Taquille Island. The area near to Puno is a fantastic network of marshland and reeds. I saw: Puna Ibis, Puna Teal, Andean Gull, Ruddy Duck, White-tufted Grebes everywhere, Yellow-billed Teal, Andean Coot. New birds included:
Many-coloured Rush Tyrant - common in the reeds and a really spectacular bird, one of the best birds of the trip.
Wren Like Rushbird - less common, less conspicuous and less inspiring than the above
Plumbeous Rail - several of these comical birds were seen in the reeds, and a few were even seen from the bus en route to Cusco the following day.
Andean Negrito - good views of 2 of these feeding on the ground in the marshy areas near Puno, with another seen on the return journey
Yellow-winged Blackbird - common and conspicuous around the floating islands, but not seen anywhere else
Silvery Grebe - a number of these were seen, none terribly close, the majority near the lake shore on approach to Taquille Island
Titicaca Grebe - it took a while but I was eventually able to see about 8 of the lake's famous endemic grebe. Several grebes were really distant and not identifiable to species, but on the return route from Taquille Island I finally nailed one Titicaca Grebe, and saw 2 reasonably well near the boundary of the reeds and the open water. Looks like a glorified red-necked Grebe.
On the lovely Taquille Island I saw:
White-winged Cinclodes - 2 seen really well, including one on the main square at the top of the island
Spot-winged Pigeon - a bit of confusion arose as this species is shown in the book as not occurring in this area, but it was actually quite common, and to some extent replaces West Peruvian Dove in the uplands.
Grassland Yellow Finch? - got a decent view of a female yellow finch species with a prominent malar stripe. Pretty sure it was this species but wouldn't put my house on it.
Black-throated Flowerpiercer - two seen badly. Smart bird though.
Mountain Sierra Finch - one female see well but briefly, momentarily vying for attention with the aforementioned confusing yellow finch
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