Guatemala - vulture (?) ID needed (1 Viewer)

[David_]

Hi,

some more images I stumbled upon while sorting and tagging some old untagged images. Not sure if it is possible to identify due to bad image quality (only had a cheap small digital camera back then).

Pictures taken on Oktober 6th 2008 somewhere on the west coast of Lake Atitlán. I think these are black vultures. What do you think?


Also found two pictures taken near Montericco on September 14th 2008. Any idea which species build those nests?


Edit: found one more. Taken at the Parque Central in Antigua. Again bad quality but my guess would be Great-tailed grackle.


Thanks

 

[Microtus]

The vultures are indeed Black Vultures.

 

[Andy Adcock]

The nests look like those of a Weaver bird species, any introduced populations on Antigua?

The last shot looks like it could be a Mockingbird?

 

[David_]

Thanks. Yes, last picture could probably be a Mockingbird


I did research if there are weaver birds in Guatemala. There are no introduced Ploceidae and the only native bird building similar nests I could find is Montezuma oropendola which is not occurring on the pacific coast

 

[Dawsy]

Some orioles build hanging nests a bit like those. I assume there are plenty of orioles in guatemala. A quick search shows altamira oriole nests are quite similar looking to those and they may breed in the right area.
Michael

 

[THE_FERN]

The nests look like those of a Weaver bird species, any introduced populations on Antigua?

The last shot looks like it could be a Mockingbird?

Nests = Oropendola sp [I think or related]. Possibly Montezuma. Agree other one's a grackle

 

[Andy Adcock]

Nests = Oropendola sp [I think or related]. Possibly Montezuma. Agree other one's a grackle

I thought Oropendola's were colonial nesters| and the last 'Grackle' seems to have white in the wing on my screen?

 

[THE_FERN]

I thought Oropendola's were colonial nesters| and the last 'Grackle' seems to have white in the wing on my screen?

I think the white is an artifact. For me the jizz and setting is more typically grackle. On the nest, I thought Oropendola most likely and I'm not sure we can read anything into the fact this is a singleton. E.g. are we sure it hasn't fallen down from somewhere else? But admit I'm not familiar enough with oriole etc nests to rule these out.

 

[njlarsen]

I think the first nest photo might be one that have fallen and it could be whatever including oropendolas.
I remember a similar looking nest as the second one from an area with orioles in Yucatan, Mexico (I remember Altamira from there but not sure the id can reach to species level - I would not go that far).
Niels

 

[David_]

I went through distributions of all Oropendola and looked at their nest. And it looks like the ones building nests looking similar to my pictures are not occurring on the Guatemalan pacific coast. Also looked at nests and distribution of orioles and this seems to be a better fit. But in the end it is not possible to come up with a final ID (at least for me).

The bird in the last picture is also probably not identifiable with enough confidence. As @THE_FERN I get the overall impression of a Grackle and think the white is probably an artifact of the bad image quality but it could also be a mockingbird. So I will leave it as unidentified as well.

Again thank you all for taking the time looking at my crappy 13 year old pictures and offering your opinion!