Top 5 of 2024 (2 Viewers)

[ovenbird43]

My top five are all from a recent trip to Paraguay (just got back last night!):

1. Strange-tailed Tyrant
2. Cock-tailed Tyrant
3. White-winged Nightjar
4. Sickle-winged Nightjar
5. Crested Doradito

I still have a ton of photos to process, but here are a couple of the tyrants.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

My top five are all from a recent trip to Paraguay (just got back last night!):

1. Strange-tailed Tyrant
2. Cock-tailed Tyrant
3. White-winged Nightjar
4. Sickle-winged Nightjar
5. Crested Doradito

I still have a ton of photos to process, but here are a couple of the tyrants.

Strange-tailed Tyrants are just brilliant. Converting it from a "most wanted" to a "best seen" remains one of my most thrilling and joyous moments, even though it was a brief view from a moving vehicle. Fortunately many more encounters followed! Good to see it figuring top of someone else's highlights.

 

[pbjosh]

1. Hainan Peacock Pheasant - I like chickens and it completed the set of Polyplectrons

2. Amami Woodcock - a bird I've long wanted to see. We were anticipating having to put in a bit of work to find one, but once in good habitat they were everywhere! It seems the mongoose eradication on Amami has started to pay dividends - we were virtually fighting off the Black Rabbits too!

3. Long-billed Bush Warbler - a previous plan to look for this was scuppered by Covid, so it was nice to finally go. Small brown birds are meant to be boring, but this one wasn't! In fact, I'd put northern Pakistan as a destination in the top 5 list, with Markhor, and an encounter with an Asiatic Black Bear while walking a forest trail just icing on the cake.

4. Seeing 4 species of Pterodroma in a day, including more than 300 Atlantic Petrels en route to South Georgia was more than epic.

5. Last but not least, the incomparable Hooded Grebe in Patagonia, and the incongruity of such a delicate-looking bird breeding in such an inhospitable location.

I agree N Pakistan was a tremendous place, I found it far more impressive than Jammu & Kashmir and it is one of my favorite trips!

Also, yeah, Hooded Grebe is outrageous