#503 Puerto Rican Bullfinch
Only one life bird today, the endemic Puerto Rican Bullfinch. I saw it only very briefly; but it’s very distinctive and easily identified: a jet black bird with big orange on its head and throat. I saw this on the Ballenas Trail in the Bosque del Seco. Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of this one, so how about a much better photo of a Puerto Rican Tody instead?
Only one life bird in a day. Must be time to go home. After one week my Puerto Rican list (which is identical to my Caribbean list) stands at 59 species:
- West Indian Whistling-Duck
- Blue-winged Teal
- White-cheeked Pintail
- Ruddy Duck
- Brown Pelican
- Magnificent Frigatebird
- Great Egret
- Snowy Egret
- Little Blue Heron
- Tricolored Heron
- Cattle Egret
- Green Heron
- Glossy Ibis
- Turkey Vulture
- American Kestrel
- Common Moorhen
- Caribbean Coot
- Black-bellied Plover
- Wilson’s Plover
- Semipalmated Plover
- Killdeer
- Black-necked Stilt
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Willet
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Ruddy Turnstone
- Semipalmated Sandpiper
- Least Sandpiper
- Laughing Gull
- Royal Tern
- Sandwich Tern
- Rock Pigeon
- White-winged Dove
- Zenaida Dove
- Common Ground-Dove
- Monk Parakeet
- Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo
- Smooth-billed Ani
- Antillean Nighthawk
- Antillean Mango
- Puerto Rican Tody
- Puerto Rican Woodpecker
- Caribbean Elaenia
- Gray Kingbird
- Caribbean Martin
- Red-legged Thrush
- Northern Mockingbird
- Pearly-eyed Thrasher
- Yellow Warbler
- Adelaide’s Warbler
- Bananaquit
- Yellow-faced Grassquit
- Black-faced Grassquit
- Puerto Rican Bullfinch
- Greater Antillean Grackle
- Shiny Cowbird
- Venezuelan Troupial
- House Sparrow
- Bronze Mannikin
That’s 25 life birds in a week, not counting the Bronze Mannikin. I finally crossed the 500 mark with Sandwich Terns on Thursday. 500’s actually not that big a number, especially when international destinations are included. It’s more of a milestone for the “ABA area” (i.e. continental U.S., Canada, and Alaska.). Within that region I’m only at about 425 or so.
