Steve Howell sends a closing report from his month in West Mexico, barely enough time to celebrate the diversity of birds there—around 400 species seen with pretty casual birding!

Arguably top ranked among birds of color is the stunning Rosy Thrush-tanager (a potential split as Mexican Thrush-tanager), here a male.

Although male Orange-breasted Bunting is also a strong contender!

And even a male Bronzed Cowbird in good light is really quite stunning

The male Red-breasted Chat is stunning in a different way, and rather easy to see here in spring.

The violet-blue mask highlights of Russet-crowned Motmot (a potential split, as Mexican Motmot, from Guatemalan birds) can be appreciated close-up, and they are amazingly COMMON here!

Another potential split, the West Mexican Vermiculated/Middle American Screech-Owl showed well, and Steve made some good recordings that may help resolve the taxonomic uncertainty.

The most surprising bird of the ten days at Rancho Primavera was this Long-eared Owl, watched chasing a Northern Potoo!

The next night, this obliging Mottled Owl was “all” we could find in the same trees.

Probably the rarest bird of the trip was Sinaloa Martin, seen a few times from the patio of Steve’s casita.

And here’s his Rancho Primavera “office” away from home, in late afternoon (beer time)—where, oddly, not much work was done!