6 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 7, traveling from Xalapa to Veracruz (city)

Today we travel from the highlands at Xalapa to sea level at Veracruz. We’ll make birding stops along the way and look in at the hawk watches to see who’s flying by.

Versatile about elevation

The birds we saw above 4,000 feet generally do not come down to the foothills but there are a couple of versatile species that we may see up top and possibly encounter at sea level.

The rufous-capped warbler (Basileuterus rufifrons), pictured at top, is flexible about elevation but picky about moisture and thickets. He inhabits dry scrub and semi-open habitats from sea level to 9,800 feet.

The brown-backed solitaire (Myadestes occidentalis) is closely related to Townsend’s solitaire, a western mountain bird that occasionally visits Pennsylvania. Brown-backed solitaires inhabit semi-arid or pine-oak forests from 2,000 to 11,500 feet in Mexico and Central America. They like to sing year-round from a hidden perch so chances are good that we will hear one but not see it.

Mountains and foothills

The white-winged tanager (Piranga leucoptera) looks like a scarlet tanager though slightly smaller with a black face and white wing bars. He likes pine-oak forests and shady coffee plantations in the mountains and foothills.

The fan-tailed warbler (Euthlypis lachrymosa) of Mexico and Central America is the only species in his genus. He shares his common name with the “fan-tailed warbler” of Eurasia and Africa whose alternative common name is unforgettable and matches his song zit zit zit zit zit zit: the zitting cisticola (Cisticola juncidis).

The fan-tailed warbler of Mexico lives in foothills and montane forests with undisturbed understory. He follows army ants, not to eat them but to catch the insects the army scares ahead of them. When upset, he fans his tail. Here he’s yelling at a ferruginous pygmy-owl at Xilitla,Mexico. Look at that tail!

The Mexican sheartail (Doricha eliza) hummingbird is endemic to the Yucatan’s north shore and has a small population near Xalapa and Veracruz. He’s not very picky about elevation as long as there’s thorn scrub available. If we haven’t seen him yet, he’s pretty reliable at Laguna Miradores at 2,800 feet.

At the Hawk Watch, the species mix has changed

We were in the highlands for only five days (4 nights) so I expected the the big push of broad-wings to have passed — but not yet. Meanwhile turkey vulture numbers are increasing and soon, after we’re gone, the Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni) numbers will build.

The Swainson’s hawk is almost never seen near Pittsburgh so its light and dark color morphs may be a challenge for me to pick out in the sky. However, their big difference is size (larger) a shape (wings are longer) compared to broad-wings.

Though Swainson’s hawks eat rodents during the breeding season in North America they spend the winter at the pampas (grasslands) of Argentina where they eat almost exclusively insects, especially grasshoppers.

In the 1990s pest control of grasshoppers in South America caused mass die-offs of Swainson’s hawks.

Acute toxicity from poisoning by organophosphate insecticides monocrotophos and dimethoate, used to control grasshopper outbreaks in alfalfa and sunflower fields, caused the death of nearly 6,000 Swainson’s Hawks in Argentina in 1995 and 1996. Overall, an estimated 20,000 were killed in Argentina by pesticide applications. Deaths resulted immediately after hawks were sprayed directly by pesticide applicators while they foraged in fields or within several days after they ate poisoned grasshoppers. Many hawks died within minutes of being sprayed, and their carcasses were found in adjacent fields (Woodbridge et al. 1995a, Goldstein et al. 1996 MJB).

— Birds of the World: Swainson’s hawk

Fortunately … !

After this incident, these pesticides were banned and an educational campaign began to bring awareness to the problem. These programs seem to have been successful.

— Buffalo Bill Center of the West: Introducing the Swainson’s hawk

At the Sea

After the hawk watch we’ll be back at our seaside hotel in Boca del Rio where we might see a yellow-winged tanager (Thraupis abbas) in the garden. This bird is so versatile about elevation that we saw him in the highlands at parks, gardens and forest edges.

Tonight we have our last dinner together. We leave for home tomorrow.

5 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 6, the highlands around Xalapa and Cofre de Perote

In the lowlands we saw many familiar northern-breeding birds within the migration corridor, but now we’re in montane pine-oak and fir forests at 4,000 to 11,500 feet (1200m to 3500m), both pictured below.

At this altitude many of the birds are new to me including the red warbler (Cardellina rubra) at top. Birds of the World describes him:

A standout in an already distinctive family, Red Warbler is easily identified by its strikingly red plumage and silver or dark gray auricular patch. Endemic to three disjunct mountain ranges in Mexico, this montane specialist inhabits the edges of pine-oak forests from 2900-3500 m (9,500-11,500 ft) during the breeding season, which stretches from February to August; however, it descends mountain slopes in the winter to around 1800 m (6,000 ft), where it often associates with mixed species flocks.

— Birds of the World: Red warbler

The red warbler probably descends the mountains at this time of year because it feeds on insects, including Neuroptera, which may not be as abundant in the mountains in winter. This Neuroptera, for example, occurs in Veracruz, Mexico: a green lacewing. The bird is beautiful and so is its food.

Here are ten more potential Life Birds above 5,000 feet. All of these are endemic to Mexico.

Birds in order of appearance with paraphrased information from Birds of the World:

1. Bearded wood partridge (Dendrortyx barbatus): Listed as Vulnerable, this elusive bird forages in pairs or small groups and flies at the slightest sign of alarm. (How will our tour sneak up on it?)
2. Strickland’s woodpecker (Leuconotopicus stricklandi): Strickland’s is brown and white instead of familiar black and white of the woodpeckers back home.
3. Transvolcanic Jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina): This jay is a split from the Mexican jay that’s endemic to the trans-Mexican volcanic belt that spans Mexico’s “waistline.”
4. Gray-barred wren (Campylorhynchus megalopterus): usually encountered in small bands of up to a dozen individuals which move through upper levels of vegetation.
5. Ocellated thrasher (Toxostoma ocellatum): although it forages mainly on the ground, it is most usually found singing from an exposed perch. Very difficult to approach closely.
6. Russet Nightingale-thrush (Catharus occidentalis): This species is not as difficult to observe as some Catharus thrushes. It forages on the ground and sometimes visits open areas, especially at dusk and dawn.
7. Striped sparrow (Oriturus superciliosus): Forages in small groups, often with one or more individuals perched atop a small tree or bush acting as a sentinel while the rest of the flock forages among bunchgrasses. [I think it looks like a heavy-bodied chipping sparrow that has a black eye.]
8. Collared towhee (Pipilo ocai): Amazingly there is not much information on this bird.
9. Rufous-capped brushfinch (Atlapetes pileatus): Favors dense brushy areas and is often rather skulking, but also curious. Investigates scolding groups of other birds. Usually in pairs, sometimes in small groups, foraging in weedy vegetation. (This explains why photos are hard to find and very poor light.)
10. Hooded yellowthroat (Geothlypis nelsoni): It resembles and behaves like a common yellowthroat except “unlike most yellowthroats, not found in marshes.” Can be difficult to distinguish from common yellowthroat. Uh oh.

---

I’m hoping to see the beautiful golden-browed warbler as well. It is nearly endemic.

The very attractively plumaged golden-browed warbler (Basileuterus belli) is almost endemic to western and southern Mexico, although its range reaches as far south as Honduras and El Salvador.