Birding Honduras - Species Updates for Honduras

SPECIES UPDATES FOR HONDURAS

	The ‘Annotated Checklist’ in “Birding Honduras” contains 701 species reliably reported for the country. The list is growing with new species discoveries, and we post those records here. Below we list newly reported species and updated information on known species.
Ocellated Poorwill (Nyctiphrynus ocellatus) - first reported for Honduras in 1997.

Current number of species reported for Honduras as of August 2007: 717 species

New Species Reports

Confirmed (16)
Pinnated Bittern (Botaurus pinnatus) - Four individuals were observed in Laguna El Jicarito, depto. Choluteca, 29 June 1997. A full description of the observation as well as other bird records for El Jicarito are contained in the article: S. Thorn, and O. Komar. 1997. A brief inventory of the birds of the El Jicarito Lagoon, Choluteca Department, Honduras. Mesoamericana 2: 29-32.

Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) - Tom Jenner observed approximately 100 birds at Laguna El Jicarito, depto. Choluteca, from 2 to 4 November 2004. He supported his observations with photographs and an impeccable written description.

Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima) - Oliver Komar, Leticia Andino, and Rob Clay observed a single bird on 22 November 2005 at Jutiapa, east of La Ceiba. There were three major storms in the previous three weeks and the bird was possibly a vagrant blown in from farther south.

Wandering Tattler (Heretoscelus incanus) - Tom Jenner photographed a single bird on Isla del Tigre, in the Golfo de Fonseca, depto. Valle, on 5 November 2004. The species was originally reported for Honduras by Burt Monroe, based on birds seen on the Islas Farallones, also in the Golfo de Fonseca, which now belong to Nicaragua.

Elegant Tern (Sterna elegans) - Tom Jenner photographed two birds in the Río Nacaome estuary off Puerto Grande, just west of Coyolito, depto. Valle, on 6 November 2004.

Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) - David Medina and Pilar Thorn presented the first sighting of the species in a paper at the Mesoamericana meeting in Guatemala in 2006. The bird was seen off the Honduras Bay Islands. More info coming soon.

Plain-breasted Ground-Dove (Columbina minuta) - Jesse Fagan, Tom Jenner, and Mark Bonta observed the species 2 to 4 August outside Juticalpa, depto. Olancho. Observations came from an area of open farmland 5 km northeast of Juticalpa on the south side of the road to Catacamas. Jenner and Fagan submitted a fine write-up with photos substantiating the report.

Blue-chested Hummingbird (Amazilia amabilis) - The intrepid Tom Jenner scoops another new species for Honduras with his write-up and photographs of this species taken 27 July 2005 at Las Marías, in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, depto. Gracias a Dios.

Great Jacamar (Jacamerops aurea) - Tom Jenner provided another excellent written confirmation for a new species in Honduras with his observations of this species outside Las Marías, in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, depto. Gracias a Dios. Tom saw the species over his Christmas break, 2004. The previously accepted range of the Great Jacamar was from Costa Rica southward to central Bolivia and Amazonian Brazil.

Belted Flycatcher (Xenotriccus callizonus) - Mike Haldeman photographed and recorded a single individual at Reserva Biológica Opalaca, depto. Intibucá, on 21 March 2005. The bird was singing 1 km west of the school in San Juan. Local guide Edras Benitez Manueles knows the spot and the bird. The species is known from neighboring Guatemala and was expected to turn up sooner or later. Good work Mike.

Stripe-breasted Wren (Thryothorus thoracicus) - Robert Gallardo and Dennis Beall attracted a pair using tape playback in the Valle Sutawala on 20 March 2004. The species' known range is the central Caribbean coast of Nicaragua to Panama. The pair was also recorded and videoed, and we received a photo of one bird, clearly this species.

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) - One individual was seen at a distance of 5 m in a shade coffee plantation, Río Amarillo, depto Copán, on 23 April 2006. This report comes through Knut Eisermann and resulted from a rapid ecological assessment in the area. The species has been expected in Honduras's western highlands and we had received unsubstantiated reports from Copán, but this comes as the first solid documentation.

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottus) - Tom Jenner and Adam Narish observed a single individual at Laguna El Jicarito in depto. Choluteca on 19 April 2003. This is the first record for the species in Central America. The sighting is substantiated by photos and written documentation.

Olive Tanager (Chlorothraupis carmioli) - Tom Jenner observed two flocks in the vicinity of Las Marías on the Río Plátano, depto. Gracias a Dios, on 25 and 26 December 2002 by Tom Jenner. Tom took some photos of a different bird in Las Marías proper in the summer of 2005.

Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) - Mark Bonta, Dan Canterbury, Virginia Reynolds, and Deb Stegall observed a single individual on 6 August 2005 at the Lodge at Pico Bonito, depto. Atlántida, with a bird tour led by Bonta and Fagan. This is yet another species known from Nicaraguan rain forests that has been expected in Honduras for a while. The surprise is finding it this far west. Birders should look for populations in the Moskitia of Honduras.

Chestnut Mannikin (Lonchura malacca) - Madeline and Paul McKneely observed up to 50 individuals at Lago de Yojoa, 15 -18 July 2003. The birds were observed in shoreline vegetation at Hotel Agua Azul. Madeline sent photos substantiating the report. Native to southeast Asia, the species seems to be invading the Central American isthmus from islands in the Caribbean where it was first introduced. In August 2005 an entire bird tour led by Mark Bonta observed a small flock of this species on the grounds of the Hotel Las Glorias at Lago de Yojoa. -- Also known as Tricolored Munia; we follow the AOU nomenclature.

Unconfirmed (3)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) - Peter Kaestner observed a single individual at the mouth of the Río Cangrejal, depto. Atlántida, on 6 January 2001. We have received no documentation to substantiate the record.

Large-billed Tern (Phaetusa simplex) - Robert Gallardo reports seeing a single individual near Palacios, in depto. Gracias a Dios, in April 2003. The species breeds in South America and is accidental in Cuba, Bermuda, and Aruba, and during spring 2003 multiple individuals were seen cruising the Caribbean. Without better collaboration from the observers, this goes into the category of “what might have been.”

Black-throated Wren (Thryothorus atrogularis) - Robert Gallardo reported seeing a bird in the Tawahka Asagni Biosphere Reserve but has not contributed a written description or photos.

Hypothetical (1)
Common Potoo (Nyctibius griseus) - The division between the ranges of Northern (Nyctibius jamaicensis) and Common potoos is problematic and likely occurs in Honduras, perhaps at the Valle de Aguán. The Northern Potoo has been confirmed in western Honduras (Monroe 1968) but no potoo has been “reliably” reported (by ornithological standards) east of the Aguán, although some "common" potoo species certainly occurs in humid forests of eastern Honduras.

New Breeding Records (2)

Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) - Birds incubating eggs and chicks were photographed in the Cayos Vivorillos off the Moskitia coast by J. Segovia and I. Drysdale in May of 2005. This is the rarer booby in the Caribbean and its status in Honduras was not known before now.

Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) - David Shoch and David Anderson documented the first nesting by this species in Honduras on cays off the Honduras Bay Islands in 2007. The findings should be published in Waterbirds in 2007.

Changes in Species Records for the Bay Islands and Cayos Cochinos (16)

New data have come to our attention since the publication of "Birding Honduras" that change species records in the Bay Islands and Cayos Cochinos. Note that the Royal Tern is a new breeding record for Honduras as well as the Cayos Cochinos. The full citation for the data is:
Seutin, G., E. Bermingham, and S. Thorn. 1997. The avifauna of the Cayos Cochinos, with new breeding records for Honduras. Ornitologia Neotropical 8:101-106.

Common Name	New Breeding Record Cayos Cochinos*	New Record Cayos Cochinos	New Record - May
Brown Pelican	CCP
Peregrine Falcon			X
Semipalmated Sandpiper			X
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern	Cayo Gallina
Caribbean Dove		CCG, Roatán
Belted Kingfisher		CCP
Acadian Flycatcher		CCP
Great Crested Flycatcher			X
House Wren		CCP
Gray-cheeked Thrush		CCG
Tennessee Warbler		CCG, CCP
Chestnut-sided Warbler		CCG, CCP
Blackburnina Warbler		CCG, CCP
Bay-breasted Warbler		CCG, CCP
Mourning Warbler		CCP
*CCP = Cayo Cochino Pequeño, CCG = Cayo Cochino Grande

New Species Records for Roatán (4)

The following four species were reported from Roatán in 1977 but their ranges did not include Roatán in “Birding Honduras.” They are:

• Red-footed Booby Sula sula, one individual between Horseshoe and Oak Ridge Reefs;
• Great Egret Ardea alba, one individual feeding in a mangrove swamp adjacent to the airport;
• Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus, one group of eight birds between Fiddler and Calabash Bights;
• Common Tody-Flycatcher Todirostrum cinereum, one individual at Saint Helene.

The full citation for these records is: Cantle, P. C. 1982. Additional records of birds from Roatán, Spanish Honduras. Caribbean Journal of Science 17:1-4.

Further Documentation Needed (3)

We request assistance to fully document three species included in "Birding Honduras." One species was only ever observed historically in Las Islas Farallones, which now belong to Nicaragua. We lack sufficient substantiating data for another two species. All likely occur in Honduras, and we request detailed reports on these species:

• Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii,
• Stygian Owl Asio stygius,
• Black-headed Grosbeak Pheuctictus melanocephalus.