[TN-Bird] N.A. Migrant life abroad

At least a few of you seemed interested in my last report on what North 
American migrants are up to in our part of the Costa Rican mountains.  So I 
have decided to give another report for those interested.

Yesterday and today (Oct. 30) were especially active birdwise.  Below I 
focus on how our N.A. migrants are mingling with the resident birds. And at 
Jan Shaw?s request, I have even thrown in a little more about our local 
birds.

I discovered one tree that has been very popular of late because it is 
covered with some kind of berry-like fruit.  Today and yesterday, we had 
many Red-eyed Vireos, several Wood Thrushes and Empidonax flycatchers, as 
well as one Yellow-throated Vireo feeding along with a variety of colorful 
locals.  They included thrushes (White-throated Robin, Slaty-backed 
Nightingale Thrush), euphonias (Yellow-throated, Yellow-crowned), 
flycatchers (Dusky-capped, Mountain Elaenia), honeycreepers (Red-legged HC 
and Scarlet-thighed Dacnis), as well as a Blue-crowned Motmot.

On up the mountain, another wave of Baltimore Orioles was passing through 
(again mostly females and immatures but one mature male) and were feeding 
alongside Tennessee Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers, and Scarlet and 
Summer Tanagers.  These were mixed in with lots of locals, some quite flashy 
(Blue-hooded Euphonia, Golden-crowned Warbler, Masked Tityras) and some not 
so flashy ones (Common Bush-tanager, Dusky-capped Flycatcher).

At one other locations, I found a Cape May Warbler (quite uncommon here) and 
Wilson Warbler searching for insects alongside the local Slate-throated 
Redstarts.  Another tree had a Black-n-white Warbler accompanying Common 
Bush-tanagers.

It is truly amazing to see how little conflict there appears to be between 
the immigrants and the natives (much less so apparently than for immigrant 
and native people in most countries).  A lot of this may have to do with the 
fact that most of the natives here breed between March and July, just like 
up north.  So the territorial battles have not heated up yet.

One might think that things have evolved this way to allow for this peaceful 
co-existence.  But my sense is that a lot of what has evolved here is almost 
a matter of luck with regard to the seasons.  It would appear that most of 
the natives breed March to July because that just happens to be the dry 
season here(not so much because it is warmer [and almost all the trees are 
green year round]).  During the dry season, they have fewer problems with 
nestlings dying from exposure or from difficult food-collection conditions 
during long periods of rain.

--Dev Joslin
Monteverde, Puntarenas
Costa Rica

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