Every year since I started birding, all the way back in 1992, I’ve seen a new bird, a bird I’ve never seen before, a life bird as birders call them. Given that I’m doing a Big Year in Taylor County in 2019, and given that I’ve seen almost every regularly occurring bird in Texas (over 530 of them), I would have to find something truly remarkable at home this year to see a new bird. The chances of that happening are really low.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands. To ensure that my unbroken streak of 26 years continues, I made a surgical strike outside of Taylor County today for a really special bird today with a friend. The first Texas record of a bird called Yellow Grosbeak has been hanging out near Concan, TX, in Uvalde County for two and a half months! I just had to get down there and see it.
Yellow Grosbeaks are a bird of Mexico. Not the part of Mexico underneath Texas, but the western slope of Mexico. They occur from the state of Sonora south through Oaxaca and into Chiapas and Guatemala. (A map might help.)
Males are bright yellow with jet black backs and large white spots in the wing. Females are yellow but have dull gray wings with streaking on the green back. The bird seen today appears to be a female. Both sexes have absolutely massive bills, even larger than two related birds in the U.S., Black-headed and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.
Speaking of the bill, the birds use it to crush fruits and seeds, often while they’re still on the tree.
Uvalde County Birding
Since we were already there, we did a little birding around Concan and in Garner State Park. Had a lot of really fun birds I’m unlikely to ever find in Taylor County like Golden-cheeked Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, and Tropical Parula among others.
The Taylor County Streak Continues
Thank you for indulging me this off-topic article. I promise I won’t make a habit of it. And for those wondering, the Taylor County streak continues. I managed to get in a little birding today in the county despite my journey elsewhere.
Now that I’ve seen a new bird in 2019, number 4,070 on the list of all the birds I’ve seen, I can spend the next 286 days in Taylor County trying to find new birds for the year.
Who knows. Maybe I’ll find another Yellow Grosbeak. Stranger things have happened.