Passerines | Passeriformes

Families in this order

• Sapayoa | Sapayoidae1 speciesA family of a single species, the Sapayoa, which in the region occurs only in eastern Panama, in the understory of humid lowland forest, often along streams and in shady ravines. It was long placed with the manakins, but it turns out to be the only American member of a group otherwise confined to the Old World, which includes the broadbills of Africa and Asia and the asities of Madagascar; it is therefore regarded as a living relic of an ancient distribution. In appearance it is unremarkable: a medium-sized, olive-green songbird with a slightly yellower belly, a fairly broad, flat bill and, in the male, a concealed yellow crown patch. It perches quietly and upright on low branches and makes short sallies to pick insects and spiders from leaves, and it also eats small fruit. It often moves with mixed flocks in the understory. The voice is inconspicuous and little known. The nest is a pear-shaped hanging structure of plant fibres suspended over a stream, like those built by broadbills.
• Manakins | Pipridae11 speciesEleven species in seven genera live in Mexico and Central America, mainly in humid lowland and foothill forest from southern Mexico to Panama, with the Long-tailed Manakin also in drier forest on the Pacific side. Manakins are small, compact songbirds with a large head, a short, broad bill and in most species a short tail. The sexes differ strongly: males are black or green with bright red, yellow, white or blue areas, females plain olive green. They eat mainly small fruits, plucked from the branch in a short flight, together with insects. They are known for their display at traditional sites in the forest, where males, in a group or alone, keep a patch of ground or a branch clear and show off there: some species produce snapping or buzzing sounds with modified wing feathers, others jump to and fro, or two males perform a dance together. The female chooses a mate and does everything else alone: she builds a shallow cup slung in a horizontal fork of a twig, usually low above the ground, incubates the clutch of usually two spotted eggs and feeds the young. The male plays no further part.
• Cotingas | Cotingidae10 speciesIn Mexico and Central America the family numbers ten species in six genera, and few families show such a range of forms: the turquoise and purplish-blue cotingas and the pure white Snowy Cotinga in the crowns of lowland forest, the Three-wattled Bellbird and Bare-necked Umbrellabird of the montane forests of Costa Rica and Panama, the Purple-throated Fruitcrow and the plain rufous piha. Nearly all are fruit-eaters with a short, broad bill and a wide gape, swallowing fruit whole and so carrying the seeds of laurels and other trees over long distances. Many species move seasonally between mountains and lowlands in search of ripe fruit. In most species the sexes differ strongly: the male is colourful or carries wattles, a throat sac or a crest and attracts females with a striking call or display, while the female alone builds the nest and raises the young. The bellbird gives a metallic call audible for kilometres and the piha a loud whistle. The nest is usually a small, flimsy cup high in a tree, holding a single egg.
• Tityras, becards and allies | Tityridae13 speciesA family of tropical American suboscine songbirds numbering thirteen species in four genera in this guide, from Mexico to Panama, in forest, forest edge, plantations and semi-open country with trees. It is a composite group of varied appearance. The tityras are sturdy, large-headed birds, the males pearly white or pale grey with black, some with bare red skin around the eye and bill base; they perch conspicuously in treetops, eat mainly fruit and large insects and give dry, grunting or croaking calls. They nest in a cavity, often an old woodpecker hole. The becards are smaller, large-headed and fairly short-tailed, with a broad bill; the sexes usually differ, grey and black in the male and cinnamon in the female. They search the foliage for insects and build a large, untidy globular nest with an entrance at the side or bottom, hanging from a branch. The schiffornises and mourners are brownish, inconspicuous birds of the understory, more often heard than seen thanks to their clear, whistled songs.
• Sharpbill | Oxyruncidae1 speciesA family with a single species, the Sharpbill, which occurs patchily and locally in the canopy of humid foothill and montane forest, in the region mainly in Costa Rica and Panama. It is a starling-sized bird with a short, straight, sharply pointed conical bill, to which it owes its name. The upperparts are olive green, the head and underparts yellowish white densely marked with black spots and scales, and a concealed orange-red stripe runs along the crown that becomes visible only when the bird is excited; the eye is orange. The Sharpbill forages acrobatically, often hanging from twigs or the undersides of leaves, and probes rolled-up leaves and moss for insects and their eggs; it also eats fruit. Outside the breeding season it often travels with mixed flocks through the canopy. The song is a long, buzzy, descending trill that carries further than such an inconspicuous bird would suggest. The nest is a small, shallow cup fastened with spider silk to a branch high in a tree. Its place in the classification has long been uncertain; its closest relatives appear to be the cotingas and tityras.
• Royal flycatchers and allies | Onychorhynchidae4 speciesThis small family was long placed with the tyrant flycatchers and was split off only on the basis of DNA studies. In Mexico and Central America it numbers four species in three genera, all of the lower and middle layers of humid lowland forest. The bill is flat and broad, with long bristles at the corners of the mouth, suited to catching flying insects. The royal flycatcher has a crest that usually lies flat over the back of the head but opens in display or excitement into a broad fan, red in the male and yellow-orange in the female, with blue-black tips. The Myiobius species are olive with a bright yellow rump; they move restlessly through the foliage, fanning the tail and drooping the wings to flush insects, and often join mixed flocks. The Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher is a tiny cinnamon bird that sallies for insects from a perch. The nests are striking: the royal flycatcher hangs a long, ragged nest, sometimes more than a metre long, from a branch over a stream, and Myiobius builds a hanging pouch with a side entrance. The clutch is usually two eggs.
• Tyrant flycatchers and allies | Tyrannidae110 speciesThe largest bird family of the Americas and also the largest in this guide, with some hundred and ten species in about fifty genera, from desert scrub and savanna to rainforest and cloud forest, and in towns and gardens. They are suboscines, whose song is innate rather than learned. Most have a rather broad, flat bill with bristles at the gape and catch insects by sallying from a perch to snatch them in flight or pick them from a leaf; many also eat fruit, and the Great Kiskadee even takes small fish and frogs. Size ranges from the pygmy tyrants, among the smallest songbirds in the world, to the robust kingbirds, which fiercely drive much larger birds from their territories. Many species are olive and grey with wing bars and can be told apart only by voice and behaviour, but the male Vermilion Flycatcher is fiery red and the kiskadees are bright yellow with a black-and-white striped head. In winter many migrants from North America arrive, such as species of Empidonax and Contopus. Nests are highly varied: open cups, domed globes, long hanging pouches and cavities.
• Gnateaters | Conopophagidae1 speciesThe gnateaters are a small, mainly South American family represented in this guide by a single species, the Black-crowned Antpitta, which lives in humid lowland forest from eastern Costa Rica to eastern Panama. It was long placed with the antpittas, but DNA studies moved its genus to the gnateaters. These are birds of the dim forest floor, with long, strong legs, a short tail, a large head and a stout bill. This species has a glossy black crown, a chestnut face and finely black-and-white scaled underparts, a pattern that camouflages it well in the shifting light beneath the canopy. It moves over the ground in long hops and searches the leaf litter for insects, spiders and other small animals; at times it follows swarms of army ants to catch fleeing prey. The voice is a series of clear whistles. Little is known about the breeding of this species; the family generally builds an open cup low in the vegetation. It is a shy bird that is seldom seen.
• Antbirds | Thamnophilidae30 speciesWith 30 species in 22 genera this is one of the larger songbird families in the guide, centred on the humid forest of Costa Rica and Panama, with a smaller number of species reaching Mexico. It includes antshrikes with a heavy bill hooked at the tip, small, active antwrens in the foliage and antbirds of the undergrowth. The colours are sober: males are often black or grey with small white spots on the wing, females brown or rufous, and many species have a hidden white patch on the back that shows when the bird is excited. They eat insects and spiders. A number of species follow swarms of army ants almost exclusively and catch the insects and other small animals that flee ahead of the ants; the ants themselves they do not eat. Dozens of birds of several species may gather around a single swarm. Pairs stay together for years in a fixed territory, which they defend with simple but distinctive songs, often as a duet. The nest is an open cup, often slung in a horizontal fork, and both parents incubate the clutch of usually two eggs.
• Antpittas | Grallariidae4 speciesA family of suboscine songbirds centred in the Andes, represented in the region by four species in four genera, from southern Mexico to Panama, on the floor of humid lowland and montane forest. Antpittas are rotund birds with a large head, big dark eyes, long, strong legs and a tail so short as to be barely visible. The plumage is brown, olive and ochre, in some species with a scaled or streaked breast. They stand upright on the forest floor or on a low branch and progress in long hops, bob the body briefly and then stand motionless again. Hopping and tossing leaf litter, they search for earthworms, insects, larvae and other invertebrates. They are shy and far more often heard than seen: the song is a series of clear, hollow whistles, rising or falling in some species, delivered mainly in the half-light of dawn. The nest is a cup of moss, leaves and rootlets, low in a shrub or on a stump, usually with two eggs.
• Tapaculos | Rhinocryptidae3 speciesThis mainly South American family is represented in the region by three species of the genus Scytalopus: one in the montane forest of Costa Rica and western Panama, two in the mountains of eastern Panama near the Colombian border. Tapaculos are small, rounded, dark grey or brown birds with a short tail that is often cocked, short rounded wings and strong legs with large feet. A distinctive feature of the family is a movable flap over the nostrils. They fly little and poorly and creep like mice through dense undergrowth, ferns, moss and fallen trunks, searching for insects and other small invertebrates. Because they seldom show themselves and the species look very much alike, the voice is the main means of identification: loud, endlessly repeated notes or rattling series ringing out from the thickets. Several species have been separated only in recent decades on the basis of their songs. The nest is a ball or cup of moss and rootlets in a cavity, a hole in a bank or among roots, usually with two white eggs.
• Antthrushes | Formicariidae4 speciesThe guide covers four species of a single genus, Formicarius, spread through humid lowland and foothill forest from southern Mexico to Panama; the Mayan Antthrush is the most northerly. They are ground birds that look little like thrushes, despite the name: the body is round, the legs are fairly long and strong, and the short tail is held cocked while the bird walks with measured steps across the forest floor, which gives it something of a small rail. The plumage is dark brown and rufous, often with a black face or head, and in many species a pale ring surrounds the eye. They search for insects, spiders and other invertebrates in the leaf litter by flicking leaves aside, and sometimes join swarms of army ants. They are shy and far more often heard than seen: the song is a clear, whistled series of notes, fast and falling in some species and drawn out in others, and they respond well to an imitated whistle. The nest is placed in a hollow in a stump or tree, often close to the ground, and usually holds two white eggs.
• Ovenbirds and woodcreepers | Furnariidae44 speciesA large family of tropical American suboscines, with forty-four species in twenty-five genera in this guide, from dry forest to rainforest and cloud forest. The birds are mostly brown, rufous and cinnamon, often streaked or spotted, and the sexes look alike. Broadly they fall into two groups. The woodcreepers climb tree trunks like woodpeckers, supported by a tail with stiff, bare shaft tips, and use a straight or strongly curved bill to probe bark crevices, moss and epiphytes for insects and spiders; some follow army ant swarms to catch the animals fleeing ahead of them. The remaining species, such as leaftossers, foliage-gleaners, xenops and spinetails, find their food by tossing leaf litter, searching dead leaves or clambering through foliage. The voice consists of rattles, trills and shrill series. Nesting habits vary widely: woodcreepers nest in tree cavities on a layer of bark flakes, others dig tunnels in earth banks, and spinetails build large, enclosed stick nests with a tubular entrance. The eggs are white.
• Shrike-babblers, Erpornis and vireos | Vireonidae30 speciesVireos are small to medium-sized songbirds found only in the Americas; in Mexico and Central America the family numbers 30 species. Most are true vireos (Vireo): greenish or grey above, pale below, with a stouter bill than a warbler's and a small hook at the tip, and with the head and eye-stripe pattern as the main feature. Alongside them live the small, warbler-like greenlets (Hylophilus, Pachysylvia, Tunchiornis), the bright green shrike-vireos (Vireolanius) of the high canopy and Rufous-browed Peppershrike (Cyclarhis) with its heavy, strongly hooked bill. Some species are resident; others, such as White-eyed and Red-eyed Vireo, come from the north to winter here or pass through, and Yellow-green Vireo breeds here in summer and then moves south. They move slowly and deliberately through the foliage, plucking caterpillars and other insects from the leaves and outside the breeding season also eating berries and small fruit. The nest is a deep, cup-shaped structure slung in a fork. They sing all day long, even in the midday heat.
• Shrikes | Laniidae1 speciesA hooked bill with a tooth in the cutting edge of the upper mandible, used to kill prey at the neck: these are songbirds that hunt like raptors, but with ordinary songbird feet that cannot hold prey down. That is why they impale insects, lizards and mice on thorns or barbed wire, to pin them while feeding and to store them. They sit still and upright on a lookout above open ground with scattered bushes and drop on prey from there; a black mask, a large head and a long tail belong to nearly every species. The nest is a sturdy cup deep in a thorny shrub.
• Crows, jays and magpies | Corvidae27 speciesThe largest and heaviest-built songbirds, with a powerful all-purpose bill, bristly feathers over the nostrils and strong legs used for walking as much as hopping. They eat almost anything, hide food for later and remember where they put it; their brains are the largest for their size of any bird, which shows in how readily they exploit tools, carrion and human habits. True song is absent — the calls are harsh and grating — but many species mimic other sounds. Pairs stay together for years, build a bulky stick nest, and the sexes look alike.
• Penduline tits | Remizidae1 speciesVery small birds with a fine, sharply pointed conical bill for picking small insects, spiders and seeds from reed, willow and poplar. The family's hallmark is the nest: a hanging purse of plant down and spider silk felted around drooping twigs, with a short spout entrance at the side, so nothing can reach it from below. Such a nest may take weeks to build, yet the brood is usually raised by one parent alone, the other leaving to start again elsewhere. The voice is a thin, high whistle that is easily overlooked.
• Tits, chickadees and titmice | Paridae5 speciesSmall, compact birds with a short strong bill and powerful legs; they forage acrobatically at the tips of twigs, hanging upside down, and wedge a seed under one foot to hammer it open. Almost all species nest in a cavity and lay large clutches there — eight to twelve eggs is normal, more than most songbirds manage. They store food in bark crevices and moss, and outside the breeding season travel in noisy mixed flocks through the wood. The head pattern is sharply drawn in every species and is the dependable field mark.
• Larks | Alaudidae1 speciesGround birds in brown and sand, streaked all over and built to walk rather than hop: the hind claw is long and almost straight, and the back of the tarsus carries a row of separate scales instead of the smooth plate other songbirds have there. Almost all species sing on the wing, climbing or hovering, sometimes for minutes on end above ground that offers no song post. The nest is a scrape on bare soil lined with grass, and the chicks walk away from it before they can fly, which limits losses when the field is cut. Bills range from short and heavy for seed to long and curved for digging in the soil.
• Donacobius | Donacobiidae1 speciesA family with a single species, the Black-capped Donacobius, a South American bird that in the region occurs only in eastern Panama, in marshes, reedbeds, waterside vegetation and floating mats of plants. It was formerly regarded as a mockingbird or a wren, but forms a family of its own related to the grassbirds and reed warblers of Africa and Asia. It is a slender bird with a black head, brown back, warm buff underparts, a long graduated tail with white tips and a bright yellow eye. On the side of the neck is a patch of bare orange-yellow skin that swells when the bird sings. Pairs often perch side by side at the top of the reeds and sing in duet with loud whistling and rasping notes, wagging their tails and bobbing towards each other. They eat insects and other small invertebrates gathered from the vegetation near water. Young from an earlier brood often help to raise later ones. The nest is a deep cup of grass and plant fibres placed in reeds or bushes above water.
• Swallows | Hirundinidae17 speciesBirds that take all their food in the air and are built entirely for it: long pointed wings, a very short flat bill with an enormous gape, and small weak feet on short legs, good for perching but hardly for walking. They drink and bathe by skimming low over water. The nest is a cup or closed flask of mud pellets against a wall, a self-dug tunnel in a steep bank, or a cavity — often in colonies. They are migrants that gather over reedbeds and wires in late summer; unlike the swifts they resemble in flight, these are ordinary songbirds that will settle on a wire.
• Tit-warblers, bushtits and long-tailed tits | Aegithalidae1 speciesVery small birds with a tiny stubby bill and a tail longer than the whole body, so that they look more like a ball on a stick than like a bird. The nest is a closed oval of moss and lichen bound with spider silk and lined with hundreds to over a thousand feathers; its wall stretches as the brood grows. They live in family parties all year: birds whose own nest has failed help feed at another, and at night the party roosts pressed together along a branch. They keep contact with thin, insistent rattling calls that announce the flock before it appears.
• Parrotbills and allies | Paradoxornithidae1 speciesSmall, round-bodied birds with a very long graduated tail and the bill that names the family: short, deep, laterally compressed and strongly curved, a parrot's bill in miniature. With it they shell hard seeds and split open reed stems and bamboo to reach the insects inside. Powerful feet grip vertical stems, so they clamber upward through reed, tall grass, bamboo and scrub; the flight is short and fluttering, and most species stay in the same patch for life. Outside the breeding season they move about in twittering parties, and male and female look alike. The nest is a deep cup woven low between the stems.
• Waxwings | Bombycillidae1 speciesCompact songbirds with a strikingly soft, dense plumage without spot or streak, a crest, a black mask and a short bill with a wide gape. The red, horny plates at the tips of the secondaries, which give the family its name, occur in no other group of birds; the tail ends in a bright yellow or red band. For most of the year they live on berries, swallowed whole and passed through a short gut in minutes, so that a flock can work through an enormous quantity; in the breeding season they take insects on the wing over water. They defend no feeding territory and have no true song, only high silvery trills that keep the flock together. The nest is a loose cup of twigs, moss and lichen on a side branch, and the breeding area shifts from year to year with the berry crop.
• Silky-flycatchers | Ptiliogonatidae4 speciesThis small family is found only in North and Central America, and all four species in three genera are covered by the guide. The Grey Silky-flycatcher lives in the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala, the Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher and the Black-and-yellow Phainoptila are confined to the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama, and the glossy black Phainopepla inhabits dry scrub and desert in northern and central Mexico. The name refers to the soft, smooth plumage, and their closest relatives are the waxwings. They are slender, often crested and fairly long-tailed, and like to perch upright on a prominent branch from which they sally for insects. Yet for much of the year they live on berries, above all mistletoe: the fruit passes quickly through the gut and the seeds end up on branches, making these birds important dispersers of those semi-parasites. Outside the breeding season they often wander in small, loose groups. The nest is a cup of plant fibres and lichen in a tree, with two or three eggs, and in the Phainopepla the male shares incubation.
• Kinglets | Regulidae2 speciesVery small, round-bodied birds with a short tail and a needle-fine bill, used to pick springtails, aphids and spider eggs from among needles and bark crevices, usually while hanging beneath a branch tip and sometimes hovering briefly at the foliage. The crown is the family's signature: a yellow to fiery red stripe bordered with black on both sides, raised in display and in threat, and the head pattern is what separates the species. The voice sits exceptionally high, around eight kilohertz, high enough that older observers no longer hear the family at all. The nest is a deep hanging cup of moss, lichen and spider silk slung beneath a conifer branch and lined with hundreds of feathers, holding eight to eleven eggs — a large clutch for so small a body. On winter nights the birds huddle together to save heat.
• Nuthatches | Sittidae3 speciesSmall, compact birds with a large head, a short neck and a short, square-cut tail, and with a long, straight, pointed bill that is driven into bark crevices like a chisel. The legs are short and stout and carry long, strongly curved claws; with these they climb down a trunk head first as easily as up, without using the tail as a prop. In Mexico and Central America the family is small and confined to Mexico: White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch live in the pine and oak forests of the mountains, and Red-breasted Nuthatch is a scarce and irregular winter visitor in the north. They forage on trunks and branches, prising insects and spiders from crevices, and also eat seeds, which they wedge in a crack in the bark, hack open with the bill and store away. All species nest in a tree hole; Red-breasted Nuthatch smears resin around the entrance. Pygmy Nuthatch lives in small groups all year, roosts with many birds together in a single hole and is often helped at the nest by other adults. The voice consists of simple, repeated, rather nasal notes and quick piping series.
• Treecreepers | Certhiidae1 speciesSmall, brown-speckled birds that climb a tree trunk like a mouse, always from bottom to top and in a loose spiral around the trunk; high in the crown they let go and fly to the foot of the next tree to start again. The tail is stiff and pointed, with strong shafts, and is pressed against the bark at every step as a third point of support, so that the bird leans back against the trunk and never climbs head down. The bill is thin, long and curved like tweezers and probes bark crevices for spiders, insects, eggs and pupae; the toes are long and the claws strongly curved. The nest is a cup of bark, moss and feathers tucked behind a loose flap of bark. The voice is very high, so high that older observers often miss the bird altogether. In Mexico and Central America only the Brown Creeper occurs, as a resident of cool pine-oak forest and cloud forest in the mountains, from northern Mexico into Nicaragua; it is absent from the lowlands.
• Gnatwrens and gnatcatchers | Polioptilidae10 speciesA small American family of songbirds numbering ten species in three genera in this guide, from desert scrub and dry forest in Mexico to humid rainforest in Panama. They are small, slim, active birds with a thin, pointed bill. The gnatcatchers are blue-grey above and white below, with a long, narrow black tail with white outer feathers that they constantly cock, spread and wave from side to side; in several species the male has a black cap or eyebrow, especially in the breeding season. The gnatwrens are browner, with a longer, very fine bill and a short or long, often cocked tail, and live in the undergrowth and vine tangles of humid forest. All species search restlessly for small insects and spiders in the foliage, the gnatcatchers often in mixed flocks. The voice consists of thin, nasal or squeaky calls; the song is a soft warble, and that of the Trilling Gnatwren a clear, even trill. The gnatcatchers' nest is a deep, neat cup of plant fibres bound with spider silk and often covered with lichen, placed on a branch.
• Wrens | Troglodytidae52 speciesSmall to medium-sized, mostly brown birds with short, rounded wings, a tail often held cocked and a fine, slightly curved bill for picking insects out of crevices. All but one species of the family live in the Americas, and with 51 species in sixteen genera Mexico and Central America are among the richest areas. Size ranges from the small Southern House Wren to the large Campylorhynchus wrens, which live in family groups. Most species move unseen through the lowest layer of forest, scrub and marsh; others live on rocks and in canyons, such as Rock Wren and Canyon Wren, or, like the genus Hylorchilus, only on limestone outcrops in southern Mexico. The song is remarkably loud for the size of the bird; in many tropical species male and female sing duets so tightly interlocked that they sound like one bird, and the nightingale wrens (Microcerculus) give long series of slow, pure whistles. The nest is usually a domed ball with a side entrance or is placed in a cavity, and several species also build separate roosting nests.
• Mockingbirds and thrashers | Mimidae17 speciesMedium-sized, slender songbirds with a long tail, sturdy legs and a straight to strongly curved bill, with which many species work the leaf litter on the ground: turning leaves, digging into the soil and rummaging under shrubs. The family owes its name to mimicry; many species copy the calls and song phrases of their neighbours and weave in other sounds as well. The song is long and varied, in the mockingbirds with phrases repeated two or three times before the bird moves on to the next. They defend their territory fiercely and attack cats, snakes and people that come too close to the nest. The nest is a sturdy cup of twigs low in a dense, often thorny bush. The family is confined to the Americas and Mexico is its richest country, with mockingbirds, most species of the genus Toxostoma in dry scrub and desert, and the Blue Mockingbird as an endemic of the interior. Cozumel has its own Toxostoma species that has all but vanished, the Black Catbird is restricted to the coast and islands of the Yucatán Peninsula, and the Grey Catbird comes from the north to winter.
• Rhabdornis, starlings and mynas | Sturnidae1 speciesRobust birds with a straight pointed bill and strong legs; they walk purposefully over the ground rather than hop. They feed by pushing the closed bill into the turf and forcing it open there — the jaw muscles are built for it, and the eyes are set far enough forward for the bird to look down along the open bill. In many species the plumage is metallic, a gloss that comes from feather structure rather than pigment, often flecked with pale spots. They are thoroughly social: flocks while feeding, communal roosts, and nest holes close together; many species are accomplished mimics.
• Dippers | Cinclidae1 speciesSquat birds with a stubby cocked tail, powerful legs with long toes and strong claws, and exceptionally dense, greasy plumage carrying far more feathers than a songbird of the same size usually does; the preen gland above the tail is proportionally enormous and supplies the oil that keeps the feathers waterproof. They dive in from a rock or straight out of flight, row underwater with short rounded wings, and walk along the bed into the current with the head down, so that the flow presses them against the gravel. Below the surface a flap closes the nostrils, a transparent third eyelid slides across the eye, and a heavy skeleton with little air in the bones holds them down. They feed on caddis, mayfly and stonefly larvae and small crustaceans taken from under the stones. The nest is a domed ball of moss with a side entrance, built behind a waterfall, in a bank wall or under a bridge, often reachable only through the spray. The song is loud and sustained and pitched exactly where it will carry over the roar of the water; both sexes sing, right through the year. Worldwide the family holds only five species, every one of them tied to fast-flowing water.
• Thrushes and allies | Turdidae30 speciesMedium-sized birds with an upright carriage, long strong legs and a moderately long slender bill. On the ground they work in short stages — a few hops, a halt to look and listen, then a strike — and from late summer into winter they turn largely to berries and fallen fruit, which is why whole populations shift southwest when the ground freezes. The song is loud and fluting, built of repeated motifs and delivered from a high open perch, above all at dawn and dusk. The nest is a solid cup, in many species plastered inside with mud; young birds are spotted even where the adults are plain.
• Olive warbler | Peucedramidae1 speciesA family with a single species, the Olive Warbler, which lives in pine and pine-oak forest in the highlands from Mexico to Nicaragua, and north into the southwestern United States. It was long counted among the New World warblers, but proved to be an old, separate branch that stands nearer to the finches and pipits. It is warbler-sized, with a fine, pointed bill and fairly long wings. The male has a tawny-orange to ochre head and breast with a black mask through the eye, a grey back and two white wing bars; the female is duller, with a yellowish head and a grey patch on the ear coverts. The Olive Warbler forages high in the crowns of pines, searching branches and needle clusters for insects and their larvae, often in company with other forest birds. The song is a clear, repeated whistled phrase. The nest is a sturdy cup of moss, lichen and rootlets, high in a conifer and often far out from the trunk, with three or four eggs.
• Munias, parrotfinches, waxbills and allies | Estrildidae2 speciesSmall to very small seed-eaters with a short, thick conical bill — bright coral red in many species, silver-grey or blue-black in others — a compact body and short, rounded wings. They live in parties the year round and take their food from the seed head itself, clambering, hanging or riding the stem down under their own weight, and from the ground beneath. The nest is a closed ball of interwoven grass with an entrance at the side, often drawn out into a short tube, set low in a tussock, a thorn bush or dense reed; both parents build and take turns to incubate. The nestlings carry a fixed pattern of black spots and lines at the back of the gaping bill, with coloured papillae at the gape that light up in the dark of the nest and point the parents to the food. That food is seed brought up softened in the crop and given out one chick at a time.
• Snowfinches and Old World sparrows | Passeridae1 speciesStocky, short-legged seed-eaters with a heavy conical bill whose cutting edges are sharp enough to crack a grain of wheat. The tongue carries a small extra bone, the preglossale, which serves as an anvil: the seed is turned against the palate, the husk peeled off and the kernel swallowed, the whole job taking a second. Adults live on seed; the young are raised on caterpillars and aphids. The nest is an untidy domed ball of grass, straw and feathers stuffed into a cavity — a tree hole, a wall crevice, a roof tile or another bird's abandoned nest — and usually stands in a loose colony, with two to four broods a year. Bathing is done in dry dust: the bird kicks out a scrape and works the sand through its plumage. Several species live beside people all year, in villages, farmyards, cities and grain stores, where spilt feed and the buildings themselves supply both food and nest holes.
• Wagtails and pipits | Motacillidae4 speciesSlender, long-legged songbirds that walk rather than hop: the foot pushes off, the head nods with it, and the long tail is pumped up and down without a pause — in the wagtails hard enough to rock the whole body. The bill is thin, straight and pointed, made for picking insects off the ground, off wet stones or out of the air; the leg is long and fine, and in the pipits the claw of the hind toe is greatly lengthened, nearly as long as the toe itself, which gives purchase in grass and sedge. Two appearances on one frame: the wagtails boldly marked in black, white, grey and yellow, the pipits brown and streaked and separated from each other mainly on call and wing formula. The nest is a cup on the ground, hidden under a tussock or in a niche, and the song is delivered in the air: up, sing, and down again on a parachuting descent.
• Finches, euphonias and allies | Fringillidae28 speciesThe conical bill is the mark of the family: seed is not swallowed but husked, held in a groove in the palate while the lower mandible slides the coat off. The heavier the bill, the harder the kernel it can deal with, so its shape tells from species to species what the bird depends on. Outside the breeding season they range in flocks over seed-rich fields, woods and shores, with a bounding flight and persistent contact calls that identify them at a distance. Unlike most songbirds, many species feed their young not on insects but on regurgitated seed, carried in a pouch of the gullet.
• Thrush-tanager | Rhodinocichlidae1 speciesThe family consists of a single species, the Rosy Thrush-tanager, long placed among the tanagers but shown by DNA studies to form a separate, isolated branch of the songbirds. In the guide it occurs in a number of separate areas, from western Mexico to Panama, always in dense undergrowth of dry and semi-humid forest and forest edge. The male is dark slate grey above, with a rosy red throat, breast and eyebrow; in the female that red is replaced by warm orange-brown. The bill is fairly long and pointed and the legs are sturdy. It lives close to or on the ground, where it tosses leaf litter aside with its bill in search of insects and other small animals, and it usually stays well hidden in the thickets. To see it, one follows the voice: the song is a series of rich, clear whistles, and mates sometimes sing in turn. The nest is a cup of plant material low in a shrub or dense thicket. For all the bright colours of the male, it is a species that is seldom seen.
• Longspurs and snow buntings | Calcariidae3 speciesThe family is named for the hind toe: the claw is long and almost straight, often longer than the toe itself, and belongs to birds that live walking on flat, treeless ground. They are stocky seed-eaters with a short conical bill, long pointed wings and a fast, low flight, and they walk rather than hop. The family is small and breeds in the north, on the tundra and on the prairies of the interior. In Mexico the species in this guide are only winter visitors to the north: Chestnut-collared and Thick-billed Longspur winter in short grassland and dry plains, mainly in Chihuahua and neighbouring states, while Lapland Longspur occurs there as a rare winter visitor; further south the family is absent. Outside the breeding season they roam in flocks that sweep low over the grass and drop in suddenly. Summer and winter plumages differ strongly: the crisply marked male of June is a brown, streaked bird in winter, and that is how they are seen here. On the breeding grounds the song comes in a short song flight, and the nest sits on the ground in a tussock. The group has been placed in a family of its own since around 2010, apart from the true buntings.
• New World sparrows | Passerellidae72 speciesThe sparrows of the New World: seed-eaters with a short conical bill, sturdy legs and a fairly long, rounded tail, mostly brown and streaked above. Many species feed on the ground in leaf litter and under shrubs, using a way of scratching typical of the family: both feet kicked backwards at once in a short hop, so that the litter flies away and seeds and insects are exposed. In the streaked species identification turns mainly on the head pattern: crown stripes, supercilium, eye-stripe and malar stripe in fixed patterns. The nest is a small cup on the ground or low in a shrub. Since about 2017 they have been placed in a family of their own, separate from the Emberizidae. In Mexico and Central America the family is very diverse: besides the many northern species that winter here there are residents such as the brushfinches of Atlapetes and Arremon in montane forest and rainforest, the Chlorospingus species, which unlike the rest move through the canopy in small flocks, juncos and towhees in the mountains, and endemics such as the rare Sierra Madre Sparrow of high grasslands in Mexico.
• Wrenthrush | Zeledoniidae1 speciesA family of a single species, the Wrenthrush, found only in the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama, in the dense undergrowth of cloud forest, bamboo thickets and páramo scrub, often near streams. With its round body, short wings, short tail and long legs it looked like a wren or a small thrush, but it turns out to be closely related to the New World warblers. The plumage is olive-brown above and slate grey below, with an orange-tawny crown bordered with black on either side; the sexes are alike. The wings are so short and rounded that the bird rarely flies and moves mostly by hopping over the forest floor and through the shrubbery, where it searches moss and leaf litter for insects and other small invertebrates. It is shy and secretive and is most often detected by its thin, high calls and its song, a short series of high, thin notes. The nest is a domed structure of moss with a side entrance, placed in a bank or among roots.
• Spindalises | Spindalidae1 speciesThe spindalises are a small family almost entirely confined to the Caribbean. In the region only the Western Spindalis occurs, with a subspecies of its own on Cozumel Island off the coast of Yucatán, while elsewhere the species lives in the Bahamas, Cuba and the Cayman Islands. The birds were formerly counted among the tanagers but form an old Caribbean family of their own. They are sturdy songbirds with a short, conical bill. The male is boldly patterned, with a black head striped white above and below the eye, an orange-yellow breast and nape, an olive or brownish back and black wings edged with white; the female is plain olive-grey with faint head markings. Spindalises live in forest, scrub and gardens and eat mainly fruit and berries, including figs, supplemented with buds, flowers and insects. They are often quiet and unobtrusive in the foliage, giving high, thin calls and a thin song. The nest is an open cup of plant material in a tree or shrub.
• New World blackbirds, troupials and allies | Icteridae45 speciesAn exclusively American family that does something different from other songbirds with its bill. The bill is straight, sharp and unhooked, and is used not to pinch things shut but to prise them open: the bird pushes the closed tip into a leaf sheath, a fruit or a crack in the bark and then forces the mandibles apart, exposing the food. In Mexico and Central America the family numbers 45 species, from oropendolas and caciques through the orioles (Icterus) to meadowlarks, grackles and cowbirds. In many species the males are boldly patterned in yellow, orange or red against black, while the females stay duller. The oropendolas, such as Montezuma Oropendola, nest in colonies and weave hanging nests up to a metre long at the branch tips of an isolated tree; the orioles weave smaller pouch nests, and other species build a cup in reeds or a bush. Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds; Giant Cowbird does so with oropendolas and caciques. Great-tailed Grackle is one of the most conspicuous birds in towns and villages, and in winter orioles such as Baltimore Oriole and other species arrive from the north.
• New World warblers | Parulidae70 speciesSmall, short-billed insect-eaters of the foliage, nine to fifteen centimetres long and rarely heavier than fifteen grams. They work through a tree crown systematically, picking caterpillars and aphids from the undersides of leaves, hanging from a twig tip or catching an insect in a short sally. In the migratory species the plumage changes strongly with the season: in spring the males wear sharply defined patches of yellow, black, blue, orange or chestnut, and after the moult male, female and young bird often look greenish and vaguely marked, so that a wintering bird has to be identified on details such as undertail coverts, leg colour and wing bars. Mexico and Central America are the main wintering grounds of these migrants, which sometimes cross the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight and in winter are found here in every type of forest in mixed flocks. There are also many resident species, such as those of Basileuterus and Myiothlypis, the Myioborus species that flush insects with a spread tail, and in the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala the Red Warbler and the Pink-headed Warbler. The family is found only in the Americas.
• Cardinals and allies | Cardinalidae35 speciesAn exclusively American family of medium-sized songbirds. In many genera the bill is heavy, short and conical, with a curved upper edge and a broad base, built to crack hard seeds and stones; the tanagers of the genus Piranga, the ant-tanagers (Habia) and related genera have a slimmer bill and eat more insects and fruit. In Mexico and Central America the family numbers 35 species. The difference between the sexes is striking: in many species the male wears a single saturated colour over almost the whole body, red or deep blue, while the female is warm brown to olive green. Some species are resident, such as the ant-tanagers and Blue-black Grosbeak of tropical forest, but in winter many migrants arrive from the north, such as Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Summer Tanager. In Indigo Bunting and its relatives the male moults into a duller plumage outside the breeding season, so that winter birds often have to be judged on bill shape and tail length. They live in scrub, forest edge and forest, often sing from a high perch and build an open nest in a bush or tree.
• Mitrospingid tanagers | Mitrospingidae1 speciesA small South and Central American family of a few species long placed among the tanagers, until DNA studies showed that they form a branch of their own within the group of tanagers, cardinals and their relatives. The guide covers one species, the Dusky-faced Tanager, which lives in the humid lowlands of Costa Rica and Panama, above all along streams, rivers and clearings with dense, wet thickets at the forest edge. It is a medium-sized, rather elongated bird with a dark, blackish face, plumage in shades of grey, olive and olive-yellow, and a strikingly pale eye that stands out in the dark face. It lives in noisy groups that move restlessly through the undergrowth, keeping in constant contact with sharp, chipping calls, and other species often join such a group. It eats insects and other small invertebrates, searched for among leaves and twigs, as well as fruit. Little is yet known of its breeding.
• Tanagers and allies | Thraupidae63 speciesOne of the largest bird families in the world, with sixty-three species in thirty genera in this guide, from dry scrub and grassland to rainforest, cloud forest and gardens, with the greatest richness in the humid forests of Costa Rica and Panama. The family has been established in its current form only through DNA studies and includes birds of very different appearance. The typical tanagers, such as the species of Tangara, are small to medium-sized birds with a short, stout bill and often brilliantly colourful plumage; they eat mainly fruit and insects and travel through the canopy in mixed flocks. Also included are the honeycreepers and dacnises, with thin, curved bills and glossy blue or green plumage, which take nectar, fruit and insects; the flowerpiercers, whose hook-tipped bill slits the corolla to steal nectar; the Bananaquit; the seedeaters and the saltators with their thick seed-cracking bills; and the Cocos Finch of Isla del Coco, a close relative of Darwin's finches. Song is usually simple, but clear and melodious in the saltators. The nest is generally an open cup in a tree or shrub, usually with two eggs; the Bananaquit builds a domed nest and the Swallow Tanager breeds in a burrow in a bank.