Birding In Mexico And Central America with Grandma

Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea, formerly Guiraca caerulea)[http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/banks/banks1.htm], is a medium-sized seed-eating bird in the same family as the Northern Cardinal, "tropical" or New World buntings, and "cardinal-grosbeaks" or New World grosbeaks.

The Blue Grosbeak is a migratory bird, with nesting grounds across most of the southern half of the United States and much of northern Mexico. It eats mostly insects, but it will also eat snails, spiders, seeds, grains, and wild fruits. The Blue Grosbeak forages on the ground and in shrubs and trees.

The Streak-backed Oriole, Icterus pustulatus, is a medium-sized icterid (the same family as many blackbirds, meadowlarks, cowbirds, grackles, and others, including the New World orioles).

It is primarily found in the west coast of Mexico, but is a very, very rare visitor in the Southwestern United States.

It is also found in Costa Rica.

Toucans are a family, Ramphastidae, of near-passerine birds from the neotropics (i.e. Southern Mexico, Central, South American, and Caribbean region). The family is most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, colorful bills. The family includes five genera and about forty different species. The name of this bird group is derived from Tupi tucana, via French.

The White-throated Magpie-Jay, Calocitta formosa, is a large Central American jay species. It ranges in Pacific-slope thornforest from Jalisco, Mexico to Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Magpie-jays are noisy, gregarious birds, often traveling in easy-to-find flocks, mobbing their observers.

White-throated Magpie-Jay hybridizes in Jalisco with Black-throated Magpie-Jay (C. colliei), with which it forms a superspecies.

Category: File - :Calocitta formosa (group).jpg|thumb|left|White-throated Magpie-jay at Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

The Black-throated Magpie-Jay (Calocitta colliei) is a strikingly long-tailed jay of northwestern Mexico.