Apologies for being a bit out of pocket as of late. All our field staff including me are ..well..out in the field. Among them, Brad and Jan are filling up their tins abroad and Linda and I are dealing with the wet and cold weather currently ravaging south Texas. Surprisingly, the birding has been pretty impressive given the conditions. My brother Ron flew down to join in some birding for a week and just got on the plane to return to Chicago where it is snowing with a windchill of -4 – okay, I’ll stop complaining about our weather. In Ron’s short time here we were able to find him just under 150 new birds for his Average Year tally. That puts him at roughly 100 in the top 100 eBirders by species for the Texas region (note, actual positioning can fluctuate during the day based on reporting). Pretty impressive, but not to be outdone, with my extended time in Texas I am officially at 165 bird species. That puts me around 48th place for the entire Texas region. That is 52 birds ahead of last year’s pace, which you will recall, ended with a tally of 325 (see the finally updated full 2024 stats here). Shockingly, that means in the 15 days so far this year I already have 55% of the annual goal of 300. Tells you how hard it gets to find new birds as the year progresses. I do want to give a shoutout to all the wonderful birders we have met down here, including Steve and Lisa who guided us through Santa Ana NWR yesterday. Always willing to strike up a conversation and assist with any sightings. Warms my heart to know the birding community bonds continue to be strong.
I suspect there are some out there that could have predicted today’s featured feathered friend. After the last post on the Phainopepla, it just seems appropriate to go with another incredibly hard bird to spell that also has a spectacular punk-do.
Hit the jump to read more about this chunky member of the Cardinalidae family
In the case of the Phainopepla, it is primarily an issue with getting the spelling right. It is also close enough to the pronunciation allowing you to pretty much muddle through it by simply sounding out each syllable as long as you know your physics – no, not Newton’s first law of motion (although everyone should know that), rather go with the ‘PH’ instead of the easy ‘F’ – college professors just trying to sound all fancy like. Throw those crutches out the window when it comes to our featured bird. Hell, after all these years of birding I can still barely pronounce it. This is the time you have to fall back on rote memorization or taking an ink pen and writing it on your wrist under your watch band should you be in some kind of academic “test” situation. Ugh, our legal department has demanded I state for the record we do not condone “cheat-aids” in academic settings – Never, eva eva (get caught hehehe).
Okay class, spell it with me P-Y-R-R-H-U-L-O-X-I-A. Yes, that is 5 vowels, 6 consonants and whole lot of cussing. The official pronunciation guide is pyr·rhu·lox·ia (link here) but I recommend going with Peer-A-Lucks-Zee-Uh. Spit it out there with authority, don’t blink or hesitant and dare anyone to put their bird creds on the line and challenge you. If nothing else, they’ll let it go because they don’t want to take the chance of being spit on again.
Hard to spell, hard to say and personally, hard to find. The tri-fecta for frustration in the field. I was lucky enough to find one in Harlingen, Texas back in 2018 (link here for some pretty poor shots). Then nothing until our Arizona trip back in January 2024. That sounded so much better 15 days ago when I could slyly say “this year”. Ended up encountering this puffy punkster multiple times – once in Benson at an RV resort, a parking lot encounter at the Saguaro National Park and the newly added entry in my top places to bird..Catalina State Park outside Tucson.
For the curious, you are seeing color variations in the overall body due to lighting conditions and not gender. Both the male and female are gray toned. The main difference between the sexes is the amount of red accents. Males will have additional red markings around the eyes that dabbles down the neck and chest. Now, the real question is, how to distinguish the Pyrrhuloxia from the female Northern Cardinal.
Answer, it’s “beaksy” (rim hit, here all week!). Pyrrhuloxia have a thick yellow seed munching bill. Cardinals sport a red bill, which to me is a much better ensemble. Hard name to say, hard name to spell, and now hard to look at color palette – nothing is going right for this bird!
Actually, one positive thing you can say about these crest-stars is they are quite hardy. Residents of the dry southwestern deserts the males will beat the crap out of one another if one even looks in their direction during the hot months. According to Cornell, tempers calm down during winter months and they can be seen playing in organized pickle ball tournaments.
If you made it this far, you are probably considering asking Jeeves (that may have dated me), what Pyrrhuloxia means. I went ahead and did the work for you. Cornell had the answer. It comes from the “genus names Pyrrhula (bullfinches) and Loxia (crossbills). The roots mean ‘flame-colored’ and ‘crooked,’ and aptly describe the reddish bird with the crooked bill”. So there you have it – instead of calling it simply the Crossbull, we get a jumbled mess of alphabet soup.
Time to clear the tins and charge the batteries for tomorrow’s birding endeavors. Fingers crossed we will get a chance to see the SpaceX launch in the afternoon. Take it easy everyone!
Wildlife Intrigued 
That’s an amazing looking bird, probably put together by a committee. Sort of reminds me of an Aussie parroty type thing. Crossbull, Bullbill.
Enjoy the rest of your break but remember chasing numbers can be addictive and also lead to frustration and annoyance. Been there done that. Sometimes best to chill and see what turns up.
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Ha, yes, sort of like the Gnu. Bullbill will certainly work as well, anything but that mouth jumble it has now. Most of my chasing right now is to finish off the checklist of Texas birds I need before I head back north vs those that are just pure rarities – of course, I have gone after a few of those with the exception of the Grey Gull I refuse to chase as it is one Gull that looks like a regular 1st or 2nd year Gull at the Brownsville dump – oh, forgot to mention, there are probably 10k Gulls hanging out there. Keep in mind our twitching is NOTHING like the nightmare over there, we are much more cordial. Appreciate you dropping in and keep your eyes out for Brad and Jan.
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I love the little bird’s punky-do, but forget the name. It’s as crooked and flaming as its origins. I generally can’t get out more than three syllables, unless, of course, it’s the immortal, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” The only thing anyone remembers from being forced to watch Mary Poppins in their formative years.
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Right with you there Tim, that names sucks. Ironically, in a couple of weeks we will be going to tin one at a place that supposedly has them all over the ground (in a cemetery). I am absolutely amazed you managed to spell that Poppins quote..I can just see you singing that song slowly so you can get each syllable spelled out. We should force the ABA to only use single syllable words for bird names like Crow – you can’t even try to misspell that! Thanks for coming by Tim, one of these days I’ll get a break from birding and get caught up on everyone’s posts.
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Birds in a cemetery. I can feel you shiver with anticipation over that prospect. Maybe you’ll get a ghost wisping around with the birds. I stripped a few brain gears (almost spelt it “Brian gears”) spelling that Poppins piece out.
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Trust me, I’ve lived through the Brian/Brain saga at work and now I just chuckle when I see it, so no worries if you hadn’t of caught it. I’ve been in a lot of cemeteries in my life (don’t ask) and I have to say, the one in Brownsville is the most packed of them all. I do not like to walk on graves, but these were basically placed side by side and front to back, felt like I was playing frogger just trying to make it through the various sections. No you can go for “twoallbeefpatties…” ha.
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I hear you on not stepping on graves. One collapsed, and I sank up to my waist in the cemetery in Corrales when I was a kid. Talk about scary.
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Holy crap..your own personal Poltergeist.
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Scared the holy crap out of me.
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COMPLETELY understand. Now I shall try to get some sleep tonight and not think about that happening to me.
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Thinking about getting swallowed up by a grave would induce a bit of anxiety.
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Hmm, I wonder if I could simulate that for our haunted trail..wheels-a-turning.
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Put some squishy slime in the bottom to feel like they are stepping on a decomposing body.
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I like the way you think Tim!
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I try to imagine what would really scare people.
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The true essence of the hauntworld, find out what scares the hell out of you and inflict it on others ha.
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Thank you for showing this bird from all angles, Brian. I find them very attractive but I think that’s true for all members of the Cardinalidae. The large beak also makes them look forceful, so I’m not surprised to learn about their feisty behavior.
Incidentally, one of these birds made a very unexpected appearance in Denver a few years back and I was able to go see it, like countless other regional birders. I have yet to see one in his/her typical habitat.
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You are quite welcome Tanja – I try to get as many poses as I can while out in the field, but honestly, it is totally up to the bird..and how much it charges per shot ha. I get the impression they are like a Snapping Turtle, get your finger in their bill and you might be called stubby from then on. So glad you at least got to see one in the wild – in this case, you can head over to Arizona instead of coming all the way south to that place I am sure at the top of your visit list that begins with a T hehehe. Take care and hope all is well there.
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The state that starts with A isn’t far behind the state that starts with T when it comes to places high on my birding wish list! 😊
We just went from temps in the 50s to the teens, and the forecast for Monday night predicts a low of minus 14 F! I hope our feathered friends will be ok!
And I hope this cold front won’t affect you, at least not too much!
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Hahaha – note there is always Alabama for the spring migration! Now that is a major temp shift. We were in 80s today, but we start getting downright chilly starting tomorrow night. Think it will get down to 27 this upcoming Tuesday which is downright ridiculous down here – I can stay home for those temps…wait, they are going -20 windchill, okay, I can tough it out here. Stay warm!
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The reds are so, RED! Almost as though they were added by paint brush.
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You are right, like hand painted highlights. I think the fact they are on a basically light grey background make those reds pop even more. Seem to be bit more blood red than the standard Cardinal garb. Appreciate you coming by Jerry. Hard to believe, but I am only 18 days into this new year and I am completely exhausted from birding sunup to sundown – life is tiring hahaha.
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Exhausting yourself birding sounds like a proper joy to me! Love all the really detailed photos of this male Pyrhu. The backgrounds make it clear how well he fits into the landscape. I especially appreciated how his colors match the prickly cactus, all furry in winter gray with touches of red – and a prickly personality, too! You are getting to appreciate our week of winter weather – bundle up!
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…And how could I forget to ask… did you get to see the launch and recovery of Starship flight 7?? We watched the live feed, and then surfed youtube to find the re-entry debris videos. Like the man says, Learn, Fix, Fly, Repeat.
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Do you mean this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTS0ExlyOg8 One of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed. Unfortunately the launch got delayed to after we left SPI where we would have had an awesome view right across the bay. We were able to come back and watch it from the Texas Ecotourism platform in Laguna Vista. Even at then you could still feel those engines and the sonic booms that occurred during it (going up and then the ring coming down). I have a video of the catch, but it didn’t come out as good – shaking from the thrill of the catch ha. An absolute marvel to witness and fun to see everyone absolutely thrilled and cheering as it was being caught. No on the payload front, that was definitely spectacular – for a different reason. The video of that was quite the shock. That mishap did not affect the next launch so I guess it wasn’t too bad and I am sure they learned a LOT from that flap that came off. It was definitely worth the loss of a bird I was trying to get in the tin before we headed over to the platform. Not, if we had gone all the way back to the island, there was a 3 hour traffic gridlock trying to get back on the causeway afterwards – these launches really draw the crowd.
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Trust me, it would be a LOT better if I wasn’t dragging along this stupid boot. Linda says I am going to be in big trouble with my surgeon when he sees the hole I wore into the bottom of it – apparently that isn’t suppose to happen hehehe. These Pyrrs are well adapted to their preferred habitat. I used to think the reds would make it stick out, but it definitely breaks up the lines in the thickets. And the jokes over now, you can turn the heat back on down here – this is ridiculous, I had to go dig out my winter coat from the car tonight for our birding excursion tomorrow (going back to the National Butterfly Center). Then the temps really dive for the next two days – all things considered, still better than the negative numbers back home is bracing for. Thanks for dropping in Sam, hoping to get a bit of a birding rest with the coming cold.
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Nice post Brian. Time zone adjusted this comment was made seven hours earlier. If I only had a glance, it would be similar to the female Cardinals we have around home. When I was new to birding, I actually thought this was what I saw next to my feeders. I quickly learned that bill color is a key indicator, along with striking red accents. What can I say, jet-lag is getting the better of me.
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Welcome back Brad (and Jan)! I can imagine it will take couple of days to shake off the lag. These Cardinal knockoffs can be tricky at first, but like a lot of birds, the first time you see them you are pretty much good to go on the ID from then on out. For the record, they are everywhere here at Falcon SP.
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Thanks. Today is the first day I feel I belong to this time zone.
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I bet!
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