We are officially in the return leg of our Florida trip. Unfortunately, we need to thread the weather needle to get back as multiple snow producing systems are standing in our way. One comes in tomorrow and lasts through Sunday morning with expectations of 5 to 8 inches of heavy, wet snow. Then that following Monday a second cell comes through with an additional 1 to 2 inches to add to the fun. Our mission now accepted, get the winterizing done in the southern rain tomorrow and then cross the fingers we can make it safely home between those white goalposts – wish us luck. The good news is we came down here to get at least 9 new birds checked off for this year to reach the 400 species mark. Elated to inform you we did it!!! It was more of a struggle than hoped, but managed to get 11 including 2 lifers (Northern Gannet and King Rail) and the highly sought after (Red-Cockaded Woodpecker). Still missed some opportunities, but no complaints here. As always, I owe Linda for helping me get many of the checks – my brother Ron can confirm, she is my secret weapon when it comes to birding. More details coming in future posts.
Today we are going to bring you another lifer tinned on a trip down here back in April 2023.
For the birders out there, are you familiar with this species? Hit the jump to learn more about this rather elusive bird.
I know some of the more seasoned birders may have the family identified as it has a very similar looking species that is quite prevalent during the breeding season across a large swath of the US and up into Canada.
I will admit that I didn’t even know this species existed until we came upon a group of birders staring up into the trees at the entrance of Shell Mounds on Dauphin Island, Alabama. Ron had flown down to catch the migration with us and we had spent the morning covering all the hotspots in the area. Dauphin ‘Island is a major migration mecca enticing all the birds having just crossed the Gulf with its luscious trees. This place is legendary and well earned.
In our hobby, a bunch of people with binoculars and/or cameras staring up into trees is a reason to get excited. Something was up and it was time to join the hunt. Made our way up to the group, spotted what looked like a knowledgeable individual and politely asked what the excitement was about
Me: “What’s up?“
Birder: “There’s a Black-Whiskered Vireo in the trees up there”
Me: “Hey Ron, there is a Black-Whiskered Vireo up there“
Ron: “What’s a Black-Whiskered Vireo?“
Me: “Hell if I know!“
For the next 20 minutes or so we tried to find a bird with neither of us knowing what it looked like. You can take the time to look it up on the phone and risk missing it, or try to follow the binoculars and big barrels of those around you and learn on the fly – we chose the latter. Eventually we figured it out and both of us managed to get a couple of shots before it flew off deeper into the woods. This allowed us to get a chance to “chimp” on the back of the camera and learn what this bird was all about. We both agreed it looked exactly like a Red-Eyed Vireo – the one more commonly found (with exception to the southwest). To the references we went.
These two birds are nearly identical in shape and coloring and from a migration perspective, they can overlap if you happen to be along the northeastern coast of the Gulf of America or rest of Florida’s Atlantic coastline. Note, at first glance at Cornell’s website, you might dismiss the opportunity to see them on the Alabama coast, but hit the Sightings tab and you will notice there are plenty there as well.
Fortunately, there is one very distinctive feature that will help you in the field. The Black-Whiskered Vireo has … are you sitting down, don’t want anyone fainting and getting hurt…black whisker lines. A bit subtle, but you can definitely see thin black lines extending down the neck from both sides of the bill. If you are lucky enough to see under their wings you will also see a small pocket where they keep their beard trimmer. Apologies, I was unable to get any good pictures of that feature.
For reference, here is a picture of a Red-Eyed Vireo we tinned at the same visit. Notice the similarities in overall coloring and the black line through the eye. The Whiskered specimen above doesn’t show it, but Cornell’s reference pictures reveal they can have the white eye brow so that is not a differentiator.
Everyone had dispersed by the time we figured out the bird they were trying to get a shot of was not a Black-Whiskered. I feel bad for all those that left thinking they had witnessed a rarity – especially those without cameras to verify later.
Ron and I knew what to look for now and with this new knowledge we spent the rest of the afternoon on the search for whiskers. We tracked down Vireo after Vireo after Vireo, fought to get each of them in the tin so we could check for whiskers. This went on for several hours until we finally had success at the main pond located in the middle of the mounds. I believe that was the only one we found that entire visit. It is a great day when you get to learn something new about the bird world, find it in the field and get decent enough shots to confidently cross it off your life list. A coveted trifecta for a birder.
Time to get some rest, we have a lot of miles to cover in the next two days. Hope you enjoyed this brief look at a new species here at Intrigued. Take care, be safe in your own travels (especially if you are daring brick and mortar Black Friday sales) and we will see you again in December.
Wildlife Intrigued 
These little birds look so humble yet some of them have the most beautiful songs.
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I wasn’t fortunate enough to here this Whiskered call, but I did look it up and it is very similar to the Red-Eyed Vireo which happens to be one of the first calls I learned by ear – as you say, so beautiful and distinct you can detect it from afar as it hunts the canopy. I forgot to mention in the write up, but these Whiskers have a similar reddish eye (not as bright) to the Red-Eyed so they can definitely a bit sinister in the right light. Definitely more humble in the darker lighting ha! Thanks for coming by Anneli, have yourself a great rest of the week.
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It’s so enriching to get to know birds and their habits, and their calls. For example, when we still had quail in our neighbourhood (before stray cats and unleashed dogs) I could tell when they were calling to connect with each other or when they were warning of danger, or, in the case of pheasants, calling other pheasants to food they’d found. We just have to listen and observe and not be talking all the time.
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You are so right – I didn’t realize just how noisy humans are- and especially today’s children which seem to literally scream everything they say when outdoors – until I started using Merlin to help detect birds while out in the field. Half the time I can’t get a single reading because the meters are pegged with everyone talking, planes and helicopters streaking by nonstop and most annoying of all the constant sirens from police, fire, ambulance etc. Finding myself in a tranquil spot these days is getting harder and harder and thankful we don’t live in the city and at least have reprieves from it while at home.
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This comment reminded me of Michener’s book “Iberia.” (It was a long time ago when I read it, and I think it was in this book he mentioned someone trying to record bird sounds and how it was so difficult to get the pure sound because of so much extraneous noise pollution.) The Guadalquivir River was one of the few places this person could find where other sounds didn’t interfere with his recordings. I hope I’m remembering correctly that it was in this book that it was mentioned.
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I am not familiar with that particular book Anneli – I did look it up and it seems like a something that would occur during his travels in Spain. Definitely not an issue localized to my small world of travel – we humans be noisy. I often mention to Linda that I can tell when we are in a quiet place when I can hear the ringing in my ears, still far more preferred to the roar of a plane or the blaring sirens of the emergency responders.
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Iberia was published in 1968. Probably before you were born.😉
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Revealing my age, but I was 1 ha!
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As I thought. Just a baby.😊
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Hahaha – young at heart is all that matters as they say
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Enjoy it!
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Haha, will try my best!
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Well done on finding one. Even if those there had probably mis-id the original at least you had a heads up, if not you would have been none the wiser.
Over 400 for the year, that’s very impressive. What would you have hit with two good feet? (probably another tree root!)
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Thanks B.! There has been so many times I’ve been thankful of hauling The Beast around to give me more extended looks at a particular specimen. I keep thinking about all the binoculared only birders there that are likely confident they say something that wasn’t upon further scrutiny. As far as I can tell there was only one and less likely two that were in that entire area as I know I took a picture of every single Vireo I could find (yes, and likely multiple sightings of same bird) and from all those hundreds of snaps we only found this one specimen that matched the description. Meanwhile I’m deleting shot after shot of Red-Eyed Vireos ha. I do wonder what the number could have been given many months off from the field, but as you hilariously pointed out, that would have meant plenty of time to get even more injured hehehe. Hoping to add maybe 3 or so by the end of the year, but that is likely to be it as winter birding in the Midwest is pretty thin. Hope all is well across the pond, good to see you going after some good finds.
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Congrats on hitting the magic number…and more 😆
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Thank you Ted. Even with all the down points, this has been a really good birding year looking back. Need to brace myself for a likely down year due to having to forego our usual trip to Arizona in the Spring, but hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to get some new lifers (and new posts fodder!) when we go up to the Northwest for the Canine Performance Nationals (Agility) next year – this will be my first time in that region and excited to finally check those states off my birding map.
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Congratulations on reaching the big 400! I assume that puts you in the tipity top percentile in the nation? Vireoly great photos of what I would identify as a plain old flycatcher, but a birder I’m not! I can’t wait for the great reveal of Linda as a “handibirder’s secret weapon.” Stupid snow trying to strand you. Have a safe trip through the inclement weather of all evil. Perhaps, if you do five hail Vireos and ten hail Whiskers, a milagro will happen and the weather will clear.
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Unfortunately, there are some serious birders out there. I just looked at the Top 100 birders in the US listing and the top spot currently sits at 806. This is why I refer to our efforts as the “Average Year” birding. To be in the top 100 this year you need to be at 512 which means you are spending money traveling to a large number of destinations. I currently sit at 813 and pretty happy with that number which is out of 204.8K birders identified in the US for 2025. That puts me at ~0.4% for overall birders…but only ~50% of top species – not that I am tracking numbers or anything geeky like that ha. I am trying not to give Linda a big head with the birding accolades and don’t want anyone trying to hire her away from me to boost their stats. Note she refuses to call herself a birder and will deny it vehemently in public…but she will rattle off birds right and left when we are in the field and constantly has her eye on the bird reports each day – you can ask my brother Ron for confirmation of her capabilities! The bird rosary must have worked for us Tim – good advice as we did make it back – admittedly, you made me shutter when I first read that clever interpretation – all those Catholic school days coming back to haunt me hehehe. Take care Tim, hope the holiday season is shaping up for you.
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There’s the obsessed and the OBSESSED.
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Hahahaha, I guess there are degrees to every interest. I like to think of myself as an everyday birder who just happens to have a very high degree of drive. Linda would claim you could replace the word “birder” in that sentence with any other noun. “Got nothing against an obsessed birder, still hayseed enough to say look who’s chasin’ rare birds around, but my hobby is in an average year, Oh, and that’s good enough for me”
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So many things to be obsessed with.
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So true, I am just thankful I was able to shed a lot of my obsessions related to work.
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You have to use telephoto lenses for some snakes. Others, whatever suits. If you don’t know your snakes, use a tele-lens. I have a really nice close-up of a diamondback that I removed from my sister’s yard. I made a card out of the photo I can send you for a Christmas card if you would like. The snake was very thin, so Tristan kept it for a couple of days and fed it a few rats before we relocated the snake.
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I definitely do not know my snakes beyond the round vs flat heads and that rattles are a warning for ME and not the owner. I’ve written about it previously, but I’ve only come upon one rather pissed off rattler in my life and that thing scared the crap out of me (hoping that doesn’t put me in the gurly category ha). I have to ask you, did you “pick up” the Diamondback – if so, I bow down to your mancard.
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Congrats on 400!! You are right, finding these two species in the same patch would be confusing. Glad to see Dauphin Island featured again, loved that place! Have a safe drive back, looking forward to the posts from Florida!
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Thank you Sam – really happy I was able to hit this new record number for me even with all the other things going on this year. I can’t tell you how many snaps I took of the Vireos after learning about this new species (still deleting most of them as I speak). Unfortunately..or rather fortunately, I guess, Ron and I managed to find the needle in the haystack and got eyes on one and shots to prove it. Isn’t Dauphin Island wonderful for migration. The proverbial shooting fish in a barrel as all the birds make their way across the Gulf and flop down in the nearest trees they can find. Ron and I watched probably 40 to 50 Scarlet Tanagers make land one afternoon we were there – just wave after wave of the incredibly beautiful birds pouring in to the Mounds. Probably an absolute nightmare for insects and such ha. As mentioned in the following post, we made it back safely but it was definitely exhausting. Now time to start planning our trip down to you – take care and really appreciate you coming by.
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