Rufous-capped warbler (photo from Wikimedia)

6 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 7, traveling from Xalapa to Veracruz (city)

Today we travel from the highlands at Xalapa to sea level at Veracruz. We’ll make birding stops along the way and look in at the hawk watches to see who’s flying by.

Versatile about elevation

The birds we saw above 4,000 feet generally do not come down to the foothills but there are a couple of versatile species that we may see up top and possibly encounter at sea level.

The rufous-capped warbler (Basileuterus rufifrons), pictured at top, is flexible about elevation but picky about moisture and thickets. He inhabits dry scrub and semi-open habitats from sea level to 9,800 feet.

The brown-backed solitaire (Myadestes occidentalis) is closely related to Townsend’s solitaire, a western mountain bird that occasionally visits Pennsylvania. Brown-backed solitaires inhabit semi-arid or pine-oak forests from 2,000 to 11,500 feet in Mexico and Central America. They like to sing year-round from a hidden perch so chances are good that we will hear one but not see it.

Brown-backed Solitaire (photo from Wikimedia)

Mountains and foothills

The white-winged tanager (Piranga leucoptera) looks like scarlet tanager though slightly smaller with a black face and white wing bars. He likes pine-oak forests and shady coffee plantations in the mountains and foothills.

Male white-winged tanager (photo from Wikimedia)

The fan-tailed warbler (Euthlypis lachrymosa) of Mexico and Central America is the only species in his genus. He shares his common name with the “fan-tailed warbler” of Eurasia and Africa whose alternative common name is preferable and unforgettable: the zitting cisticola(*) (Cisticola juncidis).

The fan-tailed warbler in Mexico lives in foothills and montane forests with undisturbed understory. He follows army ants, not to eat them but to catch the insects the army scares ahead of them. When upset, he fans his tail. Here he’s yelling at a ferruginous pygmy-owl at Xilitla,Mexico. Look at that tail!

The Mexican sheartail (Doricha eliza) hummingbird is endemic to the Yucatan’s north shore and has a small population near Xalapa and Veracruz. He’s not very picky about elevation as long as there’s thorn scrub available. If we haven’t seen him yet, he’s pretty reliable at Laguna Miradores at 2,800 feet.

Mexican sheartail (photo from Wikimedia)

At the Hawk Watch, the species mix has changed

We were in the highlands for only five days (4 nights) and yet the mix of migrating raptor species has already changed. The highest counts of broad-winged hawks have passed and the number of Swainson’s hawks (Buteo swainsoni) is building.

The Swainson’s hawk is almost never seen near Pittsburgh so its light and dark color morphs may initially be a challenge for me to pick out in the sky.

Swainson’s hawk color morphs as seen in flight: light, intermediate, dark (photos from Wikimedia)

Though Swainson’s hawks eat rodents during the breeding season in North America they spend the winter at the pampas (grasslands) of Argentina where they eat almost exclusively insects, especially grasshoppers.

Range map of Swainson’s hawk (from Wikimedia)

In the 1990s pest control of grasshoppers in South America caused mass die-offs of Swainson’s hawks.

Acute toxicity from poisoning by organophosphate insecticides monocrotophos and dimethoate, used to control grasshopper outbreaks in alfalfa and sunflower fields, caused the death of nearly 6,000 Swainson’s Hawks in Argentina in 1995 and 1996. Overall, an estimated 20,000 were killed in Argentina by pesticide applications. Deaths resulted immediately after hawks were sprayed directly by pesticide applicators while they foraged in fields or within several days after they ate poisoned grasshoppers. Many hawks died within minutes of being sprayed, and their carcasses were found in adjacent fields (Woodbridge et al. 1995a, Goldstein et al. 1996 MJB).

Fortunately … !

After this incident, these pesticides were banned and an educational campaign began to bring awareness to the problem. These programs seem to have been successful.

At the Sea

After the hawk watch we’ll be back at our seaside hotel in Boca del Rio where we might see a yellow-winged tanager (Thraupis abbas) in the garden. This bird is so versatile about elevation that we could have seen him in the highlands at parks, gardens and forest edges.

Yellow-winged tanager (from Wikimedia)

Tonight we have our last dinner together. We leave for home tomorrow.

p.s. (*) The zitting cisticola (Cisticola juncidis) is drab looking but has a distinctive song –> zit-zit-zit-zit. I’ve seen and heard him in Africa and Spain. Click the link to see him.