A tremendous spring for rarities

Ever since the weather turned warm on April 30--very conveniently, the very day I got back from my Texas trip--the birding on the Chicago lakefront has been consistently excellent. This was great for my local spring guiding and it also meant we had a tremendous run of rarities. Here are photos of some of the less common birds that I saw this spring, including some excellent vagrants. Click on the photos and scroll through to see what the birds are and where the photos were taken [note that on a phone you might not be able to see the photo descriptions]. 

Red Hill Birding is taking on Texas for the rest of the month. Josh is running our Hill Country & Big Bend tour, which includes witnessing the incredible Mexican Free-tailed Bat emergence at the Frio Bat Cave! Steve is soaking spring migration a
On our just-completed Costa Rica tour, we spent an extraordinary hour surrounded by endemic birds in the jardín of Dantica Cloud Forest Lodge--Black-billed Nightingale Thrush, Ochraceous Wren, Ruddy Treerunner, Flame-throated Warbler, Yellow-w
Nathan led a fantastic tour through sunny Southern California last month. As the kids would say, they crushed it. 📸: Tour leader @nathan_goldbird. 1) Lawrence's Goldfinch 2) Island Fox 3) Burrowing Parakeet 4) Black-throated Sparrow 5) Nanday Parak
One of the avian highlights of this year's San Diego Bird Festival was Ridgway's Rail. Normally secretive and difficult to find, our sponsored field trips to the Tijuana Slough NWR were timed to match high tide, which can bring them out of dense cove