Description

See this and many other great birds, including Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Military Macaw and Gray-crowned Woodpecker less than an hour and a half from downtown Puerto Vallarta. These little mites are nomadic and difficult to find throughout their range, which stretches from the mountains of Nicaragua north to Sinaloa and Durango, Mexico, but right now Birding in Mexico has three birds that are easy to see, with a 90% likelihood of seeing them well in the mornings, at a locality in Cabo Corrientes.

They are undoubtedly “Woodstars”, as they fly exactly like that subgroup of hummingbirds, often with their tail cocked up, and with a buzzing whir much like a bee.

This floating-flight might be a defense against larger, more aggressive hummingbirds (such as the Cinnamon and Berylline that were common in the area where this image was taken), which seem to ignore them.

The birds are still present. In fact, we tracked down three of these beauties… one spectacular male (shown) and two females (one of which is shown).
The females, in fact, were displaying to attract the male (not the other way around, which might be new information for this species)… and there was a lot of exciting aerial and nuptial display and action.