The Most Range Restricted of All!

We called it “express birding” as we recorded a number of eBird checklists of birds of marshes while driving by them. A Brown Pelican here, an Osprey and Snowy Egret there. We didn’t have time to stop and look closely at the tall grasses, although we would have enjoyed it. We weren’t big on list padding when we had bigger and better targets on the agenda. It was a 7 hour drive from San Cristobal to our next location, San Andres de Tuxtla, where we had Tuxtla Quail-dove, quite possibly Mexico’s most range-restricted endemic, to see. Hard to believe anything could have a smaller range than Nava’s Wren! (But if you know of any let me know!)
Prior to leaving we did make time to get Matt on two lifers, Pink-headed Warbler and Blue-throated Mot-mot, as well as a lifer subspecies for us all in Strong-billed Woodcreeper. Perhaps the small forests outside of San Cristobal are better birding than inside the preserve where there is no understory to speak of and birders are charged five times more than any other recreational activity.

After the long drive, we arrived in the small town of Tuxtla. One local family had the foresight to build a small restaurant and lodge to cater to birders. Being able to stay only minutes from the birding location was extremely convenient.
The only forest left is a small remnant patch on the side of an ancient volcano. Thankfully the volcano is no longer active, otherwise an eruption could literally destroy the only location where Tuxtla Quail-dove occurs. The forest may be small, but it still provides excellent birding. A small paved road through the middle makes for a great path to walk, and the thick understory makes for excellent habitat. On our first evening, we opted to walk a small trail off of the road in through the thick of it, with high hopes we could tick this bird before dark. Don’t you know we heard a bird calling, tracked it down, played tape, only to have it fly in right beside us! The only issue is it saw us before we ever saw it and it kept going out of sight. If we wanted to see one of these things, we were going to have to find another.
We hoped to leave by 10am the next morning to make it to our next location, but 10am came and went and we still had the ground dove as a heard only. And then the decision was made to change our itinerary and stay another night to ensure we could see it. It would have been enjoyable birding had we not been so laser focused on tracking down a skulky, ground-dwelling species. Despite the focus we still managed plenty of interesting birds including the local endemic ssp of Chestnut-capped Brushfinch, Long-tailed Sabrewing, Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner, Eye-ringed Flatbill, and a heard only Great Curassow.

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Matt was feeling a bit under the weather and decided against hazing himself, while Ross, Jason, and I decided to spend the entirety of the day in the field. It was a massive game of hide and seek and no doubt Tuxtla Quail-dove has the advantage.

We had heard several ground doves calling throughout the course of our day, but every time we would track it down, the bird would shut up.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that we heard one calling on the side of a steep bank next to the road. We were able to conceal ourselves with the bank and get close enough that we could finally see a single Tuxtla Quail-dove! Thank goodness we had this steep bank to shield us out of view. It still took us quite some time to find this one because we were just looking too far! Our hypothesis that the birds were much closer than they let on was now proven correct. Over the course of our day, we probably had been within striking distance of at least 6 individuals but missed seeing them until the last possible second!

The picture below isn’t great, but it shows the distinct purplish back!