PINE FOREST
Chihuahua State

For North American birders, the most "exotic" species in the list may be the Yellow-eyed Junco and Mexican Chickadee. In the U.S., both of these species are restricted to the mountains of extreme southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico, but in Mexico they follow the western highlands all the way into the deep south.

Yellow-eyed Juncos, called Mexican Juncos in older books, look just like one of the   phases of the Dark-eyed Junco common farther north -- except for the eyes. Those eyes are the bright orange-yellow of U.S. school buses. They are so conspicuous that they look unnatural.

Mexican Chickadees look almost identical to Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees common farther north, but their voices are a bit lower and more buzzy than those species'.

The list's Pygmy Nuthatch may not seem so unusual to Westerners because they are found at higher elevations all through the US West. However, they're "exotic" to Easterners. In the US Southeast we have the very similar Brown-headed Nuthatch, but that bird has a brown cap while Pygmies have gray ones, and the Brown-headeds are strictly low-elevation folks. Despite these differences, sometimes the two species have been lumped.

The field guide says that Pygmy Nuthatches forage in small flocks high in the pines. The one I saw, drawn at the right, was lower down on a trunk, and alone. Maybe it had descended just for a quick look at me, for I had only that brief sighting before it disappeared.

The list doesn't convey an important feature of Lake Arareko's birdlife. Large parts of the forest here, at least during the middles of days, are absolutely birdless. Except for wide-ranging hawks, vultures, jays, and ravens, all the other species were seen almost exclusively in the little valley below the tent.