Ameline Swiftlet

Stocky and large-headed with a shaggy crest. Bill is long, straight, thick, and pointed. Powder blue above with white underparts and blue breast band. Females have additional rusty band across belly. Almost always solitary, perched along edges of streams, lakes, and estuaries. Flies along rivers and shorelines giving loud rattling calls. Hunts for fish by plunging headfirst into the water, either directly from a perch or hovering.

A small drab flycatcher of woodlands including, at times, mangrove swamps. This species is dull brown above and yellow-buff to orange-buff below. Adults lack wingbars and eyering, but immatures have dull buff wingbars. The tertial edges are typically quite bright, forming narrow stripes on the posterior folded wing. The Caribbean Elaenia is passingly similar but has bold wingbars and a gray eyebrow. Vocalizations include a whistled “peee-oo” followed by a low whistled trill and “pee-ooooo,” with the first syllable a clear whistle and the second a low-whistled trill. Also, commonly utters a sharp “pee.”

Small hummingbird endemic to the Marías archipelago, located about 60 miles off the Pacific coast of central Mexico. Male is glittering green with and iridescent throat and bright red bill. Female is gray underneath with a dark mask bordered with white, and red at the base of her bill. The only other hummingbird on the islands is the very different Cinnamon Hummingbird. Inhabits scrub, woodland, and gardens on all four of the islands.