Cook's Swift

Not closely related to Northern Mockingbird. Skulking and heard far more often than seen, this fairly large and ample-tailed songbird might be better named "denim catbird" for its overall dull blue plumage, mewing calls, and retiring behavior. Favors thickets, dense scrubby woodlands, and forest understory in foothills and highlands; locally to western lowlands in winter. Tosses leaves on the ground and also feeds at all levels in dense fruiting bushes and trees. Most often seen in short flights across roads or trails from cover to cover. Voice notably varied.

Unobtrusive small bird of brushy woodland and forest understory in tropical lowlands, mainly in drier habitats. Usually seen as singles or pairs, low in weedy growth. Male blue-black overall; with good views, note the blue forehead, ‘jowls,’ and rump. Female in West Mexico gray-brown overall, in East Mexico rich brown overall. Similar female Varied Bunting has a smaller bill and different call note: a wet plik; Blue Bunting call is a high tsik in West Mexico, a metallic chink in East Mexico.

A distinctive and common inhabitant of high-altitude open spaces such as pastures, steppelands, and mountain valleys. Bold and confiding, often visiting villages and towns where it forages for scraps with snowfinches, mountain-finches, and other accentors. Combination of ash-gray head, orange breast, and white belly is unique amongst the birds in its region.