Day 7 of the trip, we spent the whole day in the Rio Grande Valley and South Padre Island.
Early in the morning, we drove to a wetland on South Padre Island north of a place called KOA, where Mangrove Yellow Warblers have been seen.
Mangrove Yellow Warbler, just recently split from the Yellow Warbler, is restricted to South Padre Island during the winter in the ABA area, and the mangrove at this little wetland by a RV park is the most reliable spot.
When we arrived, we didn’t see many birds, but after a while I heard a few chips from the far side of the marsh. Luckyly, we were here during low tide, and we walked straight through the marsh too where the chips were coming from. After a few minutes of searching, we were finally looking straight at two brown-headed yellow warblers perched on top of a mangrove bush right in front of us. They are the Mangrove Yellow Warblers!
After success on the mangrove, we quickly find the Clapper Rail at the South Padre Island Nature Center Biding Center, as it claps its way out of the reeds.
Then in the afternoon, we checked Estero Llano Grande SP World Birding Center. There, after successfully finding the famous Common Pauraque, we sat at the feeders waiting for Buff-bellied Hummingbirds while accompanied by Green Jays, Plain Chachalacas, white tipped doves and a lot of others. But eventually, the hummer only visited briefly and I only got blurry images.
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