Favorite New Birds of 2009

I just read another blog called, The Flying Mullet, that featured a list of the author's top ten new birds of 2009. That got me thinking about my own favorite new birds of this past year. It's too hard for me to list them in order, or to limit the number to only ten birds. All of my lifers this past year were seen in Peru in January and February. I managed to photograph some of them, and I posted those photos last summer. I'll include some of those photos in this post, and add some new photos.

Arguably my favorite lifer of 2009 is the Humboldt Penguin. I have wanted to see penguins for years.

Another cool species I saw on the Islas Ballestas, next to the penguins were Inca Terns.

The Peruvian Thick-knee is a large, nocturnal shorebird that inhabits the barren deserts along Peru's west coast.

The Black-crowned Night Heron was certainly not a new species, but the Belcher's Gulls were.

Another of 5 new gull species in Peru was the Gray-hooded Gull. The others were, Andean, Kelp, and Gray Gulls.

Another west coast bird, Saffron Finch.

Another inhabitant of the desert is the less than colorful, Oasis Hummingbird.

The commonly seen parrot in Lima is the, Red-masked Parakeet

The 5th species of booby that I've seen is the Peruvian Booby.

Wattled Jacanas are very common in the Amazon Basin.

A turkey sized oddity of the Amazon is the Horned Screamer.

One of the few new raptors that I saw was the Black-collared Hawk.

A friendly flycatcher of the cloud forest is the Torrent Tyrannulet.

Black-fronted Nunbirds are another common Amazonian bird.

A bad photograph of a great bird, White-eared Jacamar.

There were Red-capped Cardinals nesting within a few yards of my bungalow on the Amazon River.

White-headed Marsh Tyrants are often found on islands in the Amazon River.

A bird that occurs exclusively on inlands in the Amazon River is the wonderful, little, Red and White Spinetail.

Other favorite lifers I saw but did'nt get good photographs were,

Giant Hummingbird

Great Sapphirewing

Chilean Flamingo

Black-tailed, and Blue-crowned Trogon

Red-bellied Macaw

Slate-colored Hawk

Orange-crowned Mannakin

Chestnut, and Crimson-crested Woodpeckers

I got 100 plus lifers on that trip.