Tropic bird goes astray, sparks NM birding frenzy – Yahoo! News.
Sitting on a houseboat in Amsterdam, I was amazed to receive this article on my Yahoo news page this week. The Rufous-necked wood-rail (Aramides axillaris) is a rail of very restricted range in Costa Rica. At first I thought the bird in question was the closely related and much more widespread Gray-necked wood-rail (Aramides cajanea). US birders were given a wonderful treat as this species showed up in the States for the first time ever, in New Mexico. Birders there express surprise that the bird walks about in the open, but it is really fairly common behaviour for wood-rails, which often turn up even quite far from water.
Actually, I’m still waiting to find the Gray-necked on my home patch in San Antonio de Santa Cruz de Turrialba. I imagined the Rufous-necked to be impossible, since it is found in only a scant few places in Costa Rica, none of them near Turrialba, but if it can show up in New Mexico I believe a have more than a fighting chance. NowI won’t be home for quite a while and my next post will, of necessity, deal with a sighting here near Amsterdam.
Birds for Beer 
Ha! I used this bird in my blog too, calling them ‘duck duck goose’ because I didn’t know what they were. They’d wander through my yard everyday and were quite skittish to say the least. I was able to stand or sit very still and they’d walk right by me, but any little movement would send them scattering in a frenzy. We are very fortunate to have such wonderful creatures here in CR…I will never take it for granted!!
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Hi Stephanie! Duck duck goose is most descriptive even if it’s not very scientific! Let’s hope you can spot one when you get to San Antonio.
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i caught that story as well, so it was great to see
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oops, sorry that fired out too soon!
thanks for the update, and it will be good to see what sightings you have to share from the other side of the pond! z
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