From BirdsEye Newsletter #11: December 2013

1.    Black-bellied Whistling-Duck: a famous wanderer and local rarity in many parts of the country, but could it be that it was the most-viewed species in part because it is first on the list when sorted in taxonomic order?  We’ll keep an eye on it over the next few months to find out!

2.    Snow Goose: these guys were just arriving in numbers in November in much of their wintering range.  They are also locally rare in many areas, so they are of interest to many state and county listers.

3.    Pin-tailed Whydah: What!? How did Pin-tailed Whydah beat out Nutmeg Mannikin?  This exotic is fairly well-established in Southern California and is apparently starting to get some attention!

4.    Snowy Owl: big invasion year, as shown in this BirdsEye screen shot!

5.    Amazon Kingfisher: 2nd ABA record in Texas! A good bird by just about any measure!  No wonder so many people wanted to find it.