WORLDTWITCH - México - Bill Principe's Checklist of the Birds of Mexico

Eared Poorwill, Nyctiphrynus mcleodii

Bill Principe announces the publication of his Check List of the Birds of Mexico, 32 pp, 5.5" x 8.5", with full color covers. It lists 1,224 forms (species and well-marked subspecies) known to occur in Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The list conforms to the AOU Checklist (7th edition, 1998), and includes 10 columns for ticks, references for each species to the plates in popular field guides, and codes for status and distribution. The list is available directly from the publisher at birdpro@pacbell.net for US$7.00 postpaid anywhere in the world.

On the cover is a previously unpublished photo of Eared Poorwill, Nyctiphrynus mcleodii, taken an hour after sunset on a gravel road in rural Colima in February, 1993. "This gray-morph individual clearly shows the elongated feathers of the 'apron' projecting below the round facial disk, two distinctive features rarely described in the literature. The white tips are gone from the heavily worn tail, and the pale buff 'ear' tufts are erect, giving the bird an odd mammalian appearance." (B. Principe).