Quetzal Tours, 1507 Wildwood Court, Fort Collins, CO (2024)

06/10/2024

Announcing a new upcoming birding tour:

COLOMBIA -CENTRAL AND WESTERN ANDES

Led by Oswaldo Cortes and Nick Komar

September 16-26, 2024

Price: US$3600 double occupancy
Group size: 8 plus leaders.

Contact Nick to reserve your seat and/or request itinerary. Cell/text 970-449-3645, or email [email protected].

Photo credit: Buffy Helmetcrest by Oswaldo Cortes

03/16/2024

Announcing upcoming guided birding opportunity:

LESSER PRAIRIE-CHICKEN Lek with Joe Kipper. This a 2-day, 1-night Jeep tour from The Colorado Front Range (Denver area), departing 8 AM Monday March 25
and returning Tuesday night 8 PM. Customers will ride with Joe from and to the US34 park n ride at I25 in Loveland, Colorado, unless other arrangements are made directly with Joe. The group overnights in Oakley Kansas, where they will join Kansas guide Jim Millensifer at a private blind for viewing the lek on Tuesday morning. The fee includes all transportation, gasoline, lodging at the Kansas Country Inn in Oakley, viewing blind access fees and professional guiding, as well as a hearty country breakfast at the Inn following the morning lek visit. The fee does not cover other meals or tips.

There is limited space on this tour. Maximum group size is four. We will share the photography blind with 6 other viewers. Jim offers this special opportunity under license with the Kansas Department of Natural Resources.

Besides the displaying Lesser Prairie-chickens, a threatened species that Is no longer viewable in Colorado, we expect to see Greater Prairie-Chicken, other pheasants and quail, several raptor species and other specialized prairie species. We will look for longspurs, Mountain Plovers and Burrowing Owl in Colorado along the route to and from western Kansas.

The fee is $400 per person (double occupancy; single supplement is $50.). Couples pay $600. Make checks payable to Quetzal Tours. Call Nick Komar at 970-449-3645 for more info or to reserve your seat.

02/19/2024

Announcing SOUTH TEXAS RARITY SWEEP, Feb 26-Mar 2, 2024. Group size 4, 1 seat available. There are more than a dozen vagrant bird species visiting the Rio Grande Valley and lower Gulf coast right now including this Cattle Tyrant. We will go for all of them and more! Guided by Nick Komar. Cost $1800 includes ground transportation, driver, guide, access fees, local guide fees. Meals not included. Double occupancy. Single supplement $200.

Locations will visit include the Santa Margarita Ranch, Salineño Wildlife Reserve, Roma Bluffs, Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, National Butterfly Center, Frontera Audubon Center, Estero Llano Grande State Park, Oliveira Park Parrot Roost, Resaca de la
Palma State Park, the Brownsville dump, UT Texas at Brownsville.

Target vagrant species include Mottled Owl, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Brown Jay, Crane Hawk, Rose-throated Becard, Gray-collared Becard, Roadside Hawk, Fan-tailed Warbler, Golden-crowned Warbler, Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Bar-tailed Godwit, Cattle Tryant and more.

The birding pace will be slow but focused. Many of these species are skulkers and we will find them
using my most valuable birding tool- patience. We will also be looking for all the resident specialty species of south TX such as Common Pauraque, Ringed and Green Kingfishers, Muscovy, Red-billed Pigeon, Morelet’s Seedeater, Audubon’s Oriole, Aplomado Falcon, Whooping Crane, etc.

You can join the tour in Denver area Monday afternoon Feb 26 or along our driving route or on the morning of February 27 in Corpus Christie. Birding will begin Tuesday morning, Feb 27 at Corpus Christie. Bruce Wild will be the driver. Cole Wild will be the spotter and second driver. I (Nick) will be the guide and your personal Birding Assistant/Mentor. Please share this announcenent to your birding network.

01/13/2024

I published perhaps my final blog post for my 2023 Big Year of birding. Updated species number is 890, ten short of my goal of 900 species in the USA and Territories. One benefit of visiting the Territories was seeing some of the rarest species in the world. In late December, I spent 8 days in the Mariana Islands with Nick Komar where we observed some incredibly rare birds such as this Mariana Crow (wild population 215 birds) and other critically endangered species such as Guam Rail, Micronesian Megapode, Tinian Monarch and Saipan Reed-Warbler. Here is a link to the blog: biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

12/17/2023

Two weeks to go and I am still 50 species short of my goal of 900 bird species in USA and territories. I just completed 6 days in American Samoa with Oliver Komar. The Samoan Myzomela was one of 20 year birds we found there. More details at Biggestyear2023.blogspot.com. Tomorrow I am off to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

10/10/2023

Hurricanes result in strange birds turning up in unusual places. I discuss this phenomenon in my latest Big Year blog entry. Read it at https//:biggestyear2023.blogspot.com. Do you think this Cuban Trogon might someday turn up in Florida? Join me and Cuban tour leader Arturo Kirkconnell January 20-30, 2024 as we track down all of Cuba‘s endemic bird species. A few spots are still available on this Partnership in International Birding tour. Photo of Cuban Trogon by Arturo Kirkconnell Jr.

09/15/2023

For those of you following my Big Year birding effort, I just published a new blog post, describing my latest birding tour of Southeastern Arizona in August. The Five-striped Sparrow (see photo below) at Box Canyon was one of our target species. Comments are welcome. See the blog here: https://biggestyear2023.blogspot.com/2023/09/filling-gaps-southeastern-arizona.html?m=1.

09/04/2023

Almost caught up with my blog posts for my “Biggest Year In American Birding”. I published three new posts last week, including the story behind the American Flamingo pictured below. You can read the blogposts here:
https://biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

Also, I am announcing some upcoming birding trips you can join, including:

**Hawaii (Oahu and Kauai) October 18-23

**American Samoa October 23-30

**Guam and Northern Mariana Islands Nov 2-14.

Also I’m gathering a small group to visit CUBA January 20-30, 2024.

Contact me offline if you are interested in any of these trips.

07/04/2023

My tour to Gambell Alaska was well worthwhile. I just posted my blog about it.
Best bird there for me was this first summer Ross’s Gull, first spotted by Brian Gibbons I believe. Photo was taken by Oliver Komar. This was 701 for my USA and Territories Big Year. I’m thinking of chasing rarities in Delaware or Florida this week. Anyone wanna join to share costs? Message me privately. Link to blog is biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

03/07/2023

Announcing upcoming tour:

Experience spring migration in GAMBELL, Alaska, June 3-9, 2023

Guided by Gambell experts Steve Heinl and Aaron Lang. Capacity 7 persons.

Cost: $5900 Includes round trip air tickets from Anchorage, food and lodging for 6 nights, ground transportation on Gambell, expert guides.

Located on St Lawrence Island, Gambell is among the westernmost towns in the USA, populated by a Yupik community. Within sight of the Asian continent, it regularly hosts Asian species of Shorebirds and Landbirds during spring migration. Recent Asian strays seen by Aaron and Steve include White-tailed Eagle, Lesser Sand-plover, Common Ringed Plover, Terek Sandpiper, Gray-tailed Tattler, Common Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Snipe, Common Cuckoo, Eurasian Skylark, Common House Martin, Common Chiffchaff, Red-flanked Bluetail, Stonechat, Dusky Thrush, Naumann’s Thrush, Olive-backed Pipit, Red-throated Pipit, Rustic Bunting, Brambling, Common Rosefinch, and Hawfinch.

Another attraction are the large numbers of alcids, including Dovekie, Common Murre, Thick-billed Murre, Black Guillemot, Pigeon Guillemot, Ancient Murrelet, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Parakeet Auklet, Least Auklet, Crested Auklet, Horned Puffin, and Tufted Puffin.

Lots of other species of Alaskan birds await you in Gambell. These trips are usually booked years in advance. However this trip was set up as part of Nick Komar’s Biggest Year in USA Birding. There are currently five seats remaining. Reserve yours now. Call or text Nick at 970-449-3645.

03/01/2023

Tour Announcement: Central California with Nick Komar and Logan Kahle, Mar 8-16, 2023.

One seat available. 250 species expected. $2000. Contact Nick at 970-449-3645 for details.

02/27/2023

The Quetzal Tours Sax-Zim Bog road-trip returned to Colorado yesterday after a fabulous week of winter birding in Northern MInnesota. Explore the eBird Trip Report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/108290. Here are photo highlights with details in the captions. This tour was part of Nick Komar’s Biggest Year in USA Birding. Follow along at biggestyear2023.blogspot.com. Or join an upcoming tour. See tour schedule at pbase.com/quetzal/bigyear2023. Special thanks to Joe Kipper and Kathy Kay, who both contributed enormously to make this tour a great success.

01/27/2023

South Texas Day 8 ( final).

Today, Jan 26, 2023, we focused on adding a few more species to the trip list. We hoped to find 10 more species to reach 200 species before 2 pm when we needed to be at the airport for the flight home. We quickly picked up Yellow-headed Blackbird and Monk Parakeet. At Anzalduas Park, we assembled a great eBird checklist with 43 species but only added one new one, a Northern Parula. The final trip bird was courtesy of our friend Mark Hubinger: a staked-out Eastern Screech-Owl at the National Butterfly Center. See photo. We ended the trip at Roselawn Cemetery next to the McAllen airport where Irene spotted a beautiful Yellow-throated Warbler which was new for her trip. Final trip list: 194 species. The full report will be accessible via eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/102615. This tour of South Texas was part of Nick Komar’s Biggest Year effort to find 900 species in one year in the United States and its Territories. You can follow his progress at https://Biggestyear2023.blogspot.com.

01/27/2023

SOUTH TEXAS Day 7

Back at the Alamo Inn lodge for birders, situated in the heart of the best birding sites in the Rio Grande Valley, we began Jan 25, 2023, at Estero Llano Grande State Park. We arrived early and it was already crawling with birders. It’s reputation was well deserved and we added about 10 trip birds and several rarities including a staked-out Dickcissel and two Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. We helped identify a Broad-tailed Hunmingbird, perhaps the rarest bird we’d seen so far. The coolest bird was a Pauraque (see photo), one of our targets. After a quick Texas barbecue lunch, we visited Frontera Audubon Sanctuary in Weslaco. The visit was brief but very rewarding as we found the rarest bird of the trip, a Bay-breasted Warbler. Hopefully others will find this misplaced migrant (which in winter belongs in Panama or Colombia). We ended the day with a trip list total of 190 species.

01/25/2023

SOUTH TEXAS Day 6

On the morning of Jan 24, 2023, we awoke to rain in Port Aransas and spent the first three hours of daylight mostly birding from the vehicle, searching for new Trip Species along the bay shore near Corpus Christie. We added Dunlin, Least and Western Sandpipers. Piping Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Gull-billed Tern. Heading south towards the Rio Grsnde Valley, a brief stop at the Sarita Rest Area enabled us to add Brewer’s Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird to our trip list. Late in the afternoon we successfully chased two rarities at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge: Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and Tropical Parula (see photo). Trip list now at 172 species. After a delicious Texas Barbecue dinner in Harlingen, we returned to the Alamo Inn for our final two nights in the Valley.

01/24/2023

SOUTH TEXAS Day 5

We began this day, January 23, 2023, at Charlie’s Pasture, in Port Aransas. High winds here prevented us from successfully observing a Leconte’s sparrow. So we went to McGee Beach hoping to see wind blown northern Gannet close to shore but the gannets did not oblige. We did pick up two new trip birds here: Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling. Third stop was the Leonabelle Butler Birding Center with a view of the bayside marshes and mudflats. Here our luck would change. A family of Whooping Cranes had taken up residence in the marsh, saving us a foray further north to Rockport. Other new trip birds here included Sora and Clapper Rail (great close-up views). Acting on a tip from a local birder we added Mottled Duck to the trip list also. We celebrated our good fortunes with a rare sit down lunch. After lunch, our luck continued when a staked out Groove-billed Ani called to us as we exited the vehicle at the parking lot for the Oso wetland bike trail in Corpus Christi. See photo. Then, we added Sedge Wren to our list at Whitney Lake Marsh Park and again at Port Bay Rd. at dusk. The birding day ended with a flurry of new species at a farm pond near Rockport: Snow Goose, White-faced Ibis and Sandhill Crane. We ended the day with 162 species for the trip.

01/23/2023

South Texas Day 4

We checked out of the Alamo Inn at 6:30 AM Sunday Jan 22, 2023, and headed northwest along the Valley toward the Salineño Wildlife Preserve, a drive of about 90 minutes. Upon arrival, we met birders who had found two of our target species - Morelet’s Seedeater and Groove-billed Ani - along the river, raising our hopes for similar fortunes. But after two hours of searching without success, we headed further northwest to Falcon Reservoir State Park. Here we were delighted to find Northern Bobwhite coming into view at the campground feeders. And acting on a tip from a visiting birder we had met on Friday, we were able to track down a couple of Sprague’s Pipit (photo) near the boat ramp. We eventually did find a lone seedeater at Bravo Park in the town of Zapata, TX. With that feather in our cap, we decided to head east to spend the night in Corpus Christie. Trip list total 143 species.

01/22/2023

South Texas Day 3

After spending the night at the Alamo Inn, a delightful boutique hotel managed by birders, we began this day, January 21, 2023, at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park near McAllen TX. It took most of the day to get brief but decent views of two staked-out rarities - Rose-throated Becard and Hook-billed Kite. We also made a brief visit after lunch to the National Butterfly Center where we quickly found another staked-out rarity: Audubon’s Oriole (photo). Trip list total 124 species. Special thanks to Mark and Joanie Hubinger for hosting our visit today and sharing their local knowledge.

01/22/2023

South Texas, Day 2

We started the day on Jan 20, 2023, at the University campus in Brownsville where a Social Flycatcher had been resident for over a year.
Unfortunately, despite much effort, no one has reported it since January 7 and we also failed to find it. The campus is very birdy however and we submitted an eBird checklist of over 50 species of birds in less than two hours. Next we explored two hotspots along the river near Brownsville - Sabal Palms Sanctuary and Southmost Nature Preserve. Birding was excellent in both locations. At the Laguna Vista Nature Trail we were unable to relocate a rare Tropical Parula. We ended the day at mudflats that hosted thousands of gulls and other water birds. We tallied over 100 species today including this Red-crowned Parrot.

01/20/2023

South Texas Day 1

We got started after lunch Jan 19, 2023, at the Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center in McAllen. After three hours of leisurely birding, we had a checklist of 35 species for eBird, including two rarities: Black-headed Grosbeak and Winter Wren. The list also included south Texas specialties such as Plain Chachalaca and Green Jay (photo). You can view the complete list along with photos and audio (eventually) by visiting the trip report in eBird (https://ebird.org/tripreport/102615).

Next we drove to Oliveira Park in Brownsville to experience the communal roost of Parrots and Parakeets. The parrots never showed up. We eventually found a small group of Red-crowned Parrots roosting for the evening in a residential neighborhood several blocks away.

01/18/2023

Announcing upcoming tour: PUERTO RICO ENDEMICS January 28 to February 1., wIth Nick Komar and Julio Salgado.

Puerto Rico is the Isla Del Encanto - the Enchanted Island. This five day van tour will explore the west side of the island, and expect to find 17 Puerto Rican endemic species +20 additional Caribbean endemics. Expect to find 100 to 150 species including the Puerto Rican Tody pictured here.

Just two seats left. Reserve today. Call Nick at 970-449-3645 for details. Cost is $2000 double occupancy. Single supplement $400.

01/13/2023

San Diego Birding Tour Day 6

We began our final day of birding at Lake Murray county park in the hilly suburbs of San Diego. Here we picked up several missing targets such as Scaly-breasted Munia, Lawrence’s Goldfinch and Least Bittern. Our last stop was a return to the San Diego River mouth, just a few minutes drive to the airport. Additions to the trip list included Whimbrel and Snowy Plover (see photo). We ended the tour at 2 pm in time for afternoon flights, with 175 species. This was the first of the “Biggest Year”Tours being offered in 2023. The second explores South Texas Jan 19-26 led by John Vanderpoel and Nick Komar. Seats are available!

01/12/2023

San Diego Birding Tour Day 5

This day, January 11, 2023, was the penultimate day of the tour. It was dedicated to find desert specialty species, such as LeConte’s Thrasher. We departed Julian, CA at 6:05 AM en route to Borrego Springs. As we descended through the cactus-studded landscape on the outskirts of Borrego, CA, we picked a spot that looked appropriate for the thrasher and explored for a couple of hours just after sunrise. Here we found most of our rare targets, including both Sagebrush Sparrow (see photo) and Bell’s Sparrow, but no luck with the Le Conte’s Thrasher. Unexpected eBird rarities included 4 Mountain Bluebirds and 3 Sage Thrashers. We tried for the Le Conte’s Thrasher at two other desert locations without success. A late afternoon foray into the San Jacinto mountains added a few more species (eg Golden Eagle), but we struck out trying to find Mountain Quail and White-headed Woodpecker.

We ended the last full day of the tour with 166 species! We will be looking for several more target species on the final tour day tomorrow back in metro San Diego.

01/11/2023

San Diego Birding Tour Day 4

Jan 10, 2023. The four of us awoke to steady rain as a storm cloud had descended on Lake Hemet. Bad weather was threatening coastal areas throughout the state of California, and to our misfortune, we were at the eastern edge of the mayhem. Alas we faced realitu and left the areay frustrated with finding our targets, although we did hear California Quail and found a huge flock of 200 Tricolored Blackbirds that cooperated for our cameras. We finallly got out of the rain after driving two hours to the Imperial Valley, home of the famously-shrinking Salton Sea. There we would add numerous species to the trip list despite no-shows by last month’s Mexican vagrants-Yellow-footed Gull and Rufous-backed Robin. At Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Headquarters we stumbled upon our third White-tailed Kite, an eBird rarity. We also added several lowland species such as Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Verdin, Abert’s Towhee and Common Ground-dove. With time running out on the tour, (1.5 days remaining), we made a strategy decision to leave the Salton Sea early in order to focus more on chasing life birds in the mountains, desert and coastal areas of southern California, at the request of the trip participants. So we headed to Julian CA, a central location for all three areas, to spend the last two nights. Trip subtotal 151 species.

01/11/2023

San Diego Birding Tour Day 3

We started the day, Jan 9, 2023, at the Harry Griffen Regional Park in El Cajon. Despite being a birdy site, we failed to find our targets there (Lawrence’s Goldfinch, Scaly-breasted Munia and a locally rare Yellow-bellied Sapsucker). The highlight was a beautiful male Townsend’s Warbler. Then, en-route to the San Jacinto Mountains we stopped at Ranchland Rd, an eBird hotspot where the endangered western-endemic Tricolored Blackbird was a possibility. And voila, there they were, a handful of them among hundreds of starlings and cowbirds (and cows). This was a magical spot with dozens of colorful mountain bluebirds promenading the landscape, our first Ferruginous Hawks of the trip, and small flocks of Snow and White-fronted Geese which were both flagged as rare In eBird. We also got lucky with another rarity, a Zone-tailed Hawk. Lake Hemet, high in the mountains, seemed promising as we had our first good views of California Thrasher and Oak Titmouse and discovered two rarities - White-tailed Kite (see photo taken by Scott Rashid) and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (after missing the staked out bird in El Cajon!) We went to bed in rustic cabins at beautiful Lake Hemet Campground, encouraged that we would find our other bird species targets the following morning- White-headed Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker and elusive Mountain Quail. Current trip total 125 species.

01/09/2023

Southern California Birding Tour day 2

One of the highlights of birding in San Diego is walking along the coastal cliffs at La Jolla. We began the day there with Incredible views of pelicans and cormorants among other things. We hoped to find some exciting birds at the sea watch but settled on several hundred Black-vented Shearwaters in the distance. We finished the morning at Terra Nova Park, a lovely spot in Chula Vista that hosted many of the regions specialty species including California Thrasher, California Towhee and California Scrub-Jay.

After lunch, we visited Tijuana Estuary National Wildlife Refuge and had spectacular views of one of our target species - Ridgeway’s Rail (see photo). We ended the day with an unsuccessful search for the elusive Black-throated Magpie-Jays at the Tijuana River Valley Bird and Butterfly Garden. A White-tailed Kite was a welcome consolation. The trip total stands now at 108 species. Follow our progress on eBird at the following link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/100217.

01/09/2023

Southern California Birding Tour Day 1.

Three of us arrived on-time to San Diego’s International airport via Southwest Airlines from Denver, rented our Toyota 4-Runner in a flash and picked up our fourth team member (from Oregon) at his sister’s house by noon on Saturday, January 7. The trip began with closeup views of Allen’s Hummingbird at a private feeder near the airport.

We spent the next 4 hrs of daylight in the Mission Bay/ Point Loma area chasing some rarities, including long-tailed duck and snow goose, and missing other rarities such as tropical kingbird and swamp sparrow at Famosa slough. We also missed a staked-out Yellow-billed Loon. Some of the more interesting species we saw include Reddish Egret and Little Blue Heron and Black Skimmer. We ended the half day of birding at the El Cajon courthouse where over 500 parrots were roosting for the evening. We had excellent views of Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned parrot. See photo.

Folllow our progress on eBird at this link for our Trip Report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/100217.

01/04/2023

Upcoming Birding tour: LOWER RIO GRANDE VALLEY with Nick Komar and John Vanderpoel. We expect to see over 200 species of birds including all the south TX specialty species including Muscovy Duck, Mottled Duck, Plain Chachalaca, Least Grebe, Red-billed Pigeon, White-tipped Dove, Common Pauraque, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, White-tailed Kite, Hook-billed Kite, Harris’s Hawk, White-tailed Hawk, Common Black-Hawk, Ringed Kingfisher, Green Kingfisher, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Aplomado Falcon, Rose-throated Becard, Great Kiskadee, Social Flycatcher, Couch’s Kingbird, Green Jay, Black-crested Titmouse, Long-billed Thrasher, Clay-colored Thrush, Olive Sparrow, Altamira Oriole, Audubon’s Oriole, Mangrove Warbler, Tropical Parula, Morelet’s Seedeater, and much more.

JANUARY 19-26, 2023 from McAllen. Cost is $2000. Single supplement is $350. Small group - 8 max. Reserve your seat now.

12/26/2022

SAN DIEGO BECKONS. San Diego County alone hosts over 200 bird species in winter. I am looking for 4-6 customers to join me for 5 days and nights Jan 7-12, 2023 in the first of my Biggest Year tours.
Why join me?

— I will show you many fabulous species of the American Southwest from the Pacific Ocean, coastal bays and estuaries, foothill scrub, montane lakes and pine forests, inland deserts, and the Salton Sea.

— targets include Southwest Endemics such as California Gnatcatcher, California Thrasher, Ridgeway’s Rail, Wrentit, Mountain Quail, Lawrence’s Goldfinch, Tricolored Blackbird and Bell’s Sparrow.

— also Mexican vagrants such as Tropical Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Yellow-footed Gull

— Pacific vagrants including Red-footed B***y, Pacific Golden-Plover, and Little Stint

—and established exotics like Scaly-breasted Munia, Black-throated Magpie-jay, Lilac-crowned Parrot.

— Scott Rashid will accompany the group as driver

— all for the very low price of $1200

— and flights to San Diego right now are very inexpensive.

To reserve a seat, send email to [email protected] or text/call 970-449-3645.

Nick Komar
Quetzal Tours