The Eye of the Curve-billed Thrasher
Cuitlacoche común
How is it possible for these birds to fly into such tangles of spikes and thorns unscathed?
Handsome with intimidating fierce yellow eyes, the Curve-billed Thrasher, Cuitlacoche, is high on my list of favorite Mexican birds.
The Many Voices of the Zanate
Every day from the vantage of our roof terrace in Puerto Vallarta, I see a shiny purple-black male zanate lord over his kingdom of a great mango tree. That tree—more than sixty-feet tall—is the largest in our neighborhood. It towers over all the houses around and anyone looking toward the tree can likely see the big bird strut about the topmost branches. This puffed up garrulous creature points his head up, gapes his mouth, cocks back his wings and squeals his wild songs. His sounds surpass the mimicry of any mockingbird.
Cars drive by on the street below blaring mariachi music and the bird adds trills to the ends of trumpet accents. Other cars play US rap music and the bird attaches wild scats between pauses. This mastersinger comments on almost any stray sound—from raucous to melodic.
Chickens in Mexico
On my first visit to our little neighborhood grocery, tienda de comestibles, I carefully requested in Spanish, “Quisiera una docena de huevos, por favor.” I believed this to mean, I would like a dozen eggs, please. I was surprised by the reply, “¿Te gusta blanco o rojo? Rojo? I was stumped. I thought rojo was red. It is, of course. Yet, it took me a minute to realize the patient shopkeeper referred to what I have always called brown eggs.
When it comes to chickens, Mexicans have viewpoints different from most US citizens. Actual contact with chickens for most in the US generally consists of buying chicken parts wrapped in plastic. Mexicans, on the other hand, are not fazed when a flock of hens and biddies strut down a public street—even in the middle of a city. They don’t find it unusual if roving chickens poach a couple of bugs from their gardens, or if a rooster crows at any time of day or night.
The Silence of the Birds
Tenochtitlan rises
From the great lake of life
Shines like a jewel
Shines the natural light
*
The causeway is lined
With the birds of their world
With their colors so vivid
With their songs so pure
A Dare?
buy Clomiphene online cheap A tiny Inca Dove, Tortolita Colilarga, flew into the casita where I was writing today
He landed on an interior windowsill and we studied each other for a moment
I see this bird and his mate side-by-side in the jardin every day
I glanced outside and there she was—his companion—waiting on the stonewall