Red-billed Pigeon at Progreso Lakes, 10/4/23

This warm muggy morning I was sitting on the porch here at Progreso Lakes, watching the hummingbird feeders and thinking about how it's been a long time since I've seen anything rare in the yard.  Our last new addition to the yard list was a Scarlet Tanager this past spring, which is not that rare.  Then I started thinking about rare birds and probability distributions.  There are always rare birds out there to be found.  But "rare" implies there aren't very many of them.  But they are out there.  And just like with lottery tickets, though your chances of winning are low, the more you play the better your chances are to win.  So the best plan for finding rare birds is to be ready.  Being aware of what species are possible really helps so that when you get a glimpse of something you are ready to jump on it.  Of course this means there are lots of false alarms and plenty of disappointment when that possible rare bird turns out to be something common.

Anyway after watching the feeders with only a dozen Ruby-throates and otherwise only a Nashville Warbler and a Baltimore Oriole as migrants, I decided it was time to go in and have some breakfast.  As I opened the back door, I notice a seemingly large dove or pigeon perched on a small tree about sixty or seventy yards away.  Immediately I thought "that looks suspicious".  I raised the camera and fired a shot and got a bit closed firing more shots till it flushed at maybe forty yards.  As I zoomed in on the images on the back of the camera, one species kept coming to mind.... Red-billed Pigeon.

I ran into the house and stuck the SD card into the computer and edited images and still kept coming up with the same ID.  A large bulky, large winged, dark columbid with a pale tipped bill and no visible white or banding on the tail.  Everything else seemed to be ruled out.  Best I can guess is this is an immature Red-billed Pigeon.  Red-billed Pigeons are abundant fruit eaters thoughout much of the New World tropics.  In the United States small numbers occur along the Rio Grande in Starr and Zapata Counties.  They are rarely reported from Hidalgo and Cameron County.

Most years there are reports by visiting birders of Red-billed Pigeons at area birding hotspots like Santa Ana NWR or Estero Llano Grande State Park.  But they are never documented with photos and most or all are fly over White-winged Doves IMO.  After living in the Valley for 31 years, this is my first for Hidalgo County, species #412.  It was the 249th species to be seen from our Progreso Lakes yard.