A Bad Birdwatcher in Belize

Pook's Hill

2008-12-16T21:03:00.009-06:00

As a birthday treat I was taken to Pook's Hill Lodge - about five miles inland from Teakettle village, west of Belmopan.

The lodge is situated in several hundred acres of rainforest, immediately adjacent to the Tapir national reserve, and had birds in abundance. We even saw a tapir track - and a tarantula. But this is supposed to be a bird blog, so on we go.

I'm fairly sure this first bird is a hooded warbler. The facial markings are very distinctive, which helps, and it's said to be a common winter bird. But my copy of H Lee Jones "Birds of Belize" suggests that the whole of the bird's body is a uniform olive green, while this one is clearly olive green shading into grey.

We saw three of these next birds together, but only one of them stayed still long enough to be photographed. This is a black headed saltator. Again the colouration on the birds we saw seemed slightly different from what the bird book suggests. This is olive green above, yellow below with a grey head and darker grey patches around the eyes. The book suggests "grey and cinnamon" below, whereas the plumange on the birds we saw was definitely lemon yellow underneath. Evens so: it's a large bird, travelling in groups, with a distinctive beak shape, so I'm fairly sure of the indentification.

No doubts about this next one. A red capped manakin - a small black bird with a very distinctive red head. It really does look as though it's wearing a read hood or cap.

So to what for us were the highlights of the trip. These next shots are of the collared aracari. We saw lots of these, both singly and in groups of three or four. The distinctive bill shows it to be one of the toucan family, and these were the first toucans we'd seen outside the zoo.

Which leaves, last but by no means least, the keel billed toucan. We've waited a long time to see one of these, and thought we would be disappointed this time too. But towards evening, one came and settled to feed where we could see it. This toucan is the national bird of Belize. It was some distance away - close to the limits for our camera - but unmistakeable and wonderful. Hope you enjoy the photos. We enjoyed taking them.

Hummingbird at Camalote

2008-12-11T18:41:00.006-06:00

It's December ... and the last post to this blog was in August. That wasn't the plan .. but a combination of severe floods during Sept / October, when many of the roads were closed, and then a longish period of illness in November have got in the way of birdwatching. Apologies over: on to the photos.

We're back, with something I hadn't expected to see. The last few days we have been at a retreat centre in Camalote, about 3 miles from Belmopan. And there I found a hummingbird sitting in its nest. I didn't know hummingbirds nested in December in Belize; I didn't know what a hummingbird nest looked like; I didn't go looking for this. But having stumbled upon it, I wanted to share it with you. The small lightbulb gives a good sense of scale - and perhaps provides some additional warmth overnight, when the temperature in December can drop to 15 celsius.

This is a rufous tailed hummingbird - the commonest one in Belize. I think we had a photograph of another one in an earlier post. For most of the time this little bird remained completely stationary; then suddenly it would move to a nearby hibiscus bush to feed, before returning just as rapidly to the nest. Only when I got too close with the camera did it dart into the trees, complaining at us with a surprisingly loud chek - chek - chek sound.

As with previous posts, you should be able to access a larger version of the photograph if you click your mouse on it. This bird gave me a lot of joy today. Seeing it for the first time - calling a friend across to see it, and borrowing his binoculars to take a closer look, then returning later in the day to photograph it. It's hard to be too downcast when there's such jewels of miniature beauty in the world. Enjoy!

BIrds known and unknown

2008-08-26T12:07:00.007-06:00

The first two photos are of one of the commoner sights here. We regularly see large flocks of turkey vultures, but up to now they have remained stubbornly elusive whenever I've had the camera with me. (As always, you should be able to 'click' your mouse on any of the photographs to see an enlarged version).

Close up, they are unattractive birds, especially when they descend to the side of the road to feast on road kill. But soaring they are quite impressive, and move surprisingly fast. Locals refer to these birds as "johnny crow". This bird was photographed just a few hundred yards from our house.

I'm not at all certain about identifying the next bird in this post, and I'd appreciate any comments. The two photographs below were taken of the same bird within minutes of each other - but the automatic systems on my camera have given the second photograph a very green cast. The actual colours were as seen in the first picture.

What is it? It's quite a small bird, and flew low and very fast over the river when it wasn't perched on an overhanging branch. My best guess is a 'mangrove swallow', which my guide describes as the smallest of the Belizean swallows (about 4 1/2 "), and fairly common inland near rivers and lagoons.

This next one, however, I cannot identify at all. It was photographed on Caye Caulker, one of the offshore islands, and is pigeon sized. It has a distinctive beak, white under wings and the dark bar below the eye. And it has a clearly forked tail. That should help me identify it, but I'm unable to match this image to anything in my guide. Any suggestions?

Driving up to the northern town of Corozal from our home in Belmopan, we first drive east towards Belize City, then turn on to the northern highway. About 10 miles north of the turn off we saw a spectacular number of lilies, wonderful in the morning sunshine. Sadly we had no time to stop on the way out, but made sure we stopped on our way home. This is where we saw these Northern Jacanas. They seem to have disproportionately long legs for their body size, and when they spreads their wings they have glorious bright yellow underwing plumage.

We expected to see hummingbirds in Belize. Even one of our main roads is named the "hummingbird highway". But in reality we have seen very few. Perhaps because I've been seduced by the artistic photographs of hummingbirds hovering and feeding on flamboyant tropical flowers. I should have been looking up at the phone cables instead! This one - a cinnamon hummingbird, I think - was photographed in the middle of a built up area in the southern coastal town of Placencia.

Also in Placencia were these Ground Doves. I assume these are "common" ground doves - the distinctive feature is apparently the 'scaling' on the chest. But the guide insists that they are "found exclusively in open country". These two were on a patch of barren land between two houses in the town centre. Perhaps they were lost?

And the final entry in this episode full of uncertain identifications is this bird, photographed at the Belize Botanical Gardens, near St Ignacio in the west of Belize. I was very pleased with the photograph, and was sure identification wouldn't be a problem. But again (I'm beginning to get used to this!) the bird I saw doesn't obviously match any of the descriptions in my guide.

I think it is probably a Greater Peewee. Unfortunately the description in the guide is full of comparatives: "darker, browner, with less wing - back contrast; no eye-ring, longer primary projection and wingbars less well defined" - only helpful if you know the other flycatchers it is being compared with! So I could be wrong again. Being a bad birdwatcher seems to be all about uncertain identifications. But you get to notice some wonderful birds along the way.

July - birds on the coast

2008-08-03T13:19:00.010-06:00

Nearly two months since the last post. I've had one or two opportunities to see some new birds in that time, but somehow not found the time to post the photos. So apologies for the long delay

We've had visitors in July (Kieran and Lucy), so we had to take them to the coast. In fact we managed three different bits of coast, and each of them produced some birds for us to see.

I'll start with a double crested Cormorant, seen off Caye Caulker. This was our second trip to this wonderful little island. I've posted a photo of the other cormorant (neotropic) already. And to be honest, at first glance they are very similar. However, the neotropic cormorant does have some white and grey plumage around the beak, while this one is all black. And I'm helped to make a firm identification by the guidebooks, which assures me that the neotropic is always found inland. This was definitely not inland, but at least 10 miles off the mainland, so double crested cormorant it is.

Even a really bad birdwatcher can spot a pelican. We've seen them quite often when we've been near the coast, but never had the camera to hand. This one was happy to put on a display; sitting watching for a while, then flying to catch a fish, then sitting on the surface and eating it.

There are two varieties of Pelican in Belize. This is the commoner brown pelican, which isn't really brown at all. It's a mid grey colour, darker beneath, with a white neck and yellow head.

These two pictures come from the lagoon at Cancun, in Mexico. So not really "in Belize" at all, despite the name I gave the blog. But we had a couple of days up in Cancun, at the northern end of the Yucatan peninsula. This bird was in the undergrowth by a main road in the main hotel zone. I'm fairly sure it's a 'little blue heron.' (There is also a 'great blue heron', but that one has yellow legs, and a white plume at the back of its head.)

And so to the final bird for this post. This time, the bird identification guide really hasn't been helpful. Because when we first saw this bird, I was sure I knew what it was. We saw it fishing, plummeting down into the water to catch its prey. So it was some sort of sea eagle or fish eagle. If I'd seen it in the UK, I would have said it was an osprey.

I still think it probably is. But none of the images in my identification guide look anything like these three photographs. In particular, this bird has a very distinctive 'wrist', with the seven feathers at the ends of the wings swept back when it is in flight. Nothing like that in the book ...

So for the moment, I'll take this as a reminder to try to identify the bird I've actually seen, rather than the one the book suggests I might see. I think this is an osprey. If I'm wrong, do let me know!

.

Vermilion flycatcher in Independence Park

2008-06-10T20:49:00.003-06:00

We've seen this striking little bird a number of times, but never had the camera to hand.

It's obviously visually distinctive, but it also has an interesting habit I haven't been able to find documented. It tends to sit at the very tip of small branches - though not in these pictures, sadly. But generally, if we see a small bird land and perch at the very end of a branch, we will find as we approach that it's one of these.

The red crest is just visible in this picture. The crest is raised and lowered in display presumably to attract females. They must be there somewhere but although we've been looking out for females we have yet to see one - much less flamboyant, but with a rose coloured patch on the chest.

Birds in the undergrowth and on the river

2008-05-15T19:41:00.008-06:00

We cheated - and went to the zoo. It really is a fabulous little zoo, and we will definitely take you there if you come to visit. And we did get to see some of the iconic birds of Belize, that we haven't yet managed to see in the wild.

Some of them, sadly, we are very unlikely to see anywhere else. There are less than 200 Scarlet Macaws left in Belize; and the Harpy Eagle is also very rare indeed. We are likely to see Toucans at some stage. But so far, the one we saw in the zoo is the nearest we have got.

Belize zoo is basically an area of jungle and woodland, fenced around into enclosures. And it definitely feels like cheating to show any of the photographs of the animals inside the enclosures. But there were quite a lot of creatures outside the enclosures - in the undergrowth and the trees. And because these weren't captive, zoo creatures, I think it's reasonable to include the photographs of them.

This is a Plain Chachalaca. Small head, long neck, quite large darker coloured tail tipped white, and red throat patch.

The red patch on the gullet, says "the book", is visible when the bird is displaying. Like this:

We heard this bird before we saw it. A very distinctive sound, as two birds appeared to be singing a duet - one higher pitched, one lower pitched. We traced the sound, and found the birds.

The name "Chachalaca" is supposed to represent some of the sounds the bird makes.

The other birds for this post come, not from the zoo, but from the local Mopan River. I think that these are Neotropic Cormorants. The inestimable H Lee Jones informs me that the Double Crested Cormorant, which looks similar, is common on the coast and cayes - offshore islands. And also - a bit of a give-away - the Neotropic is "the only Cormorant found inland". Since Belmopan is over 50 miles inland, I should be on fairly safe ground with this identification.

A walk in the woods: Hummingbirds

2008-05-07T09:08:00.004-06:00

One of the things I really wanted to see was a hummingbird. "The book" says there are lots of different hummingbirds in Belize. The road south to Dangriga is called the Hummingbird Highway. But a month in, I still hadn't seen one. Ruth saw one in a garden in Belize City - but I wasn't there.

Then we took a walk in the woods nearby. That's where we saw what I was sure, at first, were large dragonflies. No bigger than my thumb, and hovering and darting in just the way that dragonflies do. It was only when they landed on a branch for a moment that I realised what they were.

I found them immensely difficult to photograph. They are so small, and move so quickly. My first attempt at photographing them just resulted in lots of blurry pictures that could have been anything. So we went back to the same spot another day, and tried again. This is the result. Still not brilliant, but the best we've managed so far.

But what sort of hummingbird are they? The truth is, I don't know what the first one is. It looks very distinctive: small bird - about 3" or 4" - with straight white bill, emerald back and copper coloured tail feathers. The most likely candidate is the "Rufous tailed hummingbird" - it is the right colours (green and red) and is apparently the commonest hummingbird in Belize. But it has a red bill with a black tip, which doesn't seem to match what we saw.

The photographs of the second bird are not as good. (I must learn to control the manual focus better on the camera - in these shots the focus is set on the foliage, not the bird.) But even so, I'm slightly more confident about this identification: the "white bellied emerald". About the same size - only 3 - 4" and again, fairly common throughout Belize.

Olive breasted Parakeets :The return of the Green Parrot

2008-04-24T18:15:00.010-06:00

Once upon a time, when we still read bedtime stories with our children, one of the favourites was "But where is the green parrot?" by Wanda and Thomas Zacharias. Sadly, I believe it is out of print. But the green parrot lives on, in the form of the parakeets that come and roost some evenings in the tree just outside our garden.

These were the first parrots we saw in Belize, but for a couple of weeks we just saw small flocks of them rushing by. Then last week, on April 18th, they came and roosted in the tree. We were delighted - and we hope you like the pictures.

Then later on, as the sun went down at about 6.30pm, more and more parakeets arrived, and the moon rose behind the tree.

Visitors in the garden

2008-04-21T19:01:00.010-06:00

I think this is a clay coloured Robin. The reference book includes it among the thrushes. (Is the Robin I know from the UK also a member of the thrush family? Ornithologist needed!)

So I don't know if this is a relative of the red breasted robin or not. But it certainly behaves like one. This one spent most of its time on the ground, and it appears quite relaxed about my presence nearby. It's a regular visitor to the garden.

Another regular visitor is a woodpecker - actually, a pair of woodpeckers. My friends here in Belize advise us to do all we can to chase it away. There's a lot of wood in the structure of the house, and we don't want it subject to too much woodpecker attention! But they are strikingly attractive, both stationary and in flight.

My best guess is that this is a golden fronted woodpecker. There is a very similar bird, the red vented woodpecker, which has a shorter beak, a shorter tail, and yellow tufts near the beak. To my untrained eye, this looks to have quite long beak and tail, so golden fronted woodpecker it is.

We've seen a couple of these birds every day in the garden since we've been here - over three weeks. There are others we see walking to and from the market. But they only alight for a few seconds at a time. This one had the grace to wait long enough for me to go and get the camera.

In flight, the red head isn't what you notice; it has a distinctive swooping flight, with a flash of white rump feathers at every wingbeat.

Next post: parakeets.

Royal Terns at Hopkins

2008-04-21T18:07:00.004-06:00

We've had a couple of trips out and about, and seen some birds on the way. We also had some visitors to the garden.

One trip was to the coastal village of Hopkins. As well as more frigate birds, there were some Terns who sat and watched us swim.

I think these are Royal Terns - large yellow beak and quite a distinctive raised tuft on the head.

Michael and Deirdre posted a comment on the last blog entry. Good to hear from you! We don't have an email address for you here (most of our stuff is still in transit from the UK). Do send an email, and if you're not already on the mailing list for our letters from Belize, we'll gladly include you.

The frigate birds are certainly huge: my reference book says a metre long and with a 2 1/4 metre wingspan. But the other birds are more regular sizes. The Grackles are about 30cm for the females and 40cm for the males; the Kiskadee are probably 30cm too.

The Royal Terns here are a bit bigger; maybe 45-50 cm, with a similar wingspan.

There are some other big birds - birds of prey and vultures - but also a large number of very small ones. Hopefully I'll be able to photograph a fair cross section of the birds we see.

Independence Park, Belmopan

2008-04-16T17:30:00.010-06:00

Here are some photos taken in Independence Park - the large open area at the heart of Belmopan.

These are both of the same bird - a Great Kiskadee which was kind enough to sit still on a branch next to the path I was walking down on my way to the market. You can 'click' on the image to see a larger version.

We've only seen one or two Gt Kiskadee. The bird we see (and hear! - they make an amazing variety of noises) all the time is the Gt tailed Grackle.

The males and females look very different, and in my first few days seeing them I thought they were different birds. But they make the same range of sounds, and seeing them in social groups I gradually decided that these were probably the same bird.

Starting out

2008-04-13T15:31:00.008-06:00

We arrived in Belize on March 27th 2008. Our first couple of days were in Belize City, staying on the Southern Foreshore. And over our heads were some large birds. So let's start with these.

The aim here is to post photographs of the birds I see, and maybe risk trying to identify them too.

If you know that my identification is wrong (which is quite likely), please let me know. Maybe, over time, I can get to recognize some of the creatures that I share the planet with.

So let's start with these. They are (I think! Actually this is quite nerve-wracking. I'm very probably going to label something disastrously wrong ... ) frigate birds.

I'm assuming that the first two pictures are of males, and the lower two are of juveniles. At this point, of course, it suddenly gets complicated. Because the pictures in the book in front of me suggests that the white patches mean either juvenile, or adult female. The female has a black head and white chest, and the juvenile has white head and chest. (I'm sure there are technical terms, but white patch, head and chest it will be).

As well as seeing lots of birds, we've also heard them. So here also are some recordings of the "dawn chorus" in April in Belize. Click on the link and it should take you to the "Internet archive", where the sound files are stored. Choose "stream" to get them to play, or download if you want to save them to your computer. Enjoy!

Morning birdsong 1

Morning birdsong 2

Evening birdsong 1

Evening birdsong 2

Enjoy!!