Belize Birds

There aren't a lot of birds on the small island we're on, but I'm still having fun photographing them. The most common are the Tropical Mockingbirds.

One of the first birds I photographed on the island was this Yellow Warbler, which is funny because they are widespread and we have them at home as well.

And another warbler, this one a Cape May Warbler

This American Redstart landed on the railing while we were having breakfast.

Many of the trees have holes from woodpeckers, but the woodpeckers themselves are elusive. I caught a few glimpses, but never enough to get any photos. Finally one of them stayed long enough for me to run into our cabin, grab my camera, run back and get three shots before it flew away. Only one of the shots was even half decent. It was enough to identify it as a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

There aren't a lot of shorebirds, but occasionally I spot one. This is a Black-bellied Plover, although with winter colors so no black belly. It's come a long way - they breed in the arctic.

This Tricoloured Heron was hunting by the mangroves.

This Great Egret was less skittish and continued to hunt while I took photographs. It caught this large shrimp or crayfish and carried it over to the shore. I wondered why, but then it dropped it several times and picked it back up again. If it had been in the water it probably would have escaped.

On our day trip to the Blue Hole we stopped on Halfmoon Caye which is an Audubon bird sanctuary. It is one of the only breeding sites for Red-footed Boobies in the western Caribbean. While the red feet are striking, I almost like their blue beaks better.

There were also Magnificent Frigatebirds with the males displaying their bright red throat sacs. It takes them up to 20 minutes to inflate. (These photos are from the bird observation tower.)

At first I thought the white headed ones were the females but it turns out they are juveniles.

They are one of the fastest birds, flying up to 95 miles per hour.

At home we have Black Turnstones, here there are Ruddy Turnstones.

I thought I'd seen and photographed the small range of birds on the island but then we saw these Hooded Orioles. I didn't have my camera (it had been raining) so I went and got it and came back. Luckily I found the pair again. As usual with birds, the male has the more striking coloration.

See all 30 photos in this batch