Reader Mark Joseph recently sent in some bird photos from his friend Cliff’s April 2024 trip to Belize; part one was posted here, and this is part two. I am not sure who wrote the captions, but they’re indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Hooded oriole (Icterus cucullatus) – male:
Hooded warbler (Setophaga citrina) – male:
Least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla):
OK, this one is a bit of a story. Cliff called it a house wren, which is what I would have called it too, but when I went to look up the binomial to use in this post, I found out that the “house wren” has recently been split into *8* different species! So, this is now a Northern House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). Besides this common North American bird, the “Northern” group now has five area-specific Caribbean island species. There is also now a “Southern” group, the Southern House Wren and one erstwhile subspecies, Cobb’s Wren:
Limpkin (Aramus guarauna):
Prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea):
Roadside hawk (Rupornis magnirostris):
Rose-throated becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae) – female, if I’m not mistaken:
Russet-naped wood rail (Aramides albiventris):
Rufous-tailed hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl):
Vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus obscurus) – male:
White-faced ibis (Plegadis chihi) – non-breeding plumage:
While looking through Cliff’s pictures of his trip to Belize, I see that he also did a nice series of six pictures of the Northern Jacana – Jacana spinosa (aka the Jesus bird, as it can walk on water); the comments with these pictures are Cliff’s:
Northern Jacana are very attractive birds that live pretty much on floating vegetation in freshwater marshes, ponds, etc:
They are very colorful in flight, squawking the entire time aloft.
These birds are interesting in that the female mates with several males, then the male raises the young (newborn Jacana can walk, swim, and feed themselves from birth):
Even the young birds have the famed Jacana ridiculously long toes for walking on floating vegetation:
This is one of my favorite images from the entire trip (so far)…
The becard looks like a troublemaker. The owl looks a little like Buster Keaton.
Beautiful photos.
Yes, the becard does look a little like a two-bit thug with a cosh in an alley…
Which is amusing, because the real thug among these birds is the (now-Northern) house wren, which is excessively pugnacious, especially for its size!
That Limpkin looks quite elegant.
Such vibrant color. Beautiful.
Lovely photos. Thanks. Yes, the taxonomic “splitters” have really gotten hold of the House Wren complex. I wonder how many of these “new” species would be fully reproductively compatible if sympatric.
Just beautiful. You have to love those Jesus Christ birds (Jacanas)!
That Jacana (J spinosa) doesn’t just have spines –he looks to be wielding daggers! Bright yellow ones.
I respect that.
Wonderful photos, thank you.
Great photos! Thank you.
The prothonotary warbler made history in the trial of Alger Hiss.
https://www.famous-trials.com/algerhiss/657-warbler
I did not know this. I’ll share the information with my Audubon group. Thanks!
I recognized the name of the species at once! Weird.
Very well done!
Loverly!
The hummingbird photo is wonderful!