Readers’ wildlife photos

Susan Harrison is back from Belize with bird photos for us. (And if you have any photos of your own, please send them in!).  Susan’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.

Belize:  the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary

Your correspondent has just returned from a birding trip to Belize, a wonderful country that has preserved over 30% of its land area for wildlife, and where a relatively small-scale and bird-friendly style of agriculture is widely practiced.  Today’s photos are from the last place we visited, the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, a massive complex of lagoons, swamps and forests in middle northern Belize.  Our exceptionally talented guide grew up here when the small village of Crooked Tree was accessible only by boat in the wet season.  When not guiding birdwatchers, he farms coconuts and avocados here.

We were most fortunate to see the elusive Sungrebe (Heliornis fulica).  Despite its name, this waterbird haunts densely shaded riverbanks and is not a grebe; it has no close relatives.  On the heels of a heavy downpour, we observed this one rapidly plucking damselflies off of overhanging foliage.

Sungrebe:

Another exciting sighting was a colony of Boat-Billed Herons (Cochlearius cochlearius).  These nocturnal hunters do not seize their prey like other herons but instead use their enormous bills in a baleen-like fashion.  During daytime they hide in dense thickets.  This one showed us a yawn.

Boat-billed Heron:

Among the many large, fish-devouring water birds were Bare-throated Tiger Herons (Tigrisoma mexicanum) and Anhingas (Anhinga anhinga).

Bare-throated Tiger Heron:

Anhinga:

We watched as Limpkins (Aramis guarauna), a weird wading bird in its own family, speared and gobbled Apple Snails (Pomacea), this bird’s single food source.  At the same time, these snails were equally of interest to Snail Kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis), who sometimes plucked them away from the Limpkins instead of from the mud.

Limpkin, with a Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa) in front:

Northern Jacana closeup, showing its massive feet:

Snail Kites:

Skulking by the shore we saw several Russet-naped Wood Rails (Aramides albiventris), an almost comical bird that makes all other rails seem drab indeed.

Russet-naped Wood Rail:

Raptors were also abundant, and two of the more exciting finds were Black-collared Hawks (Busarellus nigricollis) and a Gray-headed Kite (Leptodon cayanensis).

Black-collared Hawk adult and immature:

Gray-headed Kite:

We also saw many wonderful land birds at Crooked Tree, of which I’ll show just a few of the most special.  Yellow-headed Amazons (Amazona oratrix) are among the many parrots that visit Crooked Tree to feed on the local cashew crop; this species is endangered because its intelligence makes it popular in the pet trade.

Yellow-headed Amazons:

Rufous-tailed Jacamars (Galbula ruficauda) resemble giant hummingbirds but are actually insectivores more closely related to woodpeckers and toucans.    The cliffs that Jacamars require for nesting are scarce in low-lying Belize, but Mayan ruins serve the purpose nicely.  We saw this Jacamar at the impressive Lamanai ruins complex.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar:

Detail of the Jaguar Temple at the Lamanai ruins, in which the rectangular holes create a stylized jaguar face:

Olive-throated Parakeets (Eupsittula nana) occurred everywhere we went in Belize, but only in the Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribaea) woodlands of Crooked Tree did they pose low enough for decent photos.

Olive-throated Parakeets: