Ecologist Susan Harrison contributed another batch of photos from her visit to Belize (see part 1 here). The IDs and her captions are indented below, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Belize – Birds of the Mennonite Farmlands
Diverse agricultural landscapes came as a pleasant surprise on a recent birding trip to northern Belize. Small to medium-sized family farms, neatly arrayed, grew rice, cattle, chickens, fruits and vegetables. We saw native birds of many kinds in the fields and around the homes, barns, ponds, hedgerows and woodlots. Is this what U.S. farmlands looked like before the modern agro-industrial era, I wondered?
Many of the farmers are pious German-speaking Mennonites who settled here in the 1950s to practice their ways in a society tolerant of their anti-militarism and anti-modernity. The most conservative among them avoid not only cars but also rubber tires, and use machinery with metal wheels or treads only. While it felt impolite to photograph the people in their hand-sewn overalls and dresses, I did grab a tractor shot or two.
Mennonite steel-wheeled tractor:
Our main quarry here was the Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria), a massive tropical stork that is scarce in much of its range but flourishes in the northern Belize farm country.
Jabiru in a rice field:
Jabirus mixed with smaller Wood Storks (Mycteria americana) and Northern Jacanas (Jacana spinosa) in a pasture of Brahman cattle:
Other birds we saw in these farmlands:
Laughing Falcons (Herpetotheres cachinnans):
Aplomado Falcons (Falco femoralis):
Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis) pursuing dragonflies over a rice field at blinding speed:
Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana):
Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus):
Mangrove Cuckoo (Coccyzus minor):
Northern Potoo (Nyctibius jamaicensis), a bizarre giant nightjar:
Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata):
Roadside Hawk (Rupornis magnirostris):
Morelet’s Seedeater (Sporophila morelleti):
I’m ‘speechless’ — stunning combination!
Beautiful shots!
Awesome bird pictures, but that’s a cool tractor, too!
Indeed. And how strange that Mennonites believe rubber tires to be bad, but a tractor is OK! There is much more complex technology inside an internal combustion engine, but that is harder to dispense with than a soft tire, so I think I can see why they managed to make an exception.
Incidentally, I had many mennonite patients, and they were quite liberal about technology, with excellently run modern farms and sawmills. I liked them a lot. (And don’t tell the women among “my” group they have no power: they run everything with the original form of soft power.)
I love each and everyone of them.
Thank you!!
Wonderful pictures. Thank you!
Great photos! I just love the Vermillion Flycatcher photo. He sure didn’t hold back on the vermillion color. I love the composition of that photo.
Thanks!
The Jabiru is a very special bird. I think it is the tallest bird of North and Central America, and a wingspread that almost matches that of a condor. I’ve never seen it. Now I know where to go to find it.
Very interesting birds!
A fantastic – and fascinating – set of photos. Thanks!
Beautiful birds, but their abundance is despite farming, not because of it. I have observed Mennonites in wild parts of Mexico, Belize, and Bolivia. To the casual observer their lifestyle may seem bucolic, more “in tune” with nature than modern industrialized agriculture, but in reality their activities are just as pernicious as any pesticide (which they apply abundantly!) They preferentially invade wild unprotected areas so they can live by god’s word rather than by the rules of man. As has often been the case with pioneers, their reproductive rate is very high, often seven or more children per woman. The results can be seen from outer space, vast areas of wilderness sliced and diced into submission. There may still be a few birds, but they might as well be flying ghosts.
Any further clearing of primary forest for agriculture is certainly not good for biodiversity. Species that require undisturbed forest will be lost for sure. However, there’s pretty good evidence from (e.g.) Costa Rica that diverse native bird faunas can exist in areas of moderate-intensity agriculture, especially where farmlands and forest tracts are intermixed. We saw abundant insectivores, wading birds, and raptors feeding in these fields; these areas are not complete biological deserts like the sugarcane fields.
Wow!