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The Short-Eared Owl - So difficult to find, and so rewarding when you do.
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The Vermillion Flycatcher, a real beauty, whether on a fence post or on the shell of a tortoise.. They were once more or less easy to find in the Highlands; they are now all but extinct on several islands.
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The Galápagos Flycatcher - still easy to find.
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The Galápagos Hawk (This one is banded)- The smallest of the broadwinged hawks.
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What kind of dove? - a Galápagos Dove of course. If the common name (as opposed to the scientific or Latin name) begins with Galápagos, Darwin, or Lava, you know the species is endemic to the islands.
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While Darwin didn't know that the birds that eventually bore his name (Darwin's Finches - Large Cactus Finch on the left) were actually finches, he certainly knew that there were distinct mockingbirds (R) in the Galápagos. It was the 13 endemic species of Darwin's Finches, in addition to the Giant Tortoise, that resulted in the Galápagos Islands becoming a National Park and being named
"The Living Laboratory of Evolution" .
"The Living Laboratory of Evolution" .
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The Greater Flamingo - So colorful, so wonderful to observe.
A few things to note in these photos. First, the trailing edge of the wings are black. This is common in many long-distance fliers, as the melanin pigment actually lowers wear resistance to this flight surface. Second, the flamingo is actually feeding with its bill inverted (upside-down, if you will) sifting its food through whale-like plates (lamellae) which line its upper jaw. The menu for the flamingo is brine shrimp (which gives the bird its pink color). The brilliant and often humorous naturalist, the late Steven Jay Gould, wrote a book of essays called The Flamingo's Smile, which notes that since the bird is feeding upside-down,
the "haughty" expression on its face is really an inverted smile.
the "haughty" expression on its face is really an inverted smile.
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Found in many parts of the world, the Great Blue Heron is such a graceful bird.
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The crown is mostly whitish, but the name is still Yellow-Crowned Night Heron.
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And then there's the Lava Heron.
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The Common Stilt (aka Black-Necked Stilt).
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The American Oystercatcher is more likely to be seen
feeding on sea urchins and crabs rather than oysters.
feeding on sea urchins and crabs rather than oysters.
