Reader Karen Bartelt sent another batch of bird photos from her recent trip to Cuba (see here and here for her previous photos). Her notes are indented:
Here is another selection which I’ll call “The Big Three”; the spectacular endemics that everyone wants to see. I threw in a fourth endemic.Cuban trogon (Priotelus temnurus). We saw 6-7 of these, but not always in the best light. The second photo shows the rather unusual tail feathers.
Cuban tody (Todus multicolor). We saw 6-7 of these, and though very small, they were good perchers and very photogenic.
Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), Zapata peninsula. Small, very localized populations. These were actually in a neighborhood where the locals put out feeders.
Bees make the very common Cuban emerald (Chlorostilbon ricordii) seem pretty mundane in comparison.
12 Comments
Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing.
What beautiful birds. I never wanted to go to Cuba until now.
Sierra Club or Whitehawk Birding (offices in Panama).
Very cute little birds!
Spectacular photos, Karen!
I’m always pleased to see birds from Cuba and the general area. They tend to be remarkably colored and cute. I was very upset to see the recent Hurricanes crash through destroying habitats. But I’ve seen some reports saying in most areas affected the birds seem to be doing OK.
We were told that the Cayos (Cuba’s Keys) in the north central part of the island suffered a lot of lost wildlife, including a huge flock of flamingos. We also were unable to find the Bahama mockingbird, which should have been common, and the resident black-bellied whistling ducks were gone. Luckily, there were other sites with flamingos, and we probably saw 1000 of those.
Once again, beautiful birds and good pictures of ’em. Thank you.
They sure have some nice dinosaurs in Cuba!
I recently saw an article about how useless regular light waves become when zooming in from the scale of a bacterium to that of a virus. Karen Bartelt (with help from some good equipment,I presume) shows how useful light can be when captured at the right moment.
The tobies are like little fluffballs! Very cute.
Very cool birds, great shots!