Bird Photos from Bonaire

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chrish
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Bird Photos from Bonaire

Post by chrish »

We went on snorkeling trip to Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) last week and we did a little birding of course. Here's a few photos of some of the birds we saw....

The most common and conspicuous bird we saw was the Bananaquit. I have seen these birds in the mesic forests of Mexico and Central America, but there they are somewhat shy forest dwellers. Here they were downright pests. We saw more than one fly over to a bar or restaurant table to drink the liqueur from under a bottle lid or eat sugar from a container. They were extraordinarily bold!

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Bonaire is quite different looking than most of the Caribbean Islands. It is extremely dry, desert island and so access to fresh water is at a premium.

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We saw several interesting adaptations to this lack of water.
This pair of Bananaquits solved the problem by coming over to our hotel window to drink and bathe in the condensation on the pipes of our AC unit.

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Another group of very conspicuous birds were doves. We saw 5 species.

There were birds that were almost identical to the White-winged Doves that breed in my yard, except these are Bare-eyed Doves...

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Another impersonator of my yard avifauna, these Eared Doves look almost exactly like the Mourning Doves in my yard....

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Some of my favorite doves in Texas are the White-tipped Doves of the lower Rio Grande Valley. Here in Texas and in Mexico and Central American where I have seen them, they are shy doves that skulk around the undergrowth. In the Netherlands Antilles, I did see them there, but I also saw them parading around town squares like rock pigeons.

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Behind that White-tipped Dove, you can see what must be the most conspicuous dove in Bonaire, the Common Ground Dove. Those things were EVERYWHERE.....on roads, in gardens, on the beach, in town.

The other "almost yard bird" we observed was the Carib Grackle. These are fairly small grackles and we didn't see them in large flocks, just a few pairs here or there.

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We were looking at these and realizing how "exotic looking" the Great-tailed Grackles in my yard would be if you had only seen these little Carib Grackles all of your life.

One lifer I was excited to see was the White-cheeked Pintail. We only saw two and in bad light, but lifer all the same.

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Another Bonaire trash bird is the Black-faced Grassquit -

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The national bird of Bonaire is the American Flamingo, and we saw lots of these...

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There are two parrot species in Bonaire, the Brown-throated Parakeet is widespread and common in gardens and the bush. You can see or hear these things almost everywhere on the island.

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The other parrot is a little less conspicuous. I wanted to get the standard Bonaire field guide shot of a Yellow-shouldered Parrot on top of a cactus since everyone seems to take that shot. We saw lots of Yellow-shouldered Parrots flying and even perched in the distance, but it wasn't until the last morning when I got a chance at the standard shot,...and then it was backlit. :(

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Being surrounded by ocean, there are seabirds/shorebirds of course. I didn't take photos of the ubiquitous Magnificent Frigatebirds or any of the thousands of Laughing Gulls. I missed a shot of a couple of Brown Boobies as well. However, there were plenty of terns including

Common Terns

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Least Terns were nesting everywhere

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And I finally got to see a "Cayenne" Tern, which has now been relegated to a subspecies of the Sandwich Tern -

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We did see a few shorebirds, including Wilson's Plover

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and a few White-rumped Sandpipers

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There are two species of Hummingbirds on the island, and we saw both but I only got photos of one species, the Blue-tailed Emerald...

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There were flycatchers of course, mostly Gray Kingbirds

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and the cute little tyrranulet impersonator, the Northern Scrub-Flycatcher

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We watched this one taking webs off tree trunks and lining its nest

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We were very excited (and surprised) to flush this White-tailed Nightjar in some scrubby woods -

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It would have been hard to see if it hadn't flown -

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There were pretty birds as well, including Yellow Orioles

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the introduced Saffron Finch

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and the ubiquitous and noisy Venezuelan Troupial

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One very common little bird was the Mangrove/Golden subspecies of the Yellow Warbler...

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These birds were everywhere and quite confiding..

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The first one I saw that I wanted to photograph was perched on a small branch singing next to an empty parking area on a beach. When I pulled up to take my photo and stopped, the bird didn't fly away, but flew immediately over to my car and underneath it. I waited for it to fly up again and it didn't, so I got out and then it flew away. I walked around to where it flew and it flew back under my car again. So I watched it for a minute and realized what it was doing. It was sitting under the AC compressor getting the condensation that dripped off onto the ground as a source of freshwater! I suspect that was this little warblers only source of close freshwater and that was how he drank....wait for the tourists to drive up and drink/bathe under their cars.

This was a different bird. Over the course of several hours at this spot, eating and snorkeling, I watched this bird have a constant war with the bird in this car mirror. It was very determined!

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So, thanks for reading. I will post a rather sparse herp report on the main forum, some snorkeling pics on the fish forum, and a cheap underwater housing review on the Image lab in the coming days.

Chris
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Andy Avram
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Re: Bird Photos from Bonaire

Post by Andy Avram »

Some sweet birds you saw. I liked the Bananaquits, but I also liked seeing them in Costa Rica, where they look a little different. The Venezuelan Troupial is a cool looking bird. I don't know anything about them. They look very oriolish.

Lastly, and sadly, I may have correct your lifer ID. Looks like a White-cheeked Pintail to me. Although, I think either species would be pretty exciting to see.

Andy
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chrish
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Re: Bird Photos from Bonaire

Post by chrish »

Andy Avram wrote:The Venezuelan Troupial is a cool looking bird. I don't know anything about them. They look very oriolish.
It is. In fact, it is the type species of the genus Icterus.
Lastly, and sadly, I may have correct your lifer ID. Looks like a White-cheeked Pintail to me. Although, I think either species would be pretty exciting to see.
Oops. Typo. Thanks for the correction.
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Hunter-MX
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Re: Bird Photos from Bonaire

Post by Hunter-MX »

Very nice. Love seeing new stuff
DanW
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Re: Bird Photos from Bonaire

Post by DanW »

Wow those are some great pictures. The nightjar is very cool!
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Bird Photos from Bonaire

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Excellent! "Bananaquit"...what a name!
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