Birds

Bird watching has been a lifelong interest of mine.  I have maintained a life list since the late 70’s.  In addition to birds I have seen in the United States, I have also listed birds that I have seen on my travels to other countries.  On this trip. we were so fortunate to have an expert bird watcher as our main guide.  This was not a birding trip per se, but I did add 45 new birds to my life list!  Central America is a big birding destination for avid birdwatchers.  In addition to the resident birds that do not migrate, many North American birds travel there for the winter months. 

The Scarlet Macaw is the national bird of Honduras.  We visited a wildlife sanctuary called Macaw Mountain near the Copan ruins.  This facility takes in any number of abandoned and abused parrots of all kinds.  They are housed in large outdoor enclosures.  The main purpose of this facility however is the breeding and releasing of the Scarlet Macaws into the surrounding area. 

The macaw feathers were used by the ancient elite for headdresses, sacred ceremonies and healings. Archaeologists in the American Southwest have seen evidence of this macaw usage here, even though this was never the bird’s habitat.  I asked about that, and was told that the macaws that ended up here were likely captured and transported from the Caribbean coast of Mexico.

The modern and illegal worldwide trade in these birds by poachers has contributed to the near extinction of them.   At Macaw Mountain, captive birds that can no longer live in the wild are used as breeding pairs quite successfully.  The birds resulting from the captive pairs are raised and nurtured in large outdoor enclosures and then released into the surrounding area as a family group.  There are also several other breeding operations in Central America that are doing the same thing and repopulating Scarlet Macaws back into their historical territories.   These programs have been successful as the Scarlet Macaws breed readily in captivity. 

If you have ever heard a macaw’s call, you know that it is very loud.  They screech!  That is a sound that we heard many times while in Honduras.  What a sight it was to see a group of them flying overhead.  To help the birds survive, nest “barrels” are hung in trees and food is put out in many locations. 

Here are some of my macaw photos followed by some photos of exotic Central American birds that I managed to see.  BTW--many more got onto my bird list that were too far away to photograph. These macaws were at the Copan ruins.

In spite of all of the macaws and other fabulous parrots at Macaw Mountain, the star of the show seemed to be this King Vulture.  Notice that he is missing part of a wing, hence the need to keep him safe in captivity.  He was  one very happy bird! 

Gartered Trogon at Lamanai, Belize.

Turquoise-Browed Motmot at Copan, Honduras.

Anhinga on the New River, Belize.

Great Kiskadee at Copan, Honduras.

 

I do not know how many of you living in the United States have ever seen a wild turkey.  They are very large and mostly shades of brown, and live in every state.  Imagine my amazement at seeing these Ocellated Turkeys at Tikal.  They are the same size and general shape as ours, but look at those 

fabulous colors!

 A great omen for the day. 

Orchids

 

I am wild about orchids.  They have such cheerful little faces!  I have documented many in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and was really looking forward to seeing more in the jungle environment of Central America.   The orchid above is a "Black Orchid" which is the national flower of Belize.  Why it is called black is a mystery to me!  Below are many of the lovely orchids that I photographed on this trip.

While in Honduras, we visited a vanilla bean plantation.  Vanilla beans are actually the seed pods of a certain orchid.  This plant is a vine that is strung out on trellises.  The flowers bloom for a day and have to be hand pollinated.  The resulting seed pods are harvested and cured in a special process to give us the very expensive product.  Here is that orchid.

More orchids!

Doors

 

One of my very favorite subjects to photograph is doors.  On this trip, 2 of our hotels featured fabulous wooden doors, and several of the towns we visited had a variety of them, too. Each door has it's own story to tell.   Below are just a few of my favorites. 

For good measure, here is a lovely window.

Getting Around

On this trip we used a variety of vehicles and boats to get aground.  Most were for the tourists, but a few were what the natives used on a daily basis.

Here is our tourist bus.  When we located to a new place, all of the luggage was piled on top and securely tied down.

Where do old school buses go to die?  Central America, of course!  We were told that our buses only have about a 7 year life span, and then they are shipped south to be reconditioned, painted and used as city buses.  The are called "Chicken Buses".  Most of then are very colorful, and each has a woman's name on the front and back.  Here is the bus we rode in Antiqua, Guatemala.

Here is another.

Another was Norma.

Lake Atitlan is fairly large, deep, and has several towns located around its shoreline.  This is the boat that took us on a 1 hour ride to San Juan La Laguna across from where our hotel was located. 

Tuk-tuks were a very popular and cheap way to get around for the locals.  These were near the dock after we got off of the boat, and we rode them to our next destination.  Fun!

Our next stop around the lake was Santiago La Laguna.  This was my first time riding in the back of a pick up truck!  It saved us a long walk up a steep hill in town.

There was a plane involved, too, as we had one internal flight within Guatemala.  Then into Belize where we changed buses.  

I will do a post on our last site in Belize separately, but to get there, we had to take a motor boat on the New River. 

Just for comic relief, here is the armed guard that tailed our bus on the trip from Copan to Antiqua. We were having a rest stop at a convenience store.  He was very serious about his job.

Finally, and armed man guarding a fish store in Guatemala City.

All in all, we used 8 different transportation vehicles, stayed at 7 different hotels, and walked a lot.  I got laid over in Miami on my way home, so I count my hotels at 8.  Wow!  (And I am not counting the vehicle that picked us up at the airport in the beginning, and the one that took us back at the end.)