Holy Moly! What a day we had. Before breakfast, Anne, my sister, Deb, and I all strolled around the island city of Flores, and we found a swallow that none of us had ever heard of, let alone seen before, this darling mangrove swallow (Tachycineta albilinea).
After breakfast, we piled into a rental car and Deb drove us up to Tikal, and we had barely checked into our hotel before Anne spotted this stunner on a branch right over the parking area. Its name, gartered violaceous trogon (Trogon caligatus), is almost as amazing as its appearance. Raise your hand if you already knew that “violaceous” was a real word.
And the astounding sights just kept coming. Here’s a pale-billed woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis) we found in the same area.
Anne spotted this bird, which doesn’t even look real, high above our bungalow. Its name, Montezuma oropendola (Psarocolius montezuma), sounds equally made up. The fine folks at ebird.org describe its call as a “memorable gurgling song [which] sounds like water poured from a bottle.” The bird is mid-call in this image.
Speaking of imaginary creatures, this walking collage of brilliant colors and three of its compatriots strolled out of the forest while we were eating lunch and proceeded to forage all around the grounds. It’s an ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), and at one point, one of them even leaped up on the hood of the car Deb had rented, and she rushed over to shoo it away.
Finally, not all the fantastical critters we saw today were feathered, but it took me at least three tries to capture this little cutie on film. It’s a Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata), and it appears that the hotel grounds are in its regular circuit.
Lastly, it’s late, and everyone is asleep, including my editor, so all the errors in the text above are my very own creations. Tomorrow we go to the actual archeological site to see what the Maya left for us.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 