Anne and I took the ferry back to the mainland this morning, but before we left, I had one more outing to look for wildlife on Caye Cauker, and what an outing it was.
We’ve seen blue herons, and white egrets, and even a blue heron that is white for its first year, but what if we had a blue and white heron? All you would have to do then is add a little purple to its back, and you’d have a tricolored heron (Egretta tricolor).
That’s quite the long, straight beak, but if you prefer a long, decurved beak, then this Hudsonian whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) may be just the ticket.
If that’s a tad too long or too decurved, you could dial both back a bit with this short-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus). It seems that they have every sort of shore or wading bird here that you could imagine.
If passerines are more your speed, get a load of these characters. This first one is a bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), which I first glimpsed in Brazil, back in 2023, but never managed to capture on film. Even this one wouldn’t let me move to my left enough to get that darn piece of straw out from in front of its face. “Well, hello there, you evasive little stinker.”
Next, we have a hooded oriole (Icterus cucullatus), which I did not know even existed until I spotted this amazing creature.
I had heard that there are iguanas on the island, but it took my last outing to finally spot this magnificent black spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura similis).
Lastly, after the ferry dropped us off in Belize City, we got a ride back inland to the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, where the birds are great, and I’ll show you some tomorrow, but let me wrap this up with a gorgeous white peacock butterfly (Anartia jatrophae).
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 