<title>All My Birds

Birds of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican Woodpecker, Rufugio de Vida Sylvestre, Boqueron

Here is the final collection of birds that I photographed over the past two weeks in Puerto Rico. I've learned that being a wildlife photographer takes great stamina (enduring the intense sun here), a Zen-like patience, and a real appreciation of the beauty of our planet's living creatures, great or small, in order to be rewarded with wonderful sights. Sometimes I would be out for hours at a time without sighting a thing, then, suddenly, I would hear an unusual bird sound, search up in the tree canopy, and would be rewarded by this guy, above, a Puerto Rican Woodpecker.

Most times, it would in fact be the bird chirps, whistles, and cackles that would be primary indicator that there was something to look for. Other times, a rustling in the trees and bushes or a flash of a flying object would lead to the subject. In any case, here they are gathered into a single post, some common, and some uncommon, some you've seen before in prior posts. Be sure to click on the images to see them enlarged, and add your comments.

The woodpecker above was shot at the Sylvester Wildlife Refuge near Boqueron, a tiny village on the west coast. The refuge was forested, but at different points on the trail, you would see openings to the lagoon that was amazing as for the number of birds, mainly herons, egrets, moorhens and stills, some of which I captured below.

Common Moorhen, Rufugio de Vida Sylvestre, Boqueron

Black-necked Stilt, Refugio de Vida Sylvestre, Boqueron

Bananaquit, Refugio de Vida Sylvestre, Boqueron

Great Blue Heron with too much to handle, Refugio de Vida Sylvestre, Boqueron

Great Blue Heron again, Refugio de Vida Sylvestre, Boqueron

State Forest of Rio Abajo

Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo, Bosque Estatal de Rio Abajo

Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo, detail of tail, Bosque Estatal de Rio Abajo

Grey Kingbird, Bosque Estatal de Rio Abajo

Lago Dos Bocas, Utuado

Brown Pelican, Lago dos Bocas, Utuado

Pearly-Eyed Thrasher, Lago Dos Bocas, Utuado

Common Moorhen, Lago dos Bocas, Utuado

Brown Pelicans, Lago dos Bocas

Birds on the Paseo Pinones Recreational Trail

This trail is immediately east of our beach at Isla Verde, and although I mentioned earlier that I thought there was little biking here in the San Juan area, I was completely off on this. There were many spandex-clad bikers going by on Route 187 on Saturday morning, most of them on the road. But there is also an 11km trail of boardwalk and paving that winds through forest and along raw beaches where I did see a number of recreational bikers, runners and walkers as well as a few birds.

Grey Kingbird, Paseo Piñones Recreational Trail, Piñones Forest

Bananaquit in its nest, Paseo Piñones Recreational Trail, Piñones Forest

Bananaquit in its nest, Paseo Piñones Recreational Trail, Piñones Forest

Playa Santa Beach

This beach on the south coast was quite beautiful, but I this white pigeon was all I could photograph with any success.

Rock pigeon, Playa Santa

Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge

This is a refuge that is part of the US National Wild Refuge system, and was clean, well-maintained, and had an excellent visitor center. Wildlife was few and far between, but I did get a few nice shots of this Troupial. I wish that branch wasn't there, but he flew away before I could see him clearly.

Troupial, Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge

Troupial, Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge

Las Salinas de Cabo Rojo (Salt Flats)

This was a very stark, hot open expanse that I'll write about in a subsequent post. While in the observation tower, I looked down at a flowering cactus and saw this black flash flying rapidly around and it was in fact a hummingbird, Puerto Rican variety: Green Mango.