Collared Aracari -photographed from the breakfast table at Black Rock Lodge.Today I had the opportunity to go Birding with Elvis. We hiked forested trails around Black Rock Lodge in the Cayo District of western Belize. The lodge sits on a mountain side overlooking the scenic Macal River, where from the veranda as we ate breakfast,…

Yet another irruptive boreal species has shown up this winter, the Pine Siskin. It is a small seed eating boreal finch that breeds mainly in coniferous forests across southern Canada and throughout the upper elevations of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. Undoubtedly this southward movement along with White-winged Crossbills this winter is related to…

While out walking this morning I came across a puddle of feathers (right) laying near a large pine tree in someone’s front yard. A pile of off white breast feathers mixed with long outer tail feathers with large white tips identified the victim as a Mourning Dove, a rather common suburban species. The perpetrator was…

Since I mentioned in an earlier blog that the European Starling was introduced I thought I would go a step further and talk about a few others that are commonly found. While there are many exotic avian species that have made their way one way or another to our shores, I am limiting this to…

I spent this morning back at Roosevelt Park looking at the waterfowl on the largest of their lakes. While this is freshwater it does attract its fair share of sea ducks which is why we often find a nice mix of both dabbling and diving ducks here. Ducks are sexually dimorphic meaning that there is…

We have all seen ducks in ponds with their butts in the air. The chances are that they were Mallards, easily identified by their curly-q tails, whom along with Black Ducks, Pintails, American Wigeon, Shoveler and teal are surface feeders. This group of ducks are known as dabbling ducks, feeding on aquatic plants and insects…

The new Crooked Tree Lodge — photo taken from the dock on the lagoon. A cold front is moving through northern Belize right now. The high is 75° F today. I am enjoying a day off before the group arrives on Sunday, relaxing on the deck. A little bit of birding this morning turned up…

The much maligned European Starling was introduced to Central Park, New York City in 1890, as part of The American Acclimatization Societies goal of establishing in the United States every species mentioned in Shakespeare’s works! This may not come as a complete shock, but by the mid-1920’s it was one of our most abundant birds!…

A Pied-billed Grebe trio on Crooked Tree Lagoon It was a beautiful misty sunrise in Crooked Tree this morning, and I got a solid eight hours of sleep last night! I had been, for all intents and purposes, awake for 36 hours –less the 90 minute, restless nap I had from 1am to 2:30am before…

A wonderful local find 5 days ago was a Le Conte’s Sparrow in Delaware County, PA by Al Guarente. Named by Audubon for the amateur naturalist Dr. John Le Conte, there have only been a handful of records in the Delaware Valley. This diminutive sparrow of wet grassy meadows that is notoriously secretive breeds in…

Common names are usually used to describe a certain attribute, body part or physical appearance of a species that can differentiate it from another member of its genus. A great many names use coloration to make this distinction such as Chestnut-sided Warbler, Rufous-backed Robin, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Purple Gallinule, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Red-tailed Hawk, Scarlet…

It’s Thursday and I am off to Belize again! This tiny country changed my life in 1993. It was the first country I visited that required a passport. Before that, all my travels had been in North America. By my 12th birthday my family had already camped in all 48 continental US states, at least…