BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-GRUBBERS, STRAINERS, SKIMMERS, AND SHEARERS: DUCK BILLS, MORE OR LESS, PART 1 OF 2
Black bellied Whistling Ducks Doesn’t this title sound like cooking utensils found in a kitchen? Instead I will discuss tools for food gathering by duck-like bills as examples. Have you ever looked at the More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-SINGING THE BLUES PHOTO ESSAY
Enjoy this short photo essay of birds with “blue” plumage. While three are winging the blues, at the end is a bird that doesn’t like the blues. (Maybe it prefers “raspberry.”) Indigo Bunting and singing More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-LET’S DISH ABOUT FRONTAL PLATES
Gray-headed Swamphen with swollen frontal plate One of my photography surprises is the ability to enlarge an image and discover something I’ve never seen. This happened when I looked at a close-up of the frontal More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND-
BIRDIE BABIES PHOTO ESSAY Enjoy this short photo essay of baby birds with a glimpse of how they may metamorphose into an adult! And, yes, I used metamorphose as a verb, but you get the “picture.” COMMON More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND-OWL BE SEEING YOU: BURROWING OWL
BURROWING OWL, Athene cunicularia, “Tecolote Llanero” (Spanish) Time for some light heartedness and whimsy! I chose the expressive Burrowing Owl, a tiny ten-inch wonder that digs and More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND-EYE RISK: PILEATED WOODPECKER
Begin this New Year with new hope, discoveries. I found something new to ponder. Pileated-Woodpecker-irregular-shaped-iris IMAGINE my surprise when I enlarged an image in my camera to see a ragged-looking More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND – GREEN AND BLUE PIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION? PART 3 of 3
Surely those vivid red and yellow feathers of the Scarlet Macaw are produced by carotenoid pigments which produce red, yellow and orange feathers. Nope. Scarlet Macaw back feathers All parrots use five More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND – PIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION? BIRD PLUMAGE: GLOWING OWLS AND VIRGINITY SIGNALS? PART 2 of 3
CAROTENOIDS Indian Peacock Carotenoid, pronounced like a cross between a martial arts form (karate) and a humanoid, USUALLY produces red, yellow, and orange feather colors. You can recognize these pigments More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN, AND BEYOND – PIGMENTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION? BIRD PLUMAGE: PART 1 of 3
Wild Turkey Colorful feathers of birds are breath-taking. Even a drab feather is an amazing structure. But trying to figure out plumage color is not an easy task as the colors are either formed by pigments or More...
BACKYARD BIRDING IN MERIDA, YUCATAN AND BEYOND – WHAT’S THE EYE-DEAL? EYELIDS AND EYE-RINGS, PART 2 of 2
Colorful eyelids of Keel-billed Toucan That something as insignificant as an eyelid had its place in the workings on the universe, that the cosmic order did not overlook this momentary fact. More...
