More birds of Antigua.

[urbpan]

It seems odd to see this bird not in a man made habitat. The Lesser Antillean Bullfinch is familiar on the island for getting into restaurant and hotel spaces (which are typically open air) and helping itself to crumbs and sugar packets.




The bananaquit is a fast-moving, difficult to photograph bird that eats insects and flower nectar. It's the national bird of Puerto Rico, and very common in Antigua.


The Carib grackle is very much like the common grackle we have back home, much smaller than the great-tailed and boat-tailed grackles of the southern United States.


This great egret was hunting for anoles and insects in a vacant lot in a busy part of St. Johns, the capitol city of Antigua and Barbuda.


This was another first for me: a cattle egret in a supermarket parking lot. Instead of chasing insects that were kicked up by the activity of livestock, this one was picking at chicken bones in the gutter.

Comments

[colinftm.livejournal.com]

the bananaquit is really pretty.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Hey, as the founder of Urban_Nature do you have any way of blocking users? Some Jack-hole is spamming on it.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

done!

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Now that was quick work. I bet he didn't even take the little umbrella out of his drink before he fixed it.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Wait. you probably did it. Thanks.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

it was a team effort!

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Which, sadly, you're going to need to repeat. They're back under a different name. The price of internet fame i suppose.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

Is the Carib Grackle noisy? My husband saw some Great-Tailed Grackles in Texas and said they were really funny with their vocalizations...
I'm very envious of your trip!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The Carib grackle can't hold a candle to the great-tailed with that one's crazy sound effects. The first time I heard one (in Las Vegas) I assumed it was someone's caged parrot.

The Carib is also (I noticed today) even smaller than the common grackle. It sounds mechanical and metallic, but seems to have a pretty limited repertoir, at least from what I've heard them singing.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

Very very cool!