Lots of tours to cover in this month's Recent Photos! What's this little gem? It's a Puerto Rican Tody, photographed by guide Eric Hynes on our recent tour. Let's dive into the gallery by beginning with our various island tours...enjoy!
We run the loop on Puerto Rico, as you can see from our above route, in order to see all the endemics and specialties.
Adelaide's Warbler is a lovely endemic, and it gave us some truly fine views again this year. (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
A Pearly-eyed Thrasher sitting atop an African Tulip Tree -- an Antillean endemic in a flashy tree that's been introduced worldwide in the tropics. (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
Tiny but with a distinctive profile: Antillean Crested Hummingbird (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
The larger Puerto Rican Emerald is restricted just to PR. (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
The big cuckoos in the islands (much bigger than our N.A. cuckoos) are some of the most charismatic birds here, with great voices, too. This is the Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo. (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
We delighted in watching this day-roosting Puerto Rican Screech-Owl, and some local girls with whom we shared our scope were thrilled, too! (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
Another endemic, and it's gotta be one of the loveliest of its kin: Puerto Rican Woodpecker! (Photo by guide Eric Hynes)
Look in the center of this image, amidst all the greenery: it was a very special thrill for our group and guides this year -- Puerto Rican Parrot! Thanks to some great local intel and help we were able to see this species for the first time on tour and make a clean sweep of the island's endemics! (Photo by participant Brian Stech)
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Next stop on our islands tour: The Bahamas, where guide Jesse Fagan and group visited Abaco and Eleuthera.
We head to the Bahamas for its endemics and specialties, of course, and one of these is wintering Kirtland's Warblers -- guide Jesse Fagan has discovered their secret and has made seeing them a regular feature of our trip. Here's one from this year! (Photo by guide Jesse Fagan)
Remember those big cuckoos? Here's the Bahamian version of Great Lizard-Cuckoo giving us the full show! (Photo by guide Jesse Fagan)
The "Cuban" Parrot in the Bahamas is somewhat different from the birds in Cuba -- more white in the face, a different voice, and it nests in limestones cavities -- and may well be split in the future. (Photo by guide Jesse Fagan)
Another handsome variation on the Red-bellied theme: West Indian Woodpecker (Photo by guide Jesse Fagan)
Last stop in the islands: The DR! This eastern part of the island of Hispaniola is rich in endemics, from Los Haitises on the north coast to the mountains in the southwest.
Antillean Siskin is a bit of a broad brush for a name: this one's restricted to Hispaniola and can be found in the Dominican Republic's Sierra de Baoruco. (Photo by participant Brian Stech)
Palmchat is perhaps the most distinctive endemic: a bizarre, gregarious species in its own family (of uncertain affinities) that builds colonial stick nests in palms! (Photo by participant Brian Stech)
Ridgway's Hawk is another Hispaniolan endemic closely related (as the shoulder patch suggests) to Red-shouldered Hawk. (Photo by participant Brian Stech)
Two endemic chat-tanagers form their own genus, Calyptophilus: this is Western Chat-Tanager. (Photo by participant Brian Stech)
The local variant on the Barn Owl them is the distinctive Ashy-faced Owl, always a prize to see well on this tour, as we did in the spotlight this year. (Photo by guide Jesse Fagan)
Hispaniolan Woodpecker is another beautiful endemic, with quite the stare! (Photo by participant Brian Stech)
Let's leave the islands for some place very, very different...for Africa, and the giant dunes of Namibia and the fantastically rich Okavango Delta in Botswana.
Beauty of the Dunes
Namibia is home to the world's largest dunes, like these majestic ones in the Sossusvlei. (Photo by participant Daphne Gemmill)
Pel's Fishing Owl - 4 - Version 2
This tour features some of Africa's great iconic birds, like this Pel's Fishing-Owl our group saw so well in Botswana's Okavango Delta... (Photo by participant Daphne Gemmill)
Double Banded Courser
...and this lovely Double-banded Courser. (Photo by participant Linda Riehl)
Leopard - 07 - Version 2
Iconic mammals? Yes, those too: Leopard, Okavango Delta, Botswana... (Photo by participant Daphne Gemmill)
Southern Oryx or Gemsbok - 5 - Version 2
...and Gemsbok, Sossusvlei, Namibia. (Photo by participant Daphne Gemmill)
Abnormally wet - 01
Guide Terry Stevenson noted that it was just a wee tad wetter than normal this year in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, as it would seem from this image! (Photo by participant Daphne Gemmill)
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