Dylans Birding Tips

Bet you never thought you would hear me talking about bird spotting huh? Well don't worry, I'm not turning into Bill Odie, but we recently spent some time at a pretty amazing nature park that specializes in bird watching, and consequently attracts "birders" from around the globe, what a strange flock they are. Now we knew next to nothing about bird watching, or birds for that matter, but we learnt a surprising amount on our boat ride around the wonderful lake at Crooked Tree Reserve, and for those of you that care, I thought I would list the names of the birds that we saw, some very rare and endemic to this location. Those that don't give two hoots, well you can skip to the main entry for Belize that Kat is writing up now.

1. Glassy Ibis
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Great Blue heron
4. Yellow Tale Orial (the birders were very happy to see this one, so I suppose we are too)
5. Anhinger (Snake Bird)
6. osprey (sorry folk, not sure what model)
7. Blue Teal
8. Road Side Hawk
9. Mangrove Swallow (millions of the little chaps in fact)
10. White colored Seed Eater
11. Hooded oriole
12. Fork Tailed Flycatcher
13. Vamillion Flycatcher
14. Tropical Mocking Bird
15. Night Hawk
16. Boat Billed Heron
17. Black Headed Trojan
18. Jabiru Stork*
19. Wood Stork
20. Social Flycather (two a penny but still cute)
21. Green Heron
22. pygmy Kingfisher (Very very cute, and tiny)
23. Snowy Ibis
24. White egret
25. Ringed Kingfisher
26. cormorant
27. Tri Colored Heron
28. Black Vulture
29. Cattle egret (so called due to their habit of waiting for lunch at the feet of cows and horses)
30. Black colored Hawk
31. Yucatan Jacara
32. Grey Hawk
33. King Bird

*Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria, meaning "blown in the wind" in indian)

This was the definite highlight. The Jabiru storks nest in the tall trees of coastal lagoons and savannas in Belize. One of the largest birds in the Americas, they are rare and endangered. Jabirus have wingspans of 8 feet and stand 5 feet tall. They live in southern Mexico from July through October and in Belize form November to June. The jabiru's long bill is perfectly designed to catch fish, frogs and reptiles in shallow waters.