Leftovers from Tobago, March 2011

Yellow-crowned Night Heron (juvenile)
Caribbean Martin


Here are a few photos we never got around to posting from our spring trip to T&T.

Oropendola from Trinidad

We still have a few more photos from our March trip to Trinidad and Tobago. The Oropendola is an interesting bird that makes a large hanging nest. While we are impressed at first, they are fairly common and a bit loud, distracting our attenction from other birds.

Tanagers from Trinidad and Tobago

Silver-beaked Tanager



White-lined Tanager


Palm Tanager


Turquoise Tanager


We haven't been birding in NJ in a little while, but plan to soon. In the meantime, we are posting a few more photos from Trinidad and Tobago.

Ochre-bellied flycatcher from Trinidad

Ochre-bellied flycatcher
We are still sneaking in a few birds from our trip to T&T. We have a few more to go.

Blue-chinned Sapphire sticking his tongue out.

Blue-chinned Sapphire
One more from Trinidad.

Copper-rumped Hummingbird from Trinidad

Copper-rumped Hummingbird
Another bird from the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad.

A sunny picture for a rainy day

Pigeon Point, Tobago

Tropical Kingbird from Tobago

Blue Dacnis from Trinidad

Blue Dacnis
Here's a cute little bird from our March trip to Trinidad and Tobago. We'll keep posting a bird or two from our trip intermixed with New Jersey birds.

Trogons from Trinidad and Tobago

Amazonian White-tailed Trogon

Collared Trogon


Violaceous Trogon


We've been wanting to see a trogon ever since we missed them when we were in Arizona. In Trinidad and Tobago, we were lucky enough to see three varieties.

Lineated Woodpeckers from Trinidad

The adult Lineated Woodpecker in the bamboo we tracked ourselves. Mike heard the familiar drumming of a woodpecker while we were on the veranda at Asa Wright. We set off in search of the source and eventually found it in a bamboo cluster along the driveway. You'd think it would be easy to find with that bright red head, but it actually took us a while.

The darling juvenile sticking its head out of the nest was shown to us by our driver on our departure from Asa Wright. He pulled over to show us where he knew there was a nest, and luckily the little one was being curious enough to stick its head out just at the right time.

Violaceous Euphonia from Trinidad

Violaceous Euphonia We saw roughly 75 types of birds while in Trinidad and Tobago.  As you can imagine, it wasn't that easy at first to get the names of these birds rolling off our tongues.  We had been told what this was by other birders, but it didn't quite stick.  Chris at least once mistakenly referred to it as the violaceous euphoria.  A clever birder in the bunch told her that's just how she feels when she sees it; euphoric!  Eventually the name stayed with us and we also found out that violaceous means violet.

Tobago: Brown-crested Flycatcher feasting on a moth

We love watching birds eat things that look too big for them; never ceases to amaze.  This feast went on for a good 20 minutes while the flycatcher relentlessly flung this large moth around.  Eventually each wing fell off and the flycatcher got it into a proper angle to swallow it whole.  While we're sorry for the moth, we thoroughly enjoyed the show.

More Trinidad birds: Channel-billed Toucan, Oilbird, and Masked Cardinal

Channel-billed Toucan


Oilbird and chick


Masked Cardinal


Here are some more birds from Trinidad. They aren't our best photos, but they are interesting birds. Chris even had to go into a cave to see the oilbird.

White-necked Jacobin, Trinidad

This hummingbird was a regular and constant visitor to the feeders at Asa Wright Nature Center.  Not a shy little bird at all and very entertaining to watch.

Bicolored Conebill from Trinidad

Bicolored Conebill (male)



Bicolored Conebill (female)Birding can be full of pleasant little surprises.  Before our trip, we spent some time looking through our field guides to have some working knowledge of which birds we might see.  Obviously, the ones with very vibrant colors or unusual characteristics were easier to remember.  On the day we set out to see the Scarlett Ibis, we also spent some time looking around on our own behind the visitor center.  It wasn't long before Chris said, there's a nice little blue bird out here.  So while at the time we didn't know what type of bird it was, we just enjoyed watching it and its mate and then did our research afterwards to learn about the Conebills.

Rufous-vented Chachalaca from Tobago

An interesting bird, the Chachalaca. They make a lot of noise in the trees and you hear them before you see them. Interesting at first, yes, but after a while we wished they would be quiet so we could hear some other birds. We made rude jokes about calling them Choke-a-lot-ofs instead of Chachalacas.

Southern Lapwing from Tobago

On our way back from a guided tour of the rain forest in Tobago, Mike saw something by the side of the road. Our driver quickly pulled over so we could get a good look at two Southern Lapwings. It's a pretty common bird to see there, but we thought we might have to miss it. They are mostly seen near marshes and water, and we didn't have time (or energy) for a separate water birds tour. We opted not to go out looking specifically for water birds since a lot of the ones we would see are also seen at home, so it was good luck for us that two Southern Lapwings happened to be crossing our path.

Yellow Headed Caracara: Trinidad and Tobago

We observed a Yellow Headed Caracara fairly close up from a boat in Caroni Swamp in Trinidad. A few days later, one flew over our heads in Tobago.

By the way, we usually take a chance and don't get the recommended vaccines when traveling. Perhaps we should if we take a birding trip again since some of the best places for birds are swamps and sewage treatment plants.

Bananaquit near Blue Waters Inn in Tobago

We enjoyed the birds quite a bit on our trip to Trinidad and Tobagao. However, the accommodations weren't as luxurious as some of our Caribbean vacations that we take with relaxation and "beach lazing" in mind.

At the Blue Waters Inn there is some cotton growing. It's now wild, left from an earlier plantation. We saw hummingbirds and bananaquits pulling at the cotton to line their nests. Not that we are complaining, but we considered doing the same to increase the thread count on the hotel sheets.

Blue-grey Tanager from Tobago

While we got a few glimpses of these tanagers in Trinidad, they were very common in Tobago.