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The big attraction at duPlooys is the feeder by the lodge deck. They
put out fruit for the birds and coffee for people at 6:30 each morning.
It's a great chance to get closeup pictures of birds that otherwise
would be very difficult. These are Aracaris, of the Toucan family. |
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Here's an Aracari in action. |
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In many respects, the Clay-colored Robin acts like an American Robin.
It makes the same scolding calls, but has different songs. |
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In other places, I remember working hard for a moderately good look at
the Red-throated Ant Tanager. This is the male. |
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Here's the female Ant Tanager. |
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Chachalacas are large birds that gather in noisy flocks. They sometimes
woke us up in the mornings. |
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A garden break. One of several varieties of Heliconia. Many of the plants are
not labeled. |
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A pair of Cowled Orioles in the garden. |
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On a guided walk through the garden, we found this tiny Ferruginous
Pygmy Owl. |
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This Ivory-billed Woodcreeper landed on a tree right next to George.
It's a pretty busy bird. This was a lucky catch. |
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One of the featured plants in the Belize Botanic Garden was the
African Tulip tree. |
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Unidentified large tropical flower. |
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Back in the vicinity of the feeder, this is a Blue-crowned Motmot.
Note the unusual "racket tail." |
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The Brown Jay is much larger than its northern cousins, but it still
sounds unmistakably like a Jay. |
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The Boat-billed Flycatcher looks much like the Social Flycatcher (see
Birds Eye View), but the bill is much larger. |
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The Masked Tityra is another type of flycatcher. It just doesn't have
the word in its name. |
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Most, perhaps all, tanagers love fruit. This is a Yellow-winged
Tanager. |
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We were interested in these flowers that always occur in purple and
white pairs on the bush. |
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The garden includes a small lagoon (better, a pond) that had a pair of
Least Grebes every time we went by. |
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There were several Blue-winged Teals resident in the pond as well. |
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A trail leads from the lodge down to the Macal River and gradually
ascends to the Garden. By the river, I found this Black Vulture. |
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This Red-billed Pigeon was gathering nesting twigs near the lodge
office. |
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The Keel-billed Toucan has a loud and distinctive call. We heard them
often, but didn't get to see one at close range until our last
afternoon. |