Turquoise-browed Motmot, Copan Ruins, Honduras

In the field dawn to dark tomorrow here in the highlands of Honduras right down along the El Salvador border, so here is an early Pic for today from yesterday at Copan Ruins. Turquoise-browed Motmot delivering a spider to growing chick in a hole between two of the stones of the ancient structure. We watching this pair of Motmots for more than a hour and saw them make 20 or more deliveries to their hungry chicks. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. 1/1000th @ f4 @ ISO 1250. Processed in Polarr.

Scarlet Macaws, Copan Ruins, Honduras

A few years ago, efforts were made to reintroduce Scarlet Macaws to the Mayan Ruins at Copan, Honduras. The Macaw was sacred to the Mayans, and figures in the stone works and carvings of the site…and was, during Mayan times, a common bird of the region. It was expatriated many years ago, in the United Fruit era, when changes to the landscape for agriculture drove it out. The reintroduction has been a success, and there are about 20 pairs of Macaws flying free at the Ruins and nesting. There are chicks in the nests. And they have spread out from the Ruins to the surrounding area, so you see Macaws nesting in the hills and mountains around town. We were at the Ruins at feeding time…9 AM sharp, when fresh fruits are put out on feeding platforms along the entry-way to the main ruins. The birds come in close. As you stand near the feeders you have Macaws all around you. The challenge with big bright, hyper-active birds like the Macaws, is to get them in the frame at all, and I found myself resorting to a radical “point and shoot” method. I did not even attempt to frame the birds in the viewfinder or on the LCD, I simply pointed the camera at them and shot off a burst, moving the camera with the birds and hoping that the tracking auto-focus and auto-exposure would take care of the rest. It worked remarkably well…better than I had hoped, and I have some wonderful images to prove it. 🙂 This shot is of two birds contesting the feeding platform and is part of sequence of maybe 30 shots. It is all about color and action! Magnificent Macaws indeed. Sony RX10iv at 290mm. Program mode with birds-in-flight and action modifications. 1/1000th @ f4 @ ISO 500. Processed in Polarr. Full frame shot.

Lesson’s Motmot, Clarion Hotel, Copan Ruins, Honduras

This is not the first bird I saw in Honduras this trip, of course. There were flybys on the road and both Black and Turkey Vultures everywhere, blackbirds around the hotel and doves…but this Lesson’s Motmot is the first bird I stopped to photograph in Honduras…just as it was the first bird I photographed in Costa Rica last year. Lesson’s Motmot has to have a high chance of being the first compelling photograph worthy bird in any Central American country you visit…and if the Lesson’s Motmot does not stop you and get your camera up, then you really are just too jaded to be in the tropics anyway! This bird, typically, was sitting on a branch under deep canopy in the semi-darkness, but it was very cooperative, turning on its branch so to give me a view of all sides. That tail is really something. They tell me that the tail feathers are not that way when they first come in…that the bob at the end is a wear pattern, but it is so consistent in Motmots that I, with my limited knowledge of their behavior, can not imagine how it always wears just that perfect way to produce the bob. It was dark in the tropical dry forest where I found this bird, and the exposures are pushing the limits of my Sony’s 1 inch sensor. I hope to find more Lesson’s Motmots in better light before the trip is over. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode with the ISO set to keep shutter speed at 1/500th. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 2000. Processed in Polarr.

Magnolia Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

Chestnut-sided Warblers were not the only ones working close to the boardwalk at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area on the last days of the Biggest Week in American Birding. Magnolia Warblers were so close that my friend Rich got an excellent shot with his cell phone when they were too close for me to focus at 600mm. This shot is at 600mm. Sony RX10iv. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 500. Processed in Polarr.

Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

When Chestnut-sided Warblers are intent on feeding, they are very intent. I am glad, all things considered, that this Chestnut-sided at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area on the Erie Shore in Ohio, was intent on small insects and not on me. That is a very fierce look. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ ISO 800 @ f4. Processed in Polarr.

House Wren, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

A pair of Prothonotary Warblers was cleaning out a potential nest hole right next to the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. (Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Oak Harbor, Ohio.) Predictably a pair of House Wrens showed up to challenge them. This male spent hours singing around the hole, claiming it for its own. In the end I don’t think either pair ended up nesting in the hole…which is probably just as well since it was only a few feet from the passing human traffic, and only maybe 4 feet from the ground with easy access for predators. Still they put a lot of energy into trying to claim the site. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 500. Processed in Polarr.

Yellow Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

The Yellow Warbler is, perhaps, the most common warbler along the Magee Marsh Boardwalk on the Erie Shore of Ohio during migration. It might be outnumbered by Magnolia or Black-throated Green, or Chestnut-sided on individual days, but the Yellow is a nesting bird all across North America and has the staying power and numbers to win the overall title. I think. That is certainly how it appears most years on the boardwalk. Being common we birders tend not to pay them as much attention. You can spot a “non-birder” on the boardwalk easily…they are the ones super excited by Yellow Warblers (and generally the ones trying to photograph them with their cell phones). But we birders, at least those of us who ignore “just another yellow”, are wrong. There is no reason not to get excited about a Yellow Warbler. It is among the most beautiful of warblers with its bright yellow, red streaked, plumage and its bold song…and they sing a lot. This bird was holding forth on the East end of the boardwalk on one of my final early evening visits. I am as guilty as anyone of paying too little attention to Yellows, until one jumps up and sings in my face, so that I have to take its photo. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 320. Processed in Polarr.

Male Prothonotary Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

A pair of Prothonotary Warblers was exploring a nesting cavity in an old snag right by the boardwalk at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area on the Erie Shore in Ohio during the Biggest Week in American Birding. This panel shows the male at the hole, in various poses and postures. The Prothonotary is an eye-catching bird at any time, but this panel, I think, shows off some of its equally attractive personality…or birdality…or prothonotariality. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 1250. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.

Bay-breasted Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

The birds may have been close and at or below eye-level on the last few days of the Biggest Week in American Birding, but that does not mean they were easy. Warblers rarely are. They were feeding so avidly and moving so fast through thick brush that it was difficult to catch them in the frame…and even more difficult to get unobstructed shots. Leaves were emerging rapidly and there always seemed to a twig or two (when there were not a dozen) between us and the birds. Still, persistence is the key. I probably took 5000 frames during the 10 days I was in Ohio. I imported 2500 of them to my iPad, and processed almost 600 keepers. And I was “working” the festival, so my time on the boardwalk was limited. This Bay-breasted Warbler is from my final turn around the boardwalk after closing up Optics Alley. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 400. Processed in Polarr. To give you an idea of how close the bird was, this is cropped only slightly from full frame.

Female Cape May Warbler, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio

The last two days of the Biggest Week in American Birding were dark and rainy and cold, but among the best for seeing warblers close. The warblers were working the boardwalk on both sides at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area as close as I have ever seen them…often within 5 feet of us, and sometimes closer. With the 4 foot close focus of the Sony RX10iv at 600mm it made for some of my best warbler shots yet. This female Cape May Warbler is an attractive bird at any time. It lacks the bright flash of the male but its subtle coloring and acrobatic habits make it worth a second look. I especially like the posture in this portrait, hanging upside down to get at the delicate flowers. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 1250. (I have my ISO set to Minimum Shutter Speed 1/500th to achieve the sharpest images…sometimes at the expense of higher ISOs.)