Common Pauraque, another extreme south Texas bird, is common, but, aside from the hundred or so you flush driving any dirt road in the dark, hard to see. By day they roost on the ground, in leaf litter, and they are so cryptically camouflaged that it is next to impossible to find one…unless it moves…or you have it staked out. 500 or more birders at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival saw this bird, which roosts within 3 feet of  one of the main trails at Estero Llano Grande. Still, without knowing it is there, almost everyone walks right by it.

This is digiscoped at my closest focus distance. As you can see, I had only a very small window in the overhanging brush to shoot through. Here is a shot pulled back more and cropped to eliminate the out of focus log that hides the lower half of the bird.

To get this I backed to the far side of the trail with my butt in the brush on the other side.

Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. The wider shot is at ISO 320 and 1/50th sec. The tight shot is at ISO 800 and 1/20th sec. Equivalent focal lengths (fields of view) were around 1500 and 1200mm.

Processed for intensity in Lightroom, with Blackpoint adjustment, Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen narrow edges preset and a auto color temperature.

One of the more exotic of the North American hummingbirds…the Buff-bellied, is only found in far south Texas, with very occasional excursions out along the Gulf coast. This was taken on a dark, cloudy Texas day…in full sun it will knock your eye out!

Digiscoped with the Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario Eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. Equivalent focal length (field of view) of about 3000mm, 1/100 sec. @ ISO 800 (not much light!).

Processed in Lightroom with a combination of Fill Light, Blackpoint right, Clarity, a touch of Vibrance and Sharpen narrow edges preset.

Yes, well, even the woodpeckers are more colorful in the Valley. This Golden-fronted Woodpecker, drawn to a peanut-butter and corn-meal mix at Salineno TX looks to me like something a child would have colored.

Here, with its head at an interesting angle, you can see the full effect. Golden-fronted, by the way, refers to the yellow on the forehead…as “fronted” does in all bird names (White-fronted Goose for instance has a white forehead.)

Digiscoped with the Canon SD4000IS, the ZEISS 15-56x Vario eyepiece, and the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. Processed in Lightroom.

This is from a set of images of Kiskadees and Green Jays all then the same day and the same place, and, as I was shooting them, the host at the Salineno Valley Land Trust sanctuary and some of the visitors, including me, were discussing what fun God must have had designing Kiskadees, Green Jays, and Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and debating which one must have been the most fun. I might even have said that when I grow up I want that job. Let me loose with a box of crayons and some bird-like outlines.  Please. But, then, maybe it really does take a child’s mind and heart to imagine such creatures. Maybe you have to be willing to color outside the lines and with the wrong crayons. That would certainly resonate with what Jesus said about little children. However it works, I am, apparently, child enough to appreciate the joy that must have gone into such imaginative and, really, such unlikely creatures.

There is a certain look a Great Kiskadee does better than most other birds. This is it. Of course what lifts this image out of the bird portrait class (imho) is the bokeh…which is mostly light, diffraction lensed by the leaf cover behind the bird.

As you might suspect, if you are following this blog, these were taken on today’s Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival field trip. Mine was to the Williams’ home Bird Sanctuary in Pharr TX. Birding was slow, but the Kiskadees were there in plenty.

Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56 Vario eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL, for an equivalent focal length (field of view) of about 1200mm, 1) 1/100th sec. @ ISO 250 and 2) 1/50th @ ISO 400. Programmed auto.

A bit of Recovery for the white and yellow plumage in Lightroom. Fill Light, Blackpoint right, added Clarity, a touch of Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.