Ruddy Crake, Lancetilla Botanical Garden, Tela Honduras

This is not a great photo, but it is a great bird…and since it is so hard to see, any photo at all is very satisfying 🙂 Crakes are the ultimate skulker in the reeds and grasses. We heard several during our visit to Lancetilla Botanical Gardens in Tela Honduras on our last full day in country, but hearing is not seeing. Our excellent guide, Elmer Escoto from the Lodge at Pico Bonito and Emerald Birding, set up a recorded call twice. The first time the Crake came within 10 feet of a grass covered trail, but would not venture out into the open. The second time was along the overgrown water channel at the Visitor Center itself. Elmer took our group of Point and Shoot Nature Photographers up one side of the channel where the Crake seemed to be calling, but I had had enough sun and headed for the shadier side of the channel…so, when the Crake called again and the others glimpsed it moving among the reeds, I was in exactly the right spot to get off a few frames of the bird as it moved across a little opening. It was only my second Crake sighting, and by far the most satisfying…and I got a half-way decent picture! What at day. There were actually two Crakes feeding together, and I am pretty sure everyone in the group got at least a glimpse, once they had come around to my side of the channel. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 550mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 640 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.