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Blue-footed boobies photographed near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Once you've done snickering, there is something amazing to learn about this stately bird.  The blue colour of their feet actually has an evolutionary basis.  The feet aren't always the same colour.  There is a correlation between the shade of blue and breeding success.  The darker blue the feet are, the higher the probability that the chicks will be healthy.   The excursion we were on took us by boat along the coast south of Puerto Vallarta.  While we were cruising at a fairly quick pace, fish-eating birds started to show up around us.  There may have been a dozen or so at one point.  Fish would zip out of the way of the swiftly moving boat, only to be caught by a diving booby.  There were actually two species: the blue-footed variety and another called the brown booby (more snickering).  Both were eager to catch all the fish they could get. I photographed the one on the...

Could this be a stewing pot for this bird? While on an excursion in Puerto Vallarta, we had lunch on a private beach south of the city.  There were numerous gangly birds running around the area, completely at home near people.  They would hop up on plates with bits of food and take whatever was there, or fight amongst themselves for anything larger than a good-sized crumb.  You could think of them as chicken-like pigeons.  I looked them up; they are west Mexican chachalacas.  My bird book didn't do a very good job of imaging them; I had to use Google Lens to figure it out.   The bird is endemic to the southern area of West Mexico.  To my knowledge, they are not found anywhere else.  They do not appear to be great flyers and spend most of their time on the ground or close to the forest floor.  They eat a variety of food, including fruits, seeds, insects, and vegetation.  The fact that they were eating cooked chicken was not surprisin...

Adult Jacana and juvenile (right) at the San Diego Zoo. Some birds share parenting.  Often though, it's the female that has the duty of incubating, protecting, and feeding the offspring.  But in the case of the Jacana, the male does the lion's share of the work. The Jacana is a rail-like bird with an interesting adaptation - it has really L O N G toes.  So long, in fact, that it is sometimes called the "Jesus bird" because of its seeming ability to walk on the water.  In truth, it can walk on floating vegetation because of how spread out its toes are, reducing presure/area measures to very low values.   The chicks are even more impressive, as their long toes are disproportionately larger than their bodies.  The juvenile on the right in the above image gives a hint to this.  I didn't actually see any chicks; they must be a comical sight.  You can see a video here . They often get their inhabitants as injured or abandoned and raise them in well...

  Kathryn enjoying Yelapa Falls. We had perhaps the best excursion ever yesterday.  We arrived in Peurto Vallarta in the morning and soo after left on our excursion with Peurto Vallarta Adventures, a tour company with a very nice catameran boat and crew. Our tour included three different destinations, one of which was the little town of Yelpa located about half an hour away by boat.  That was the only way to access the community; there are no cars and any mode of transportation involves either an ATV, motorcycle, or mule.  The rough cobblestone roads reflected this as most of them were only wide enough for an ATV to pass through. The focus of the tour was the waterfalls, perhaps a 15 minute walk from the beach.  They were somewhat impressive, not on the order of anything spectacular, but had a good height with a decent flow of water. There was no way I was going in with my camera gear and boots, but Kathryn was already with her bathing suit and watershoes. ...

Me at the Asian Elephant display at the San Diego Zoo.  Notice anything? He's not too hard to see, if you look.  The boy is hiding behind the baby Asian elephant.  At first, I thought he was playing with a toy truck, but closer inspection shows that it's a water bottle he is holding.  I am not sure what he was doing, but his parents were several feet away and distracted by whatever was in the adjacent paddock. Photo bombing, also known as the art of showing up in a photo you have no business being in, is often an unrecognized skill held by those of us who have no or little social awareness.  You know the type, walking about without a clue regarding the environment, stumbling into situations they just shouldn't be in.  Often, those situations involve a photo being taken. I, in my socially awkward stage, have unintentionally popped into gatherings and disrupted the proceedings a few times.  Although I would say that I am beyond such things now, my wife w...

Spotted tanager at the San Diego Zoo. I have, until two days ago, ever only seen one species of tanager.  The western tanager, the male, a stunning orange and yellow bird, even came to visit me at home once.  But I was unaware of other tanager species.  And then I went to the San Diego Zoo. The field guide of the Birds of Mexico and Central America shows 22 different species of tanager.  The aviary held four different species of tanager; I managed to photograph two of them.  I included the plate below.  None of the four listed are found in North or Central America. Plaque at one of the aviaries showing different species present.  Notice the 4 tanager species. Honeycreepers used to belong to a different taxonomic group, but have recently been added to the tanagers.  There are two on the info plaque above, three listed in the book I referenced.  I don't currently have access to the internet, but there must be dozens of related species, perhaps ...