Vulturine Guineafowl

 

The Vulturine Guineafowl is an unusually long-necked, long-tailed guineafowl with a mostly naked head.

The blue breast is overlaid with long black-and-white feathers, and there is a chestnut patch on the nape.

Helmeted Guineafowl

 

The Helmeted Guineafowl is a large-bodied, small-headed, slaty-gray gamebird perfectly lined with rows of hundreds of white spots. 

The distinctive head sports a strange bone-like casque and naked warty facial skin, which is colored white, blue, or red depending on geographic location.

It is common throughout its range, and large flocks roam the savannas, digging for invertebrates and tubers.

Verreaux's Eagle Owl

 

Verreaux’s Eagle Owls are enormous, grayish owls with dark stripes framing the face. It has a pale, horn colored beak and large, dark eyes that are set off by weird and diagnostic fleshy-pink eyelids.

Occurs from arid savanna to mesic woodland to riverine forest; prefers areas with some tall trees for breeding and roosting. Hunts medium-sized mammals.

We were on safari looking for Leopards in trees when I noticed another jeep in the distance with everyone looking upwards. After mentioning this to our guide he radioed the other jeep. Nope, no Leopard, just a couple of Eagle Owls. “Do you want to go take a look”. Um, yes please.

Superb Starling

 

The Superb Starling is a chunky, short-tailed, colorful savanna starling. Note the white chest band, white undertail, and white patch on the underwing.

Immatures have a dark eye and lack a breast band, but are usually associated with adults.

Found in a variety of dry or moderately moist habitats including savanna, woodland, thorn scrub, and villages, usually in small flocks, sometimes with other species of starlings.

White-brown Sparrow-weaver

 

The White-browed Sparrow-weaver is a predominantly brown, sparrow-sized bird found throughout central and north-central southern Africa.

The bold white eyebrow, wingbars, and rump are striking. Family groups are resident in arid thorn scrub and drier broadleaf woodland, where they make messy nests in trees and forage mostly on the ground for insects and seed.

Grey-headed Sparrow

 

The Grey-headed Sparrow is a plain sparrow with a gray head and underparts, and brown back, wings, and tail.

Found in a variety of open habitats, mostly in association with human settlements.

Yellow-necked Spurfowl

 

The Yellow-necked Spurfowl is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. 

Males of this species have been noted to have spurs on the back of their legs.

This species is named for the yellow patch found on its neck.

Red-billed Hornbill

 

The Red-billed Hornbill lives in open savanna, woodland and thorn scrub in sub-Saharan Africa. It is an omnivore, eating fruit, insects and small animals.

Hornbills are named because the shape of their bill reminded early people of cattle horns. The hornbill's first two neck vertebrae are fused to support its large bill.

Secretary Bird

 

The Secretary Bird is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savanna of the sub-Saharan region.

The Secretary Bird hunts and catches prey, like snakes, on the ground, often stomping on victims to kill them.

Its common name is thought to derive from the crest of feathers. These quill-like feathers give the appearance of a secretary with quill pens tucked behind his/her ears.

Lilac-breasted Roller

 

Today’s blog begins our trip through East Africa. We spent 19 days with just us and an absolutely terrific guide, Albert, camping at waterholes and riverbanks through Samburu National Preserve, the Laikipia Plateau, Lake Naivasha and Masai Mara National Reserve in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. Then dropped down into Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania before returning to Ambroseli National Park in Kenya.

Our trip started with a bang, or I should say fire, as the arrival terminal at Nairobi International Airport burned to the ground two weeks before our arrival. Consequently, we were told not to bring any checked luggage so with my carry-on being my camera gear, we lived out of one carry-on backpack for the whole trip.

Our first stop was Samburu National Preserve where we stayed at Ashnil Samburu tent Camp on the Ewaso Ng’iro River.

One of the first birds we observed was the Lilac-breasted Roller.

The Lilac-breasted Roller is a chunky, large-headed bird with a lilac breast, rusty cheeks, and spring-green crown.

They sit on prominent perches in open woodland and lightly-treed grasslands. It has an amazing display flight which includes side-to-side rolling, which gives rollers their name.

Common Pauraque

 

The Common Pauraque’s subtle brown, black, and gray plumage provides such excellent camouflage that it might as well be invisible in its daytime sleeping spots on open ground. If it wasn’t for our guide finding and pointing this bird out to us I’m sure we wouldn’t have found it.

From dusk till dawn, the male’s songs are anything but quiet, ranging from rising whistles to grunts that sound like frogs. It is skilled at catching flying insects and like all nightjars has a gaping wide mouth behind a tiny bill.

I wasn’t sure what this young couple was doing on the beach however upon inquiring I learned they were trying to see who would be the last to see the setting sun.

Spider Monkey

 

Spider monkeys live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America and occur as far north as Mexico. We spent many mornings just sitting watching the Spider Monkeys swinging through the camp.

They have long, lanky arms and prehensile (gripping) tails that enable them to move gracefully from branch to branch and tree to tree. 

These nimble monkeys spend most of their time aloft, and maintain a powerful grip on branches even though they have no thumbs.

Spider monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders.

Dead Leaf Mantis

 

The Dead Leaf Mantis is a common name given to various species of Praying Mantis that mimic dead leaves.

White-nosed Coati

White-nosed coatis are small mammals native to North, Central and South America, from Arizona to Argentina. They have strong claws and long, highly mobile snouts well adapted for foraging in crevices and holes for food. Their thick, semi-prehensile tails are used for balance and often held erect above the body.

Coatis eat fruit, invertebrates, small rodents and lizards. They forage for food on the ground and occasionally in trees.

Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth

Hoffmann's two-toed sloths are heavily built animals with shaggy fur and slow, deliberate movements. They are named after the German naturalist Karl Hoffmann.

These sloths have only two toes on their fore feet, each ending with long, curved claws. Each of the hind feet has three clawed toes.

Collared Aracari

The Collared Aracari is a South American toucan that breeds from southern Mexico to Panama; as well as Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Small flocks, usually consisting of 6-15 birds, move through the forest with a rapid direct flight.

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth

 

The brown-throated three-toed sloth is a truly unique animal that inhabits the rainforest canopies of Central and South America. The term sloth is synonymous with the word slow, and sloths certainly live up to that definition.

Sloths evolved to expend very little energy because their diet does not provide them with a lot of calories and nutrition. Brown-throated sloths primarily eat tough, rubbery rainforest leaves.

Their stomachs are multi-chambered, similar to a cow’s stomach, and house a mix of bacteria which helps to slowly break down the leaves. It takes two weeks for a sloth to digest one meal — the slowest digestion time of any mammal!

Sloths are specially adapted to live among the treetops. Their fur hangs upside down, running from their stomachs to their backs. This is because sloths themselves usually hang upside down. The orientation of their fur helps the rain water flow away from their body.

In addition, sloths have large curved claws to help them effortlessly grasp branches and vines, and hang comfortably while they eat and sleep. Brown-throated three-toed sloths have three toes and three claws per foot.

Brown-throated sloths have the ability to rotate their heads like owls. They can turn their heads up to 300 degrees due to their unique neck structure. They have nine cervical vertebrae, as opposed to the seven that most mammals have. This allows for greater rotation, which helps the sloth scan for predators like spectacled owls, harpy eagles and snakes.

Once a week, brown-throated three-toed sloths descend from the rainforest canopy to urinate and defecate. Although their large curved claws help them immensely in the treetops, they make traveling on the ground very difficult. Sloths crawl very awkwardly and slowly on the ground, making them easy targets for predators like ocelots.

Pale-billed Woodpecker

The Pale-billed Woodpecker is a large red-headed woodpecker of tropical forest in lowlands and foothills.

All plumages of the Pale-billed Woodpecker have a white V on the back.

White-faced Capuchin Monkey

 

The White-faced Capuchin monkey has black fur on their back and legs and white fur on their chest and face. The white-faced capuchins are known for the cap of black fur on their head.

Adult males can weigh up to eight pounds while females weigh about five pounds. These monkeys grow to be from 15 to 17 inches in length, not including its tail which is about the same length as its body.

They can move very quickly between the branches of the trees in their habitat. The fastest recorded speed of these monkeys is 34 mph.

White-faced Capuchins use their voices as a way to stay safe from predators. They have a special chirping/barking sound they make to alert other monkeys in the area of a predator. This gives the monkeys a chance to go higher up in the trees or escape the area.

Masked Tree Frog

 

Masked Tree Frogs inhabit Humid Lowland Forests throughout the Pacific and Caribbean regions of Costa Rica.

Their common name comes from the black patch that starts at the tip of the snout and continues through the eye and the eardrum, along the frog's face.

Violaceous Trogon

These birds demonstrate a strange behavior that is commonly referred to as "anting." This involves carving into ant nests and allowing ants to release formic acid on their bodies.

The reason for this strange behavior may be to get rid of feather parasites, such as feather mites, or to control fungi or bacteria; however, some believe that they gain pleasure from this activity. Beauty of Birds

Squirrel Monkey

 Squirrel monkeys are New World monkeys. Squirrel monkeys live in the tropical forests of Central and South America in the canopy layer.

Squirrel monkeys can only sweat through the palms of their hands and feet and so must make use of other thermoregulation techniques such as behavioral changes and urine washing.

Lesser Anteater

Costa Rica has three species of anteater — lesser, giant and silky, the most common of which is the lesser anteater, otherwise known as the collared anteater.

A distant relative of sloths, anteaters inhabit lowland and middle-elevation habitats of the country. In Spanish, an anteater is called an oso hormiguero, which translates to ant-eating bear.

Baird's Tapir

 

Probably our best stop in Costa Rica was Corcovado National Park located on the west coast. To get to Corcovado we first flew to the coast, four wheeled it down the coast to a dock, took a fishing boat along the coast, then mule carted it up into the mountain area to the camp. Our guide/spotter while there was Jacob Sojo Mora and we can highly recommend him.

Although we seen a lot of wildlife while we were there, the Baird’s Tapir was definitely a highlight.

The Baird's Tapir may be active at all hours, but is primarily nocturnal. It forages for leaves and fallen fruit, using well-worn tapir paths which zig-zag through the thick undergrowth of the forest. The animal usually stays close to water and enjoys swimming and wading – on especially hot days, individuals will rest in a watering hole for hours with only their heads above water.

It generally leads a solitary life, though feeding groups are not uncommon, and individuals, especially those of different ages (young with their mothers, juveniles with adults) are often observed together. The animals communicate with one another through shrill whistles and squeaks. Wikipedia

Boat-billed Heron

 

The Boat-billed Heron is a nocturnal heron of mangroves and freshwater marshes in tropical lowlands and spends the daytime roosting in trees, often in loose groups.

Comes out at night to feed along the edge of lakes and rivers. Easily identified by huge ‘boat bill’ and big brown eyes.

Howler Monkey

 

One of the truly memorable experiences of a visit to Costa Rica is being awaken every morning by the howls of the Howler Monkeys around the camp.

Howler monkeys are among the largest of the New World monkeys. They are famous for their loud howls, which can travel 5 km through dense rain forest. These monkeys are native to South and Central American forests.

Helmeted Iguana

 

The Helmeted Iguana is a medium sized lizard with long slim legs and very long toes. It can be grey, olive, brown, black or reddish-brown with irregular blotches.

The Helmeted Iguana can change the color of its skin as a method of camouflage. As indicated by its name, the smooth helmeted iguana has a prominent crest on its head, which tapers to a saw-tooth ridge down its back.

Black River Turtle

 

The Black River Turtle, or Black Wood Turtle is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

Personally, I found this to be an extremely beautiful turtle and have been fond of the image I was able to capture.

Blue Morpho Butterfly

 

As its common name implies, the blue morpho butterfly’s wings are bright blue, edged with black. The blue morpho is among the largest butterflies in the world, with wings spanning from five to eight inches.

Their vivid, iridescent blue coloring is a result of the microscopic scales on the backs of their wings, which reflect light. The underside of the morpho’s wings, on the other hand, is a dull brown color with many eyespots, providing camouflage against predators such as birds and insects when its wings are closed.

Julia Butterfly

 

The Julia Butterfly is a species of brush-footed butterfly. It is native from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida, and in summer can sometimes be found as far north as eastern Nebraska.

Its wingspan ranges from 82 to 92 mm, and it is colored orange (brighter in male specimens) with black markings; this species is somewhat unpalatable to birds.

This butterfly is a fast flier and frequents clearings, paths, and margins of forests and woodlands. It feeds on the nectar of flowers.