Crested Caracara

 

The local sewage lagoons on Cayo Coco provide excellent opportunities to observe and photograph Least Grebes, Whistling Ducks, Black-Necked Stilts and an assortment of other shorebirds. However, on this day as I was busy trying to get images of American Avocets, a Crested Caracara came flying across the lagoon.

Crested Caracara are fairly common on Cuba and I have photographed many perched or on the ground, however this was the first time I have been able to get an image of one in flight.

Crested Caracara

The Crested Caracara looks like a hawk with its sharp beak and talons, behaves like a vulture, and is technically a large tropical black-and-white falcon.

It is instantly recognizable standing tall on long yellow-orange legs with a sharp black cap set against a white neck and yellow-orange face.

The Crested Caracara is a bird of open country and reaches only a few states in the southern U.S. It flies low on flat wings, and routinely walks on the ground. Cornell All About Birds

Crested Caracara

 

Another bird we observed in Cuba was the Crested Caracara. A bird we often see on birding trips to southern Florida.

The Crested Caracara looks like a hawk with its sharp beak and talons, behaves like a vulture, and is technically a large tropical black-and-white falcon. It is instantly recognizable standing tall on long yellow-orange legs with a sharp black cap set against a white neck and yellow-orange face. The Crested Caracara is a bird of open country and reaches only a few states in the southern U.S. It flies low on flat wings, and routinely walks on the ground. Cornell All About Birds

Cuban Birding

 

We have just returned from our third trip to Cuba, this time staying again on Cayo Coco. Again, I was fortunate enough to bird with Paulino Lopez Delgado.

If you are looking for a guide in the Cayo Coco area Paulino is your man. I can highly recommend him. Here is his email paulino.nature@gmail.com 

or you can contact him here. cell/WhatsApp 53-5 2673207

                                                            Cuban Tody

I also hired a taxi to drop me off in some local nature areas for a couple hours and that works out well too. In total I observed 74 species this trip which is pretty much my average on my last two trips to Cuba and seen and photographed many lifers and endemics over the course of our trips to Cuba.

                                                       Red-legged Thrush

If you are looking for a guide in the Varadero area, we hired Ernesto Reyes Mouino to take us on a day trip birding in the Zapata Swamp area and I can highly recommend him too. Here is his email ernesto2.reyes@nauta.cu

        

                                                                Crested Caracara