Kisskadee

Pitangus sulphuratus

Belizean Wood Stork

You can observe a lot just by watching

‘You can observe a lot just by watching!’

Yoga Bera, a famous old baseball player once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching”. If you
have been observing birdwatchers you’ve realized over the last 10 years it has become a billion dollar
industry, according to Tourism Consultants, Bird watching is the second fastest growing outdoor activity
on the planet.
In the past every community had a family with a birdwatcher in it, but they where usually kept in
a closet and never talked about in public, and forget the stereotype of elderly birders wearing white
socks under sandals, eating bag lunches and taking bus rides to national parks.
Baby boomers flooding the hobby tend to fly to faraway ecotourist destinations stay in expensive
hotels and treat themselves to gourmet meals and boat excursions. US Parks and Wildlife reports, 95,000
birdwatchers spent more than 39 million usd in just one state in North America, formally only known for
its agriculture.
Birding is a jackpot for a country savvy enough to see it. US, Canadian and European travel retailers
are busy devising ecotourism vacation packages for upper income vacation travelers.
Birders bring cash to unlikely spots. The smaller villages in Belize need tourist to survive the dynamitic
economic change our country has embraced. Belize Tourism leaders have been savvy enough to market the varied Belizean habitats.
A good example is how the Orange Walk community known primarily in the past for its sugar cane
industry and orange harvests has found new resources in tourism through the new river birding tours to
the rainforest at Lamani.
Crooked Tree Village once only known only for the Cashew nuts it produced now has tourist pass
through spending their money in hotels, restaurants and gift shops, while taking boating tours to see the
many species of waterfoul in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary.
Birdwatchers have skyrocked these communities economy. Tour operators in San Pedro (a former poor
fishing village) on Ambergris Caye, market a day trip as an eco-adventure for the aware “birder”.

While visiting Belize along with your days watching of Avian delights you may also observe a wonder of many wonders, the versatile Belizean people who have successfully made the vocational transition into the new economy of their country.

Bubba's New Birdwatching in Belize Book

Bubba's Birdwatching Book site

Harpy Eagle Belize

Laguna Seca

Lagana La Seca

Slide Show

Kate at Barn in Gallon Jug

Bubba on Subspecies

Birds of Ambergris Caye
“Birds can fly where they want to, when they want to, or so it seems to us,”
Bubba on Subspecies
While passing a quiet afternoon in my hammock with Bubba fishing from the dock, the low roar of
the reef was all the sound to be heard. I thought I would entertain myself by asking him something about
the birds. Just to start a conversation, I asked, “Why do you spend so much time studying the birds?” He
responded with “It helps me understand humans!”
“Maybe I should restate my question. Why do people study birds?”
He replied, “It helps them understand themselves.”
“Well I guess I can see how behaviors can be similar and parallels can be drawn but all that classification
stuff seems unrelated.
“No, you’re wrong! All that classification ‘stuff ’ as you call it has more value in understanding ourselves
than behavior parallels. I’ll give you a profound example. From what I’ve learned from taxonomy I have
an understanding of what’s happening in Kosovo between the Serbs and Albanians, and how that could
never happen to us in Belize.”
“I’m going to call you to task on that one Bubba; that’s a little farfetched for me to believe!”
“I’ll show you, but first let me explain taxonomy and how classification began. The word is derived
from Greek, taxis(‘arrangement’) and nomos(‘law’). In the 1800’s a Swedish taxonomist, Carolus Linnaeus,
invented a system of classifying living things into divisions. The first division was plant or animal; he called
it the ‘Kingdom’. Then there was a ‘Class’ dividing creatures such as reptiles and mammals from birds. Then
came ‘Orders’ separating, heron from sparrows, and finally ‘genus’ and then ‘species’. The species was to
be the smallest division; example: people are Homo sapiens and sugar maple trees are Acer saccharum and
Dogs like me are Canis familiaris, etc. A subdivision of species was called a race or ‘Subspecies’. Remember
in 1737 Darwin’s theory of evolution was still a long time away. Did you know that Darwin was pressured to
quickly release his famous book ‘The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ because of concerns
he might be scooped by one of his colleagues and originally had it titled, ‘The Preservation of Favoured
Races in the Struggle for Life’?
Linnaeus was only attempting a convenient way of categorizing the elements of the natural world. He
defined race as, ‘an interbreeding, usually geographically isolated population of organisms differing from
other populations of the same species in the frequency of hereditary traits. A race that has been given formal
taxonomic recognition is known as a subspecies.’ A good example would be the Great Blue Heron and the
Great White Heron. The famous birder, Rodger Troy Peterson described the Great White Heron as the white
race of the Great Blue Heron. Linnaeus published his theories and his standard of divisions under which
for centuries the world used and believed. The demise of his theories validly came with assumptions he
made about race behavior. He declared that humanity fell into just four races and described characteristics
of each that are considered humorous in today’s societies, or most of today’s societies I should say, at least
controversial in both technical and nontechnical usage, and in some cases they may well be considered
offensive. Within Homo sapiens he proposed four taxa of a lower rank (subspecies). These categories where,
Americanus, Asiaticus, Africanus, and Europeanus. They were based on place of origin at first, and later
skin color. Linnaeus wrote each Human race had certain characteristics that were endemic to individuals
belonging to it. Native Americans were reddish, stubborn, and angered easily. Africans were black, relaxed
and negligent. Asians were sallow, avaricious, and easily distracted. Europeans were white, gentle, and inventive. Linnaeus’s races were clearly skewed in favor of Europeans. Over time, this classification led to
a racial hierarchy, The term ‘Racist’ was born right here and Europeans were at the top. Members of many
European countries used the classification scheme to validate their conquering or subjugation of members
of the other races. In particular this invented concept of race was used to enforce the inhumane institution
of slavery, particularly in the new world European colonies.
Our conversation seemed to be going just one way and getting a little dry so I asked, “Bubba how does
a race get started in a species?”
“Ironically the most classic explanation uses birds as an example. Darwins theory goes like this. There
is a swamp where a species of birds live, eating crustaceans from the bottom of the water. Something in
nature causes the water to get a little deeper and those birds with a little shorter legs are forced to move
elsewhere to survive. This effectively removes them from the gene pool leaving only those longer legged
birds, reinforcing even longer legs. In time the water rises again and again the shorties of the long legged
group have to leave, strengthening the long legged gene even further, eventually resulting in a distinctly
different bird of the same species.”
“Bubba, are you saying this is true with humans also?”
“Brother Elbert, I’m saying it’s as obvious to me as the nose on your face! Have you ever wondered
why it’s so long and skinny? Your ancestors more than likely evolved in a cold dry climate where having a
long skinny nose moistened and warmed the air before you breathed it in giving you a respiratory health
advantage to survive lots of colds and pneumonias over a broader shorter one used in moist warm climates.
This would evoke The Darwinian Imperative that I’ve been describing to you.”
“What about skin color?”
“That’s easy. It’s simply a protective reaction from harsh sun or no reaction from little sun.”
Bubba pulled in his line and replaced the sardine something had stolen from the hook. A Brown Pelican
standing on the dock cocked his yellow head to eye him closely hoping Bubba might get sloppy with the
bait.
“OK Bubba, that all sounds very logical but I haven’t forgotten you said you could explain the war in
Europe and how Belize couldn’t have those kinds of problems from what you know about birds.”
“Well, let’s go back to those short legged birds that had to move from the swamp. Let’s say for the
sake of example, the new shallower swamp they moved to contained shrimp. The birds eat shrimp which
can make astaxanthin from the simpler carotenoids contained in the algae on which they feed. In bottom
feeding birds these pigments dissolve in fats and are deposited in the growing feathers making them pink.
Imagine then, that some act of nature causes the two swamps to become one big swamp mixing the two,
now very distinctly different flocks of the same species in a common feeding ground, one with extra long
legs and gray, the other short with pink feathers. They might not recognize one another as the same species
and fight to defend their feeding ground, mistakenly from their own kind.”
“Bubba you do amaze me! But what about Belize and how it could never happen here?”
“Well, in Belize we have Spanish, Mestizos, Creoles, Garifuna, Mayan, Mennonites, Arabs, East Indian,
British, Mopan, Ketchi and Yucatec all living in a 6000 square mile area. And for hundreds of years we
have been mixing like a box of crayons in the Caribbean sun, creating no majority and no minority. Who’s
going to throw a stone at whom?”
Suddenly Bubba’s fishing pole bent violently with a strike. After a short fight he reeled a large fish onto
the dock.
“What’s that Bubba?”
He replied, “Epinephelus, Mycteroperca of the superclass Pisces, in the family of Sea Bass, commonly
known as a Black Grouper.”
I said, “Bubba, your taking this classification stuff all too serious, let’s clean him and eat!”

Turkey Vulture

Photo By Ianthes
Turkey Vulture
Cathartes aura
I went down to the beach this morning to find Bubba lying on his back with his eyes closed looking very dead. I walked up to him slowly and sad, thinking of all the birdwatching adventures we had been through in these last ten years. I had just begun to sob when he suddenly opened one eye, looked at the vultures circling over him and explained in a low voice that I was spoiling his ploy to get a close look at the Ambergris Turkey Vulture from the order of Cathartidae. Not moving and still speaking from his post mortem posture he explained that Vultures of Ambergris hunt actively, quartering the savanna like a harrier. Searching for small aquatic animals. When the dry season strands fish in shrinking ponds or savanna flats these nomadic birds will be visiting the island in masses. Bubba was successful in arousing the curiosity of several, luring them close enough to see their dark eyes and naked red skin heads. They have a white bill. The red color of its head is accented by a blood red nape band giving this bird an eerie macab appearance. I'm constantly amazed with Bubba's resourcefulness and totally appreciative of our close look at another magnificent island bird.

Royal Tern Sterna maxima

If you sail or motor up to one of San Pedro's many docks, you're greeted by a group of comical-looking white birds with zany black hairdos and long orange noses called Royal Terns.
During the day the terns stand in flocks on the ends of the docks in town, facing the wind very uniformly and when the trade wind blows from the north-east, all the terns turn to the left. And when the breeze comes from the South-east, the terns all turn to the right. Our island and reef run predominately North and South, so if you're sitting in one of San Pedro's many bars overlooking the reef, you're seeing another end of the Royal Tern.
The family is Laridae and includes all gulls and terns with about 80 species. Long, large wings and a good fishing bill make this tern one of Ambergris' successful fishing birds, and it even wears webbed feet for a little swimming if it has to.
Terns are excellent flyers and able to fish well offshore. They breed in monogamous pairs, always nest in colonies and build a crude nest on the ground or grasses deep in the Savannah's protection. Our island is home for hundreds. They have a high-pitched voice of "Keerr, kree, tsirr" like a sea gull.
In my reading I find birders seem to disagree about one point or another consistently. The Royal Tern is no exception. One book says, "The Royal Tern is a thief and steals fish from frigates and other birds," the next book will say, " The Royal Tern's fish are stolen by frigates." The only way to really find out is to see for myself, so I went down to Cholo's Bar & Pool Hall at the beach and made myself comfortable in a stool overlooking the docks where 200 or more terns, gulls and frigates seem to be having their afternoon meal of sardines and scraps from the fisherman cleaning the catch on the dock. A frigate swooped down and scooped up some fish parts from the surface of the water and another accosted him in mid-air causing him to drop the object of their confrontation, only to fall another few feet and get caught in the air by a tern when suddenly another tern collided head on in a cat fight with Tern#1 only to lose everyone's desired prize into the water below. Surprised by this free-for-all and still uncertain who steals from whom, I turned to one of our knowledgeable local guides having a beer on the stool next to me and asked, "Who steals from who? The tern or the frigate?
He replied, " Well you should know, gringo. You're the one who writes about birds."