Puerto Rican Tody

[Civchic]

Cutest little birds ever!

nov 8 005 puerto rican tody best by civgirlca, on Flickr

I spent two full days hiking in the rainforest of Puerto Rico (El Yunque) watching for these little guys (not much bigger than a hummingbird), listening to their little chirrup calls. I finally ran into them only a couple of feet from me on a very steep climb (I shot this with my 18-55 lens, for reference). Cutest little birds!

 

[Actinia]

Very nice! You can even see that they have just two toes facing forward. (I bet no-one else spotted that!)

Many members have posted pictures of eagles and ospreys which, admittedly, look magnificent. But I think that you have done well to capture these and I bet it took more effort than many an osprey picture. This is not to denigrate those photographers. I have never got near enough to ospreys or eagles to get the shots they have.

 

[Civchic]

Thank you!

It was a lot of effort, but it was also vacation and I wasn't JUST looking for the birds - but I was hoping for them for sure.

As for the big birds of prey, they fly WAY TOO HIGH. Ha. I'll save them for when I have more glass, someday.

 

[Tyguy35]

Did you find any good reptiles there. Im trying to plan a reptile vacation.

 

[Hunter58]

Wow you were really close to them. Nice shot!

 

[Civchic]

Hunter58, thanks! Yeah, I'd given up on birds by then, and had my kit lens on to get wider shots. Then bam, two of them sitting on a branch 6 feet from me. Go figure!

Did you find any good reptiles there. Im trying to plan a reptile vacation.

Tyguy, in San Juan, there is a VERY large group of green iguanas along the Paseo El Morro that live in the walls of the fort. I posted some iguana pictures last week sometime - but there are hundreds of them. Elsewhere there were tons of little brown anoles. Apparently in the karst region there are large boas that hunt the bats in the caves, but I didn't see any.