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Probably the coolest-looking bird, but one of my l

Probably the coolest-looking bird, but one of my least favorite photographs due to all kinds of technical problems... but I still wanted to share it. Lifer #490 is this Caribbean Dove. They look so interesting to me, with their heavy eye-ring and other coloring.

Cayman has its own subspecies of this dove as noted below.

Common Name: Caribbean Dove
Scientific Name: Leptotila jamaicensis collaris
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

That's all of my lifer photos from Cayman. I have a few others I will share that aren't lifers. There are two others I added to my list but didn't get to photograph. Lifer #500 was the Yellow-faced Grassquit, which I saw twice but it flew off too quickly for photos. And #492 was a Mangrove Cuckoo, which I still don't have in Florida. And I only heard it in Cayman, so I still haven't seen it at all.

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Lifer #498 is this Yucatan Vireo. It looks and sou

Lifer #498 is this Yucatan Vireo. It looks and sounds a lot like the Red-eyed Vireo here in Florida, but it's not. I promise. 😇

Common Name: Yucatan Vireo
Scientific Name: Vireo magister caymanensis
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

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This is a West Indian Woodpecker. It looks a lot l

This is a West Indian Woodpecker. It looks a lot like our local Red-bellied Woodpeckers, especially the subspecies in the Cayman Islands which has no black on its face. (Google "West Indian Woodpecker" to see what the other subspecies look like!) We saw this species twice, but my photos of the first one are half-obscured so this is the best I have.

Lifer #493

Common Name: West Indian Woodpecker
Scientific Name: Melanerpes superciliaris caymanensis
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

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Lifer #491 for me was this Zenaida Dove. They're b

Lifer #491 for me was this Zenaida Dove. They're beautiful doves, somewhat similar to the Mourning Doves we have in the US, but without the long tail. This one was building a nest so it could make more pretty doves!

Common Name: Zenaida Dove
Scientific Name: Zenaida aurita
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

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After we left the botanical gardens, we visited a

After we left the botanical gardens, we visited a private property that our guide had been given permission to take us to. They had a large lake nearly covered in West Indian Whistling Ducks - lifer 502, the last one I got, but not the last one I am posting! These look somewhat like the Fulvous Whistling Ducks in Florida, but they are a separate species.

Common Name: West Indian Whistling Duck
Scientific Name: Dendrocygna arborea
Location: Private Property, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Also on the lake were American Coots, Common Gallinules, a Little Blue Heron, a Spotted Sandpiper, and one of the invasive Green iguanas. The owner kept a number of Indian Peafowls, and one very curious white goose that either liked me or hated me... I kept shooing him away while I was trying to take pictures. Always an adventure!

The last flycatcher species I saw in Cayman was th

The last flycatcher species I saw in Cayman was the Caribbean Elaenia, lifer 495. These birds were all over the park, an abundance of riches!

Common Name: Caribbean Elaenia
Scientific Name: Elaenia martinica
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Here's a bird we see in Florida sometimes, but see

Here's a bird we see in Florida sometimes, but seeing it in Cayman was my first time. Lifer 496 is the La Sagra's Flycatcher. I just love its little poofy head!!!

Common Name: La Sagra's Flycatcher
Scientific Name: Myiarchus sagrae
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

I was surprised at how prevalent flycatchers were at the botanical gardens. You've seen two now (I posted the Loggerhead Kingbird a few days ago). There's one more flycatcher species to come...

This is the Cayman bird I was most excited to see,

This is the Cayman bird I was most excited to see, and also the one I'm most disappointed in my photos of, due to focus issues. I've recovered them as best I can using Topaz. Maybe not the best I can...maybe until my patience ran out. I need a new and more powerful computer...

At first glance, you might think this is a Prairie Warbler, but it's actually a Vitelline Warbler. They are only found in two places: the Cayman Islands and the Swan Islands off the coast of Honduras. As the Swan Islands are uninhabited except for a small military garrison, Cayman is the only really good place to see them.

The differences between the two species are in the eyebrow length and the color/location of streaking. The resource https://www.birdscaribbean.org/tag/vitelline-warbler/ shows a very good comparison.

Common Name: Vitelline Warbler
Scientific Name: Setophaga vitellina
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

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More birds from Grand Cayman! This time it's a Cub

More birds from Grand Cayman! This time it's a Cuban Amazon (lifer #494) and a fairly distant photo of a White-crowned Pigeon (lifer #489)

The Cuban Amazon actually has two subspecies endemic to the Cayman Islands. This one is known as the Grand Cayman Amazon (A. l. caymanensis), and is only found on Grand Cayman. The other is the Cayman Brac Amazon (A. l. hesterna) that is only found on Cayman Brac, which we didn't visit.

Common Name: Cuban Amazon
Scientific Name: Amazona leucocephala caymanensis
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

The White-crowned Pigeon is locally known as "bald pate", and is near-threatened and now enjoys protected status. They were previously hunted for food. From what I can tell, that food source has been replaced by chickens, which run freely around the island, just like in the Florida Keys, Hawaii, and elsewhere! This pigeon is found in several locations around the Caribbean, with no local subspecies.

Common Name: White-crowned Pigeon
Scientific Name: Patagioenas leucocephala
Location: Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

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Red-cockaded woodpecker foraging for food in the woods at St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge in Wakulla, Florida (not far from Tallahassee)

Red cockaded woodpecker

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