This one's for you, Dad! Happy early Father's Day! (Just what you always wanted, right? A blog post dedicated to you.)
Today, on our laze-about-at-home day (didn't even make it to the beach, that's how lazy), Elder and I heard a new bird call, and as Elder peered into the bougainvillea he saw a colorful bird we'd never seen here before.
It was a beautiful bright yellow-orange color with black wings and some small white markings on the wings. Looked a bit like a masked avenger with the black mask around its eyes and beak too.
It kept hopping up and down the branches of the bougainvillea (yup, those are our Christmas lights hanging in the tree), and I wondered what it was up to. Looked like it was poking its beak into leaves and spots on the tree and pulling out yummy bits to eat. But I didn't think it would want to eat leaves or flowers. That bird definitely looked like a carnivore!
Well here he is (above) peering down intently - really masked-avenger-like. Looks like he found something! What could it be finding nestled within our bougainvillea?
Due to our highly sophisticated photographic evidence, we figured it out. All these photos are very zoomed-in, and it was only after looking at the picture that we realized - he must have found a bunch of little caterpillar-worms in our bougainvillea. Yummy!
So now the question is: can we identify this bird? Dad, any ideas?
Great pictures! Per my separate email, it's a Spot-Breasted Oriole--occasionally seen in southern Florida and native to Mexico and Central America. A striking bird indeed!
ReplyDeleteinternational bird ID ... so cool! -Amy B.
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