Guanica State Forest Puerto Rico- A Photo Essay

Although I've been showing images of birds and wildlife, at heart I'm an ecologist.  My brain wants to understand how things work- and how things interact.  Without a critical understanding of the physical conditions of a place, and the plants that are able to survive in these conditions, you can't fully understand the animals. Guanica is a great example of how plants evolve to survive under harsh environmental conditions. The Guanica State Forest is a United Nations world biosphere reserve, an international designation denoting that this is a globally significant ecosystem.  Over 700 species of native plants dwell in this amazingly well preserved tropical dry forest.  I could spend five years learning the flora of this place, and I'd still be learning new things each day.  For now, I am only armed with photos, but the next time we go to Guanica, I'm hoping to learn the names of a few of the more charismatic plant species.

Tom

Puerto Rican Vireo

Vireo laterimeri, the Puerto Rican Vireo

Just seconds after finding the Puerto Rican Tody, Megan and I spotted our second endemic bird, this true vireo that only lives in Puerto Rico.  An inquisitive individual wanted to see what exactly we were doing with our cameras.  This bird isn't quite as colorful or shocking as the Tody, but it was amazing to spot another endemic bird species literally seconds after we saw our first.  And yet mere seconds later, we saw our third endemic species, Adelaide's warbler, which I'll show tomorrow.  Birds of Guanica State Forest, I hear you calling us, hopefully we'll be back next year too. 

Tom

The Birds of Puerto Rico- The Puerto Rican Tody

Puerto Rican Tody, Todus mexicanus

Hi Friends-

Before my memory of the tropical island of Puerto Rico fades, I just need to start showing some of my images from the trip.  Before we left, Megan got me a fantastic book by Mark Oberle entitled "Puerto Rico's Birds in Photographs".  What a fantastic book.  With over 15 species of endemic birds on the island, I was very excited to see birds that I could see nowhere else.  Although I had my brain in full-on naturalizing mode, I was paying very close attention to the birds, and keeping track of all the species that we encountered.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be intermixing my posts of Ohio's natural history with a few images from Puerto Rico.   I hope you enjoy these amazing birds.  And although Puerto Rico sounds like an exotic destination, it's only a 4 hour flight on US Airways from Charlotte-  it is close.

Here is the Puerto Rican Tody, the first endemic bird species we ecnountered on the island.  This bird was in a dry forest in Guanica State Forest on the southwest shore of the island.  Megan saw this one first and said "tommy, there's a ruby-throated humming bird, right there!"

Well, it's not a hummingbird, but it surely does have a ruby throat!

Tom