Today’s prompt from the Ultimate Blogging Challenge was to talk about a place I would like to visit. In true Alice fashion, I couldn’t pick just one place, so I chose a few where I would be likely to see spectacular birds. Since I’ve never been to any of the places that I’m mentioning, I’m just using random bird photographs that I’ve taken in a variety of places to illustrate my story.
The first place I’m mentioning is the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. It’s an archipelago about 1,000 kilometers from the Ecuadorian coast. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it has many species of animals and birds that you will probably never see elsewhere. The birds include the blue footed booby, the waved albatross, frigatebirds, flightless cormorant, Galapagos penguin, Nazca booby, and swallow tailed gull. How about some lava herons, pink flamingoes, and lava gulls? Did you know that lava gulls are the rarest gulls in the world and, quite possibly, among the rarest birds in the world? You can also see Darwin’s finches, Galapagos hawk, Galapagos mockingbirds, and vermillion flycatchers. Did you know that there’s only one type of penguin that lives north of the equator? Yep, it’s called the Galapagos penguin!!!
In addition to birds, you can also see the Galapagos giant tortoises, The word giant applies because they are huge (417 kilograms or 900 pounds)!!! Isn’t that incredible?
The second place to satisfy my urge to see amazing birds would be the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde) in Costa Rica. There you can see the resplendant quetzal, three-wattled bellbird, violet sabrewing, black guan, black and yellow silky flycatcher, emerald toucanet, and the golden-browed chlorophonia.
Here’s an interesting fact about the quetzal. It’s the national bird of Guatemala, and, in vact, Guatemalan money is called quetzales. It is a beautiful and brilliantly colored bird. In fact, it’s considered to be one of the most beautiful birds in the world. It would be hard not to love the beautiful quetzal.
The third place that I want to visit for the purpose of bird watching is New Zealand. There’s the kiwi, which is a flightless bird and is native to New Zealand. There are several types of of kiwi, including the southern brown kiwi, the Okarito kiwi, the North Island brown kiwi, the little spotted kiwi, and the great spotted kiwi. How about a plumed whistling duck, a graylag goose, a New Zealand fairy tern, a shore plover, or a black stilt? How about a really big flightless bird, the kākāpō. It’s also known as an owl-parrot. Unfortunately, it’s very rare. It lives only in New Zealand and there are fewer than 250 individuals left. The South Island takahē is a flightless swamphen indigenous to New Zealand and the largest living member of the rail family. Unfortunately, the North island takahē is now extinct.
