Gone to the Birds

This is the post of a newbie birder. Lots of birds are involved, and hopefully all of them are correctly labeled.

We spent about four days in Mazatlán. Next stop, Isla Isabela, a tiny island considered the Galapagos of Mexico. The island is maybe half a mile by a mile and a half. It has an old research station that is now used by ecotours who come to the island for diving and snorkeling. Isabela is also the home to thousands of Magnificent Frigate Birds, boobies (Blue Footed and Brown), and Red-billed Tropicbirds, iguanas and a snake species that we didn’t see.

Isla Isabela. We were in the anchorage on the right, out past the dark hulled boats on the right. There was another anchorage on the other side of the hill in the background. It was a popular, but rolly, anchorage with a beautiful beach.
Isla Isabela. There is a big flat rock just underwater (bottom photo) where the surf is starting to break. Our first attempt at anchoring was too close to the rock so we moved farther out. Magnificent frigate birds flying overhead.
Isabela iguanas.
And another. Walking from the beach to the trail on the hill, we saw about a dozen iguanas.
Magnificent frigate birds. They were everywhere and not afraid of people. Walking down the trail you could look up in the trees and there would be a large bird with a six inch hooked beak looking at you eye to eye from her nest. Not afraid of humans, they watch you go by. You don’t realize how big they are until you’re right there among them. Males were in display, nesting pairs getting cosy, and the density of them was amazing.
Boobies. The birds on the left are Brown Boobies and the ones on the right, with the light gray heads, are Blue Footed boobies. Boobies nest right on the ground. Constantly overhead were frigate birds. They left the boobies alone for the most part except when the chicks were being fed by a parent and then they swooped down on the boobies to harass them.

Also flying among the magnificent frigate birds were four red-billed tropicbirds. They were smaller and louder than both the frigates and the boobies, and they were easy to pick out overhead because they were frantically flapping their wings most of the time they were in flight. They must have flown circles around the boat for a at least twenty minutes.

While Nina watched birds, Bill went snorkeling.

14 thoughts on “Gone to the Birds”

  6. Nice! Hope the bird list continues to grow! (Oh inre boobies— I got my lifer Red-footed in……San Francisco! earlier this week…… pre-Christmas present at the Presidio Coast Guard Pier—-way outta range) Happy New Year to y’all.

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  9. Sounds like a fun trip. We are in Costa Rica seeing Sloths, monkeys , acoutis and of course birds. We were all happy to see a Toucan today. Tomorrow we will hike near another volcano then later in week we will go to beach bc it’s going to rain in the mountains. Take care

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