Turkey Vulture
The turkey vulture, with bright red, featherless head, often hangs around with black vultures, which have warty black heads and shorter tails. In flight, the turkey vulture has a distinctly longer tail. Their habits are similar.
Life at BIB
Doodlebug
In sandy areas look for conical depressions roughly 2” across. If an ant slides into one of the depressions, the antlion flicks sand at it, causing it to slide further down until the antlion can grab it with its huge hollow jaws, puncture it’s body, and inject it with a paralyzing venom.
Puma
Technically, the puma, although quite large, isn’t considered to be one of the “big cats” because it can’t roar. In Belize, where it has competition with the larger jaguar, the puma hunts smaller animals, such as young crocodiles, agoutis, coatis, turkeys, gibnuts, armadillos, foxes and snakes.
Bayleaf/Botán Palm
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This fan palm is the traditional thatching palm of Belize. The one shown is a young tree, from which fronds can be easily harvested. As it grows older, it becomes a rather large tree and is called the Botán Palm, with dense wood that is sometimes used in building.
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Morellet’s Seedeater
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Morellet’s Seedeater Belize shares some of its birds with the United States, as they migrate to and fro through the seasons. One of those migrants
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Flatid Planthopper
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The benefit of the wax coating on the flatid is that the honeydew it poops doesn’t stick to it, which keeps the planthopper from turning into a moldy mop. Also, if a predator sees it moving and tries to grab it, it will get a mouthful of waxy fluff, which discourages further snacking.
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Veiled Lady Mushroom
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Veiled lady mushrooms often reach nearly ten inches in height. You can look through the round hole in the cap’s top clear down through the hollow stalk to the ground. The lacy, netted veil or skirt, known as the indusium, may serve as a ladder to help insects crawl up to the cap.
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Achiote or Annatto
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Also known as the Annatto and Lipstick Tree, this evergreen shrub grows 6’-24’ tall, with fragrant pink flowers between November – January, which become heart-shaped fruits about 2” long filled with bright orange-red seeds.
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Great Curassow
Occasionally, usually near dawn or dusk, you might see a pair of secretive Great Curassows sneaking through the forest or dashing across a dirt road in relatively undisturbed forests.
Leaf Katydid
A Leaf Katydid imitates a leaf scudding across my veranda very convincingly, with bright green coloration, detailed leaf veins, and the brown scar of insect damage