The mission of our seventh day in Belize was to return from Dangriga to the Crooked Tree Sanctuary. But that didn’t stop us from looking for and finding many beautiful birds everywhere we went.

The day started early with a glorious sunrise at 6 a.m.

Sunrise over the Caribbean

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Within a few minutes we had found herons, some of my favorite birds. I love their patience and try to emulate them.

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I had never seen that species before. But after we left Dangriga, we found another beautiful heron, one that I have seen often and appreciate all the more.

A Little Blue Heron Hunts in a Stream

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Seeing raptors of course makes me happy. We saw another of the same species that we had seen earlier on the trip.

A Gray Hawk in the Late Morning

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Then, we saw a raptor that I had never seen before. In fact, I didn’t even know that it existed.

A Great Black-Hawk Flies Over Us

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We took the Hummingbird Highway out of Dangriga. It is a paved road, but hardly a highway by our standards. Yet it’s name is appropriate. Near the highway we found this beautiful humingbird.

A Canivet's Emerald Humingbird Finds Nectar

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When we stopped at another national park we found several other small birds. Blue Hole National Park is famous for St. Herman’s Cave. We appreciated how cool the cave is, but didn’t tarry. Instead, we kept on birding.

Each of the three species below is especially interesting to me. I love this bird’s thick neck.

A White-Necked Puffbird

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I love this bird’s name.

The Little Ovenbird Builds a Nest that Looks Like an Oven

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I love this bird’s bright colors.

A Hooded Warbler in the Forest

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We had so many birds to stop and see that we failed to get back to Crooked Tree before dark. But that worked out fine. At 5:15 p.m. we saw this sunset instead.

Sunset in the Busha

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