This was a pretty peculiar sighting as one of the two pigeons was taking a bath and the other one was waiting for the first one and hurrying it to finish. This looked as many of those boyfriend, girlfriend relationships and one of them delaying the other before going out. The bathing dove didn't want out of the water probably because it must have been refreshing in the summer heat of that day.

I found this bird blending in with the fantastic architecture of the Castle of the Nazari Sultans in the Garden of the Lions (Palacios Nazaries Patio de los Leones) in Granada, Spain.

It was just interesting to see a bird just on the hand of Christopher Columbus. It looks as if Columbus is pointing at something and the bird is looking that way.

This image was taken by my wife during our honeymoon in the most southern part of the Patagonia, Argentina. It's one of the most beautiful and exotic places in the world, and it has many species of animals that don't really fear human beings.

This beautiful bird is the first one I photograph in the Paramos of the State of Merida, Venezuela (tropical andes). The area is close to a lake called "Laguna de Mucubaji".  This is a bird about 8" inches from beak to tail with orange beak and feet, and yellow circles surrounding its eyes, and gray body. It was standing on a sign that said "Zona de Pesca" or Fishing Zone. I think this was some kind of muck sign because the bird was on a tourist site of a Venezuelan National Park where fishing is strictly prohibited. There were many tourists in the area so maybe this was a bread crumbs or corn chips fishing zone for these birds. Interestingly I could not find information on the net for this bird being observed on this area although I noticed there were many. It is nevertheless a very common bird in the neighboring countries of Colombia and Ecuador.

These are the very common (but not to me) Gallinae or Moorhen. They inhabit marshlands from Chile to Canada. I found these grazing in a pond in West Palm Beach in a very nice sunny day. Only when I got close enough to these birds did I notice that they were not ducks but in fact some bird I had never observed before that resembled black doves whith red beaks with yellow at the tip. You can read more about these birds at the Cornell University All about birds webpage.

Beside the manatees, the Tampa Electric Viewing Center provides a window into a extremely rich ecosystem thanks to the improved living conditions the warm waters bring. This is a yellow crested night heron; a small bird with a very interesting mask, we were able to videotape it in action while it ate some crabs. As it names implies, this is a bird usually seen only at night, but in this case it was out hunting in the middle of the day.

This beautiful bird was just there standing watching the traffic of cars coming in and out of the parking lot. It didn't really care much for people watching it.

This is a tricolored heron (Egretta tricolor) also known as the Louisiana Heron in the USA. As this bird was stalking its pray I was stalking it with my camera. Obviously I am not as good of a stalker as this bird, since it noticed me and elongated its neck and moved its head from side to side as if it was giving each of its eyes a chance to look at me. The fact that this is one of most colorful of the large birds here in Florida might actually help it hide from its predators; as you can see in the picture, its color lets it blend very well with the swampy/water background. The colors that make this bird unique are blue, yellow, brown, black, and white; more than three if you ask this obviously non photonics / optics / lights expert.

The White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) is a very funny looking bird that you might find in many places here in Tampa. The bird in the picture was among ducks that were being fed by a student in a pond at USF. When the bird grabbed whatever the fellow student gave it, it (the Ibis) ran quickly to the edge of the water and soaked his/her grab in water before degluting it. This operation gave no chance to the ducks around to snatch the precious meal from the Ibis. You can find more information about this bird from "The Wild Ones" which is a trust for wild life conservation.