A Jamaican Hummingbird Heaven


You can't visit a tropical paradise without diving into the natural landscape and Jamaica offers lots of options.  In Ocho Rios, I explored Mystic Mountain which features a lush hummingbird garden in a rain forest. In the photo above, you can spot a hummingbird hovering over the feeder on the left.


I love the delicate beauty of these winged creatures but I discovered that they are really hard to capture on camera. There were literally dozens of birds flitting around but I only managed to snap one.


The green feathers and red beaks blend in with the scenery so well  and they fly so fast that I had to strain to see them. Look at the bird melting into the leaves to the left in the photo above.


I learned that Ecuador claims the most species of hummingbirds and that the world's smallest bird does not migrate from the Western Hemisphere. It was fun being surrounded by these tin birds in the Jamaican rain forest but they did make me dizzy.

Comments

Rachel Cotterill said…
I would so love to see a hummingbird!
February 28, 2013 at 10:33 PM
Fly Girl said…
Rachel, they are magical creatures! I think you need to get down to South America or the Caribbean for a good chance to spot one.
March 1, 2013 at 6:35 AM
Wendy said…
I love hummingbirds. I've seen them up close in New Mexico. They are curious creatures.
March 6, 2013 at 9:56 AM
Fly Girl said…
Wendy, Curious and so pretty!
March 6, 2013 at 5:40 PM
A Cuban In London said…
And Cuba claims the smallest hummingbird in the world! :-)

Greetings from London.
March 7, 2013 at 2:30 PM
Fly Girl said…
Cubano,
Really? I didn't know that. Still another reason on an unending list of reasons to visit Cuba
March 7, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Unknown said…
Cuba has to be at the top of my list. Love the way you documented this!

Check out my awesome travel blog when you get a chance :)
March 11, 2013 at 4:00 PM
Fly Girl said…
Tyler, thanks so much. I'll visit your blog soon.
March 11, 2013 at 4:05 PM
Alex Pendleton said…
Looks like paradise! I want to escape to a hummingbird garden
March 12, 2013 at 5:48 AM
Fly Girl said…
Alex, Oh Jamaica truly is paradise, with or without hummingbirds!
March 12, 2013 at 6:30 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more