As colourful as painters’ palettes Although their plumage can be brown or white, adult red-footed boobies are multihued. Their feet look as if they were dipped into a bucket of red paint. The beaks are blue, with pink at the base and in front of the eyes. “Their eyes appear to be surrounded with blue eye shadow, like the kind my mom used to wear in the 1970s,” said Ceci. An adult male magnificent frigatebird captured our attention onNorth Seymour Island by spreading out his wings and puffing out Alternatives to birdwatching on foot You don’t have to walk long distances for spectacular birdwatching. In San Blas, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, we enjoyed a birding boat tour in La Tovara National Park. Blue herons peered at us from the reeds and took off from the water in front of us. Our boatman pointed out a boat-billed heron and a snail kite in the trees. We saw more wading birds during a guided Gulf Coast Kayak tour throughMatlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve, north of Sanibel Island in Florida. When our kayaks emerged from a tunnel of redmangroves and entered a placid inlet, we gasped. Two dozen cotton candy-coloured birds hung like Christmas ornaments in the verdant foliage around us. At first, we thought that they were flamingos. On closer inspection, we noted their spatula-shaped beaks. Our guide identified them as roseate spoonbills. his bright red neck pouch to attract females. Nearby, a fluffy white frigatebird chick observed us from a twig nest. Birdwatching on boat tour of La Tovara National Park in San Blas Boat-billed heron Red-footed booby Adult male magnificent frigatebird puffs out red neck pouch to attract females CSANews | SPRING 2022 | 17 Travel
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