You might remember a few months ago I posted a photo of a bearded bellbird in the rainforest of Trinidad. As it turns out, the bellbird doesn’t have the corner on the market when it comes to avian beards. Behold the white bearded manakin. Granted, not nearly as spectacular of a beard as the bellbird, but the diminutive manakin makes up for it in confidence.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/125th of a second

I caught this leatherback hatchling, enveloped in a wave, just as it was about to get swept out to sea. Here’s to hoping the rest of the journey is as successful as the initial dash from the nest to the ocean. As with all my photos over the last couple of weeks, click for a much larger view.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/500th of a second

These are male golden-headed manakins that I came across at a lek early one morning in Trinidad at the Asa Wright Nature Center. Manakins are sometimes called Michael Jackson birds because of their courtship display — it resembles the moonwalk as they slide forward and then backwards on their perches.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/250th of a second

With all the hummingbirds that I saw at the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad, you’d think I’d see a few nests around, but this was the only one that I could find. Sitting inside is a copper rumped hummingbird. She was flying back and forth, collecting material to reinforce the nest.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second

This is a white chested emerald. And yes, that is its tongue. Previously thought to suck up liquid via capillary action, ornithologists recently discovered through high speed video that hummingbirds actually use their long tongues to trap nectar by curling around it. This guy was at rest and obviously not sucking up nectar, so was probably just cleaning his tongue. Either that or he didn’t like getting his picture taken.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 500, f/4 at 1/500th of a second

It was a beautiful night on Trinidad’s Grande Riviere beach when three nests of leatherback hatchlings emerged from the sand and began their long journey to the ocean. I was just inches from this little guy with my fisheye lens. Nice when being so close is actually good for the animals, as no vulture dared come close as I escorted the turtle to the sea.
Nikon D800 with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens, ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/320th of a second

The purple honeycreeper is a very small bird in the tanager family — only about four and a half inches long. Its range extends from Panama in the north, as far south as the Pantanal in Brazil. The subspecies that exists on Trinidad has a slightly longer beak than those on the mainland. I saw quite a few of these guys at the Asa Wright Nature Center but they don’t stay still for very long and proved to be difficult to photograph. With their purplish-blue feathers and bright yellow legs, they provided a spectacular splash of color to the rainforest.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 500, f/4 at 1/800th of a second, two Nikon SB-900 flash units

I don’t take much video when in the field but I’m going to make an effort to start shooting more. I have a lot to learn about video editing and this clip is very flat compared to stills that I took at the same time. As for now, however, it’ll have to do. This leatherback got to the beach late and was still attempting to lay eggs when the sun came up. She also didn’t get high enough onto the beach to give her eggs a chance. As you can see the surf was reaching the ditch that she dug and the tide will almost certainly wash away any eggs she was able to bury.
Nikon D810 with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens

This is a golden tegu lizard — another one of those species that gets quite a few names, including the gold tegu, common tegu, black tegu, Colombian tegu and Tiger Lizard. They are very big lizards, reaching up to 3 feet and weighing 9 pounds. They were pretty common at the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad, creeping out of the bushes in the middle of the day to bask in the sun. They eat insects, small mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and fruit. This guy was preoccupied with a rat that he had just dragged into the forest.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/4000th of a second