Posted June 26, 2018
Bird feathers were used by the Aztec, Maya, Teotihuacanos, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, etc. to decorate staffs, poles, palace rooms, and of course feather headdresses. Also feathers are decorative designs on Late Classic Maya plates, bowls, and vases (especially the “Dress Shirt” design on 9th century ceramic plates that I discovered when I was 19 years old as a student intern on the Tikal project in the rain forests of Guatemala). My Harvard undergraduate thesis shows these designs, subsequently identified by scholars as tail feathers of the ocellated turkey.
So we are interested in finding and photographing every bird of Mesoamerica which was used in pre-Columbian Mayan temples, palaces, and also by the people in their villages (to decorate their hair and necklaces).
Photographed by Erick Flores, photographer at FLAAR Mesoamerica in Guatemala.
Camera: Canon 1Dx Mark II, Lens: Canon EF 300mm (a prime lens, not a zoom). Settings: f/6.3, 1/1600th of a second, ISO 800. No tripod (in a boat the boat rocks too much due to waves in the lake or even the rivers). It is impressive to be able to “stop a bird in flight” digitally with 1/600th of a second. But each species flaps their wings at a different rate, and depending on whether they are traveling long distance, taking off, landing, or other movements.
Although the Roseate Spoonbill can be found in the Yucatan peninsula, such as Rio Lagartos, it is a challenge to find this bird in Guatemala. Yes it is in lists of waterbirds, but when you get to that lake or river you learn they are very rarely visible. So it is impressive that Erick Flores was able to find two of them flying over our boat. We have been doing research on flora and fauna of the lakes and swamps west of the Canal de Chiquilumilla, near Monterrico, for over 10 years. We coordinate this with CECON park rangers.
