birdwatching

M was home sick the other day and saw this lovely black bird perched in the flamboyant tree outside our house. I had never seen one like this before and wondered if it was rare. I looked it up and skimmed  the page of what I thought it was (Smooth-Billed Ani) and saw the word RARE in the Lesser Antilles. Excited, grabbed my camera to take a shot. We see many birds outside our door: Hummingbirds, hawks, finches, sparrows, bananquits, parrots but I thought RARE - cool maybe someone might be interested that I saw one. Well, after the bird flew away I went back to the book, to the Smooth-Billed Ani and re-read the caption. Common resident of Bahamas, Greater Antilles, Virgin and Cayman Islands, Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Providencia. So you see skimming the page has no value if you want to be accurate and not make a fool of yourself.