Bad photos of a rare bird....

...another pigeon in fact; the stunningly pretty bridled quail dove. This stunner is a caribbean endemic which likes dry tropical forests across the antilles. As the name suggests it likes to stay on the deck with the end result that it frequently ends up as catfood.

Its cat/dog/mongoose feeding tendencies have made it rather rare so that prior to my trip to Guana I'd only ever seen one which waddled off into the distance away from me at speed. Now Guana is essentially cat free so the reintroduced BQD's there can reproduce free from mammalian predation.

And reproduce they have. In the aptly named Quail Dove Ghut (a ghut is like a dry drainage valley) there is a plentiful flock. Of course they still like to hang out in the deep dark undergrowth which is why these pictures are partially obscured and dark as hell even postphotoshopping.

In spite of the frustrations of shooting them it was a delight to see these birds doing so well. I think they're beautiful and those red-eyes glaring out of the darkness will stay with me for a while.