One thing that’s irked me extra usually than I’d wish to admit is the inclusion of the phrase “widespread” within the identify of a chicken. It appears virtually insulting, positive it permits some perception into the abundance of the actual species in a specific space at a time limit, however all birds are uncommon and unique someplace. The irony is most obvious when a chicken so named is a reliable rarity – I get excited each time I see a Widespread Floor Dove, for instance. They’re decidedly unusual in T&T however absolutely ubiquitous elsewhere.
This kind of widespread chicken isn’t what spawned this submit, nevertheless. Bearing the identical designation however really commonplace is the occasionally encountered Widespread Pauraque. All through the island of Trinidad they are often heard virtually each night time but seeing one can show a bit difficult. Abandoned roads can yield fleeting views, however beneath lights isn’t the best encounter (for purists not less than)!
Widespread Pauraque
Some extent of talent or pure luck is required to see one in all these near-cryptids in daylight. Fantastically camouflaged, nightjars are designed to soften into their daytime roost. At nightfall a pair nights in the past some motion caught my eye as I used to be driving. I had simply turned my lights on and it was a Widespread Pauraque that hopped from the highway again into the leaf litter. With some mild nonetheless within the sky, I knew this was a golden alternative to {photograph} this species with some semblance of pure mild.
Rigorously, I acquired out the car and retrieved my digital camera. Inside a number of quick moments, I used to be prepared with settings primed for the intense low mild. Solely factor was that I had taken my eyes off of the place the chicken was and now felt a bit hopeless as I couldn’t relocate it! I stared on the patch of stones and fallen leaves the place the chicken was, however nothing materialised. I walked as much as the place I believed it was, nonetheless nothing. I strained my eyes within the fading mild. Then realised I used to be standing no more than 10 inches from the chicken! I backed off and appeared via my viewfinder and to my astonishment there have been really two Widespread Pauraques sitting there!
Are you able to see each Widespread Pauraques on this body? The headlamps of my jeep helped with the ambient mild and gave one chicken a neat little catchlight.
At present I do know I’m one step nearer to photographing these beauties within the daytime, nevertheless it’s taken so a few years to get so far who is aware of once I’ll discover a day-roosting chicken?! It may be subsequent decade or it may be tomorrow – and that’s the fantastic thing about birding!