Cuban songbirds, vultures and brown pelicans

This video from the USA says about itself:

9 February 2015

The turkey vulture’s see-through nostrils result in one of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdom. It is estimated that the turkey vulture can smell the scent of rotting flesh in concentrations as tiny as a few parts per billion in the air. The olfactory lobe of its brain, responsible for processing smells, is particularly large compared to that of other animals and combined with the unique design of its nostrils, gives the turkey ‘buzzard’ the superpower of smell.

As I reported, on 5 March 2017 we landed at Varadero airport in Cuba. Turkey vultures were the first birds we saw flying there. We would see them often in Cuba.

After passing the young African Cuban immigration woman, from Varadero, we went west by bus.

Not only many turkey vultures, also many cattle egrets.

In Matanzas city, a mourning dove on a wire.

We arrived at Bacunayagua viewpoint. It not only had fine views. There were also trees like the ones on the photo, which attracted birds.

Like northern mockingbirds. And greater Antillean grackles: very common in Cuba, but confined to Cuba and a few other islands. Also, loggerhead kingbird: confined to the Caribbean as well. The two house sparrows represented a species which has spread to most continents. The palm warbler was on spring migration, back to its nesting grounds in Canada and the extreme north of the USA.