Prothonotary oddity

Today Amanda spotted this strange looking bird. Without bins she described it as a prothonotary with a red face, which made no sense...until we finally got some good looks and couple of pictures. Usually these birds are purely yellow-faced.

Have any of the few birders who look at this blog ever seen anything like it? Any thoughts on the cause? I found a similar photo online, and people seemed to think it was a result of diet.

Aero

Went banding with Amanda and Charlotte today near the Tortuguero airport which has one flight in everyday for those spendy tourists, but may be flying in banders at some point in the future, cutting out the 6 hours of travel to get here.

The boat ride to the site was much nicer today, with no rain then or the rest of the day. Though only 11 birds and four species, the birds are obviously still mind blowing.

Clay-colored Robin


Rufous-tailed Hummingbird


White-collared Manakins:

Carrots for legs


A pair caught together


Prothonotary Warbler


Our banding station, with the beach in the sun


The beach, two feet from the station, where we do migration counts on the odd hour


Ah yes, and this