However, there colours will easily attract the eye and the lens of the photographer.

Pelvoux, July 2026

One of the most attractive aspects of these charming little flying criters is that the have a marvelously colored plumage (and females are usually sharing very similar color patterns). So, wild life photographers are easily attracted to them.

In Indonesia, there is a large number of these species (Islands are very favorable environment to a strong selection leading to a large diversity; They provide long term isolation for species to quickly develop very local characters over long geological eras). During a recent trip, I could assemble a small collection of them. Here is a list of them. Far from exhaustive, but already quite long to my eyes.

Azure kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur à dos bleu (Ceyx azureus)

A nice little kingfisher, somewhat shy though.

Beach kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à tête blanche (Todiramphus saurophagus)

Relatively easy to find on beaches and sea fronts.

Blue-and-white kingfisher, Martin-chasseur des Moluques (Todiramphus diops)

Blue-black kingfisher, Martin-chasseur bleu-noir (Todiramphus nigrocyaneus)

Superb dark blue feathers.

Collared kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à collier blanc (Todiramphus chloris)

Common kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur d’Europe (Alcedo atthis)

The most recognizable one (for Europeans) since it is present thousands of kilometers from Indonesia.

Common paradise-kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à longs brins (Tanysiptera galatea)

Somehow, this kingfisher becomes relatively difficult to photograph if you want to ensure that the tail is appropriately rendered in the picture. And you will easily recognize that it is unting insects instead of fishing in rivers.

Great-billed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à bec noir (Pelargopsis melanorhyncha)

Green-backed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur moine (Actenoides monachus)

A bird never easily impressed. You could find it anywhere in the forest and it will stay immobile with perfect patience.

Female:

Male:

Hook-billed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur d’Euphrosine (Melidora macrorrhina)

Forget this one, I could not bring any reasonable picture (observed from afar and photographed from a very unflattering low angle).

Little kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur poucet (Ceyx pusillus)

A small guy, always mobile, always impatient to find another place along the river.

Moluccan dwarf-kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur gracieux (Ceyx lepidus)

Ruddy kingfisher, Martin-chasseur violet (Halcyon coromanda)

Spectacular is the word! You would be excused for believing the colors are coming from a failed photography development or from a fake AI-enhanced picture. But it is merely light playing with feathers to give him the looks of a hippie singer.

Sacred kingfisher, Martin-chasseur sacré (Todiramphus sanctus)

Scaly-breasted kingfisher, Martin-chasseur royal (Actenoides princeps)

Female:

Sombre kingfisher, Martin-chasseur funèbre (Todiramphus funebris)

Sulawesi dwarf kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur multicolore (Ceyx fallax)

Sulawesi lilac kingfisher, Martin-chasseur oreillard (Cittura cyanotis)

Yellow-billed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur torotoro (Syma torotoro)

Marvellous little birds, with bright flashy colors.

Indonesia.

South Africa.

I collected some of these in a portfolio at Wild Focus: Buffles noirs dans la nuit.

A few pictures from an older trip in Brazil.

So, I started asking a few questions and driving Claude into something more organized. Here is the content of our exchange and what it produced.

https://claude.ai/share/def36174-5747-4be0-af35-2bc4dc1068c7

I’m open to your suggestions about why it is OK, why it’s not, and how to lead to a better approach.

And, on a more humorous tone (from xkcd):

But do not forget the history of… counting languages. It is not as simple as you would think. Both because it is a daunting task, and because the mere idea of counting those is deeply rooted in history: Tackling the Impossibility—and Necessity—of Counting the World’s Languages.

A few jaguar photos I added to YLoveBigCats.

Just as a reminder, Pantanal jaguars are the biggest in the world because they are so well-fed from the caiman bonanza that they can kill everywhere. And they are the most accessible (for photographers and tourists alike) for the same reasons.

They always hunt in a group, long-distance running, physically exhausting the targeted prey. The antelope they hunt has very, very little chance of getting a free pass. Their success rate is just plain spectacular.

Zambia, July 2017.

Quetzal on Wild Focus

Resplendent Quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno – Quetzal resplendissant.

But where is their future? Will we be able to protect them? They live as long as we do, they communicate in ways that we only start to recognize (not even understand yet,) and we are still to cull, kill and eradicate them, really?

The general aim is to ask an AI chat to assist me with translating vocabulary to enhance my store of German words. But this language has some peculiarities, and I want to follow them and integrate their understanding. For example, German has somewhat complex verb tenses and words follow genres (masculine, feminine, or neutral), often different from what we know in other languages (English, French, etc.). So, I aimed specifically at supporting this.

How? I chose an AI chat (Google Gemini – using Gemini 2.0 Flash and/or Gemini 2.5 Flash (experimental)) because its answers are aligning near perfectly with the complex prompt I built (see below). Others may be able to do similarly, but DeepSeek R1 is far too slow (and I don’t use the “chain of thought” which may be a strength in other contexts), Llama 3.x – surprisingly – fails to stick to the rules I describe in my prompt. Another Large Language Model (LLM) AI model may be good. But I would recommend you test it before using it extensively.

So, here is the prompt I decided to use (it took a little bit of refining to get to his efficiency), and I invite you to re-use it or share it.

Hello Hilfe,
I need your help to learn German and - mostly - to improve my vocabulary while I build flashcards. Your role is to translate to German some English words I give you. But I have some specific restictions on the way you must answer with the appropriate sequences.
For a verb, on a single line, give the infinitive, then the third person of the present indicative, then the third person of the preterite, then the past participle (no need to include articles).
For a noun, on a single line, give the singular and then the plural, including the article (which identifies the gender of the noun).
For an adjective, on a single line, give the adjective, then the comparative form, then the superlative form.
There's no need to dwell on proper nouns (they're probably the result of a typing error); Simply translate where possible.
The order will suffice to describe (no need to specify or remind each time what the elements of the answer are). But the sequence of forms requested must appear with each form separated by commas, without adding a period at the end of the line. 
In the case of multiple translations, it's okay to separate the meanings, clarifying the context, but respecting the translation rules (each meaning with its own separate line).
In the case where I indicate a German word, there's no need to translate, but to construct the answer as for a translation (with the corresponding sequence). For example, a verb will be conjugated according to the above rule.

So, when I type:

push

It will answer:

drücken, er drückt, er drückte, gedrückt (to push, to press)
schieben, er schiebt, er schob, geschoben (to shove, to push)
der Stoß, die Stöße (the push, the shove)

If I type:

Morning

Here comes the answer:

der Morgen, die Morgen

I hope that it will help you to improve your vocabulary. It does not help for other aspects (grammar, pronunciation, accent) but it supports my progress.

Have fun with Deutsch!

Wire-crested thorntail, Coquette de Popelaire (Discosura popelairii)
Peru, October 2024.

So, here is a condensed list:

I’ll admit easily that catching some hummingbirds in Peru was more difficult than in Ecuador. Nevertheless, I was able to catch a few ones. I tried focusing on multiple birds in the same shot, this time. You’ll see if they are good enough.

Rufous-crested coquette, Coquette de Delattre (Lophornis delattrei)
Peru, October 2024.

Wild Focus

This is the web site of my portfolios. There, you will see the subjects I really fell in love with and some more personal projects (often still a work in progress, like my half-portraits).

One of them appears to be well understood even today: The Greek alphabet evolved with technology around the Mediterranean sea.

However, It was clearly preceded by older scripts and some of them have not even been translated as of today. From the Bronze Age in Southern Europe and the “interior sea”, you would find:

• Linear A script: Used by the Minoan civilization in Crete around 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE.

• Linear B script: Used by the Mycenaean civilization in Crete around 1850 BCE to 1450 BCE.

I invite you to follow the links to the World Histroy Encyclopedia, which contain very useful information about all these (and other historical data).