I took this photo in the middle of Brazil’s Pantanal.  The Pantanal is one of the world’s largest wetlands and stretches for about 65,000 square miles.  The ecosystem is thought to be home to over 1000 bird species as well as countless fish, mammals and reptiles.

This guy seemed not to much mind our boat passing by and let me get a rare closeup, most of my bird shots are of this fellas’ cousins as they are taking flight AWAY from our boat.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO:  The Pantanal is huge but overall we saw many of the same wildlife we saw while we were in Bolivia’s Amazon on our Pampas Tour.  If you do want to visit the Pantanal, we’d recommend going to the town of Bonito at the southern end of the Pantanal (we were in the northern end) where you can float down crystal clear water with nothing between you and the fish other than a wet-suit!