Good morning, Dawn Choristers. I haven't been around a lot lately. Dealing with a move and the addition of Frank's elderly mother to our household have been challenging and time consuming for the better part of this year! Even with diminished participation, I always look forward to spending a little time here Sunday mornings. Many thanks to Kestrel and matching mole for keeping this little corner of Daily Kos going for the past several months.
My last Dawn Chorus was about my travels in Brazil's Pantanal region, touching on birds and other critters that we saw while we were there - especially the jaguars. In that diary, I promised another diary or two about more of the birds we encountered. Now, almost 8 months after that diary and a year since we returned, here we go.
I'm starting with the "and more" part of the title because I really love this photo. It gives a good sense of what a lot of the Pantanal looks like - flat grassland punctuated with islands of trees - plus captures the interaction between two charismatic bird species. The large bird in the center right of the photo is a greater rhea. He's defending the group of chicks on the left from the jabiru stork fleeing toward the right, though truth be told the jabiru was not a threat to the chicks. What he really wanted was a fishy handout from our guide!
I think we counted about 20 chicks total. In this species, the chicks are cared for by the father. Both males and females will mate with multiple partners, but the males stay at one next (or two if he has a helper), so it's likely the chicks come from more than one mother.
Songbirds (and more) below.
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