In October I had the opportunity to spend a week in South America. My spouse and I combined travel to a work-related conference in Brasilia with a short, but fun, visit to Ecuador.
Although it was autumn and the year was winding down in the US, it was springtime in Brazil, with newly constructed nests and juvenile birds learning to get around. I purchased a new camera for the trip, and I took about 2,100 photos in seven days. Here a few of them to provide some tropical warmth to begin our new year.
Hummingbirds in Brasilia
We spent about 36 hours in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil. We stayed overnight at a business / resort hotel on the shore of Lago de Paranoa, the large lake adjoining the city. Our second-floor room put us at eye level to some trees decorating the outdoor pool area. When I looked out I noticed a surprisingly large dark shape ... hovering? Hmmm .... not many birds hover.
I rushed to unpack and assemble my camera, before the birds moved on and before the dark clouds brought their thunderstorm. Fortunately I was able to snap a few pictures before the rain sent the birds into hiding. Sure enough: hummingbirds!
Swallow-tailed hummingbirds, as best Google could tell me, one of the larger hummingbird species. As it turned out, our resort hotel seemed to be a resort for them, too.
The next day, while my spouse attended a professional conference, I decided to go outside to take some practice photos to get better acquainted with my new camera. I was delighted to encounter more hummingbirds. I was surprised, also, to see them sometimes perched motionless, rather than darting in and out of view within seconds as they do in my yard in the summer. They did visit the flowers often enough to provide these in-flight action photos, too.
Although the hummingbirds turned out to be the highlight of my day in Brasilia, I did see a few other birds near the hotel. Southern lapwings were plentiful, and I spotted a few youngsters out foraging with the adults.
While following a non-feathered reptile to take its picture, I noticed these brown birds tending mud nests attached to branches in the flowering trees.
Meanwhile, this band of non-native gawkers enjoyed the reflective exterior glass at the front of the hotel:
Ecuador's High Amazon
Brasilia had been a business stop, but it offered unexpected opportunities for birdwatching and photography. Ecuador was the focus of our vacation plan, and though we enjoyed our stay immensely, it did not offer as many bird photo opportunities as I expected. I imagined that a hike through the jungle would reveal a colorful new creature at every turn, but as it turned out ... not so much.
The Jatun Sacha jungle is huge (that's what the name means!) and many of the birds and creatures prefer not to be noticed. Our indigenous Quichuan guide, Enrique, did turn up a colorful non-winged creature, however.
This silky anteater is a nocturnal forager who hides under palm leaves during the day to avoid becoming a raptor's lunch.
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Fortunately for photography purposes, there's a wildlife rehabilitation facility nearby. The creatures there are accustomed to human visitors and more amenable to posing for pictures. Here are the greeter macaws, perched in a tree overlooking the visitor center:
Most of the creatures at the rehab center are mammals. Several species of monkeys live there, including the aptly named squirrel monkeys who seemed to overrun the place at times. The resident ocelot, apparently in a surly mood, just snarled at us before retiring to the shadows.
But there are a few birds besides the macaws, including several colorful toucans. I found this one enjoying a healthy fruit plate lunch.
As we left the wildlife rehab center, this trumpet bird (or trumpeter) announced our departure, along with the passage of every other rubber-boot-clad tourist on the main trail through the rehab center.
Our last tourist experience before leaving the Napo river jungle area was a morning visit to an indigenous Quichuan cultural center. I was reluctant to go there, at first, because I worried it might be a watered-down, fake or exploitive place, the sort that exists to entertain tourists with the pretense of education. I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to be a sincere effort to educate, not only tourists, but younger generations of Quichuans who might otherwise lose the knowledge of their cultural heritage.
The Quichuan village wasn't a birdwatching destination, but we did meet Nina there.
Nina supervises the roasting and grinding of cacao in la casa del chocolate.
After a traditional lunch of tilapia steamed in a banana leaf, followed by fresh banana chunks dipped in the chocolate we had just made en la casa de chocolate, we returned to Quito. The next day we did the obligatory tourist visit to the equator, then had lunch at a mountain inn near the equator monument. During lunch we noticed some sort of long-tailed hummingbird visiting a shrub outside the restaurant window. I don't have any of my own photos of it, unfortunately, but I suspect it was a
long-tailed sylph. There are some lovely photos of these
"colibri" out there, but I don't have permission to link to them. If anyone has a photo of a long-tailed sylph, particularly one that shows its long curved tail, do feel free to share in comments.
Those are some avian highlights of my short trip to South America. Thanks for reading, or at least scrolling.
Best wishes for a pleasant and productive 2013