24 Feb 2014
Good morning, sleepy birds!
…or maybe not-so-sleepy birds… they were definitely awake before me (and are the reason I’m awake now), but honestly, can’t be mad about that- there are so many new-to-me birds here and I wanna find them all!
The best part was that we didn’t even have to go anywhere to find our birds:
photo by Turner
Great thrush:
Black-collared jay:
Masked flowerpiercer:
Masked trogons- female and male:
(the male was not so interested in taking nice pictures- this was the best out of half a dozen shots)
Blue-winged mountain tanager:
that’s not rain (yet)- he’s flinging the water
Plate-bill mountain toucan:
eating a seed he picked off the tree:
These Buff-tailed coronets were by far the most common hummer here:
Speckled hummingbird (foreground):
(this guy was was quite the poser)
Flame-faced tanager:
Slate-throated whitestart (or redstart- the internet can’t agree):
he caught a bug!
Montane woodcreeper:
And if there was ever a lull in birds, we always had this view:
and so many plants!
and of course, there are always bugs to find!
(this moth found Skip)
But even with a bit of a drizzle coming down, the hummingbirds were never gone for too long:
White-booted racket tail (male):
plank?
White-booted racket tail (female):
Same boots, shorter tail
Purple-bibbed whitetip:
A different purple-throated guy, the Amethyst-throated sunangel:
And another purple guy- the Purple-throated woodstar:
Oh look, more Buff-tailed coronets:
Hard not to photograph them when they pose so nicely!
Action shot!
apparently these guys have puffy boots too?
A speckled hummer:
Collared inca:
this is a terrible picture, but look at that blue patch on his head!!!
Another less than stellar picture, but this Brown inca was also not interested in staying still for a picture:
Violet-tailed sylph:
Andean emerald:
After a lunch break and a battery change (where I found this guy in my room):
Katydid, I think
we headed out for a hike through the cloud forest!
Turquoise jay:
Once we got into the forest, the birds were harder to spot and it was mostly about the fauna:
Everything here is so lush and green!
Which makes sense since we’re basically hiking through a cloud:
Bugs here are also more robust:
Faces on things:
And now, back to some real birds!
Purple-throated woodstar:
But the rain came out and the sun went down:
So we moved inside where I found this moth that looks like a pair of lips:
and another bug found Skip:
And on that note, good night, cloudforest!