Versicolored Emerald

Now that I find myself getting ready for an international trip in a couple weeks (as it gets down to the wire, it prefaces just about every waking thought), I remember never completely finishing going through the Brazil pictures from last year, at least to the point where I could identify every bird often hidden in them. I won’t be going to South America this time, so I won’t see any of these birds, but it feels like a good time to revisit a few images for a virtual change of scenery. Also, we are presently experiencing two days of constant rain in Chicago, so I have given the cameras a rest.

Here is a little video of hummingbirds from last year’s trip. The location is Folha Seca, so popular with the hummers they way outnumbered the tour participants.

On another rainy day, only this time in Brazil last year, the video below was taken at  the porch feeders outside the dining room at the hotel where we stayed in Itatiaia National Park outside of Rio de Janeiro. The bird is a very wet Saffron Toucanet eating fruit and trying to avoid buzzing insects.

The last photo is of a Violet-Capped Woodnymph, taken at Folha Seca. One interesting observation: when I was going through the videos last night on my computer, even though there are hardly any bird sounds that my indoor birds could have recognized, they became immediately attentive and curious, which only indicates to me they hear so much more than we ever will.

Violet-Capped Woodnymph