Widespread but never a common bird (and even a record of a vagrant in southern Texas), the Crane Hawk quite an interesting bird. You hardly ever see them fly, or if they do fly, it's not for long – they seem to mostly hunt by sitting and waiting or walking around on the their long, red legs.
This was on the entrance road to Pouso Alegre lodge in the northern Pantanal on my WINGS tour just this past week, a lucky shot from the van window as it flew from a roadside bush to the ground.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
I and the Rheas
I’ve just
finished the second of my two Marvelous Mato Grosso tours, and I’ve decided
this tour was well-named. We birded three main spots from the north-central
border to the south-central border of this huge state (a bit larger than the
size of Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada put together). I haven’t tallied the
total bird list yet, but it’s pretty overwhelming.
On our last
day we arrived at our Pantanal lodging at the working ranch of Pouso Alegre and
a troop of six Greater Rheas wandered in for a drink next to the buildings.
People are
always tired on these tours – seeing so much biodiversity is hard work. Even if
they get an opportunity for 9 hours of sleep each night, people are too tied to go owling
after dinner. So this evening we set out in the late afternoon, did some light
birding, watched water birds for about a half hour at an oxbow until dusk, and
then looked for owls. On the way to the oxbow we stumbled across this Red-footed
Tortoise, Chelonidis carbonaria.
And then
owling was as good as it gets. While we didn’t hear the Black-banded Owls from
the previous tour, the Striped Owl (an adult and 3 full-grown begging young)
and a Mottled Owl took minimal effort to see. We didn’t even really try to see
the Tropical Screech-Owls that were calling since we had seen one in the daytime a few days
earlier.
The Striped
Owl, a little known bird from the area.
Mottled Owl.
In reality, this rather scarce inhabitant of tall forest is a totally different
species from the common bird of open woodland and gardens of Central America
and west of the Andes. Although it’s not recognized by any of the checklist
committees, naming it as a separate species would be less of a split than merely
correcting a stupid mistake from whatever list we started out with.
We had a
very relaxing last morning, wandering the grounds of our lodge, going a bit
down a trail, and enjoying the dawn sounds. Here, a trio of Hyacinth Macaws
doing their morning preen.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Pantanal Birds in Action
Just a few day's quick photos from my WINGS birding tour in the Pantanal yesterday.
Great Kiskadee knows that Toco Toucan is an egg predator.
Purplish Jay looking for ticks.
Jabiru deftly handling an hors d'oeuvres.
Great Kiskadee knows that Toco Toucan is an egg predator.
Purplish Jay looking for ticks.
Jabiru deftly handling an hors d'oeuvres.