Of Toucans and Woodpeckers

Birding in a foreign country is full of excitement and unknown birds.  This was definitely the case for me on our trip to Colombia.  

Of course, thanks to Toucan Sam of cereal box fame, even little kids can recognize a toucan.  But seeing one in the wild is an fantastic experience... maybe more so because of the cereal box 'fantasy' bird!

I was out early one morning looking for any birds I could see, and I was not disappointed.  There were loads of neat and interesting birds.  I was constantly taking photos of them so I could try to identify them later.

Now, birding in Colombia is not like birding at home.  At home, though I'm not an expert ornithologist by any means, at least I can usually recognize most of our local birds.  In Colombia, while I knew these were toucans, I didn't know what kind.  Turns out there are 24 species in the Ramphastidae family to which toucans belong.  Colombia has the most kinds of any country, just like hummingbirds.  (Click here to see amazing photos of toucans!)

One thing I do know about birds is that woodpeckers like dead trees.  So I checked out this large dead tree and the one next to it.  I was really excited to see both woodpeckers and toucans!

Top two are toucans, lower one is a woodpecker

Two toucans (Lettered Aracaris it turned out once I had time to study and look them up) and two kinds of woodpeckers!

Let's look closer now at the first woodpecker...

Spot-breasted Woodpecker

I would have loved to have spent more time observing.  I didn't see the woodpecker taking any food to the cavity so I don't know if there was a nest.

The toucans were not very happy with the woodpecker being there.  But toucans can't really do without woodpeckers-- because they are cavity nesters, too, but they depend on ready-made holes for their nests.  Toucans use their large bills (which can be over half the length of their bodies, depending on the species) for eating fruit and intimidating smaller birds.  More on that later!  But they can't really excavate nesting cavities with them.  Therefore, their dependance on woodpeckers.

I wondered if the toucans had a nest somewhere nearby, too.  This one almost looks like it has a brood patch on its belly.

As I watched the dead trees for awhile, I noticed another bird... another woodpecker!

Yellow-tufted Woodpecker

It and one of the toucans were having a look-alike photo posing contest.

Speaking of look-alikes,  the next toucan I saw had a definite resemblance to a prehistoric monster.

In my last post about Colombian hummingbirds (click here to read it), I said it seemed like a stretch to think hummingbirds were evolved from dinosaurs.  Well, not as much a stretch to say that about toucans...  in looks and in name (the scientific genus name of the one above sounds quite dinosaur-ish). Pteroglossus castanotis!

Chestnut-eared Aracari

Though birding in Colombia meant there were a lot of things I didn't know anything about, the reason I even saw this toucan was because of a habit of birds called 'mobbing'.  Here in the US, it's typically crows or blue jays picking on hawks or owls.  In Colombia, it was tropical mockingbirds picking on a Chestnut-eared Aracari!

In the photo above, see the fanned out tail feathers of a mockingbird to the right of the toucan?  They were having quite a go-around!

I would say the toucan successfully defended his papayas. 

Here's a short video of some of the action:

(Sorry for the noise in the background of the video, I was actually sitting next to an outdoor cafe when I took this).

And one final thing I want to show you, even though it technically doesn't have anything to do with nature.  It does have to do with toucans.

Yes, that's a Colombian pottery nativity scene (notice the llama!) in a toucan belly.  If you are ever shopping in a Colombian artisan market, you may not want to show quite as much delight in an item you want to purchase!  I'm pretty sure this 'gringo' got priced gouged.  But that's okay, I really HAD to have it!

A Question for God

You know those funny questions kids ask God?  

"I asked for a puppy, why did You give me a baby brother instead?"  

"Did You mean for giraffes to look like that or was it a mistake?"  

Of course there is a question most of us have asked at one time or another, "Why did You make mosquitoes?"

I will admit to sometimes wanting to ask God similar questions.  Recently I've been thinking about this one:

Dear God,

Why did You give Colombia so many kinds of hummingbirds and only give us one?  I mean, I love our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, don't get me wrong.  Thank You for them!  

But, it's the only one we have in the whole USA east of the Mississippi River (with the exception of an occasional kind that's out of its normal range).  

male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

You put over a hundred kinds in Colombia... a county maybe a quarter the size of the Ruby-throated range.  (I've read numbers anywhere from 147 species up to 162 of Colombian Hummers!)  Wow, that's wonderful.... but couldn't You have spread them out more?

Sparkling Violet-ear

They are all so beautiful! (There's a really neat video from BBC news at this link.  The first close-up in the video is of the next species of hummer and the second one shows a Violet-ear like the one above, with its ear feathers raised!)

Female Black-throated Mango

It was a real joy for me to be able to see some of them while I visited Colombia, Lord.  Thank you again!

(This one might have been a young one... it seemed to have quite fluffy feathers.  And, oh, that beautiful red tail.  Nice red beak with a black tip, too!)

 It liked the large white flowers of the tree it was sitting by.

I knew to watch the red flowers, too.  And You blessed me by having some Hummers come to them.

While I watched that flower, a Hummer sat nearby.  He drank nectar from the flower, too, but I didn't get a good photo.  Here he is:

Heliconia flowers are hummer favorites.  We don't have them in Pennsylvania, but we have plenty of other flowers they would like (at least during a few months of the year)!

Our flowers might be easier for them to drink from...

...this seems like it would be hard on the neck.

Well, God, I'm sure you had good reasons for giving Colombia so many Hummingbirds and us only one.  I'll try to be happy with looking at pictures of them.  (Here's a link with oodles of beautiful photos).

Just reading the names of some of them makes me happy, too, God.  

Ruby-topaz hummingbird,  
Violet-crowned woodnymph, 
Blue-headed sapphire,  
Glittering-throated emerald, 
Golden-bellied starfrontlet, 
Orange-throated sunangel, 
Blue-bearded helmetcrest, 
Bronze-tailed plumeleteer!   

These are all real birds that you created, Lord.  (See the whole list of Colombian hummers.) 

Some people think that Hummingbirds evolved (if people want to read about it, they can click here for an article from Scientific American).  

But I believe you are a VERY creative GOD! Amen.

I won't be ordering one of these t-shirts:

Dinosaurs to Hummingbirds?  I'm no 'Scientific American', but that seems like quite a stretch!

Jardin Botanico de Bogota

Bogota, Colombia is a sprawling city of over 7 million people.  In the midst of it is a beautiful botanical garden.  On our first day in Colombia, we squeezed into 2 tiny taxis with our friends - 5 adults and 3 children, and went off to see the gardens.

If you ask most people what comes to mind when they think of Colombia, they would probably say illegal drugs or kidnappings (and it's true those have been problems); but I think of birds.  

Colombia has 1,871 recorded species of birds!  (click here for a list) And, 162 of those are hummingbirds!  That's the greatest diversity of hummingbirds of any country on earth.  So, of course, as we headed to the botanical gardens, I was thinking... where there are flowers, there might be hummingbirds.  I was not disappointed!

Isn't this one beautiful?  I believe it is a Sparkling Violet-ear.   ( I identified it from a photo I found online  here).  If you want to be amazed at photos of hummers, check out this gallery.  There are 8 pages of hummingbird photos!  Actually, I think just the names of them are fascinating!

The Sparkling Violet-ear, so called because of the long feathers by its ears that it can raise, was sipping nectar from these flowers.

It was the only hummingbird we saw in the garden, though we did see more later at other places.

We enjoyed walking around the gardens in short-sleeve shirts.  Perfect weather.  Bogota is a subtropical highland climate about 8,600 feet above sea level.  It's actually on a high plateau in the Andes Mountains.

Most of the plants in the gardens were unfamiliar to me, with a few exceptions...

such as this large bed of day lilies and the next one, a rose garden.

The greenhouses featured different rooms with the flora of that climate.  This one contained bromeliads and orchids.

Here's the cacti house:

This plant (I'm not sure what it is), was particularly beautiful.

 

Though most of the plants and birds were basically unknown to me, there were some that seemed familiar. Does the next bird remind you of any common American bird?

It acted and sang quite a bit like our American Robin.  There are 27 kinds of Thrushes (the family our Robins are in) listed for Colombia.  I believe this one is a Great Thrush.

Here's a youngster, perhaps waiting to be feed a juicy worm.

These flowers looked familiar, I think they are ones I've grown in my garden (but have to dig up in the winter) called Peacock Orchids.

The birds on the ground in front of them looked familiar, too.  They are similar, but not the same as our Mourning Doves.

The identity I came up with is Ruddy Ground Dove.  I need to explain that on the trip, I didn't have a 'bird guide' or even a field guide to Colombian birds (though I'm waiting for one from an inter-library loan), so I've been working on looking up birds from the internet.  The Colombian bird list has 29 kinds of doves or quail/doves.... so there's a very good chance I could be wrong!

Our first morning at our friends' apartment (in the middle of many houses), I heard a bird singing.  It turned out to be a Rufous-collared Sparrow.  I was able to get a nice photo of this one at the gardens.

Its song became quite familiar while we were in Colombia.  If you know the song of an Eastern Towhee ("Drink your tea!"), this sparrow's song sounds like that, only with the trill on the "your" instead of the "tea".

We saw this pretty snail... I was sort of sorry it was alive because I would have collected the shell otherwise.  But it got to stay in the garden.

It was the only shell I saw while I was in Colombia.  And, this was the only snake:

It was supposed to be a replica of some sort of prehistoric monster snake. 

I did keep my eye out for snakes as I was walking around Colombia-- and wouldn't have minded seeing some... as long as they were MUCH smaller!

The Botanical Garden was a great way to kick off our Colombian adventure.  I have a lot more photos to share, so stay tuned!

To Bogota and Beyond, and Back Home

This is not a travel blog, so I'm going to spare you the grim details of air travel from the snowy, bitter cold little corner of my world to the tropics of Colombia.  That's where I've been the last two weeks, visiting friends who are missionaries.  

Of course, I could not travel to Bogota (and beyond) without my camera and binoculars!  Once I've had time to sort my photos, I plan to share many of them with you.  Just thought I'd let you know why I haven't been able to post on the blog, and give you a taste of what is coming!

After arriving home, I was pleased to see all the birds here, too!  Someone was filling our feeders while we were away, but not, as my husband said "spoiling them" like I do.