Everywhere I Roam: Birds!

February 19, 2013

A scarlet-rumped tanager showing off his butt

This trip has been my introduction to the world of birding. It is an amazing place to start. There are so many birds here (the total count for Refugio Bartola since 2001 is over 400 species) and a lot of the birds are colorful and charismatic and happen to sit in the brush and trees that are easily observed from a hammock or the breakfast table. What makes it even better is that my fellow TA, JP, is an avid and knowledgeable birder. Since I spend most days walking around the forest with him, it has been an excellent introduction to the neotropical avifauna. My bird list is a 97 right now. With one day in the forest a couple days of travel, I’m hoping to hit 100 (which is crazy to me!).

Red-legged honeycreeper- photo by Greg Grether

Some of the most wonderful birds I have discovered follow ant swarms. First of all, ant swarms. It’s an amazing sight, the leaf litter writhes with ant bodies. Army ants literally swarm the forest floor, attacking and eating any insect that can’t get out of the way fast enough. Flying insects and vertebrates can usually avoid the ants, but hop/fly up into the air as the ants come pouring through. This is where the ant birds come in- they follow ant swarms, catching and eating the insects that hop into the air to avoid the ants. The birds don’t eat the ants themselves, but the insects they scare up.

Spotted antbird perched on a stick with a bi-colored antbird to the left

In addition to the unique behavior, many of the ant birds are absolutely striking with bright blue rings of skin around their eyes. Many of them are patterns of black and cinnamon color, and they make a soft chirring sound as they hop and flit through the understory following the swarms. One of these is a goofy looking bird that walks on the ground, looking a bit like a cross between a chicken and a short tailed peacock. This Rofous-vented Ground-cuckoo is apparently a must see for birders, and JP tells us there are neotropical birders where this is one of a few species they haven’t been able to find. I would have no idea of that here- I’ve been lucky enough to see two ground cuckoos in one location- one may have been a juvenile, it had a shorter tail and was less iridescent than the other- and I’ve had two separate sightings of these guys over a couple of days.

Rufous-vented ground-cuckoo!

Other birding highlights include watching a red-capped manakin lekking- tiny little birds with yellow legs and bright red caps, dancing like the moon walk on a thin branch (awesome youtube video of that here!). Also a rufous motmot, sitting on a low branch in the forest at dusk, a green ibis and a sunbittern near the river, and listening to a giant flock of mealy Amazon parrots coming in to roost in the evening, screeching and sounding like broken electronics up in the trees.

Some of my favorite creatures here in Nicaragua have been birds. I’m glad I finally gave them a chance!