In Focus Daily

One of the cutest and fiercest birds we encountered in the Cloud Forest of Ecuador was a small warbler called the Slate-throated Redstart. This feisty little bird was attracted to the moths that were drawn to the light near the hide. All the Cloud Forest regulars stopped by for breakfast. The Redstart would grab a moth that was perched on the large canvas, then it would fly to a log or other perch and proceed to literally beat the life out of the moth, whapping it against log as the microscopic particles that cover the moth’s wings clouded the surrounding air and the wings broke apart. When the moth was subdued and most of the wings had broken off, the Slate-throated Redstart would gulp it down, ready to search for another breakfast morsel.

It was an exciting experience photographing some of the incredible Hummingbird species native to Ecuador a couple of weeks ago. It was even more exciting to photograph a native Ecuadorian bird perched on a native Ecuadorian plant. In this case, a female Purple-bibbed Whitetip took a rest on a fuchsia plant. Fuchsias, the kind of plants with pendulous blossoms reminiscent of ballerina skirts, are native to Ecuador and attract hummingbirds in areas that are cooler and more humid than my current home. I can’t grow those successfully where I live so it was very satisfying to see a hummer perched on one, even if there were no blossoms on the plant.

The Red-headed Barbet (only the male has a red head) gets its name from the stiff bristles that surround its beak, the barbs, as well as the bright red feathers of the male’s head. In the above images, the barbs are more visible in the female than the male because of the lighting and how they are holding their heads. What fascinates me about the Red-headed Barbets is that both the male and females are quite colorful. Even though the female has no bright red feathers, she can hold her own when it comes to colorful plumage.

The Ornate Flycatcher, endemic to the Cloud Forests of the Andes, is a tiny, endearing bird, smaller than many of the hummingbirds we photographed in Ecuador. It seemed always to be hanging around the when we visited the hide, probably because of the abundance of moths and other bugs attracted to the area. It was easy to identify both from its small size and especially the white headlight like spots between its eyes.

Until he turns his head in the right direction, it isn’t obvious that the tiny Purple-throated Woodstar of Ecuador is the star of the show. Woodstars are among the smallest of hummingbirds. They dart around and buzz almost like bees, and as denizens of the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest, they were ubiquitous at the feeders at Sachamatia Lodge. We saw the tiny Woodstar every time we visited the feeders and he held his own with the Velvet-purple Coronets who were much larger and dominated the area. One day he landed in a tree and turned to show off his gorgeous gorget and his forked tail. The star of the show, indeed!

A female Flame-rumped Tanager, hiding in the Cloud forest of Ecuador, peeks out from the leafy fronds shielding her.

Angry bird! I love the expressions that birds make. One of my favorite birds that I met in Ecuador was the Pale Mandibled Araçari. They would arrive and take over the area feeding area, causing all of the smaller birds to fly away. This one seems to be daring down any of the birds that stayed, saying “mine, all mine.”

Some of the Hummingbirds in Ecuador are unbelievable. This Violet-tailed Sylph is one example. Its long, gorgeous tail makes it incredibly distinctive. I never managed to capture an image of it in flight but was thrilled to get it perched on a stem in the forest.

It had just started to sprinkle on our last morning at Sachamatia Lodge in Ecuador when three Pale Mandibled Araçaris landed on the feeding perches, scaring off all of the other birds. This Araçari made me chuckle both because of its perplexed look and the raindrops on the top of its head.

The Masked Trogon is commonly found in Ecuador’s Cloud Forest, especially in the Mindo Valley. We found a pair on a couple of different days as we watched from the hide down the road from the Sachamatia Lodge. They are dimorphic meaning that the males and females look different from each other. While the males feature iridescent green heads and backs, red bellies, and a distinct black face mask, the females are brown with red bellies and a black face mask. They are both equally stunning to look at, something that I admired about many of the bird species in Ecuador as the females were often as colorful and gorgeous to look at as the males.

One of the denizens of Ecuador’s Cloud Forest is the Brown Inca. This hummingbird is a deep, rich, chocolate brown color, reminiscent of Ecuador’s artisanal chocolate, world renowned for its high-quality Arriba Nacional cacao. Seeing and photographing this beautiful chocolate brown Hummingbird was almost as delicious as tasting its culinary counterpart.

It’s the wet season in Ecuador and it rained every day we were there. While there were some gully washers and thunderstorms, most of the time the rain was light and brief. The hummers, like this Brown Violetear, took advantage of the rain to bathe.

Yesterday was our last day in Ecuador. We started the day off early overlooking the cloud forest and photographing the birds that came into the area in search of bananas to feast on. The Pale-mandibled Araçari arrived en force. Three of them descended at once onto the perches where the bananas are strategically placed, frightening all of the other birds away as they grabbed huge chunks of banana, flipped back their heads with the impossibly unwieldy beaks and swallowed the fruit in a single gulp. The Pale-mandibled Araçari is one of the larger and most entertaining of the birds was saw this past week here. Their expressive faces and colorful feathers are always a welcome sight.

There is a “hide” on the grounds of Sachamatia Lodge in Ecuador that is used by birders to spot birds from an inconspicuous place so that the birds attracted to the area can be seen without stressing them. Inside, there is enough room to set ups tripods and seat about eight photographers. One of the ingenious things about this hide is that a large white canvas stretches across a framework at a 90° angle from the hide that is lit up all night by a large light bulb. During the night, bugs, moths, and other flying insects are attracted to the light and they cling to the white canvas so that in the morning, the canvas provides a smorgasbord of bugs for the birds that arrive at first light. Throughout the morning, birds fly to the canvas and snatch a morsel off the canvas. In the process of subduing the moth, microscopic scales fly everywhere off the wings creating a cloud that surrounds the bird. We watched lots of different bird species snatch a meal from the canvas. To me, the most entertaining was the Plain-brown Woodcreeper that would grab its meal from the canvas then retreat to the trunk of a nearby tree and subdue the bug as it ascended the tree and scales flew.

What’s in a name? Very few of the Hummingbirds here in Ecuador bear the moniker Hummingbird. They are Brilliants, or Emeralds, or Incas, or Violetears, or Sylphs, or Coronets. And, they are Racket-tails like the White-booted Racket-tail which to me is one of the most aptly named Hummingbirds of the sixteen species I’ve seen to date. This small-bodied Hummingbird gets its name from two distinct characteristics: the fluffy white puffs of feathers that surround its legs, creating the “boots,” and the pair of long bare-shafted tail feathers with racket-shaped disks at the end of each. It is one of the most recognizable Hummingbirds here in Ecuador and it quickly endeared itself to me, first by almost landing on my finger when we walked by the hummingbird pavilion one afternoon, and second because it is simply adorable. My challenge each afternoon when we photograph Hummingbirds here is to photograph it in flight, not perched on the feeder which it seems very content to do. I’ve been fortunate to achieve my goal a number of times so far this week. This is one of my favorites.

In the birding world, LBJ stands for “little brown jobs,” a colloquial term for small, brownish, and notoriously difficult-to-identify passerine birds. I have discovered that the Cloud Forest of Ecuador has its own LBJ’s, that are small and brownish, but they are not passerines. They are hummingbirds and they have names that are difficult for me to remember. Here are two of the three LBJ’s we’ve encountered here this week, the Brown Violetear and the Brown Inca, both spectacular birds in their own right and not at all forgettable as the name LBJ implies.

Cat Stevens once sang, “Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world.” More than fifty years later, it’s still a wild world. It’s been wild here in Ecuador with all of the amazing birds we’ve seen so far. Cat’s lyrics came to mind the other day when we saw a fledgling Golden Tanager begging for food from its parent, who obliged, feeding it some banana that was gleaned from one of the feeding stations located in areas around Sachamatia Lodge. Although the young bird, on the right, looks almost identical to its parent, to me its exaggerated “Walt Disney beak” was the giveaway. This young bird will face the wild world soon enough, but for now, it is being cared for by a caring parent.

The birds I’ve seen so far in Ecuador are incredibly gorgeous. We came here planning to focus on hummingbirds but there are so many stunning birds here that it’s not easy focusing on one species or family of birds. Yesterday, we spent time photographing birds at a feeding station set up by the lodge that attracts many different species of birds. I found an area of the feeding station that seemed to me to be the perfect staging area for the birds as they came in to feed. I kept my eye on it and prefocused to that area so that when a bird landed there, I could quickly acquire focus and photograph it. The Flame-faced Tanager is flaming gorgeous and a new species for me. When it landed in the staging area, its brightly colored feathers perfectly echoed the colors of the surrounding area.

What a spectacular first day of shooting at Sachamatia Lodge in the midst of the Cloud Forest of Ecuador. Most of the more than 30 species we’ve seen here so far are new to me, including the Long-wattled Umbrellabird seen here. It’s easy to see how it got its name. As I write, it is pouring outside. But, as we photographed this bird (and more than a dozen others yesterday morning from the lodge’s hide) I couldn’t help but think of Moe Howard, one of The Three Stooges, with his bowl cut hair-do.

A female Anna’s Hummingbird heads toward a feeder. I took this a couple of weeks ago in my friend Truman’s backyard as I practiced with my hummingbird rig in preparation for my trip to Ecuador. I’m in Ecuador now at the Sachamatia Lodge. After arriving here late yesterday afternoon, we sat in the area dedicated to hummingbirds and watched as they zoomed to and from feeders and fed at some of the flowering plants surrounding the patio. We didn’t have our cameras with us. We were just absorbing the ambiance and getting a feel for the area and the variety of hummers here. I think we’ve already seen about a dozen species I’ve never seen before. I can’t to start.