One of my favourite birding memories resulted from a tragic plane crash. In 2007, we flew to São Paulo, intending to fly on to the Pantanal, return to São Paulo, then fly to Iguazu. The day before we arrived, however, there was a horrific plane crash at the domestic terminal and all domestic flights were grounded for the foreseeable future. While deciding what to do, our guide took us to the Hotel do Ype in Itatiaia National Park. We slept in comfortable cabins in the forest and woke to a dawn chorus of Chachalacas. Breakfast was served in the main building, on a balcony adorned with numerous bird feeders. It was almost impossible to eat, because every time you sat back down another wonderful bird, more brightly coloured than the last, would appear. There were tanagers and motmots, woodpeckers and toucans, euphonias and chlorophonias, and when at last we tore ourselves away to go out birding and visit the local hummingbird feeders, we saw a ferruginous pygmy-owl roosting right next to the dining room.
Row 1: Saffron Toucanet, Blue Dacnis, Green-headed Tanager, Row 2: Yellow-fronted Woodpecker, Black-goggled Tanager, Ferruginous Pygmy-owl.
1 Comment
Margaret Tiller
30/4/2020 02:38:21 pm
Beautiful photographs of beautiful birds!
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