27 January 2011

Clown of the Andes...ECUADOR (Jan. '11)


Even with the large absentee of Giant Antpitta looming from our morning at Paz de las Aves, things were still pretty sweet when the mere whiff of a banana brought frugivorous birds raining down on their incredible feeders. The hungry mob included this technicolor Toucan Barbet, a Choco endemic (only occurs in that region of NW Ecuador and W Colombia) from a small family that it shares with only the significantly less colorful Prong-billed Barbet of Central America. They are so colorful I like to call them the clown of the Andes. No one else has caught on yet!
More feeders birds to come...

1 comment:

Andy Paulios said...

They look more like one of those scary clowns from a horror movie I watched as a kid....I'm still not over it.