Jays of the Incas...ECUADOR (24 Feb.)

Myself and my photography group awoke pre-dawn at San Isidro, downed our breakfast, and with the first glimmers of sunlight peaking through the windows wandered outside the restaurant to where the lights had attracted an extraordinary amount of moths overnight. It is this that causes a fantastic flurry of activity for the first few hours of the morning, as all variety of birds come in to take advantage of the feast. First up were a pair of Olive-backed Woodcreepers creeping up the post of one of the lights, then came the first noisy rabble of Russet-backed Oropendolas for the morning, only perhaps outdone for noise by the vocal party of Subtropical Caciques that came later. Wintering warblers were soon found in the trees too, some of the Blackburnian Warbler males now looking quite fiery around the throat in readiness for spring (that turned my thoughts to High Island Texas where I will be stationed once again in April). No less appreciated were the Canada Warblers flitting around the shrubbery too, a rarely seen "North American" bird for the Florideans in the group. At this time of year they are in "strange" company to our eyes as they were sharing the bushes with a Black-billed Peppershrike, a White-tailed Tyrannulet, and a pair of showy Masked Trogons that regularly sallied out from there to catch any moths that took to to the wing. Montane Woodcreepers shuffled up the small limbs regularly, although did not cause quite the excitement as the vision in red and yellow provided by a stunning pair of Crimson-mantled Woodpeckers that also joined the feeding frenzy. Higher in the trees a marine colored tanager with a bright yellow cap brought in some further color (Saffron-crowned Tanager). Throughout this frantic feeding frenzy though the Inca Jays were ever present, uttering their bizarre metallic noises, and sporting quite the plumage....

More from our busy morning in San Isidro to come...