Random Bird: Purple-bibbed Whitetip

Kenn wrote this back in December: (Today, January 5, we're supposed to be leading a group of birders to the Otamendi Nature Reserve north of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It's unlikely that we'll have a chance to post anything, so this "random bird" is set to post in our absence.)

That’s one of the great things about being a bird blogger. Who else gets to title a post "Purple-bibbed Whitetip?"

This small hummingbird (technically Urosticte benjamini) occurs only on the west slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador, mostly in the understory of dense forest in the subtropical zone. It had been considered "rare to uncommon and perhaps local" and "not often seen" as recently as 2001. That was when the outstanding two-volume "The Birds of Ecuador," by Bob Ridgely and Paul Greenfield, was published. But since then, a number of ecotourism lodges in Ecuador have put up hummingbird feeders, and suddenly this rare-and-not-often-seen hummer has become a lot easier to see. The establishment of feeders in many tropical areas has not changed the actual distribution of hummingbirds, but it has certainly altered our understanding of where they live.

I had seen this bird’s only close relative, the Rufous-vented Whitetip, in Peru several years ago, but I’d never encountered the Purple-bibbed until February 2006, when Kim and I got to watch (and photograph) this species at leisure at the Tandayapa Bird Lodge, near Mindo, Ecuador. The purple bibs of the males were visible only in certain lights, but the odd white tips to their central tail feathers were very conspicuous.

Buenos Aires, Day Dos

From Buenos Aires, Argentina, Kim and Kenn write: Our friend Delores Cole (web guru for Black Swamp Bird Observatory and Ohio Young Birders Club) came in this morning, and walked out with us for another round at the Costanera Sur Nature Reserve. As indicated by the sign above, the reserve is internationally recognized as an Important Bird Area.



A major Important Bird of this Area is the outlandish Guira Cuckoo. It looks weird enough standing still, but check out this video that Kim took of the bird calling and showing off (with authentic Latino music in the background):

A bird that we found foraging in the high traffic area along the edge of the reserve was the totally gorgeous Red-crested Cardinal. But, unlike most good-looking humans I've encountered, these doggone birds did NOT want to have their picture taken. I chased them up and down the sidewalk, generating ZERO good photos, but lots of laughs from Kenn & Delores, and the locals who delighted in watching the bird come in right next to me...until I raised the camera.

Eventually I got bored with the game and started people watching. That's how I spotted and photographed the much more cooperative Red-crested human, which looked remarkably like the bird that refused to have its picture taken! Here she is doing some foraging of her own:

Of course, as soon as I gave up and settled for a photo of a look-alike, the real thing came along and posed for me. Check out this stunner:

The Beautiful (and fussy!) Red-crested Cardinal

The most common hummingbird here was the Glittering-bellied Emerald (another name invented by museum ornithologists, trying to come up with something distinctive about yet another species of Chlorostilbon that looks pretty much like all the others). We often saw it feeding at the flowers of tree-tobacco (Nicotiana glauca). This is a great hummingbird plant in the southern USA and Mexico as well, but here in South America it's more likely to be a local native.

The trails through the park are filled with local people who come here to exercise. They certainly seem to enjoy the sun; Kenn was practically the only man there who was wearing a shirt. Some apparently come to exercise their bodies. Others appeared to be exorcizing any variety of demons.

Kenn had an interesting conversation with one of the locals who seemed to be doing a bit of both. A nice fella, who knew a bit about the birds, he, um, well, he didn't have much on in terms of clothing. But he sure knew a lot about Rufous Horneros! When he saw our binoculars, he stopped running, came straight over and pointed excitedly to a large nest above our heads. Kenn was too nice to tell him that we knew exactly what it was, and that we'd been standing there admiring it for several minutes. We're always thrilled when the locals seem to be aware and appreciative of their bird neighbors, and we didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm.

The conversation Kenn had with the guy was totally in Spanish, so I was pretty much out of the loop. After he jogged off, Kenn explained the conversation, referring to the guy as "The Naked Naturalist" which had me giggling like an idiot the rest of the day.

In case you don't remember the Rufous Hornero.....Here it is again.

And, here's its way cool nest.

See, it looks like an old oven, doesn't it?!

The Naked Naturalist moves on after giving us the lo-down on the

Rufous Hornero and its nest.

A few birds from Buenos Aires

From Buenos Aires, Argentina, Kenn writes: We were walking for hours and for miles in the huge Costanera Sur reserve right in the city today, developing a good January sunburn in the process. Buenos Aires is a city of around ten million people, and it's amazing to have this superb nature reserve within walking distance of the downtown hotels. A recurrent drought has dried up the ponds that usually have hordes of waterbirds, but we did see a great variety of landbirds. It's after midnight here in Argentina and we're too wasted to write anything, but here are a few pictures, anyway.

Looking at a small part of the skyline of Buenos Aires, Argentina, from across the Costanera Sur Nature Reserve

Picazuro Pigeon -- this native pigeon is abundant in the reserve

Bay-winged Cowbird -- the most attractive of the three local species of cowbirds (this one is not a brood parasite, but its nests are parasitized by another species, the Screaming Cowbird)

Green-barred Woodpecker, lurking in deep shade -- as you might guess by looking, this bird is related to the flickers in North America

This young White-rumped Swallow was waiting to be fed by its parents. Early January is mid-summer here, and we saw recently fledged young birds of several species.

Facts about Palestine

Israel is a country, acknowledged by the UN and the majority of the world, INCLUDING a few MUSLIM and ARAB countries (Egypt is a prime example)

There is NO country on this planet called Palestine.

"Palestinians" who do NOT have ANY passport, but a "Wathiqa" (Document) may travel as they wish.

Israel has an actual government, a constitution, and a claim to that land. Before Israel, that land was a part of the British mandate of Palestine, a name the British MADE UP. Before 1912, NO "Palestinians" existed. The people who lived there were Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians, and constituencies (kind of) of the Ottoman Empire.

The "Palestinian" issue stems from the fact that their "leaders" are corrupt dogs, and they can’t get along with each other.

You can only be Japanese if there is a Japan, Chinese if there is a China and German if there is a Germany... So... Palestinians are from...? (Again, there is today, NO country called Palestine.)

The correct terminology, based on the geographical setting of Gaza would either be Egyptian or Israeli.

With the absence of either Israeli or Egyptian citizenship, these "stateless people" are just that, STATELESS.

I actually dont have anything PERSONALLY against these people. Nor have I gone through one single situation that makes me "hate" them.

I like facts. There isn’t a Palestine, and thus there can’t be Palestinians. The UN caters to them because they don’t know what to do with hem.

ISRAEL being an actual country has an obligation to protect its people, and if that means genocide, so be it.

"Palestinians" have no such right, as they don’t have a country or government that is allowed to do that for them. They have a "president" who is powerless to stop crazy fanatics as they do what they wish.

Again, if YOU feel strongly about this, if YOU care, then YOU should be there HELPING, NOT sitting in your safe ell off house typing on the computer.

But I don’t expect anything from people who bark with drunken sincerity when ordered. You are pathetic and a prime example as to why the human race as a whole is one vile mess.

Oh, and just because you died, doesn’t mean you are automatically a martyr. There are rules for martyrdom, ones that usually never are present in the Arab Israeli conflict.

Don´t Cry For Me (we're in) Argentina

From Buenos Aires, Kim and Kenn write: (Couldn´t resist the musical reference in the title.) Before we left home we weren´t sure we´d be able to post to the blog from here. But if you´re reading this, then evidently we can! That might change once we´re on the ship, but for now, woo hoo! (can you tell that Kim typed that part?!)

So, yes, we´re here. We´re sleep-deprived and jet-lagged. But thanks to our dear friends Lois and Vic, we made it to the airport safe and sound, and made the long overnight flight so that we could be in Argentina today. Kim had a life bird (the very cool Chimango Caracara!!) before we even got off the plane! It was perched on a light pole and several Blue-and-white Swallows were harrassing it, giving away its location.

The big nature reserve of Costanera Sur was closed today for New Years, but the beautiful cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires is full of small parks that have their own attractions. In a park off Tucuman Avenue, we photographed this impressive old tree, which obviously had been here for a while:






A bird that´s common in the city is the Rufous Hornero. ¨Hornero¨ in Spanish is a reference to ¨one who works with ovens,¨ and the whole tropical family of Ovenbirds (Furnariidae) (unrelated to the North American bird called the Ovenbird, which is a warbler) gets its name from this Rufous Hornero (scientific name Furnarius rufus), which builds a nest shaped like an old oven.

We saw these horneros in several parks and gardens today, marching about on the ground with a self-important air.

Monk Parakeet is a bird that you can see in parks in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and many other U.S. cities, but those are all descended from escaped cagebirds. The ones we saw in Buenos Aires today were wild birds on their native range.

Monk Parakeet in B.A., just as noisy here as it is anywhere.

Take a casual look at any of these small Buenos Aires parks and you´d swear you were seeing American Robins running around. Take a closer look and you realize the bird doesn´t look quite the same. This is a related bird, the Rufous-bellied Thrush. Similar thrushes wind up being common city birds in many parts of the world.

Rufous-bellied Thrush, the local robin substitute in Buenos Aires.



Okay, it´s almost 10:30 at night here, we´re tired, dirty, hungry, and ready to call it a night. Happy New Year to all (and to all a good night).

-

In With The New Year

From the Time Machine, Kenn writes: If this attempt at pre-publishing actually works, this will post at 6:55 in the morning (eastern standard time) on January 1, 2009. And if all goes according to plan, at that point Kim and I will be all bleary-eyed and hot. Not as a result of partying all night, but as a result of being on a plane all night, on a nine-hour flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires is at the edge of the tropics, and January 1 is the height of summer there, which is where the "hot" part comes from. Or at least, most of it.

We’ll be out of the country for about four weeks, with several days in northern Argentina, a couple in Tierra del Fuego, and then a long voyage by ship to the Falklands, South Georgia Island, and the Antarctic Peninsula. If possible -- if we can connect to the internet for less than a million dollars -- we’ll attempt to post some bird pix from Argentina, or maybe even from the ship, if the satellite hookup works. But it’s possible that we won’t be able to post anything to the blog for four weeks.

Since we don’t want to lose any of our loyal readers, we’re attempting this thing where we’ve pre-scheduled a number of posts to appear while we’re gone. They won’t be quite every day (but some days might have two). I probably won’t do anything blatant like posting lots of pictures of Kim birding in a bikini (although you never know ... ). We might do things like posting photos of sexy birds, quiz questions with fabulous prizes, or our secret directions to a Carolina Parakeet nesting site. You never know.

It’s possible that I’ve screwed up the technique and that all of our carefully scheduled posts will come spewing out at once, crashing the system. If so -- well, live and learn. But please check back often to see if that has happened. And we’ll be "live" again by the end of January, if not before.

Our very best wishes to all of our birding friends, including those whom we haven't met yet, for a rewarding and hopeful and prosperous new year.

Muslim World protests!

It seems that maybe the so-called “Muslim World” should have started protesting a week ago when Hamas (acting as the government of Gaza) suddenly started firing up to 80 missiles a day into Israel. Everybody knew what was going to happen, and Hamas knew as well.

It’s all so predictable. First, Israel waits a few days to monitor the attacks, and let the world witness the Hamas attacks, and gather intelligence about launch sites. Then Israel responds with force. And because the Hamas missiles were being launched from civilian areas, civilian lives would be lost.

Seen it all before

Looking at recent history, Israel does not sit idle while being hit by daily rocket barrages from Gaza, everybody knows that.

Hamas eventually got what it wanted - a full-scale armed response from Israel. But is that what the Palestinian people wanted?

Now everybody is talking about a ceasefire. Well, there WAS a ceasefire - it ended on the 19th December, and that’s when Hamas started firing the missiles into Israel. Another ceasefire will just be a temporary pause, nothing more.

Full scale armed conflict with Israel is good for Hamas - it increases their funding tenfold and gets them sympathy and support from all over the world. I just wish the ordinary Gaza residents could decide whether they want to enter into full-scale war with Israel, instead of Hamas deciding for them.