Monday 2 September 2013

Serra dos Tucanos: garden hummers

So, I reckon, these deserve a post in their own right – what do you think?

Brazilian_Ruby-1

Yeah, I know, pretty awful, no?

The garden at Serra dos Tucanos features around ten hummingbird feeders, topped up regularly with sugar water, and these attract a more-or-less constant stream of birds. The commonest, and dominant, species is the Sombre Hummingbird, a Brazilian endemic:

Sombre_Hummingbird-1

… though both Violet-capped Woodnymph and Brazilian Ruby are pretty regular too – shown below in near-identical poses!

Violet-capped_Woodnymph-1Brazilian_Ruby-2

The Brazilian Ruby above is a female bird – quite distinct from the male’s iridescent plumage illustrated below, and at the top. I never did get a shot showing the ruby-coloured throat patch, though; this is only visible when the bird is completely head-on, and the light is on the throat.

Brazilian_Ruby-3

Another couple of species were also seen around the feeders less frequently – a handsome Black Jacobin that I never caught with the camera at all, and the Atlantic Forest endemic Saw-billed Hermit. I only managed a very dodgy flight shot of the latter – enough to show the impressively long bill, though.

Saw-billed_Hermit-1 

Flight shots were difficult, unsurprisingly… though borrowing another guest’s external flash for half an hour was an interesting experiment. If I’d known what I was doing with it, things might have got quite productive! As it turns out, this shot is probably the best I managed – taken with natural light only.

Violet-capped_Woodnymph-2

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