Tandayapa Bird Lodge
Our first stop on the trip was an Andean cloud forest lodge where we spent three nights photographing hummingbirds. The lodge had observation decks with bird feeders and setups for hummingbird photography. One great thing about all of the lodges we stayed at is that you could pretty well leave the camera(set up on tripods) and/or computer equipment anywhere and not worry about it. The lodge had a main building with about twelve bedrooms, a spacious observation deck, and a dining room located next to an area for relaxing. What I discovered while staying in these lodges is that there were often no keys for the room and even when there was I tended to just leave the doors unlocked. That way I never had to worry about where my room key was since I had so much other gear to remember to bring with me. The bus that brought us to this lodge had to park on the road below which meant we all had to hike up quite a distance to the lodge, no easy task at the high altitude with all of the equipment and luggage. Luckily for us, the hotel(and Jess and Glenn) took care of bringing the majority of the luggage up to the rooms. After settling in and having lunch we were all anxious to take photos. I have done my best to identify the birds but it is likely that there could be some errors so feel free to let me know so I can correct the information.
A Buff-tailed Coronet. These hummingbirds are very aggressive hummers often defending a feeder against other birds. The Coronet has green underparts and a short straight bill.
A Fawn-breasted Brilliant Hummingbird. This is a fairly large and common hummer. This bird often gets confused with the Buff-tailed Coronet since they are both green above with a white fleck behind the eye and similar in size. However, the Brilliant is beige, not green, below and has a longer, slightly decurved bill and no buff in the tail. This bird above is a male since it has a rose gorget.
Another Fawn-breasted Brilliant. The diet of this hummingbird is mostly nectar but will eat small insects and spiders for extra protein. When feeding it hovers before the flower or hangs from it and inserts its tongue up to 13 times per second.
An Andean Emerald which is easily recognized since it is all white below. The crown is shining turquoise when seen head-on. Hummingbirds are the smallest of birds with most species measuring in the 7.5 -13 cm (3-5 in) range. The birds are known as hummingbirds because of the humming sound created by their beating winds which flap at high frequencies.
This Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is a medium size hummer, similar in shape to the Andean Emerald. The bird is easy to identify due to its bronze tail and pink bill. Rufous-tailed hummingbirds are very aggressive and defend flowers and shrubs in their feeding territories. They are dominant over most other hummingbirds.
A female Green Crown Brilliant showing her speckled green below and white tips to the outer tail.
Purple-bibbed White-tip. These hummingbirds birds are not always easy to see since they don't often come out in the open. They take nectar from small flowers and they hover while looking for insects. Both males and females have a large white spot behind the eye. |
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Buffed-tailed Coronet. With the exception of insects, hummingbirds while in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings during hovering and fast forward flight. To conserve energy when food is scarce, they have the ability to go into a hibernation-like state where their metabolic rate is slowed to 115th of its normal rate.
Hummingbirds consume more than their own weight in nectar each day and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers daily. Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight.
A Booted racket-tail hummingbird in flight. Hummingbirds hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates, typically around 50 times per second but possibly as high as 200 times per second allowing them also to fly at speeds exceeding 15m/s (54km/h;34 mph) backwards or upside down. In order to photograph these birds while they are hovering in the air, flash setups were used to stop their motion.
A purple-throated Woodstar. These Woodstars are quite different from other hummers. They have a very insect-like flight in that they hold themselves horizontally, fly much more deliberately and less jerkily and do not often perch on feeders.
Brown Inca Hummingbirds measures about 4.3" or 10.9cm in length including their bill and tail. Hummingbirds are solitary in all aspects of life other than breeding. The birds neither live nor migrate in flocks and there is no pair bond for this species. Males do not participate in choosing the nest location, building the nest or raising the chicks. The female alone protects and feeds the chicks with regurgitated food (mostly partially digested insects since nectar is an insufficient source of protein for the growing chicks. The female pushes the food down the chicks/ throats with her long bill directly into their stomachs. The chicks leave the nest when they are about 20 days old.
A Rufous tailed hummingbird in flight.
The male Booted Racket-tail was a great favourite- we really liked watching him.
A view from the observation deck. Next up field trips to a higher elevation to find some different species of birds.