24 February 2013. In two days of birding at El Jaguar we haven’t seen as many life birds as I had dreamed, but we have certainly seen
enough to keep our spirits high. So far
we have seen 9 life birds and another 11 species we had not previously seen in
Nicaragua. Not bad at all.
The most fun today were the very small Blue-crowned
Chlorophonias, 3 of them, seen very high in the forest canopy sitting in a
little window of direct sunlight in the lowering late afternoon sun. Their lemon yellow bellies and fluorescent green
heads and wings glowed neon-like in glorious contrast to the shadows cast by
the leaves surrounding them. The show of
light and color was especially satisfying because we already today we had twice
missed seeing this species, and we only found this threesome by craning our
necks and scanning the canopy for many minutes, searching in the general
direction from which we heard their cooing song. As each of us finally fixed on the birds,
each in turn “wowed” at their brilliance.
They were, quite literally, the highlight of the day
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