More birds and bugs from Brazil.

I couldn’t make it to Estabrook today, despite the nice weather, but I’ve still got plenty of Brazil pictures, so let’s dive into those. These first six pictures I took while just wandering around the Dolphin Lodge grounds, either before or after breakfast.

This stunner was very willing to pose, but I only saw it one time, and it is a black-fronted nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons).

Here’s a male silver-beaked tanager (Ramphocelus carbo), and these birds were about as shy as house sparrows.

Here’s a female silver-beaked tanager, on the left, with a big green grub in its beak, and a youngster on the right begging to be fed. The females and young are a lot redder and have all black beaks.

While we’re on tanagers, here’s a palm tanager (Thraupis palmarum). They were not quite as bold as the silver-beaks, but they were a lot less flighty, so it was easier to get a nice portrait.

A blue-gray tanager (Thraupis episcopus), who were a bit shyer than the palms.

And a turquoise tanager (Tangara mexicana), who were very shy.

Back out on the water, here’s our third and last heron, a striated heron (Butorides striata) and close cousin to the green herons we see in Estabrook Park.

Speaking of close cousins, here’s one of the four king fishers native to the region, and the only one of which I managed to capture an image, a ringed kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata).

And a neotropic or olivaceous cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum)

This next bird is more like a sibling than a close cousin. The house wren (Troglodytes aedon) “occurs from Canada to southernmost South America, and is thus the most widely distributed native bird in the Americas.” There are, however, “32 recognized subspecies,” with the northern house wren, Troglodytes (aedon) aedon group in Canada to southern United States, and the Southern house wren, Troglodytes (aedon) musculus group in southern Mexico, Central and South America.