¡¡¡Feliz día del padre!!!

First of all, I want to wish a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the fathers around the globe - hugs and kisses from Peru!!! After a couple of weeks I can finally post something, I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures and also for the lack of interesting comments and proper id on the birds... I have to go back to work on my thesis (I'm waaaaaaaaaay behind!!)

But still, I'll try to write a bit about the pictures of this post.


I'm still asking for your help to id the birds we found... in Arica (Chile) and Tacna (Peru)!!! Another unexpected trip, just one night out of the country as I had to go back to work the following Monday.


Tacna is in the south of Peru, it is the border city connecting Chile and Peru. It has a history of battles and patriots. Arica was Peruvian territory. In 1880, the Battle of Arica sort of closed a chapter on the Chilean-Peruvian war. We were there for the Aniversary of the Arica Battle, outsiders in a historic place for both nations.

It is a great thing that birds know nothing about borders, that they were kind enough to reveal themselves to us in both countries.


We saw at least three new (to us) species of hummingbirds (pending id)


The best part of the trip was finding a house on Inclán street in Tacna, which had filled-to-the-top feeders, a 'swimming pool' and several different species of hummingbirds!!!


The house had closed blinds and the feeders were full, so it was obvious that the family was out (Tommy wanted to knock on the door to try to get to the second floor window to take better pictures, it worked for us in the past!)

Three species in the next picture??? Check out the different tails: there's one flying close to the higher feeder, one aproaching the other feeder, and a third one taking a bath and splashing all over (we even got some drops of it!!)


Feeders were too high for our poor, almost zoomless camera, so, this is the best we got (click to enlarge)


If the family or owner of this house and hummingirds paradise, happens to visit this blog, please let us know, as we want to meet you!! (your feeders made our trip SO much better!! THANK YOU!!)


The perched hummingbirds were stunning, specially the ones with those long tails...



From the top of Morro de Arica, we managed to take some pictures of Vultures. It doesn't show, but the head and beak were red and yellow respectively (id in process!!)



I'm not posting all the pictures, as Tommy might do his own post later on, and he took most of the Vultures and small birds pics, I'm posting mostly about the hummingbirds because they were the ones that impressed me the most.