2008/06/15

¡¡¡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.

14 comments:

Q said...

Dear Mel,
Oh my goodness!!! What wonderful and beautiful Hummingbirds you saw.
Thank you for posting these pictures. I have never seen hummers like these...fantastic.
I love seeing the birds of South America! Thank gooddness they do not know anything about countries or battles. I love the birds.
Good luck on writing...
Miss you and know you are one busy lady! We will catch up soon.
Sherry

entoto said...

What interesting birds you have posted. I would love to see those long tailed hummingbirds in action.

I hope the thesis goes well.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Great shots!

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Your travel pictures are awesome Mel! I really love that humminbird with the long tail. It's great that your last picture of this post is a vulture- one of my favorite birds!

Best of luck on the writing and don't worry about not posting or commenting. I understand and am thinking of you. {{{hugs}}}

Tricia Ryder said...

Lovely pictures of lovely birds Mel. IDs required? Sorry, can't help there - I have enough problems trying to ID my UK Birds LOL.

Anonymous said...

I am loving learning about the many birds from your area! Those hummingbirds are the coolest with the tail like that!

Ecobirder said...

Cool hummingbird pics. Please send some up to North America so that we can get some pics of these very impressive birds. Maybe we can send down some ruby throated hummers, sorry that's about all that we get up here in the north.

Sherry at the Zoo said...

Love the hummingbirds! Great pictures as always. I've only seen one hummingbird up here this season - a male ruby-throated. But, hey, since we don't have a feeder this year, I guess that's all I can expect - LOL!

Sekhar said...

The photo with sky as the background against a bird is a classic shot.
Keep it up :)

Mel said...

Thank you guys for visiting.
I must apologize for not visiting your blogs lately, you know my time schedules are crazy now :(

Antshrike said...

Hi Mel, I think you have at least two hummer species. The one with the super long tail is Peruvian Sheartail. The male in the first feeder photo with a forked tail like Oasis Hummingbird. These are both common along the coast. Of course females look different making you think you have more species.

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

A fantastic post! Your pictures are wonderful.

mon@rch said...

How wonderful it must be to see these hummingbirds!

Mel said...

Thank you all for stopping by :)
I wish I had more time to post and visit you more often!