Do you celebrate it? How?
I thought I would celebrate my Easter with pics for my friends ;)
These were all taken at 'Parque Histórico', Guayaquil, on March 15th, 2008.
I would like to start with the first guy we found there, the local name is 'Canclón', but you might know it as Horned Screamer (Anhima Cornuta), although this bird is supose to be related to ducks, swans and geese, it does look like a big fat black turkey! It could weight up to 3.5 kg (aprox 7.7 lbs) and be up to 85 or 95 cm (aprox. 33-38 inches)
It has a long quill on its head, kind of going forward, which is one of the reason for the name of this species. projecting forward from the crown, which gives this species its name. It lives in well-vegetated marshes and feeds on water plants.
The one seen on this pic was hanging around with the ducks in a small pond, it was strange to see them together, it looks huge next to them!
Horned Screamer (Anhima Cornuta)Our next friends were loud and colourful... Thanks to this pdf guide on neotropical birds I was able to id them. I hope I did it right! (I'll write first the local name)
This guy is a 'Lora harinosa' (Amazona Farinosa), most of the body is green and it grows up to 38 or 46 cms. Usually travels in groups.
Amazona FarinosaThese guys are smaller and have red on top of the beak, they are 'Loras frentirojas' (Amazona Autumnalis) and travel in small groups or alone.
Amazona AutumnalisThe next guy is a 'Lora Alibronceada' (Pionus Chalcopterus), it is smaller than the previous ones (28-30cm) and personally, is the one I liked the most! You can't see enough in the pic, but the colours were amazing!
Pionus ChalcopterusThis fellow was the loudest of them all, easiest to find, came very close to us! It is a 'Papagayo Azul-Amarillo' (Ara Ararauna), and it's a BIG bird! It grows up to 71-90cm, and if you consider the colours (once more not as bright as seen with the 'eye'), it is a pretty amazing view if you were looking for small hidden treasures and this apears in front of you!
Ara AraraunaMy last bird of this post wasn't free. It's part of a local project to help protect and reproduce this species. If you enlarge the pic by clicking on it you'll find the unmistakable shape of... Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) or Águila Arpía in Spanish. This is a special treat for Markus at Birdingnet.com, who first told me about this species a couple of weeks ago! He sent me this link.
We took this pic from a very high tower and about 50 mts away, and even that far you could see a HUGE bird, too bad we couldn't see it flying free :(
Harpia harpyja
