Yesterday I shared photos from two of the four feeder stations we visited while at Reserva Amagusa where we saw a lot of Tanagers and Barbets. Later that same day we went to two other feeder stations: one designed to attract hummingbirds and the other was designed to attract humans! This way to the hummingbirds!
There was only one hummingbird feeder in the area but flowers were brought in to attract the hummers. Below is a Velvet Purple Coronet feeding from one of those flowers.
A Green Thorntail flitted around, feeding off of the orange and purple flowers. More about the orange flowers below.
A Brown Inca perched nicely for me.
The hummingbird handlers there at Reserva Amagusa have developed a neat trick. They take a bunch of the orange flowers, spray them with sugar-water, and then hand the flowers to one of the visitors. Here’s Karen holding the flowers with one hummer sitting on her arm and another flying in for a sip of sugar-water.
I then took the flowers and had a couple more hummers flying in and landing on my hand!
Everyone in the group had a chance to hold the flowers and have the hummers come in to feed off of them. A pretty neat!
The last feeder station was designed for humans – the lunch spot! Tables were set up outside beneath a roof and it looked out over a small pond and some bananas were set up right outside of the seating area. A light rain was coming down but that didn’t stop birds from coming in to feed on the bananas. My favorite (and a Lifer) was a Crimson-rumped Toucanete, which slowly approached the bananas from the trees out in the pond.
The toucanet dove into the bananas right in front of us. It would take a hunk of banana and then toss it back into its throat.
If you look closely, you can see its long, thin tongue sticking out!
After a delicious lunch we headed back to Sachatamia Lodge for the rest of the afternoon. We walked out to their observation tower and walked up about 40 feet of stairs to the platform which had a great view of the canopy. We stayed up there for less than an hour because unfortunately we didn’t see many birds (again, the feeders were the best places to observe birds as opposed to out in the wild).
Next week I’ll continue sharing more about our birding experiences in the Mindo Valley, Ecuador. Until then, here are links to previous posts of our Ecuador Birding Trip:
How to prepare for and get the most from your bird tour
Our Ecuador Birding Trip – Preliminary Data
Our Bird Tour In Ecuador – Overview
Birding a City Park in Downtown Quito, Ecuador
Out of Quito to Reserva Yanacocha
Into Mindo Valley – Sachatamia Lodge
Mindo Valley – Reserva Amagusa
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