An excellent couple of flights from Tucson to Quito yesterday, and a nice walk in the park with Nancy this morning. It’s always nice to have a ’soft’ introduction to an exotic locale, and we came across a nice but unintimidating mix of Ecuadorean birds to get us started. Great Thrushes and Eared Doves fed on the open fields, while Rufous-collared Sparrows chipped and sang and picked everywhere.

 

A small flock of Hooded Siskins was feeding near the botanical garden, and a single Black-tailed Trainbearer flashed overhead; Sparkling Violet-ears were much more accommodating, singing and chirping with little regard for our intrusion. Overhead, Blue-and-white Swallows dashed through the sky, and an American Kestrel welcomed us on our return to the hotel.

And now that I’ve had lunch, I’m taking another group back to see what we can see!

They won’t exactly meet my plane when I land in Quito tonight, but it should be just a few short hours before we’re out among the ant-thrushes, cotingas, jacamars, puffbirds, and toucans. And live ones at that!

Half a dozen of us gathered yesterday in the University of Arizona bird collections for a show-and-tell session on tropical birds.

It was a chance to admire everything from tinamou eggs to tanagers, and for several of us to prepare ourselves a bit for upcoming visits south.

The big nightjar (a Tawny Frogmouth) doesn’t look much different in skin from when it was alive, but the parrots and doves are invariably much harder to see when they’re lurking in the canopy foliage or streaking across the sky.

And now it’s time to get out and see how much we learned!