Nature Trips

The black-thighed puffleg (Eriocnemis derbyi) is a species of hummingbird in the Trochilidae family. It is found at humid forest edge and ravines in the Andean highlands of Colombia and northern Ecuador. It is threatened by habitat loss. As suggested by its name, the feathering around its legs is black, which is unique among the pufflegs. Otherwise its plumage is green with a contrastingly black tail.

For a long time, it was considered an endemic species to Colombia although recently a population was found in the north of Ecuador. Its name Grallaria derives from the modern Latin grallarius = stiltwalker and the epithet rufocinerea from the Latin roots rufus = rufous and cinereus = ash gray.

It is a very striking small bird of mainly black and white coloration that is found east of the Andes. The term cayanus was used in the principles of ornithology to refer to a bird of doubtful origin, probably from the Amazon.

The bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) is a species of passerine bird of uncertain relation. It is tentatively placed in the tanager family, but classified as incertae sedis by other authorities such as the American Ornithologists Union. Its classification is debated, and it is often placed in its own family: Coerebidae. It has recently been suggested the bananaquit should be split into three species, but this has yet to receive widespread recognition. This small, active nectarivore is found in warmer parts of the Americas, and is generally common.

It is distinguished from other green toucans by its red rump and its song is a quasi, something nasal and repeated. Its name Aulacorhynchus comes from the Greek aulax which means furrow and rhunkhos which means beak. The epithet haematopygus comes from the Greek haima, which means blood, and pugus, which means rump.

The American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is a large species of flamingo closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo. It was formerly considered conspecific with the greater flamingo, but that treatment is now widely viewed (e.g. by the American and British Ornithologists’ Unions) as incorrect due to a lack of evidence. It is also known as the Caribbean flamingo, although it is present in the Galápagos Islands. In Cuba, it is also known as the greater flamingo It is the only flamingo that naturally inhabits North America.

The Barred Fruiteater is a large species of the fruiteater group of cotingas that resides in the northern Andes. The species ranges from western Venezuela south to western Bolivia, where it lives in temperate zone forest from 2000-3300 meters in elevation, higher than most other fruiteaters, . The Barred Fruiteater is olive above with a red bill, pale yellow markings on the greater coverts and tertials, a black terminal tail band, and yellow- and black-barred underparts. Males have a black hood while females are olive-headed; iris color varies from yellow to red to white in different parts of the range. Barred Fruiteater’s song is a high rapid series of hissing notes which is shorter in the southern part of its range.

It is a fairly polytypic species with a relatively complex taxonomy. . Its name Synallaxis comes from the Greek sunallaxis = change, which was assigned by Vieillot (1818) referring to characters that merited recognition as a different gender. The epithet azarae was established in honor of the Spanish military engineer and naturalist Felix Manuel de Azara.