The Powerful Woodpecker is a large, robust woodpecker in the genus Campephilus and family Picidae, that includes the largest black woodpeckers. It has black upperparts with two white stripes on the shoulders that meet in the back. The male has rusty underparts heavily barred black with the breast, front of the neck, and throat black. Both sexes have a white line from the base of the bill down the sides of the neck. The male has a black forehead, sides of the head, and red crest. The female resembles male but on the head, the red is replaced by black.
The Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus), also known as tunki (Quechua), is a large passerine bird of the cotinga family native to Andean cloud forests in South America. It is widely regarded as the national bird of Peru. It has four subspecies and its closest relative is the Guianan cock-of-the-rock.
It measures around 33cm and weighs 193-230g. Both sexes are similar. It has legs, and red eyes and a red beak with a black tip. It has a cream-gray head, neck and chest and a dark brownish-gray eye patch. Its upper parts are bronze green with a purple patch on the wing coverts. Its chest is dark gray with gray terminal lines in the shape of a spur and the rest of the underparts are white. In flight it shows wide, rounded black wings as well as the distal half of the tail. It also has a large white wing patch and tail base. Juveniles are similar to adults, but with brownish head and neck, and buff-speckled chest.
The blue-necked tanager (Stilpnia cyanicollis) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
The emerald toucanet is a near-passerine bird occurring in mountainous regions from Mexico, through Central America to northern Venezuela and along the Andes as far south as central Bolivia. Some taxa currently included in this species are sometimes split into separate species (see Taxonomy).
The Rufous-fronted Parakeetis a species of bird of the parrot family (Psittacidae) endemic to the highest mountains of the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, between 2800 and 4100 meters above sea level.
The Golden-collared Manakin(Manacus vitellinus), is a species of passerine bird belonging to the genus Manacus of the Pipridae family. It is native to southeastern Central America and extreme northwestern South America.
There is just so much that can be seen from the safety of one’s home. A bird’s eye view of the world through the limited lens of one’s domestic window has its place, but spreading one’s wings and venturing out to find and identify our feathered neighbors can become a new form of tourism.
It all began when on March 19th when I was birding in the pacific slopes from the western Andes close to Cali with a good friend and an amazing naturalist from Turkey named Emin Yoğurtcuoğlu. We were at the end of an incredibly successful tour through Colombian Choco bioregion close to Cali Colombia, where I live.
Colombia teems with birds, but until recently fighting between the government and guerilla groups scared visitors away. Now, former war zones are fast becoming bird-watching hotspots. And that could help preserve them.
