I finally made it back to Colombia for my second visit and again used the guide services of Pablo Florez. I went with my friend Martin Jackson. We visited Inirida on the Orinoco, Santa Marta of course, Guajira Peninsula on the Caribbean coast, and a couple of National Parks around Bogota.
Puffbirds are a small family of large headed and heavy-billed birds - usually brown or black in color. There are 38 species and 24 of them are in Colombia.
The 7" Chestnut-capped Puffbird (Bucco macrodactylus) is a brown puffbird with a plain breast and bright rufous cap.
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| Chestnut-capped Puffbird |
His cousin the 7.5" Spotted Puffbird (Bucco tamatia) is similar but he has a rufous breast and heavy black spotting on his belly. Both these birds are listed as uncommon to rare in Amazonian Colombia.
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| Spotted Puffbird |
The 8" Russet-throated Puffbird (Hypnelus ruficollis) is similar to the above but a different genus. He has a rufous throat but and a black chest band.
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| Russet-throated Puffbird |
The 7" Swallow-winged Puffbird (Chelidoptera tenebrosa) looks and behaves more like a flycatcher. He is dark gray in color with a reddish belly.
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| Swallow-winged Puffbird |
Lastly a small group of puffbirds are call nunbirds. The 9.5" Black-fronted Nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons) is a dark gray bird with a black face and red bill. It is an easy ID.
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| Black-fronted Nunbird |
Motmots are colorful birds with long racquet tails. The only one for the trip was the 15" Whooping Motmot (Momotus subrufescens). What is distinctive is they swing their tails side-to-side rather than up and down.
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| Whooping Motmot |
I finally got a photo of a 26" Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture (Cathartes burrovianus). I had seen this bird at a great distance soaring a few times, but now had one along the Caribbean coast. The head is actually yellow with a red forehead and red nape.
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| Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture |
We also saw a juvenile King Vulture while we were having lunch one day. But I did not recognize what it was, so I missed the photo before the guide IDed it.
I love marine mammals, so I was excited that we might see a fresh water dolphin on the trip. The Amazon River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) is AKA Boto or Pink Dolphin. It is one of 2 species of fresh water dolphins in the Amazon basin. The first afternoon in Inirida we went to a small river that had a pod of maybe 20 dolphins and they were surfacing all around our boat.
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| Amazon River Dolphin |
I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing
David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com
photos copyright 2006 - 2022 David McDonald
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