We saw many, many colourful birds in the Pantanal. This, I think, was my very favourite.
Orange-backed troupial
I had a curious respect and admiration for this creature.
The Yacaré caiman is endemic to central South America
Somehow, the more colourful version is more appealing than the black, though I’m not sure that’s the right word. Jaguars and anacondas like them whatever the colour – they eat them.
Truly attractive was the demonstration of synchronised drinking by Mr and Mrs Bare-faced curassow:
My bird book says ‘Song: low, hoarse, “e-ur” notes of pair, like grunting of domestic pigs.’
Iguana. They come in all shades of green, and sometimes lavender, black or even pink.
Cocoi heron
The walkie-talkies crackled, and we were off on one of our white-knuckle rides (I exaggerate a little, but the speedy rides were great fun!) to see an unknown jaguar found by one of the boatmen.
More screeching brakes, and our boat turned round! Manuel’s eagle eyes had spotted a jaguar on the bank – and there were no other boats there. Very satisfying, especially for the guides, that we were able to observe on our own for a while, before others – honour obliged Manuel – joined us.
It was Maxime again, we were told. Just check those forehead markings! Frustratingly, we had no idea where we were in respect to where we had seen him previously, a minor failing of the organisers to my mind. No matter, there we were, observing this beautiful creature once more.
Kiskadee. Some say it calls its name.
In due course, we went on to join others observing the original ‘unknown’ jaguar we had set off to see. He (presumably it was a he) remained unknown, for this is all we saw for the 30-40 minutes we stayed there. Definitely the least exciting of all our sightings!
But here is Dave Allen’s expert video of Maxime’s failed attempt to catch the capybara the other day. You can hear the barking capybara at the end.
Thursday’s sunset.
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