By our last
field day, we had no sound recordings, no high-speed video, and no decent
pictures of the Gorgeted Woodstar. What were we supposed to expect from a
species that is so poorly known? I guess we have been spoiled by our
success in studying other bee hummingbirds. Of the 21 species I have
helped Chris track down so far, we have only had two species that didn’t
displays for us. But for these two, the Magenta-throated Woodstar of
Costa Rica and the Sparkling-tailed Woodstar of Guatemala, at least I got a few
decent photos.
Until now, we
have gone after several species at a time so if we run into trouble with one,
we can cut our losses and spend more time on a neighboring species. Since
we were only after this one woodstar, the trip was feeling like a total bust.
While I had photos of other hummingbirds and rainforest creatures to show for
the last two weeks, Chris was understandably less enthusiastic about our
accomplishments.
Barely an hour
before we had to pack up, we got a little gift from our fantastic local guide,
William. He had talked to his friends in the area and heard about a lead
on a male woodstar visiting a garden in the nearby village. We had a very
small window of time to work with since we were only allowed to cross the damaged
bridge back to the main highway at certain times of the day. If we missed
our window, we wouldn’t have enough time to make it to the government office in
Tena to finalize Chris’ permits.
Just in the nick
of time, someone spotted the male coming to the garden. Chris got his
nets into place and with a bit of skill and a bit of luck, he managed to
capture the bird. While the courtship displays are far more important for
the research, Chris can use the tail feathers he collected for his wind tunnel
experiments and I was able to take a few close-up pictures of the bird.
Gorgeted Woodstar (Chaetocercus
heliodor)
Sparkling Violetear (Colibri coruscans)
Chestnut-breasted
Coronet (Boissonneaua
matthewsii)
Chestnut-breasted
Coronet (Boissonneaua
matthewsii)
Chestnut-breasted
Coronet (Boissonneaua
matthewsii)
Female White-bellied Woodstar (Chaetocercus
mulsant) . It is
possibly an Amethyst Woodstar, but we haven’t worked out the differences in
female plumage between these two species yet. This is another species
that does courtship displays, but it breeds at a different time of year so wasn’t
a target for this trip.
View from the hotel during our last night
in Quito
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