Wednesday, 25 December 2019

5000 up in Ecuador!

One of the big birds while in Ecuador was ORANGE-BREASTED FRUITEATER. While watching some hummingbird feeders and tanager fruit feeders in the Mindo area a pair of birds flew in and started feeding on some fruiting palm trees just down the hill from my view point.

As it turned out this species became #5000 on my world list (I'd started the day on around #4990 so was counting down as I was going, so as soon as they flew in I knew what the situation was, I just needed to try and get a pic of it to document the occasion!). What a nice bird to bring up that milestone. My last few milestone birds have been in Australia (#4000 was Thick-billed Grasswren and #3000 was Black-breasted Buzzard)... wonder what #6000 will be!

Orange-breasted Fruiteater is a Choco endemic, found in southern Colombia and eastern Ecuador along the western slope of the Andes so has a pretty limited global distribution. There's some pretty noticeable differences between the male and female birds, as can be seen from the pictures below. The males are stunning!

Orange-breasted Fruiteater - male

Orange-breasted Fruiteater - male

Orange-breasted Fruiteater - female

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