Until I catch up on my school-posts, I won’t be writing much about Mindo. I do, however, have videos and photos that I took on Mari’s camera, so check them out! The round glare you often see is the lens of the camera reflecting against the scope that provided most of the zoom to capture the images—I discovered the annoying way how difficult it is to perfectly align the two device’s lenses. Thus, some of my footage has required heavy splicing to edit out the seconds spent trying to focus the scope (which in addition had a bad leg) in one hand while keeping the lenses in line with the other hand. Unfortunately, the most evasive bird, the Golden-winged Manakin, was the subject of the most troublesome equipment management.
The Rufous Motmot, which was a juvenile based on its tail (adults of this species, and of many motmots, have two racquet-tipped tail feathers), and the Pale-mandibled Araçari were both perched on the same wood plank with banana or plantain on it at the visitor’s waiting area of the Milpe Cloudforest Reserve, though at different times. An interesting thing about motmots’ racquet tails is that when the adults preen, the barbs on a certain section of the quill, or shaft, of the feathers fall off to create the gap that shapes the racquet!

Two Blue-grey Tanagers and a male Lemon-rumped Tanager on the plank; another Blue-grey Tanager and a female Lemon-rumped Tanager on the branch above; White-tailed Jacobin and Rufous-tailed Hummingbird out of focus at the feeder; can you find the Bananaquit?
The Chocó Trogon, endemic to the Chocó region of Ecuador and Colombia, looks fairly similar to the Collared Trogon subspecies found in this part of South America. As an aside, you can read a little about the Collared Trogon in the Neotropical Birds Species Account that I wrote for the species in my ornithology class, and also look up any other bird that I’ve referred to here, as there may be some interesting information about them on this Cornell Lab of Ornithology website!
I’m including some photos of birds and insects we saw below, as well as the list of species seen in the day-and-a-half that I was in Mindo. It is also possible that I am missing some species that I saw but don’t remember having seen!
- Crimson-rumped Toucanet and Pale-mandibled Araçari
- I found two parts of the wing not too far from each other on the trail.
- A couple minutes later, we spotted a live one!
Golden-winged Manakin
Golden Tanager
White-shouldered Tanager
(Probably) Summer Tanager
Blue-grey Tanager
Lemon-rumped Tanager
Bananaquit
Orange-bellied Euphonia
(Probably) Lineated Woodpecker
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
Guayaquil Woodpecker
Tropical Kingbird
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Masked Tityra
Bronze-winged Parrot
Red-tailed Parrot
Maroon-tailed Parakeet
Ornate Flycatcher
Foliage Gleaner
Beryl-spangled Tanager
Grey-breasted Wood Wren
Dusty-capped Flycatcher
Green Thorntail
White-whiskered Hermit
Green-crowned Woodnymph
White-tailed Jacobin
Green-crowned Brilliant
Brown Violetear
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Chocó Trogon
Collared Trogon
Pale-billed Aracari
Chestnut-mandibled Toucan
Crimson-rumped Toucanet
Wedge-billed Woodcreeper
Torrent Tyrannulet
Black Phoebe
Squirrel Cuckoo
White-tipped Dove
Rufous Motmot
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