For the first two installments of this video series, please click here and here.

With footage filmed between late October and early December of this year, the compilation video below features twelve different families of birds, not including the domesticated chickens we have as egg-suppliers on property.

First, a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird scans its territory for trespassers; next, a female Yellow-throated Euphonia eats some tiny fruit from a local tree, and a male of the same species sings his bubbly song, which includes a mimicked phrase from the Rufous-breasted Wren toward the end of the segment. Then, some chickens and roosters browse a section of the orchard where certain kitchen leftovers are disposed of to provide the fowl additional sustenance. Also on the edge of the orchard is the female Summer Tanager, preening itself before rushing off to join a male of its migratory species (pictured below). On the other end of the same orange grove, a Blue-crowned Motmot enjoys the morning sunlight, and its characteristic tail “tic-tocking” pendulum swing is interrupted by foliage.

Next, a female or juvenile Chestnut-sided Warbler, having migrated from North America, repeatedly tries to swallow the seed, scrap of fruit, or insect (it’s pretty hard to tell) that is a tad too large for its beak. This individual actually engaged in this activity for about twice the amount of time that I featured in the compilation, and it was almost painful to watch the bird’s struggles. Not so discomforting to witness was the affection displayed between the pair of Inca Doves waddling near Villa 11 as they lightly preened each other’s necks. Further along the path near Reception, in the palm trees just before Villa 10, a Gray-headed Chachalaca (which was accompanied by fellows of its species elsewhere in the same trees) gobbles up countless lipid-rich fruits, its pink throat-skin flashing with every nut.

Summer Tanager (male)

Down by the Artist’s Studio, a male Montezuma Oropendola, with his colorful face and beak, attempts a couple calls in response to another male calling offscreen. Down by the west pool, dozens of Blue-and-white Swallows forage for insects and mostly drank the saline-treated water on a lightly windy day, and a Buff-throated Saltator pecks at an orange. A female Hoffmann’s Woodpecker also pecks, but in this case for nectar in the flowers of a banana tree, using her tongue–specialized for probing wood for insects–to lick up the sugary fluid. A much larger male Lineated Woodpecker taps at a narrow branch for food, and a female of the same species visits a snag below one of the Spa’s private jalapas. Finally, a Zone-tailed Hawk, perched for just a few minutes not far from Reception, calls and flies away on an overcast day.