Birds & Sightings on the Nearby Forest Trail

Just down the road from us, past the Leaf-cutter Ant tree, is the beginning of a trail called Sendero La Laguna. We decided to walk in and spy stuff with our little eye.

It is dense forest with a well-defined trail, but mostly you see things because you hear them rustling in the undergrowth first.

First off, a lizard. This was a Giant Dusky Ameiva Lizard

I previously sent a picture of the fig tree with massive above-ground roots, but below is another photo, but because it is unusual it must be some other kind of tree. I hope to get an answer from the nature gurus at the tour desk. I did - it is known as The Suicide Tree or Tachigali Versacolor.

Editor's note: This tree is called the Suicide Tree because it is monocarpic, which means that it reproduces only once in its lifetime and reproduces only at maturity. Within one year of flowering, the tree rapidly dies and falls over. Wikipedia tells us that Indigenous people in the Amazon basin use an extract of the tree to treat fungal skin infections and it is also used as timber.

Shortly, we almost stumbled upon a very large bird ahead on the path. This is the Great Tinamou.

Editor's Note: I remember this bird from my trips to S.A. Mostly I remember its incessant call. I think I laid eyes on only one and at a distance. These poor birds have been hunted to extinction in some areas of South America, so Hansi and Rob were very lucky to see one.  Here's a Cornell Lab of Ornithology photo of one that shows it from the side and shows its size better.

The forest floor is a virtual hive of activity. Mostly ants at work. You can’t walk three feet before you have to step over another leaf-cutter highway. Today we actually came across the hole wherein lies the fungus garden I presume. They trooped along and went straight in. See video below.

Editor's note: For some reason, I can watch Hansi and Rob's videos of the leaf cutter ants but cannot embed them in the blog. Go here to see a video of these ants if you cannot open the video above. 

     Also, know that in 2022 researchers made the most thorough assessment to date of the global population of ants--insects that have colonized almost everywhere on the planet--and the estimated total is a mind-blowing 20 quadrillion of them, or approximately 2.5 million for every human. (Internet)

Rob saw a bird up ahead on the path giving itself a dust bath and snapped a photo.  Not a great shot, but enough to identify the bird as a Whooping Motmot.

Editor: Rob is an excellent photographer, particularly of birds, but this is definitely not Rob's best shot. Below is a photo from the internet of the Whooping Motmot, and in this photo you can see its racket tailfeathers and its beautiful colors.

This little toad was the size of my baby fingernail.  I thought it was a spider at first.  I know the photo is crap, but my iPhone was just not up to the task.

There is something to ogle everywhere you look on that trail.

Like these “threads” growing down from above and sporting growth at intervals - or are those Bromeliads?

Editor's note: Would love to know what these threads are. They are too fine to be strangler fig roots. Since they have a growth at intervals as Hansi describes, they are probably vegetable and not made by an insect. I have searched around on the Internet but find nothing comparable.

This is the Gray-headed Chachalaca.  He’s a fairly large bird - like a pheasant perhaps - whose tail fans out.

Editor's Note: Again,  Rob is having trouble in the dense, dark foliage and dappled sunlight with a camera that is acting up, so I give you Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Grey-headed Chachalaca below.

It is HOT here, but very steamy along that trail.  We emerge “poached” but happy.

Check out this squirrel.  He is called the Panama Squirrel and his tail color can vary.

That’s it for now.

Hansi Tue, Apr 4 at 5:07 PM