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While we’re on the subject of truly sensational hummingbirds, I’d like to introduce one of the finest specimens to be found in the Greater Antilles…

Enter the Black-billed Streamertail! Of course, the bird’s stately silhouette proves the provenance of its name but only suggests its brilliant emerald raiment…

The Black-billed Streamertail (Trochilus scitulus) is a Jamaican endemic, either conspecific or closely [...]

So there I was at Refugio Paz de Las Aves, teetering on the edge of sanity after a barrage of insane Ecuadorean avifauna. First came the famed feeder birds, a parade of preposterous birds including but certainly not limited to guans, toucanets, barbets, pihas, and mountain-tanagers. Next were the star attractions, the amazing antpittas of Paz de Las [...]

At last, I believe I’ve found an ID challenge too diabolical for even the crack cadre of avian savants that tend to respond to our cruel offerings. If this turns out to be true, though, I’ll actually be disappointed because this ID may, for once, matter (as opposed to certain futile attempts to identify imaginary [...]

The Yanacocha Reserve on the west slope of the Ecuadorean Andes is a stunning site to visit, not to mention a highly productive place to watch birds. I’ve already described many of the avian attractions of Yanacocha but saved some of the best for last. How about those hummingbirds?
Yanacocha deploys some of the most happening [...]

As you may know, I’m headed to Jamaica in a couple of weeks for some sensational Caribbean birding. Will you be joining me at Hotel Mocking Bird Hill? There are many reasons why you should, not the least of which is to meet the delightful Doctor Bird.
Doctor Bird is the name given to the fetching [...]

I’m just back from a typically excellent trip to California (more of which later), staying - as I have done done for some twenty years now! - with my San Jose-based good friend Jack Cole and his wife Jeannie. Jack had done a search of the local listserves before I arrived and had dangled a [...]

While on the familiarity trip in Honduras I was fortunate enough to meet Fito Steiner, (photo left, copyright Robert Hyman) a conservationist and the Volunteer Director for the Honduran Emerald Reserve.  We actually met over dinner during the one night the participants of the familiarity trip stayed in Olanchito, but I was feeling rather lousy [...]

Day Two of my marvellous Panama adventure courtesy of Raul Arias de Para and the staff at the superb Canopy Tower - the world-famous radar station turned birder’s wonderland sat high above the rainforest of the Soberanía National Park (and probably the only place in the world where I’ll ever be able to watch Keel-billed [...]

On the second day of the Mesoamerican Bird Festival we had a treat in the evening, an exhibition of hummingbird art by Honduran artist Rebecca Mendoza.  Each piece of art was of one species of hummingbird and Rebecca strategically used glitter to represent the hummingbirds’ amazing plumage.  Granted, glitter in hummingbird art isn’t for everyone but I [...]

So after birding our way up the entrance road to Cerro Azul Meambar National Park, having a near-stuck experience with our coaster, and seeing an amazingly cooperative Collared Trogon, all of which is related in the first part of this tale, we left our gang of hardcore birders in the parking lot of the national [...]

Guatemala’s current capital, Guatemala City and colonial capital, Antigua both lie in the central highlands. Most of this vast region is between 2000 and 4000 meters above sea level and characterized by cool mountain forest habitat. Apparently, it’s also magic for hummingbirds.
I’ve previously encountered the typical feeder hummingbirds of this region working the noble array [...]

Though I’ve been back in the city for almost a week I haven’t come close to using up all of my upstate birding tales yet!  Like the last time I visited my folks I spent some time photographing hummingbirds, but this time I was at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul’s house taking advantage of [...]

Great pictures of nesting Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are available on KidWings, a site dedicated to teaching “young and old about the wonders of birds.”  My favorite is of a nestling upset about an approaching tent caterpillar.

During my second trip upstate in the last three weeks (and after my second Big Day in as many weekends) I was up for some relaxation Sunday, and got it with my family. Of course, for me, relaxation includes watching birds, so the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming to my parents’ feeders featured prominently in my [...]