Birds

Chicken Stampede!

March 23, 2009 by Corey 7 Comments

After the excitement of seeing an Emerald Toucanet and checking out how coffee is grown at Finca El Paraiso we were all ready to get back on the bus.  Some were dawdling, hoping to see one last bird and I was taking a couple shots of the free-range chickens that were scratching in the dirt and just being chickens.  Then a woman came out with a container of grain and emitted an ear-piercing, high-pitched dr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r (Spanish speakers can roll their rs like no one else!) and chickens converged at a high rate of speed from every point of the compass!  It was an amazing show, made more amazing by a pair of turkeys, guinea fowl, and a domestic Muscovy Duck.  Seriously, it was one of the highlights of the day’s birding, and we were all greatly amused…so, without further ado, here is the chicken stampede!

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.