Birds

Maroon-tailed Parakeet Love Making

April 24, 2012 by Renato No Comments

Here is my contribution to Bird Love Week from the tropics.  The Maroon-tailed Parakeet lives in northern South America.  In Ecuador it is found mostly in the tropical and sub-tropical forest of the east and west slopes.  It is probably the most commonly seen parakeet encountered in the slopes but it is not always easily found.  As with all the green parrots, once they stop in a tree their camouflage quickly allows them to blend with forest and disappear from view.

This lovely but technically awful video was taken with my Nokia phone placed on top of my HD Razor scope.  At the time I did not have any of the adaptors to hold the camera so I had to hand hold the Nokia phone and obtained a shaky exotic video.

The place of this Bird Love action is the Sumaco National Bioreserve located on the east slope of the Ecuador in the legendary Loreto Road.   The Sumaco National Park was recognized as a Biosphere by Unesco to protect some two million acres of sub-tropical forest that has amazing biodiversity.

Sumaco Mountain

Birders have been visiting this area for many years and lately there has been new infrastructure developed specifically for bird lovers.  The most well known and visited is the Wildsumaco Lodge which I visit regularly to get more that 10 hummingbird species in one sitting.  Another place that I also visit is a rustic cabaña owned by the local community of Pacto Sumaco.  They have made great efforts to adapt this cabaña for birders and offers the most spectacular sunsets and sunrises in the area with the added bonus of having roosting  areas of Chestnut-fronted Macaws and Military Macaws in front of the cabaña!

Macaw Viewing Platform at Pacto Sumaco

Written by Renato
Renato was born in Quito, Ecuador and quickly flew to the USA to learn all about engineering and climbing company ladders. After getting his engineering degree from the University of Minnesota he worked in the Standard-American-Rat-Race-Company for fifteen years. After climbing the ladder to where he could no longer see the ground, he decided to jump off the ladder and migrate south like all normal birds do. To his surprise home did not look like it did when he left as a young fledgling; the towns were bigger, most of his friends had nests of their own, and the countryside was changed. Shocked by all the change he searched for a new life and a new wife. He stumbled across a vivacious young chick who would accompany him inside a volcanic crater to set up a love nest. So, after eight years of nesting inside the crater a new love for nature and birds has sprung a career in environmental conservation and birding tours. Finally this bird has come home to roost!