News - February 2020
Green-barred Woodpecker
Colaptes melanochloros
11-01-20 © Damián Müller
Very far perching on top of a tree we identified it as a burrowing parakeet though the colouring of the head was yellow. When it flew we could appreciate the rest of the body and confirmed it as such. A parakeet kept captive judging by the state of the wings. Released or escaped?
With food for the fledgling
Fight between a white-winged becard and tropical kingbirds
This white-winged becard stubbornly persisted in dislodging juvenile tropical kingbirds. It was incredible to see the becard attack and the juveniles defend themselves for a while. Then an adult tropical kingbird arrived and settled the dispute. They stayed.
Lucas tells us that the peregrine falcon had it in for a caracara which was visiting his conspecifics kept at the Rehabilitation Center. The peregrine perched on top of the Personal building. From there it dived at high speed on five occasions toward the caracara. It also attacked a dove which was on top of a tree (along Cana Vaimonte), It hit it and the sound of the impact was heard. We lost sight of it for more than an hour.
Caracaras attacking black-necked swans
22-02-20 © Claudia y Tito Di Mauro
On Saturday 22nd Tito and Claudia filmed a scene in the Duck Pond, where a group of caracaras attacked a black-necked swan "stuck" in the mud some 50 meters aways from the only puddle left. As shown in the video the caracaras attack the swan in turns by falling from above on the neck to knock it down. The swan made it to the puddle with great effort. There was another swan which stood indifferent while the other one was being attacked. Tito and Claudia stayed for a while after the incident and there were no further actions. The scene was calm even when they came back an hour later.
On Sunday 23rd Silvia witnessed another attack. On this occasion the two swans together repelled the attack and the caracaras flied away.
The Duck pond is the most affected by the lack of rainfall. Though it rained pretty hard one day during the week, it seems this did not affect the level of water for the better. In fact, I would say the water withdrew even more. The weather forecast does not announce rains for the following days, which will worsen the condition of the pond. We hope these swans will leave it in time.
Guillermo heard the saltator vocaliza. It was in the lower part of the tree, flew to an intermediate point (top photo) and from there to the nest. Though this bird is so common and plenty of juveniles can be seen, this is the first record of the golden-billed saltator's nest
Some black-necked swans in the Duck Pond
Both young and adult individuals can be seen in all the ponds