Trinidad: Blue Dacnis - Dacnis cayana

The Blue Dacnis, Dacnis cayana, is in the Tanager family, and is known by some as the Turquoise Honeycreeper. We didn't see this species as often as the other tanagers at Asa Wright, and it rarely perched long enough for a photo, but the striking color of the male is perhaps worth sharing.

The Blue Dacnis is one of 8 species in the genus Dacnis, and the Blue Dacnis ranges from Central America well down into South America. This is probably the nominate subspecies, Dacnis cayana cayana. Despite the borderline quality of the photo, we can see the black mask, black nape and tail, a hint of a red eye, and the obvious lush turquoise blue. The bill is not as long as the local honeycreepers (who are unrelated to the Hawaiian Honeycreepers), but they are close relatives. The female is green, with some blue in the head, or so I read in the guidebook.

Trinidad: Turquoise Tanager - Tangar mexicana

Some Trinidad birds are so striking and unique that identification is straightforward, like the Turquoise Tanager, a beauty that looks like no other bird there. The Turquoise male and female look alike (same with the Bay-headed, btw), so it's even simpler.

But identifying a bird and capturing a good photo are quite different matters. Often the Turquoise Tanager was so close and active, feeding on fruit in a Trema tree, that I couldn't track it in my scope. The few blurred shots here hardly do justice to its features. The bright yellow of the belly is a stark contrast to the blacks and blues of the face and back. You'll just have to go to Asa Wright and see for yourselves. Species is absent from Tobago. Photos were taken January 13, 2013.

There are 5 subspecies of the Turquoise Tanager, some ranging down to Brazil. Trinidad's is Tangara mexicana vieilloti, the one with the yellowest underparts, as seen in one photo here. I don't have a clue why the species name contains "mexicana", as the Turquoise Tanager is not found in Mexico, at least not when Steve N.G. Howell wrote his book.

Trinidad: Palm Tanager - Thraupis palmarum

The Palm Tanager, Thraupis palmarum, is a close relative of the Blue-gray Tanager, and is probably even more common. The Palm has a range that extends from Nicaragua to souther Brazil. Breeding by the Palm Tanager has been documented in every month (ffrench), but occurs mostly from Maarch to August. Wild hybrids with the Blue-gray Tanager have been documented. Male and females have similar plumage.

The Palm Tanager is far from the showiest bird in the tanager family, sporting a dull mixture of olives and grays, with the darkest grays on the flight feathers and tail. They are social birds, sometimes foraging in small flocks, while eating a variety of fruit, nectar and insects. There are 4 subspecies in all. As mentioned recently the genus Thraupis has seven members, with 3 found on Trinidad-tobago. The Blue-capped Tanager is the 3rd of the group on Trinidad, but is found only in forests above 2,000', and is not seen often.

Trinidad: Bay-headed Tanager

Asa Wright has a spacious viewing veranda that is almost in the canopy of nearby trees. Most of the birds visit the hummingbird feeders at eye level, or feed lower on fruit put out on benches along the path below. Some birds, like the Bay-headed Tanager (Tangara gyrola), seemed to prefer to take small fruit from a tree, as seen here (Tremor Tree?), flitting about as if to dare the photographer to attempt a shot. Well, at least I the fruit is in focus! The Bay-headed is said to forage higher in the trees than some of the other tanagers. One of my favorites.

This pretty tanager is mostly green, with a striking rufous head. This one has a lot of bright yellow on the nape and back, a feature seen in the Rufous-winged Tanager (Tangara lavinia). Normally the yellow neck collar is said to be rather narrow. I presume this is the Trinidad supspecies of T. Gyrola, orT. g. viridissima. Clements lists 9 suspecies for the Bay-headed Tanager, and a total of 49 species in the genus Tangara.

Trinidad: Tufted Coquette No. 2

This will be the last of the Trinidad-Tobago hummingbird photos, but more stuff to follow.

When we watch birds and try to photograph them we prefer to find them in good light, and of course sitting relatively still. I had few opportunities to see the Tufted Coquette on a perch, and in this case the male Coquette was illuminated by harsh back-lighting. These shots almost hit the "delete" pile, but I realized they show some features that I had missed when watching the bird flitting about.

There are 10 species of Coquettes, comprising the genus Lophornis. Six of them are said to have rufous crests. The first photo here shows the orange crest from the side, shining brightly. It also shows the amazing dark-tipped neck plumes, which I guess are the "tufts" referred to in the common name. The red bill is transluminated. The second shot showed me 2 features I had not noted when in the field, namely the bright green sheen of the throat and the rufous tail.

So how about the other 9 Coquettes? They include the White-crested, Short-crested, Festive, Rufous-crested, Dot-eared, Black-crested, Frilled, Peacock, and Spangled Coquettes, but you'll have to do quite a bit of traveling to find them all.

Trinidad: Tufted Coquette No. 1

Birders visiting a new area often have certain target species in mind, special birds they hope to view during their trip. High on the list of Trididad-Tobago "must-see" species is the tiny but glorious Tufted Coquette, one of the smallest hummingbirds in the world and one of the most spectacular. There are about 335 hummingbird species, and the Coquettes rate in the top five by many, as in this list from one hummingbird lover:

http://10000birds.com/twenty-hummingbirds-to-see-before-you-die.htm

I'll save the taxonomy details for post #2, but for now just drink in this little gem, measuring about 6.6 cm (2.6" ) and weighing all of 2.3 grams (that's less than a tenth of an ounce!!). We watched these active hummer feeding on their favorite flowers at Asa Wright, which was fortunate since they seldom came to the feeders. Few of the Tufted Coquettes stopped  to perch, but luckily this male obliged during our orientation walk on the very first morning. The strange spiked feathers seen here on the left of his neck are black-tipped rufous plumes, present only on the male. The white band near the rump is present in both sexes, and the bill is rather short and straight. This bird rocks!

Good summary on the Tufted Coquette from the Cornell Ornithology Lab:

http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/identification?p_p_spp=241211

Trinidad-Tobago: White-chested Emerald

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Trinidad-Tobago, an island(s) state just off the coast of Venezuela. On Trinidad we stayed at the magical Asa Wright preserve, a coffee plantation converted to a nature preserve, formerly know as Springhill. Our group of 10 spent many hours on the veranda, mesmerized by a constant stream of hummingbirds, tanagers, honeycreepers and even the occasional Motmot or Jacamar. Asa Wright ranks among the best bird-watching spots anywhere.

We were lucky to see most of the 17 hummingbird species found in Trinidad-Tobago, often at close range and in good numbers. A few of these species are quite rare in T-T, and only about 6 of them are found on Tobago. One of my favorites is the small White-chested Emerald, who delights viewers with sudden bursts of color with the merest turn of his or her head (the sexes appear alike). I had trouble choosing my favorite shot, so I included a bunch. And you may want to check out the video (link below), which can looks best at "full screen". Stay tuned for more. These were taken July 13, 2013.