Birds of the Pantanal 2019
Caracara swooping in to catch a fish.
About to grab the small fish our guide had thrown out on the water.
Fish in beak and off the caracara goes for a little snack.
Cormorant taking off in pursuit of another fish.
Fish in beak and soon to be devoured.
Kingfisher with fish in beak.
The striking pose of the refescent tiger heron.
PantanalBirds2019Brazil 2019Heron rufescent tigerPantanal Jaguar
A curl crested Jay peeking at me.
Backside view of the curl crested Jay.
Little blue heron looking at its shadow.
This striking blue bird is a Sayaca tanager.
What a show-stopper. This is a green-headed tanager.
Julie and I followed this bird from one tree to the next to get this shot. It's a chestnut eared aracari, part of the toucan family.
PantanalBirds2019Aracari chestnut earedBrazil 2019Iguazu Falls
We saw the aracari later in the journey.
PantanalBirds2019Aracari chestnut earedBrazil 2019Pantanal Jaguar
At SouthWild we saw this handsome toco toucan.
Another view of a toco toucan.
A striated heron, which looks very much like the green heron found here in Florida.
This is an agami heron. Isn't she beautiful!
A large-billed tern that flew by us on our way to SouthWild.
We went to a private residence garden that had a small aviary for hummingbirds. Photographing these fast-moving birds was quite the challenge.
I took several hundred shots to capture the four sharp photos shown here.
The birds would head for feeders but would sometime hover a foot or so away from the feeder which made it possible to get a focused picture.
The most colorful of the hummingbirds.
We saw many of these attractive Amazon kingfishers.
This is a green kingfisher.
Now this was a challenge. Our guide would throw a small fish into the river and we would try to photograph it capturing the fish.
These are ringed kingfishers striking the water with amazing speed and precision.
Look at how the ringed kingfisher speared the fish. I liked the way the camera captured the spray as the bird hit the water.
And away she goes to eat her catch in a nearby tree.
We saw a lot of these kiskadees.
We were crossing the border between Brazil and Argentina when our guide spotted this burrowing owl. We all bailed out of our van and slowly approached the owl who posed for us nicely.
This is a jabiru stork, typically 5 feet tall with a wingspan of 7-9 feet.
Here is mother stork perched on her nest in a dead tree next to SouthWild Lodge.
Mom guarding her 3 chicks while dad is out gathering food which will be regurgitated to the chicks.
SouthWild built this tower about a hundred feet away from the nest so we could get the photo you just saw.
In another location we were roaming the Pantanal when we saw this jabiru stork strike the water and pull out this eel.
He wrestled with it for a few minutes and then while the eel was still squirming he swallowed it whole.
Here's dad greeting our boat after we had been photographing birds on the river. The habituated stork knew that the guides often had extra fish and would toss it to him. Much easier than having to catch his own fish.
A courageous Amazon kingfisher flying to take this little fish out of the guide's hand.
We saw this Amazong kingfisher catch this fish, and then take it up into a tree and repeatedly pound it on the branch to soften it up and then swallow it.
A grey-necked wood rail walking in stealth mode along the edge of the river looking for a fish.
Pigeons are often ignored by photographers, but this beautiful picazuro pigeon really stood out in the early morning light.
This is a yellow-billed cardinal, a small but colorful bird.
Let's go fishing again. Here a black-collared hawk has just grabbed a fish.
The hawk has a small fish (mouth open) in its powerful talons.
Black-collared hawks will take their catch into a tree for a scrumptious meal.
PantanalBirds2019Brazil 2019Hawk black collaredPantanal Jaguar
And here is a caracara swooping in for the catch.
