King Fishers

 Our last morning in the Amazon brought a wealth of fish hunters.  Ringed Kingfisher was the most widely distributed bird of this group, but one that I don't have a ton of pictures of.  They're the biggest kingfisher I've encountered, I'm not sure if there are bigger ones in the Old World, but to my knowledge they're the biggest in the New World.

We entered a shady area and came across one of the rarer birds of the trip, one that's in most of the Central American books, but is rare enough I'd never seen one before, Green-and-Rufous Kingfisher

Next up is the opposite end of the size spectrum, American Pygmy Kingfisher!  This thing seemed like a junco who'd swallowed a flicker and then dabbed on some Mardi Gras paint.

We also found a couple of really interesting herons, probably my best pics of each, first Capped Heron

and finally Rufescent Tiger-Heron

one year ago today

 was the last full day in Ecuador, and the morning paddle quickly turned up one of the birds of the trip for me, Long-billed Woodcreeper!  It was definitely the best bird I spotted on the trip.

I don't know if it always forages on palms just covered with thorns (that might dissuade many other birds), but it seemed to favor them for us.

I think it's snagged a cricket here.

I honestly shudder to think about the creepy-crawlies it probes out of the dark recesses of the Amazon

Desert in the rainforest

 With the heat of the late afternoon scorching we spent a bit of time on a river island in the wide Sani River.  There was a lot of sand and little shade.  It felt like a desert.

But we had a few target birds, and one of them is in this pic

With some maneuvering I got a clearer view of a Ladder-tailed Nightjar roosting on the fallen log.  Sadly the tail wasn't visible.

An Oriole Blackbird teed up.  We were wilted enough that I had trouble getting people on this bird.

Our guide got pretty excited about a Willow Flycatcher fitz-bew-ing; I think most of us were as excited to see the boat, as a Pale-vented Pigeon bid us good night.