This interesting flycatcher is named appropriately, favoring cliffs and other near vertical habitats. It has a massive range throughout all of South America in many disjunct populations. We had ours at Chapada dos Guimaraes in Brazil which has plenty of cliffs and gorges for this bird to hang out near. My better photo is on a tree snag, but I included a poor pic of one hanging on the side of a cliff face so you can get an idea of its preferred habitat.
Another insanely cute flycatcher that is the only member of its genus, the Ornate Flycatcher can be found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They inhabit montane forests at fairly high altitudes. My photos are all from my second trip to Colombia.
This little cutie is monotypic, meaning it is the only one in its genus. It inhabits higher elevation montane forests from Venezuela all the way down to Argentina. As if it's cool coloration wasn't enough, it sports a cool looking yellow lightning bolt on its crest. I took all the following photos on my second trip to Colombia.
This little tyrant flycatcher has a huge range across the interior of South America. It sits in a genus of 12 Tody-flycatchers which really just means they are really small. We had our Rusty-fronted in the Pantanal in Brazil.
This was one of my favorite birds of my second trip to Colombia. Today-flycatchers and small tyrants in general are usually not cooperative for photos as they move very quickly and stay hidden. However, this little character posed out in the open for us. They favor edges of primary and secondary forests at high elevation from Venezuela down through Peru following the Andes range.
This little montane forest tyrant flycatcher has seven sub-species all which have some morphologic differences. I saw first one in the Santa Marta range in Colombia which is isolated from the others and could be ripe for a future split but I never got a photo until I went back to Colombia in 2024 and saw one of the other sub-species. I got great looks, but getting a picture of these fast moving flycatchers that flit around from branch to brach is very difficult.
This little tyrant flycatcher lives in several disjunct populations in South America but most of them are in the central part in the Amazon basin. I saw mine in the Pantanal in Brazil.
This is a mid-level and sub-canopy tyrant flycatcher that can be very hard to see but we had one singing that sat long enough for some long distance pics. They can be found in Central America down through the northwestern parts of South America mostly at higher elevations. I took these photos in Colombia.
Whereas many tyrant flycatchers inhabit middle to upper canopy, these guys are skulkers preferring the undergrowth. They can be found in higher elevation forests from Panama down through Peru. I had mine on my second trip to Colombia.
There are nine species of Bristle-tyrant and countless small flycatchers that all look similar to this little guy. This is why you really need a guide that can help ID by sound, or you will not picking up too many species. Many times when you see a bird like this, you are also getting many other birds and it is difficult to focus. Cheers to the local guide that helped me get on this bird. Photographed on my second trip to Colombia. This species lives in high elevation forests from Venezuela down through Bolivia.
This flycatcher has a wide range across much of Central and South America but I have only seen them once in the Pantanal in Brazil. There are only 4 species of flycatcher in this genus.
Hmm, this is one of the least imaginative names I have seen but I suppose it works. The male is black with sooty underparts and the female is cinnamon with buffy underparts. So I suppose they are one color with different tones. They can be found in the far north and west portions of South America. I had mine on my first trip to Colombia.
This Becard species has a massive range across much of Central and South America. The following two pics were from both of my trips to Colombia separated by 5 years.
This Becard species is found over a wide range in southeast and central South America. We saw ours in the northern limits of its range in the Pantanal. There are 18 becard species per the eBird taxonomy.
This interesting bird is monotypic in its genus. It has a pretty wide range across much of South America but is uncommon and moves around a lot so it is difficult to find them. We had ours in the Pantanal in Brazil. This one is a female or young bird. It also is sometimes called White-naped Becard which makes sense because it looks like one, but it is not.
This large bird is not a crow at all, but a Cotinga. They have a wide range across different corners of South America including the far northwest in Colombia and the far southeast in the Atlantic forest of Brazil. That being said I have only seen these that I photographed in Colombia so they certainly are not common.
This is a species which even non-birders flock to see when they are lekking. A lek is a communal location where all the males of a species go to compete and display for the chance to mate with females that come to watch. This normally shy species becomes super aggressive and showy when its time to breed. We visited this lek in Jardin, Colombia as a kind of grande finale to my second trip to Colombia. I had visions in my head of a bird blind set up in the woods, but it turned out to be someone's back yard in the center of Jardin with open viewing platforms and tons of tourists everywhere.
This high elevation species is found from Venezuela down through Bolivia following the Andes ridges. This picture was taken up in the Paramo habitat in the famous Sumapaz National Park in Colombia. The red crest is only barely visit on the back of the head. We were not lucky enough to see it throw the crest up which looks spectacular when it does.
This Fruiteater species is only found in Venezuela and Colombia. As you can surmise from my long range shot through the canopy, this is not one of the species that readily comes in to feeding stations unless I just have not been to the right places. This was taken on my first trip to Colombia in the Santa Marta mountain range.
This is the largest bird of the Fruiteater genus and much like some of the others, it is found in higher elevation forests in the Andes from Venezuela down through Peru. We had ours in Colombia at a place where they trained other Fruiteaters and Pittas to come to feeding stations but this female was seen away from the station. I am not sure if they have trained this species yet. There are 11 Fruiteater species in this genus.
This is one of the Fruiteaters that have been trained to come in for worms and other vittles along with the Pittas. As you can see it was posing on a perch where it has probably posed hundreds of times before. This species inhabits higher elevation forests in the Andes from Venezuela all the way down to Peru. We had this one in Colombia.
This little manakin lives in the western mountains of Colombia and Ecuador. The adult male is more brightly colored (red) but I think we decided this one was a young male as it was doing the trademark display with its wings, making an electric sound. This one was seen in Colombia.
The Band-tailed Manakin is a bird of the southern Amazon Basin and Pantanal. I had mine in the latter in Brazil. Female Manakins can be difficult to ID, but this one has a white eye plus it was hanging out with the more obvious male.
This is one of my oldest photos which is evident from the quality. These manakins live on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and Panama. I saw mine in CR. Pura Vida!
This species is also known as the Blue Manakin. It lives in the Atlantic forest in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. We saw it on our day excursion from Sao Paulo before leaving for the Pantanal in Brazil.
My pics of this species are typical for Manakins, out of focus and with leaves in front of it. I saw them again on my second trip to Colombia but the photos were even worse! They can be found from Costa Rica to Venezuela.
A bit of a bummer that I didn't get a picture of the adult male, but this immature or female bird was very accommodating as far as Manakins go. This was from the Pantanal in Brazil. They do have a fairly large range across the middle section of South America.
