This araçari is one of 12 species in the Genus Pteroglossus. The name araçari comes from the indigenous Tupi people of Brazil who called it Arassari. Their range is huge across much of northeastern South America and southeastern Brazil with 3 sub-species considered. We saw them in several places on my second trip to Brazil, but these pictures were taken at Fazenda Paris in Bahia State.
This is a mostly coastal hummer of eastern and north-eastern South America. The common name is a little funky I suppose because White-bellied was already taken by another hummer that is not even in the same Genus. Leucogaster means white-bellied, and the White-bellied Hummingbird is Chionogaster which means snow-bellied. The Plain-bellied has a couple sub-species, with the southern one (Bahiae) found in east Brazil including Bahia state which is where I saw this one (Porto Seguro). This particular bird was on a fence surrounding our hotel while we waited for our flight home, so it was a nice send off.
The Wing-banded Hornero also known as the Band-tailed Hornero is a Brazilian endemic with a pretty wide range within Brazil in the central and eastern portions. It looks a lot like and overlaps with the Pale-legged Hornero but the main distinction is that the Wing-banded has dark legs and the Pale-legged has pinkish legs. I think the band in the wing is only visible in flight. The below photo was taken at the famous Sítio Pau Preto reserve in Potengi.
This beautiful endemic parakeet from the Northeast of Brazil was one of the first good birds on my second trip to Brazil. They have a wide distribution but are fairly rare and hard to find unless you go to one of the sites where they nest in towns which is what we did. It is thought that this is the closest living relative to the Carolina Parakeet which is now extinct, but so far no one has done the phylogenetic work to verify that claim.
This is one of the most wide-spread swift species in South America, being found at lower elevations throughout the entire Amazon Basin. I got my first good looks at them on my second trip to Brazil which focused on the Northeast of that amazing country. It apparently does not overlap in range with the other two species in this genus (Tachornis), the Antillean Palm-Swift or the Pygmy Swift. I don't know if this is accurate, but the Wiki page says they construct their hanging nests by stealing feathers off other birds and pasting them with saliva. This is called Kleptoptily. This species of Palm Swift has been seen aggressively dive-bombing Parrots, Pigeons and Woodpeckers and literally plucking feathers directly off their backs while in flight.
This "invasive" species from South Asia normally lives across most of the Indian Sub-continent and into some neighboring countries like Burma. It has been labeled as invasive because a few populations were introduced to some islands in the South Pacific and also Australia/NZ where it caused considerable damage to local ecosystems by stealing resources and out-competing native species. I saw mine in Houston, TX where a small population exists. It is surmised that the small population in Houston has not been a problem because they were restricted from expansion by large highway systems that act as deterrents. The Houston birds have been present since the 1950's and are considered "countable" in the ABA area. This one was in at the Botanical Gardens in the center of Houston.
This Grasslands specialist of North America breeds in the far northern Great Plains of the US and southern Canada, and then heads down to spend its winters in Texas and Mexico. It had eluded me for far too long, so when I had a long layover in Texas on my way to Brazil, I made a special effort to visit some agricultural fields where they had been reported recently. It didn't take long to find a couple although it was a little tricky because they were loosely mixed in with American Pipits. They differ from the American Pipit in that they like longer grass and have a textured backs.
