Blue Crowned Motmot
The holiday rep at our hotel told us about an old plantation estate, not far from the hotel, where a family used to regularly put out food for the wild birds that lived in the forest which surrounded the estate house. Apparently these birds had become quite tame over the years and even though the estate and house were now uninhabited and deserted, the birds would still come if food was put out for them. We headed for the estate armed with camcorder, camera, cheese, brown sugar and bread. We were told to take cheese for the Motmots (colourful magpie-like birds) and sugar for the Bananaquits. (We had seen Bananaquits taking sugar from a bird feeder inside a local shop the previous day).
We turned off the main road from the hotel and followed a track into the trees. A brightly coloured Red-Crowned Woodpecker caught my eye as it climbed the trunk of a nearby tree, busily searching for grubs. We rounded a bend in the track and were confronted by eight large chicken-like birds on the ground in the middle of the path. They were Rufous-Vented Chachalacas (known locally as Cocricos) and we were to see many of them during the day. We reached the house and next to it there was an open area which had obviously been used to feed the birds as there were trestle tables set up and empty bird feeders hanging from the trees. I saw a Blue Crowned Motmot perched on the branch of a tree in the forest and tried to entice the bird out into the open by throwing a chunk of cheese on the ground. The bird immediately flew out of the trees, took the cheese and flew back into the forest. I then tried holding a piece of cheese in my hand and offered it to the bird. It didn't take long before the Motmot flew towards me, took the cheese from my hand and flew off. We soon had many Motmots coming to us to take cheese from our hands like this.
We filled the bird feeders with sugar, spread bread and cheese over the trestle tables and sat in a makeshift hut and waited for the birds to appear. The Motmots were first then Bananaquits came for the sugar in the feeders. Five Pale-Vented Pigeons and the same number of Cocricos took food from the tables and a single Bare-Eyed Thrush joined them.
Walking back to the hotel, we took a detour along a path which lead further into the forest and saw Crested Oropendolas at their three foot long woven nests suspended from the uppermost branches of a tree. Other birds seen included Barred Antshrike, Broad-Winged Hawk, Black-Throated Mango, Red-Rumped Woodpecker and Rufous-Tailed Jacamar.
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