So we drove on the forever rutted road and stopped at a particular spot where Enrique had seen Patagonian Mockingbirds before. He got out of the van, then Ivan got out, and as I exited the van, Enrique was playing the Mockingbird's call. His tape had not even stopped when, right next to the car, was the Mockingbird in question! And he seemed so happy to see us - he sang and sang all the while Ivan and Enrique were photographing him. It was a lovely welcome by a bird with such an interesting and varied repertoire!
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| Patagonian Mockingbird |
After awhile the mockingbird got tired of us and flew across the road, so we all dutifully followed! This is what that area looked like:
Enrique became quite excited at a bird he saw because he had seen it here before, but the bird isn't supposed to be here. I think he managed a couple of photos, but the bird was too quick and far away for Ivan to get a photo. The bird is called a Rufous-tailed Plantcutter and is very pretty. I pulled this photo from the web, but the female, which we did not see, is very plain brown with some streaking on her body:
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| Rufous-tailed Plantcutter |
It's a very small bird, but the colors on the male are very bright. According to the bird book, their short, thick bills are serrated, enabling them to feed on leaves and fruit. The only physical aspect of this bird shared by the female is the red eye. In the plain brown scrub area where it lives, it's certainly eye-catching!
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