Heads Up!

We are disappointed.

Disappointed with our readers and friends on Facebook.

Because out of all of you, only TWO people expressed shock at seeing a photo of a poor headless bird on our blog and asked us what happened to its head.

Judging from the lack of reactions at something so bizarre, it seems that it's pretty normal nowadays to see a living, breathing, talking (okay, not really), walking bird to be standing around with a hole where it's neck should be.

Or maybe we shouldn't be posting such a picture between Thanksgiving and Christmas where it IS pretty normal to see a headless bird - on the dinner table.

Okay, our bad then! We shan't scold you anymore. But hey, where's your sense of wonder, people? Horrific sights of headless birds belong to your local chicken rice stall - not in a bird park!

Dan was the first spot the anomaly. I was watching the pink residents in the flamingo enclosure (b-o-r-i-i-i-i-n-g after seeing wild flamingos in Bolivia) when I heard Dan scream, "WHAT THE ****!!!! Baby look at this!!!"

I turned and looked.

WHAT THE ****!!!!

Mummy? Er, mum? You there? I seem to have misplaced my head. Help check the sock drawer please Mum?

At my feet stood what looked like a bright blue Easter egg. But it was feathery. It had feet. And it wasn't an egg.

For a split second, we were dumbstruck at the strange sight. Then we were horrified. Then when we got over our initial shock, we couldn't stop laughing at how silly it looked.

For those who asked, Zoelle (no, really, unlike what Dan told you - people don't throw birdseed into the hole to feed it) and Debra (we hope that you've gotten over your shock.. dun scared, dun scared *pat pat*), here is the mystery revealed.



We heaved a sigh of relief and turned back towards the flamingos....

... and WHAT THE ****!!!!

Hey, hey dear, let's play "I Spy". I spy with my little eye... oh, oh, wait. We have a problem.

Whazzit with these birds! Scaring poor people like that!

Birds Of Brazil

In Foz do Iguassu, we stayed at a guesthouse called Pousada Evelina. The house had pretty bedrooms, a nice swimming pool and friendly staff who were proficient in English (a welcomed relief when one's grasp of the Portuguese language hasn't progressed between ola and chao.) While we had received a fairly warm welcome to the place, what cheesed us off was the proliferation of "friendly" little notices pasted all over the walls highlighting some not-so-friendly figures:

Use of WiFi: 2.50 Reals per connection
Use of shower after check-out: 5.00 Reals per shower
Use of kitchen & microwave: 10.00 Reals one-time charge
Use of phone for local calls: 1.00 Real per call
Change of towel: 2.00 Reals per towel
If guest is caught removing food from the breakfast room: FINE 10.00 Reals
If guest is caught using sunscreen lotion in pool: FINE 20.00 Reals

Rather off-putting isn't it? We only gradually discovered all these extra charges after we had checked in. We didn't even realise that there was a charge for the use of the kitchen until we returned from the supermarket with bags of raw meat. Too late. No choice. Pay lor.

And they call themselves a "guesthouse". While we appreciate and respect the need for house-rules, is it really necessary to impose fines on your paying guests? We wondered whether this is how visitors to Singapore feel when they see all the warnings and fine notices pasted all over our public spaces, buses and MRT trains.

Maybe the situation back home is less grating on the nerves because the warnings don't pretend to be friendly and end off with "Thank you for your cooperation" + irritating Smiley Face. Grrrrrrrrr.

After paying an extra 16 Reals for WiFi, use of the kitchen and one phone call to a travel agent to book our bus tickets to Florianopolis, it was nice to find out that we could actually save some money on the entrance fee to the Bird Park through the guesthouse. We saved just a couple of Reals each, but hearing the word "discount" instead of "extra charge" made it feel like alot more.

The Bird Park is located next to the entrance to the Brazilian side of the Iguassu Falls, allowing visitors to enjoy 2 major attractions in 1 day. We chose to visit the birds before the falls, which turned out to be the wise thing to do because all tourist groups rush to see the falls in the morning, then descend in droves upon the bird park in the afternoon.

With the exception of another couple, we had the bird park all to ourselves! Commendable effort went into designing the layout and use of space within the small park. After being guided through the initial exhibit of colourful (and very VERY noisy) parrots, visitors can choose different trails leading through various simulated environments, such as the African grasslands, or the Brazilian rainforest and pantanel (wetlands).

Rainbow-hued parrots! I love it when they say "ola, ola" instead of the usual "hello"

While most of the birds on display originate from Brazil, a few foreign workers have been flown in and they live peacefully alongside the locals.

Demoiselle Crane from Central Asia. Aka "evil-old-man-in-Chinese-period-dramas bird" cos of the shock of straight white hair hanging from its bald head.

Black Crown Crane, also from Asia. This one hops, leaps and whoops as part of the mating dance. Very interesting to watch. And imitate.

Some strange pre-historic-looking bird with a bone on his head. We called this the Dinosaur Bird.

Within the bird park, there are large cages which visitors can enter to see the birds up close, instead of peering at them from afar through a fence.

I don't know what bird this is, but it let us get really close without it pecking our eyes out. Nice birdie.

Our favourite walk-through exhibit was the rainforest enclosure replete with large toucans, shocking-red Ibis, pink spoonbills and some strange turkey-like birds with brilliant iridescent combs walking, hopping and flying all around us. While it was a far cry from our bird-watching tour in Mindo where we had to work hard to spot birds in their natural habitat, we enjoyed watching the birds in close proximity without having to resort to using binoculars.

Upskirt shot of a cheeky Red Ibis

Our favourite birds were the friendly toucans who posed and preened for our cameras. We were surprised that instead of avoiding us, they landed right in front of us and even hopped alongside as we walked through the exhibit.

Hold that pose...

They actually tilted their heads from side to side before the camera, as if trying to find the best angle to show off!

This one was so tame that it hopped closer to touch my hand and nudged me for a chest-tickle

NOT an amused bird

Practically begging to be photographed!

Hmmmm... now where was my picture again....

Yups, that's me!

We spent an inordinate amount of time with the toucans watching them feed on nuts, sip water from the pond and even tussle with one another while hovering in the air in a frenzied battle-of-the-beaks. Ever wondered why toucans don't ever fall beak-over-toes or get stiff necks from holding up their oversized appendages? It's because although big, a toucan's beak is actually very light and spongy. When their beaks clash during a fight, the loud clacking sound that results is not unlike that of kids play-battling with plastic toy swords! Still, getting too friendly with birds wielding big sharp beaks is not a good idea.

I think the toucans really enjoyed our company. A couple of them were reluctant to let us leave...

Figuring out how to get pass the danger zone without losing an eye. Or two.

Heh heh, happy to have left the enclosure with both eyes intact. Pity that I had to trade in the husband for permission to walk free though.

Hooray for a simple inexpensive excursion that brought us hours of fun and pleasure!

Don't think I don't know that you're laughing at me!

Birds of Different Feathers...

Okay, here's another video with footage from Ecuador. The wife might have thought that she closed the chapter on Ecuador a couple of posts ago, but I'm not done yet!

Please, enjoy looking at my birdies! :)



Note: I wish the video quality was better, but Youtube blocked the audio for this video because it did not have pre-arranged rights to host this song. Blogger allows it, but video quality suffers. Sigh.

Toucan't Touch This!

The wife dedicated an earlier entry on butterflies to a friend's daughter. So it's now my turn to dedicate an entry on our birdwatching tour to the only birdwatcher I know. He's the husband of a very close ex-colleague, so Sudheer, this one's for you! :)

After a DIY birdwatching walk that ended up as a visit to the butterfly garden, we decided to sign up for a locally organised birdwatching tour. We bargained a little, getting a 2-5 hour walk along the local trails, accompanied by an English-speaking guide. Getting ready by 6am was quite painful, but we told ourselves that it would be worth it! Our targets? Hummingbirds and toucans!

We caught sight of only 1 toucan on our DIY walk. This is a Pale-Mandibled Aracari

The walk started off very uneventfully. We met our guide, Alex, outside our hostel, and started off at a leisurely pace. Before I even expected it, he was already pointing out birds like tanagers and tyranos (tyrants) even before we left the town proper.

Perhaps I was still sleepy, or perhaps the early morning light was not bright enough for me to appreciate the colors on the birds yet, but every bird he pointed out looked very similar to me! After about 15 minutes into the walk, I started being able to make out the colors on some of these birds, and started enjoying myself more.

We eventually caught up with another couple who had also hired their own guide. Only difference is, their guide had nicely brought along a telescope for them! Once he spots an interesting bird, he would set up the scope nicely so all you have to do is peer into it. I guess they must have paid more, or at least did not try to bargain down the price like we did ;p

Cheapo us had to make do with one pair of binoculars for 2 of us while others enjoyed a telescope!

But hey, I guess we are lucky in the sense that when you spot something new and amazing, you just have a tendency to want to share it. So, it wasn't long before we were invited to look through the telescope as well. Unfortunately, the names of the birds we saw totally flew over my head, so to speak. We did catch glimpses of a woodpecker (a bird that pecks at the wood of the tree trunk) and a woodcreeper (a bird that creeps along the wood of a tree trunk) though!

Pretty blue bird

Trying to take a picture of a bird through the telescope was incredibly difficult, because my camera had a lens that was bigger than the eye-piece. Eventually, I figured out that the best way to take an 'okay' photo was to just switch the camera to super-macro, then press it right against the eye-piece.

Our first toucan for the day! A crimson-rump toucanet

But what the heck. It's still a very crappy picture, right? In the end, I just gave up on shooting through the telescope, and just went as close as I could (usually the edge of the road, one more step and I will fall off the slope) and pushed my camera to it's maximum 12x optical zoom.

Old Oly with its 4x zoom could never have captured a picture like this!

Zoomed in at 12x, taken at 12.1 megapixels and cropped to size for your viewing pleasure

And with this sighting, we seemed to have found the toucan hideouts. One by one, they revealed themselves to us. But still, you can see them, but toucan't touch them!

Another Crimson Rump toucanet, this time showing its rump

Collared Aracari looking back at us

Sitting so high we can't touch them

Unfortunately, our time was up, and we had to turn back. So while it was a good walk and we had a total of 8 toucan-sightings, we failed miserably on the hummingbird score. Luckily though, we had something else in store for the afternoon that would get us all the hummingbird sightings we need!

So, stay tuned for our next wildlife update!

Thanks Alex!