Turning my back on a Toucan
I’m bit reluctant to tell you this, but I’m going to trust you with the information: I like birds. The reason I’m reluctant is that, for some people, a statement like that conjures up images of ‘bird-nerds’ spending whole weekends sitting in a hide with a pair of binoculars, excitedly trying to catch a glimpse of some obscure brown bird so that they can cross it off their list of confirmed sightings.
I’m not like that, OK? I just like birds. I think they’re interesting, some of them are really beautiful and if I happen to see a nice one then I might stop and watch for a while. (Full disclosure: I do own a pair of binoculars, but I haven’t seen them in 6 months and they’re really cheap and crappy anyway. Also, I studied birds for a year as part of my Masters – the species in question was Parus major, better known as the Great Tit. This was a recurring source of hilarity in subsequent job interviews, e.g. you spent a year studying great tits?).
A Great Tit, Parus major. Careful how you search for this on Google…
So, that’s the birdy background out of the way, now on with the story:
One morning a few days ago, we were leaving the house when we heard a really weird noise. It sounded like a bird with a sore throat complaining about something (“what an annoying noise” was Mrs Eat Rio’s contribution). We looked up and found that the source of the noise was a pair of toucans!
Now then, I might be trying to play down my bird enthusiasm, but I’ll tell you right now, I find the sighting of a real-life toucan, in the wild, right outside my house, a pretty exciting event!
We watched as these two lovely birds hopped around in the tree, continually making strange noises (the birds, not us). I bemoaned my lack of camera for a moment, but the toucans were so pretty that it was nice just to watch them.
It turns out they were Channel-billed Toucans (Ramphastos vitellinus ariel). In Brazil these are known as Tucano de bico preto, (Black-billed Toucan). Just to be clear, I didn’t take this photo (I didn’t have a camera remember?) – this is the work of Luis A Florit.
I’ve seen toucans twice before in my life (in Colombia and Guatemala) and on both occasions they disappeared the moment I spotted them. With that in mind I quickly tried to commit the birds’ features to memory so I could work out what they were later on. I stood there frantically noticing stuff about the birds while they hopped around in the tree making that noise. I stood there some more, they hopped about some more. After about 5 minutes of this Toucan stand-off, I realised that these birds didn’t have anywhere else they needed to be. I, on the other hand, had to get to work.
I reluctantly turned and walked away from a pair of toucans. It was painful. I mean, toucans! They’re like one step down from a unicorn!
Happily it seems that my new neighbours may be here to stay – this morning I was awoken by that same annoying noise. With bleary eyes I jumped out of bed and grabbed my camera. Unfortunately they were less cooperative today and flew off and hid in a tree. Here are the 2 rather unimpressive photos I caught. Hopefully I’ll manage to get something better soon.
I’m only including this to prove that I’m not lying about these things. In case you’re in doubt, there is a bird in the centre of this image (it is flying right to left).
You can just about make it out right? Right? Hmmm, maybe you should go back to Luis’s photo above…
I’m still pretty excited about seeing these guys again and getting a proper photo, but if they keep waking me up like they did this morning, our love affair could turn sour. Anyone else seen any cool wildlife recently?
Tom,
This is really cool! I would be totally excited to see a Toucan out in the open, not in a zoo setting.
I did see a lot of cool birds in the Canals in Amsterdam, not only ducks, but several other very cools birds, with long legs, and other types. Sorry, I am not as knowledgeable as you to be able to share their breeds…
I think your pictures are very good, considering you were just waking up and in a hurry, I am sure you will be able to snap some better pictures soon. :)
Abracos
Ray
Ah, thanks Ray. They are lovely things aren’t they? I’m looking forward to hearing all about your travel adventures – good to have you back! :D
I once ran across a pair of Toucans and then a pair of Araras, not more than 200 feet apart. I am not a bird person at all but found them to be very impressive. And they were just hanging out. I actually left before they did (isn’t time the most precious of items?)
I found your improvised pic to be cool, in an LSD-ish kind of way. Seriously, I think the image is beautiful, even if I can’t really explain why.
https://eatrio.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/DSC_0467.jpg
Wow! That must have been awesome. I’m not a bird person either (erm, anyone still buying that line?)…
Glad you like the pic – I was a bit fed up at the time that it was so unclear, but I guess you could call it impressionistic (though LSD-ish sounds less pretentious ;) ).
Tom,
This subject is right up my alley! I also studied birds for my Master’s–prairie species of NW Iowa–and I’m a wildlife biologist. Anyway, I’m geeking out just reading your account of the toucans. I saw some in Brazil, but like your encounters in Columbia, they were very brief. I’m so excited you had a nice long look!
So, best wildlife sighting recently for me? General — A hoary bat that was found near one of the wind turbines I was surveying. Birds — A Townsend’s warbler flitting about in the Sierra foothills on the way to Tahoe.
Beijos,
Tracy
Hi Tracy – a fellow bird biologist! Brilliant :) I know I’m not really a bird biologist anymore, but hoping I can invoke that “one a bird biologist, always a biologist” rule. Hey, given your field, you may have heard of the project I worked on – Wytham Woods just outside Oxford.
I had to look up both your sightings. The Townsend’s warbler is lovely! I’m still feeling a bit traumatised about bats after we saw one get smashed by a bus recently – another bat kept swooping over the dead body, five minutes after the impact :(
Awww, your bat story is so sad. To be honest, the bat I saw was one of three who were killed by colliding with a wind turbine blade. I was fascinated but sad that the only way I could see one up close was if it was dead.
Also, I agree with you–I’d never get sick of seeing toucans. There is so much to learn!
Also, here’s a link to the location where I conducted my research:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21833852@N00/261452372/in/photostream
Broken Kettle Grassland in the Loess Hills
Wow Tracy! Beautiful photos!
Your post made me think of this other one I read by Fairfax blogger Ben Groundwater:
when-travel-becomes-a-bit-meh
He talks about the “monkey theory” whereby one’s excitement about seeing monkeys decreases significantly every time you see them.
You reckon that’ll happen with you and toucans?
Heh heh, that’s a great post. World-weary travellers are the worst – as he puts it so nicely, doing the whole sure, toucans are alright, but they’re not as cool as the birds of paradise I saw in Papua New Guinea thing “marks you out as an incredible travel wanker” :D
I believe in the monkey theory thing, it has already happened to me with monkeys! But toucans? Never!
I get the idea of this, but I think with biology or wildlife it is different. You can always shoot for something more exciting, but you could also look at a so-called boring or meh animal/plant/whatever in a different way. For example, we have Yellow-billed Magpies out here in central California. Eastern US and international birders go NUTS for them. I don’t really care about spotting one, but their behavior is really interesting. So you can take more time to watch a “meh” species and learn something new.
I LOVE toucans and birds in general (http://greetingsfromholland.blogspot.nl/2011/10/my-favorite-painter.html).
Last vacation in France I visited a castle and watched a fauconnière lecturing about them (hawks, owls…). Truly fascinating ! Btw, the aquatic birds in A’dam that Ray mentioned on the comment above are always in the canal in my backyard as well. Storks, ducks and many others I do not know the name. My kids (and I !) got really sad during last winter when we spotted several ducks frozen in water, in several parts of the country. They sleep and they get frozen then they cannot move. Some were on water with open eyes – 100% dead. Sad. I din’t even want to blog that…
Hi Ana – what lovely paintings! Your dad is very talented.
Sorry to hear about the dead ducks – that’s so sad! :( I love storks – they’re such elegant birds. I didn’t realise they went as far north as Amsterdam – you’re lucky!
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
Hey Danielle – another bird lover! :) You understand my Unicorn-Toucan scale don’t you?
Loove Tucans. Have you seen their tongues? THEY ARE SO WEIRD.
But I want one. Not the tongue, a Toucan.
Ha ha! It’s amazing what you find when you search for toucan tongues…
Imagine if you paired this with these! You’d be a Toucan2!
p.s. their tongues are also bizarro!
HHAHAHAH my dear lord
Too bad you didn’t follow them, they might’ve lead to Froot Loops!
Ha ha! I had to look that up Stacey! Those things look radioactive! :D