On Sunday, we finally caught a few birds and spent the rest of the day training them. We ended up with a beautiful little male festive coquette and female (we think so now) saw-billed hermit.   The male coquette (left) is easily distinguished from the female by his much more brilliant iridescent green forehead and […]

On the morning of Saturday, August 11th, 2012, our hummingbird adventure really began. We traveled to the home of Senhor Jonas, located an hour’s drive south of Ubatuba along the coast. It wasn’t that far as the hummingbird flies. But, these were rural roads. Still, it was a beautiful drive along the edges of the […]

On the morning of Saturday, August 11th, 2012, our hummingbird adventure really began. We traveled to the home of Senhor Jonas, located an hour’s drive south of Ubatuba along the coast. It wasn’t that far as the hummingbird flies. But, these were rural roads. Still, it was a beautiful drive along the edges of the […]

Let’s put things into geographical perspective: the Brazilian state of São Paolo is located in the southeasterly part of the country. It’s not quite as wet and humid as the Amazon, but it is known for it’s great beaches and phenomenal Atlantic dry forest. Of course, when they say dry, it’s only with respect to […]

Let’s put things into geographical perspective: the Brazilian state of São Paolo is located in the southeasterly part of the country. It’s not quite as wet and humid as the Amazon, but it is known for it’s great beaches and phenomenal Atlantic dry forest. Of course, when they say dry, it’s only with respect to […]

Cecilia Toledo, the ecologist with whom we are collaborating picked us up this morning at 9 AM to head to the Universidade de Taubaté (UNITAU, for short) for meetings with her “boss” and her “boss’s boss”. I now wish I had packed some nicer clothes. For the most part, Robin sent me off with field clothes: […]

Cecilia Toledo, the ecologist with whom we are collaborating picked us up this morning at 9 AM to head to the Universidade de Taubaté (UNITAU, for short) for meetings with her “boss” and her “boss’s boss”. I now wish I had packed some nicer clothes. For the most part, Robin sent me off with field clothes: […]

Our team and equipment. The dry shipper made the customs folks very nervous. It turns out “hummingbird” sounds a little too much like “human-bird”. Read more below. We’ve arrived in São Paulo. The flight was rather uneventful, which was fine by me. I’m glad I paid extra for the non-stop flights from Toronto to São […]

Our team and equipment. The dry shipper made the customs folks very nervous. It turns out “hummingbird” sounds a little too much like “human-bird”. Read more below. We’ve arrived in São Paulo. The flight was rather uneventful, which was fine by me. I’m glad I paid extra for the non-stop flights from Toronto to São […]

Our Brazilian adventure begins late on Wednesday night with a 10 hour flight from Toronto to Sao Paolo. The flight is delayed by about 30 minutes, but that doesn’t seem like much considering we had to move our departure date back by 1 month already. Doing research in Brazil is hard. The bureaucratic hurdles are […]