You can hear a recording of the three-wattled bellbird here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lFx7uYjDJO_AMvaNFJ8KVbWk2Hby9Sfw/view?usp=sharing. We also saw dozens of hummingbirds feeding on flowers, and over 50 species of birds in one day.
One of the more memorable wildlife encounters was watching a breeding pair of resplendent (meaning shining brilliantly) quetzals just outside the park where we were staying. Quetzals make nests in rotten, hollowed-out trees, like woodpeckers. The male grows two long tail feathers during the mating season, to be more attractive to females. They take turns sitting on the nests to keep the eggs warm, and sometimes their tails are so long they even stick outside the nest! Over half of all nesting attempts are unsuccessful, mostly due to predation on eggs before they can hatch. By providing nest boxes, we can help give quetzals a leg up on successfully having babies.
We also went on a night hike a few hours after sunset. I always love walking in the forest at night, because it reveals itself to you in different ways than during the daytime. Different bugs and birds are chirping, and spiders and frogs come out of their holes or from under logs. We even saw the same nesting pair of quetzals sleeping up in a tree–something our guide had never seen before in all his years working in the forest!
I also met up with my friend, Mulget Amaru, a long-distance runner from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is on a foot journey for peace where he is running from the tip of South America all the way up to Alaska!
