Rick Simpson Birding Services

Black-backed Tanager. Photo ₢ Elsie Rotenberg.

This is the same bird that we twitched earlier this year. Elsie had this bird overwinter in her garden, this being the second time this has occurred, the last being two years ago. It is a lovely portrait and I wanted to share it with you.

Pair of Blue-naped Chlorophonias. Photo ₢ Elsie Rotenberg.

Elsie’s garden has been very productive this year with another locally rare and beautiful, wintering species, the Blue-naped Chlorophonia.

Here are a couple of great shots of owls in Ubatuba. One I’ve already posted here but can’t resist posting again, the other is new.

Striped Owl. Photo ₢ Aditi J. Chaves.

This shot was taken by Aditi Jain Chaves in Toninhas. It was a wet night following a long wet day and Aditi, a great bird photographer who has contributed a lot to Wikiaves had been sheltering at our friend Elsie’s house and photographing the birds in her garden. As we were leaving I heard this Striped owl call, stopped the car, and we were able to watch the bird for some 30 minutes.

Tropical Screech owls. Photo ₢ Rick and Elis Simpson.

These little beauties were in a roadside tree in the middle of our estate here in Itaguá. They were only about 3 metres from the ground and in full view. Elis took this photo from quite close quarters: it shows the two plumage variations of this species rather well.

We got back to Ubatuba today and I was delighted to see that some of our visiting summer visitors are back.

Fork-tailed Flycatcher. Photo ₢ Rick and Elis Simpson.

Along the road we saw a number of Fork-tailed Flycatchers, some Tropical Kingbirds and a pair of Sick’s Swifts.

Black Jacobin. Photo ₢ Rick and Elis Simpson.

Back at home we quickly got the feeders up and running and were visited by four hummingbird species, the first was Versicoloured Emerald, the second Glittering-throated Emerald, the third was Swallow-tailed Hummingbird and the last was the returning Black Jacobin.

Over the hills we found a flock of some 10 Swallow-tailed Kites, summer is with us!

As usual at the birdfair Elis did her fair share of hob-nobbing with the stars.

Photo copyright Rick and Elis Simpson.

Here she is with Chris Packham…

Photo copyright Rick and Elis Simpson.

…and with Simon King.