The Veranda of Your Dreams

 [Purple Honeycreeper and Green Honeycreeper, Asa Wright Nature Center veranda, February 27, 2013. Click to enlarge photos.]

You will never forget your first morning on the veranda at Asa Wright Nature Center, Trinidad. Foreign sounds rise from the forest, forms flicker in and out from the feeders as light rises to reveal a parade of colors - what's that one? Oh, that one? Should have studied the field guide more!

No worries, though, the birds come and come and stay and stay, a contrast to much rainforest birding where the looks are fleeting. Blue-purple of Purple Honeycreepers, crazy green-blue of Green Honeycreepers, white flashing on the black White-lined Tanagers, a Northern Waterthrush joining the funny little agouti underneath the food trays. And the hummingbirds! White-necked Jacobins, Copper-rumpeds. . .

Many more pictures to come, this is but a glimpse of our first morning at Asa Wright.

[Male and female White-lined Tanagers and a Green Honeycreeper feast on fruit at Asa Wright. We saw over 50 species well our first day at the center, most of which were at or near the veranda feeders.]