Feb 09
by Admin in Brazil, Pantanal 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Bangalore, Brazil, Digitalfrescos, Jaguar, Mammal, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pantanal

My first jaguar, Pantanal, Brazil

The jaguar Panthera onca is the largest cat in the Americas and the third-largest in the world (after the lion and tiger). Its head-body length can reach around 240cm, and its shoulder height up to 75cm. Today, the jaguar is found in South and Central America, from Mexico to northern Argentina. The species’ range formerly spread over the US border into the southern states of America, but had become wiped out there by the 1940s due to hunting. There have been sporadic sightings in Arizona in recent years, however. While jaguars do live in drier regions, they’re normally strongly associated with water, and they thrive in rainforests like the Amazon and in dense swamplands and wetlands that provide plenty of cover for stalking prey. The Pantanal in Brazil is one of the best places in the world to see jaguars. The best time to visit is the dry season, from late April to early November, as that’s when prey is more concentrated. Jaguars are most similar in appearance to leopards, but there’s nothing you can confuse them with in the wild, as no other big cats live in South America. Cougars are technically not big cats but are a similar […]
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Feb 09
by Admin in Brazil, Pantanal 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bare-faced curassow, Bird, birds, Brazil, Digitalfrescos, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pantanal

Female Bare-faced curassow, Pantanal, Brazil

The bare-faced curassow (Crax fasciolata) is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, curassows, etc. It is found in Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Bolivia, and extreme northeast Argentina, in the cerrado, pantanal, and the southeastern region of the Amazon basin. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. It forages on the ground in forest and forest edge, where it can be fairly common. It is easiest to detect in early morning and late evening, when individuals or pairs wander into clearings or deliver their deep, booming songs. Like other Crax curassows, this species is sexually dimorphic: the male is mostly black with a white vent, while the female is barred black above with orange to rufous underparts. The Bare-faced Curassow is the only curassow with extensive bare black skin on the face. The bare-faced curassow is a large bird reaching a length of 82 to 92 centimetres (32 to 36 in). The sexes differ in appearance. The male has black upper parts faintly glossed with greenish-olive, with an unfeathered face with yellowish bare skin, a small black crest, and white underparts. The female, on the other hand, […]
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Feb 09
by Admin in Brazil, Pantanal 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bare-faced curassow, Bird, birds, Brazil, Digitalfrescos, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pantanal

Male Bare-faced curassow close up, Pantanal, Brazil

The bare-faced curassow (Crax fasciolata) is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, curassows, etc. It is found in Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Bolivia, and extreme northeast Argentina, in the cerrado, pantanal, and the southeastern region of the Amazon basin. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. It forages on the ground in forest and forest edge, where it can be fairly common. It is easiest to detect in early morning and late evening, when individuals or pairs wander into clearings or deliver their deep, booming songs. Like other Crax curassows, this species is sexually dimorphic: the male is mostly black with a white vent, while the female is barred black above with orange to rufous underparts. The Bare-faced Curassow is the only curassow with extensive bare black skin on the face. The bare-faced curassow is a large bird reaching a length of 82 to 92 centimetres (32 to 36 in). The sexes differ in appearance. The male has black upper parts faintly glossed with greenish-olive, with an unfeathered face with yellowish bare skin, a small black crest, and white underparts. The female, on the other hand, […]
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Feb 09
by Admin in Brazil, Pantanal 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Brazil, Digitalfrescos, Giant cowbird, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pantanal

Giant cowbird looking for titbits, Pantanal, Brazil

As its common name indicates, the Giant Cowbird is a large cowbird. Indeed the Giant Cowbird dwarfs any other species of Molothrus, and at first glance may seem to have little in common with other cowbirds. Like other species of Molothrus, however, the Giant Cowbird is a brood parasite, and lays its eggs in the nest of other large-bodied birds, principally oropendolas (Psarocolius, perhaps other genera as well) and caciques (Cacicus). The male Giant Cowbird has a conspicuous ruff of feathers around the neck; this ruff may contribute to the Giant Cowbird’s peculiar small-headed appearance. This species has a wide geographic range; it’s distribution may be spreading higher into the Andes following deforestation, but it also may have been extirpated from some areas after the host species disappeared following the loss of their forest habitat. The Giant Cowbird is one of the larger species of icterid. It is wholly black with long and pointed wings, a rather long and rounded tail, a stout black bill with broad and flattened frontal shield, and with the feathers of sides of neck developed into erectile lateral ruffs. ail about three-fourths as long as wing, rounded, rectrices with broad ends. Tarsus with anterior scutella […]
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Feb 09
by Admin in Brazil, Pantanal 0 comments tags: Alwan, art, Avian, Bangalore, Bird, birds, Brazil, Digitalfrescos, Nikkor, Nikkor 500, Nikon, Nikon D500, Pantanal, Yellow billed cardinal

Yellow billed Cardinal, Pantanal, Brazil

The various species in this genus of cardinals are actually tanager-finches, quite distantly related from the true cardinals in the family Cardinalidae. Yellow-billed Cardinal is not a crested species, so other than having red on the head, there is nothing very cardinal-like about it at all. It is a very striking species though! The head is bright red, turning black on the throat, making it look like it has a black bib. As the name states, the bill is yellow, almost orange in fact and about the same color as the legs. The underparts are white and the upperparts blackish, and these are separated by a white half collar from the red head. This cardinal is a species of streamside vegetation, being found also around lakes and swamps and often feeding right from the water’s edge. Where it overlaps with the larger Red-crested Cardinal (Paroaria coronata), Red-crested takes habitats in drier and shrubbier habitats, while Yellow-billed is more of the wetland species. However, they both overlap to some extent. The bright coloration and nice song has made them a prime candidate as a cage bird, through parts of Argentina and southern Brazil. It has been successfully introduced to several of […]
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