Wildsumaco | Miles To The Wild

The Booted Racket-tail (Ocreatus underwoodii) is a species of hummingbird and a firm favourite with birders in Ecuador. The fashion-forward little beauty not only sports the distinctive rackets on the end of his long tail but different coloured boots! On the western slopes of the Andes (Mindo area), the hummingbirds are sophisticated and elegant in fluffy white boots. On the eastern slopes (WildSumaco, Napo, etc) they dazzle in rusty orange boots. Either way, they are dressed for success and you won’t want to miss them!

These 2 photos showing white boots were taken at Angel Paz Refuge in Mindo area.

This little guy is proudly showing his orange boots at Wildsumaco. See the iridescence by night! DSCN2141

You can find them in in the Andean cordillera of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. They are easily seen at the hummingbird feeders in most lodges in the Mindo area and at Wildsumaco Lodge.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT BOOTED RACKET-TAILS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Neotropical Birds

American Bird Conservancy

VIDEOS

Filmed at Wild Sumaco, this video shows how fast they really are.

Looking adorable with very puffy boots!

There’s a short clips here NOT at a hummingbird feeder.

The Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas) is a bird species of the New World jays, and is found in both North and South America. The taxonomy is a bit confusing. They are usually lumped with Inca Jay (C. yncas yncas) of South America. Adding to the confusion in classification, the Green Jay is then used as the species name, even though the Inca Jay is the nominate subspecies.

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They have a large range extending from the southern tip of Texas down to Bolivia. Depending on which source you read, the Inca Jay subspecies is the South American range. I saw them in southern Ecuador in the Podocarpus National Park near Zamora and further north at Wildsumaco and Cabanas San Isidro.

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