Tag Archives: Yerette

Tufted Coquette ( Lophornis ornatus )

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The Tufted Coquette ( Lophornis ornatus ) is a tiny hummingbird that has a rufous head crest and a coppery green back with a whitish rump band that is prominent in flight. The forehead and underparts are green, and black-spotted rufous plumes project from the neck sides. The tail is golden rufous.

I was lucky enough to see this tiny beauty at Asa Wright Nature Centre where I tried to get some photos but these birds are FAST!

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They range throughout eastern Venezuela, Trinidad, Guiana, and northern Brazil.  I saw a few at Asa Wright’s and they can also be found at Yerette in Trinidad.

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Very nice mini-doco on Tufted Coquettes.

 

Theyr’e gorgeous and they know it, this time they cooperated with the videographer.  The one at the end is a female.

 

 

Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis)

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The Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) is a mainly South American hummingbird species.

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They have a huge range from Venezuela and the Guyanas, south to central Brazil,  Peru, Ecuador and northern Bolivia; also from Colombia into southern Panama.  Yerette in Trinidad is a good place to see them.

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Why is everyone looking at me?

 

Quick visit to a feeder

Yerette Hummingbird Sanctuary, Trinidad

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Theo & Gloria Fergusson, the owners of Yerette must have one of the best lifestyles in the world!  Their beautiful home high atop a hill in the lush Maracas Valley in Trinidad is a sanctuary for 1000’s of brilliant glittering hummingbirds!  Out of all the bird species we don’t have in Australia, hummingbirds are the one I miss the most so I like to take any opportunity to see them overseas.  The general consensus on Trip Advisor is “magic” and I have to agree!

The word “Yerette” means hummingbird  in the original Amerindian language.Trinidad even features them on the national Coat of Arms, currency and passport, as the hummingbird is an important symbol of the country.  Caribbean Airlines has the hummingbird as their logo as well.

At Yerette, visitors are able to see and observe 13 of the 17 hummingbird species recorded in this country, of hummingbirds at a very close range. These include:

1.Black-throated Mango

2.Blue-chinned Sapphire

3.Brown Violetear

4.Copper-rumped Hummingbird

5.Green Hermit

6.Green-throated Mango

7.Little Hermit

8.Long-billed Starthroat

9.Ruby Topaz

10.Rufous-breasted Hermit

11.Tufted Coquette

12.White-chested Emerald

13.White-necked Jacobin

I managed to see 10 out of the 13 (bolding) and did my best to identify the photos below but many are too dark or blurry.  I did get Tufted Coquette at Asa Wright’s so it’s really necessary to visit both places to see as many Trindadian hummingbirds as possible.

The price of admission is $TT150, and includes a light meal, interesting presentation by Theo on the hummingbirds and access to all the hummingbird feeders in the garden where you can TRY to take photos of these rapidly flittering flying jewels.  Theo has photos for sale which are better quality than most people will get on their own.  You need to book in advance by calling 1-868-663-2623 as there are sessions at different times of day.  They will email you precise directions when you book.  It doesn’t matter which session you choose as hummingbirds must feed every 10 minutes throughout the day.

The area where Yerette is located.

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Entering Yerette and the hummingbird garden.dscn3622 dscn3623 dscn3624 dscn3625 dscn3626 dscn3627

Theo’s presentation on the hummingbirds.dscn3646 dscn3628 dscn3633

Green-throated Mango dscn3639a dscn3641

Green-throated Mango dscn3650 dscn3658

White-necked Jacobin dscn3661

Copper-rumped Hummingbird dscn3670

Little Hermit dscn3684

Black-throated Mango dscn3688

Rufous-breasted Hermit dscn3692 dscn3699

Ruby Topaz dscn3702

Ruby Topaz dscn3702a

Ruby Topaz dscn3703a

White-chested Emerald dscn3704

White-chested Emerald dscn3705a

Brown Violetear dscn3708 dscn3710 dscn3715

Purple Honeycreeper

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Green-throated Mango dscn3724 dscn3727 dscn3732

Ruby Topaz Hummingbird? dscn3740a

Blue-chinned Sapphire dscn3744

Black-throated Mango img_6938a

Ruby Topaz Hummingbird? img_6927 img_6925 img_6918 img_6911

White-necked Jacobin img_6898aYellow Oriole img_6856 img_6851

Blue-chinned Sapphire dscn3749 img_6840 dscn3747

It started raining as we headed back down the steep hill, you can see how high it is.

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Ruby-topaz Hummingbird (Chrysolampis mosquitus)

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The Ruby-topaz Hummingbird (Chrysolampis mosquitus), commonly referred to simply as the Ruby topaz, is a small bird that breeds in the Lesser Antilles and tropical northern South America. It is the only member of the genus Chrysolampis.  This stunning little beauty is a seasonal migrant, although its movements are not well understood.  I took these photos at Yerette in Trinidad.  Better photos are in the links below.

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They have a huge range from Venezuela and the Guyanas, south to central Brazil and northern Bolivia; also from Colombia into southern Panama.  Yerette in Trinidad is a good place to see them.

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Watch how his colours change in the light as he moves!

 

A very lucky group of birders have found some Ruby-topazes in the wild, see the little guys in action!

Sound of the Ruby-topaz

Getting Lost In Trinidad

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There are a few must-see birding hotspots and with only 2 full days I had organized two very ambitious itineraries.  The first day involved driving out to Nariva Swamp before dawn, getting to Yerette (Hummingbirds) for lunch, then doing the sunset boat ride at Caroni Bird Sanctuary.  What I didn’t realize is how confusing some of the roads were and without a GPS, we would get lost several times.  Ordinarily getting lost isn’t a bad thing as you can stumble into some pretty cool places but I really needed to get to all these places on time.  This is what it looked like (blue is Google maps, red is how we got to Nariva Swamp and green is getting back to Yerette.

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I have no idea where most of these places are, I was just snapping photos out the window to show every day Trinidad life.dscn3574 dscn3575 dscn3576 dscn3577 dscn3578 dscn3579 dscn3580

I love this colour!dscn3581

Public transportdscn3583 dscn3585

Pretty police stationdscn3586 dscn3588 dscn3589 dscn3590 dscn3591 dscn3592 dscn3593

After finally finding the road to Nariva, we stopped here to buy food and drinks.dscn3595 dscn3596

The sea at last!dscn3597 dscn3598 dscn3600 dscn3601 dscn3605

Yay, we found it!dscn3606

This next group of photos is getting back from Nariva to Yerette.  We ended up in some really remote rural area and only got back to the main road after following a local man who was headed that way.dscn3618 dscn3619 dscn3620