Waqanki Lodge

Waqanki lodge grounds

Our lodging

Waqanki has quite a hummingbird feeding operation but we ended up not spending enough time there for good photography. Here, a Rufous-crested Coquette is quite the showy bird.

Long-billed Starthroat

Black-throated Mango

Golden-collared Toucanet

Green-backed Trogon

A couple of well-camouflaged insects

Orange-bellied Euphonia

Heliconia is a flower that you see fairly often in tropical forests

The orchid garden had some particularly fine specimens of Heliconia

Black-faced Tanager

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

The same Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture that we have in North America are common across the tropics, but you have to look carefully because there are also yellow-headed vultures that look nearly identical to Turkey Vultures, except for having a yellow head, and to make it even more interesting, there are two species, Greater and Lesser. You can tell that this is a Greater Yellow-headed Vulture because of the contrastingly darker inner primaries.

Chestnut-eared Aracari

The Black-capped Donacobius is another oddball species whose relationship to other species remains unclear. It has been classified as a thrush, mimic thrush, wren, and it has also been suggested that it is a locustellid. Most authorities punt and classify it in a monotypic family.