rufous hornero

Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus rufus)

Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus subsp. commersoni) Sexes similar. Along the banks of Ro Cuiaba, Porto Jofre, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Riverine with scattered cerrado and wetlands at ca. 110 m (361 ft).

Two things just occurred to me about this Hornero gathering nesting materials. 1) The grass may also be for lining a nest within the oven-like mud chamber. I suppose they do use some to reinforce the mud, but they probably then build a nest in the chamber. 2) In August they were just starting...

Next-to-last Rufous Hornero shot. About to take off.

Finishing up with the Rufous Hornero shots today. Only these three left.

The main material for their nests is mud, but the constructions are so large and complex that I guess they must need some sort of reinforcement fiber. I think that's what this one was gathering, which makes this yet another sign that spring had begun ... about 2-3 weeks early. Nice for me in...

Skipping ahead to find some fun shots for Saturday ... My last birding day in Buenos Aires was a very windy one. So that's my Saturday Fun Shot theme this week.

One last shot of the tailless Hornero, strutting bravely past. Here you can see just how much of his tail is missing. It looks as if whatever or whoever bit/snatched/ripped off his tail didn't take just the tail-feathers, but took the whole tail including underlying flesh and bone :eek!: - in...

And finally, here he auditions for a more modern musical - Saturday Night Fever ;) If you look closely, he's made that stretch move even trickier by reaching across with his left wing rather than simply stretching up and out with the right.

here he is singing Mephisto's Song from Moussorgsky's version of Faust ("A flea! Muuua-ha-ha-ha-ha!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqeMWf5CzVM) - the one song I remember my grandfather singing at the one concert of his I was old enough to attend before he died. Too bad we don't have a...

This Hornero was quite the performer on his little pedestal stage, so I thought I'd let him be the star of his own Saturday Fun Show. Here he is preparing to recite his Falstaff lines, and then ...

The Hornero is Argentina's national bird, by popular vote. Here is one on a pedestal practicing his "John Bull" pose. If he'd had thumbs, I'm sure they'd have been planted demonstratively in his waistcoat pockets.

No, this is not a new species. This is just a rufous hornero, national bird of Argentina, that's missing its tail. Of course, tails are not removable or optional, so this bird must have survived some sort of catastrophic accident - grabbed by a raptor? caught in a trap or on some barbed wire...

Nome Cientfico Furnarius rufus

This little fellow fell into the small pool of water while learning to fly. Parents went crazy running around the pool and screaming. The little one managed to swim to the shore and the parents send him into bush to dry out.

But it's not the Seiurus aurocapillus of the USA. It's a Rufous Hornero, spotted in a square in Montevideo. A really well-behaved bird - it moves around a bit bus is happy to be photographed from quite near.

Female resting after eating in the bushes.

Male, singing alone. Most of the times the pair sings a duet.

This 2 horneros where fighting in the medle of the road at esteros del Ibera, Argentina. Each one was tightly holding the others head and they stayed there without mooving for at least 10 minutes untill my lense was only 15 cm from them and separated and fly away,...