lockbreeze926
Well-known member
This was years ago, but I found the photo today and remembered that I was never at all clear about this one.
Mindo, Ecuador - heading uphill towards the trails behind the well-known Yellow House accommodation, but not actually in the forest yet, just in the open paddocks with tree-lined margins.
I saw a medium-size raptor-ish bird across the paddock/field from the path I was on, maybe 200m away, but half-concealed in foliage. To my surprise, it left concealment and began to fly at hunting speed across the field in my direction...very much in my direction. As I tracked its flight in the bins, it flew directly towards me and kept going, going, going in a straight line, apparently destined for a collision, until the very last second, as I got into a defensive crouch, when it abruptly pulled out of its hunting path and passed a few feet above me.
I turned to see where it had gone and the answer was - not very far. In fact, it had landed in the trees behind me, just on the other side of the trail I was on. I quickly pointed the camera at what I could see of the perched bird and snapped two shots, both massively blurry and indistinct.
...which is a long-winded back-story as to why this photo is so poxy.
The closest I could get to an ID was Bicoloured Hawk. It's the rufous thighs I focus on.
When I mentioned this to a local guide we were travelling with, she was highly sceptical. On seeing the photo, she was non-committal.
Observations welcomed.
(As for why it flew directly at me from 200m away- weird behaviour for a raptor - I can only guess the baseball hat I was wearing triggered some response. It was forest green with a letter O on it, so might have resembled a parrot in some way?)
Mindo, Ecuador - heading uphill towards the trails behind the well-known Yellow House accommodation, but not actually in the forest yet, just in the open paddocks with tree-lined margins.
I saw a medium-size raptor-ish bird across the paddock/field from the path I was on, maybe 200m away, but half-concealed in foliage. To my surprise, it left concealment and began to fly at hunting speed across the field in my direction...very much in my direction. As I tracked its flight in the bins, it flew directly towards me and kept going, going, going in a straight line, apparently destined for a collision, until the very last second, as I got into a defensive crouch, when it abruptly pulled out of its hunting path and passed a few feet above me.
I turned to see where it had gone and the answer was - not very far. In fact, it had landed in the trees behind me, just on the other side of the trail I was on. I quickly pointed the camera at what I could see of the perched bird and snapped two shots, both massively blurry and indistinct.
...which is a long-winded back-story as to why this photo is so poxy.
The closest I could get to an ID was Bicoloured Hawk. It's the rufous thighs I focus on.
When I mentioned this to a local guide we were travelling with, she was highly sceptical. On seeing the photo, she was non-committal.
Observations welcomed.
(As for why it flew directly at me from 200m away- weird behaviour for a raptor - I can only guess the baseball hat I was wearing triggered some response. It was forest green with a letter O on it, so might have resembled a parrot in some way?)
