pbjosh
missing the neotropics
Jealous of the Cotinga experience, since they are my favorite bird family, adding salt to the fact that except for the Screaming Piha, Capuchinbird and Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock, every single Cotinga I saw while I was in Guyana was either female or just didn't show up! Imagine seeing a fruiting tree with one Spangled and three Pompadour Continga, but all are females...
I’ve spent most of my birding life in S America - about 1500 days birded I guess so far? - and I have only ever had one sh*tty look at Purple-throated. In the past few days I’ve gone from my lifer Purple-breasted to 7 total! It’s a bit of luck you could say, but realistically it’s more a question of just putting in time as a large number of the Amazonian and Choco birds are some mixture of hard to find / hard to see. The only people who have seen everything well are people who guide for decades or who live there and bird every day.