ML390126331

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

The star of this locality. Common. Heard once on the trails above the finca while waiting to go to the feeding station that the owner, Ariel, spent the past three years developing. After becoming interested in birds, he learned that Grallaria can become habituated to come to feeding stations. He then embarked on a three-year project to create a feeding station for G. kaestneri, involving what sounded like lots of trial and error with different foods, techniques, clusters of individuals on his property. We were maybe the third group to visit his feeding station. At 9:00am sharp, he spreads maybe a dozen large grubs on the ground in front of a small blind situated just inside the forest at the edge of his finca's clearing. He then gently calls to the antpittas, "Niña, bebe, venga a comer!". He says that normally individuals begin appear in the first 10-15 minutes however this time they took around 50 minutes to appear. Ariel thinks it's because he was doing work on the blind the day before. The first individual appeared twice around 9:50 rapidly darting in for its grub and disappearing upslope into the undergrowth. The second pair of visits happened maybe 15 minutes later. It seemed to be the same individual, by plumage, but this time it took its time hopping down to the grubs, picking the juiciest one, and returning to the undergrowth. A short while later a different individual appeared with a noticeably paler/yellower chest (although it could have been the light) and similarly took its time picking out its grub. A little while later one began to call out of sight which Ariel said meant that they were done feeding and the show was over.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

3200

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/40 sec

Dimensions

3888 pixels x 2592 pixels

Original file size

894.15 KB