I saw flocks of these large birds hanging out in the trees in Monteverde, but it took me a while to identify them. I thought at first they might be a type of guan, another very large bird common in the area, but all of the guans had distinctive red or blue markings. And except for having feet that were so much bigger than their brains, there was nothing distinctive about these birds at all .
Except, as it turns out, for their name. May I present: the gray-headed chachalaca! Much as I love exotic and amusing bird names, I had somehow never heard of chachalacas before. And now, just knowing that there are birds called cachalacas and that I have actually seen them makes me absurdly happy.
Chachalaca! Chachalaca! Chachalaca! Say that three times really fast.
No comments:
Post a Comment