Leaves at the edge of the dusty track are covered thick with rusty-looking dust. After a cool night, the early morning drives the birds into the first rays of sunlight. So also a White-eared Puffbird (Nystalus chacuru). The bird sits just at the roadside in a bush equipped with leathery leaves. I photograph the Puffbird for a while. It is not shy. Later I can even photograph the bird choking out chitin residues.
The german name for the genus ist “Faulvogel” what actually means “Lazy bird”. To what extent the White-eared Puffbird is really a lazy bird or just a patient hunter is an open question. In any case, it is not uncommon in the Chapada dos Guimaraes, 65 km northeast of Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso. It inhabits gallery forest, wooded grassland and savanna, the open forest formations with scrub and clearings called Cerrado by the Brazilians. Photographer-friendly, the Cerrado Puffbird often perches low in bare trees along roads in rural areas. It also perches exposed on telephone wires, fences, and posts. Diet appears to be opportunistic. Arthropods as well as small vertebrates such as lizards, amphibians, and even small marsupials such as the Northern Three-striped Opossum (Monodelphis americana) are preyed upon, often from the ground. Large insects, however, will definitely be caught in the air.
The Chapada dos Guimaraes, located 65 km northeast of Cuiabá, is a unique destination to get to know the Cerrado, the Brazilian savannah. It is located in a transition zone between the Cerrado and the Amazon, which gives the visitor the opportunity to see not only typical Cerrado species, but also birds that cannot be found anywhere else in the Cerrado. For example, the Yellow-tufted Woodpecker (Melanerpes cruentatus), the Pheasant Cuckoo (Dromococcyx phasianellus) or the Brown Jacamar (Brachygalba lugubris)
This special landscape allows the visitor to experience nature in a unique way. Within a few minutes, the visitor can go from open grasslands to sandstone cliffs to lush forests, each representing a drastic change in habitats and bird species. This Chapada is certainly one of the most remarkable destinations in the Brazilian savanna.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic and beyond. Trips to remote places like this one to capture images not only of rare birds of western palearctic were very successful. The nice image of the blog is only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Picture Shop” very soon. Just give bird-lens.com a message, if bird-lens.com could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.