When Connie and I made our Christmas to New Years Eve trip to the Antioquia area of Colombia, one of the towns we visited was Jardin. We stayed there overnight and the following morning got up early to visit a small private bird refuge. There, we were able to view and photograph several Andean Cock-of-the-rock birds. This bird is found in mountain forests of the Andean countries of South America. It is the national bird of Peru. Colombia is a popular destination for birding as it has more species of birds than any other country on earth.
The Andean Cock-of-the-rock is a bird with bright red-orange plumage on its crowned head, chest and upper back, a gray lower back and black primary wings and tail. Its feet are yellow. Most unusual is the large fan-like crown above its rather small head and tiny bill.
The bird can be challenging to photograph because it perches in the dense vegetation and not out in the open. I used a 300mm lens (the longest I have with me in South America) to photograph the birds. I made many exposures to obtain a few good images of the birds with unobstructed views.
Great pictures!
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