“Chapeau fantastique!” It looks like the Fourth of July on top of the Amazonian Royal Flycatcher’s head. Can you make a guess what they like to eat? It’s not hot dogs. No, it’s not cheese. It’s flies!
These birds are pretty adorbes:
My favorite part of this video is around 1:13 when the A.R.F. is like, “Unhand me, Human!!”
The Amazon is home to over 3,800 species of birds. To put that in perspective, North America currently has 749 species. So many birds with so many amazing differences and adaptions developed to survive in a variety of conditions. Some, like the Hoatzin, live near streams and eat poisonous leaves. They are also referred to as “Stinkbirds” because of the digestion of said leaves and are therefore unappetizing to predators. Toucans have giant colorful bills made of keratin (same business as human nails) and enjoy the high canopy where they sleep in tree cavities. Weensey hummingbirds suck down nectar and can rotate their wings 180 degrees. Blue and Gold Macaws are noisy, messy, and love the rain. Harpy Eagles eat monkeys.
The Amazonian Royal Flycatcher only shows off it’s crest when it’s courting a lady Amazonian Royal Flycatcher or it’s annoyed. And usually annoyed at a human scientist person taking measurements and pictures when really it just want to be flying around eating flies.
Animals for Sam 