The Sunbittern is an unusual bird of forested streams of Central and South America. This species is perhaps best known for a characteristic display involving large “eyespots” in the plumage of their wings. Sunbitterns have a characteristic “Frontal Display” that they use when they are threatened.  The spread and tilt their wings forward, exposing two large eyespots.  The tail is lifted and fanned out to fill the gap between the wings. Overall, the posture dramatically increases the apparent size of the displaying bird while exposing the fake eyes.  Both sexes use the display, and young Sunbitterns practice the display in the nest when they are just 10 days old.

The Sunbittern is at home on both swift and rocky streams, and slower moving, sandy or silt-bottomed streams, where is stalks fish, amphibians, crustaceans and insects. and then captures them with a quick lunge. The Sunbittern is currently listed as a species of Least Concern.

Linnaeus’s Two-toed Sloths are expert climbers. When you visit the Tropical Rainforest, you may catch Wookiee hanging upside down high in the canopy, or moving slowly along branches and vines. They have two claws on their hands and three claws on their feet, all measuring about 4 inches in length, that help them to hang. Sloths only come down from the trees once every week or so to defecate. Sloths live life in the slow lane, moving about 0.2 miles per hour in the trees, and sleep upwards of 15 hours each day! Sloths are anything but lazy, though. All of this sleeping helps them to conserve energy—an important thing for an animal whose diet of leaves, shoots, and barks is not very nutritious. They have a large, multi-chambered stomach that can hold huge quantities of food. It can take up to a month for a sloth to digest one meal!

Pelicans are large, bulky waterbirds with webbed feet, short legs, and a remarkably long bill. The underside of their bills extends into a pouch that can hold 2-3 gallons of water at a time, which they use to trap fish. When hunting, they spot their prey from the air and plunge into the water head-first. After trapping the fish, they drain the water out the sides of the bill, and then swallow the fish whole. Brown Pelicans incubate their eggs with their feet, essentially standing on them to keep them warm.

Unfortunately, the use of the pesticide DDT caused Brown Pelican numbers to plummet during the 20th century. Much like the decline of the Bald Eagle, DDT thinned the pelicans’ egg shells, causing them to break during incubation. After DDT use was banned, Brown Pelican numbers slowly recovered and they were officially removed from the Federal Endangered Species list in 1985.

The Yellow-hooded Blackbird occurs in northern South America where it favors marshes with emergent aquatic plants such as cattails or bulrushes, as well as humid savannas, mangroves, and agricultural land where it can forage in newly plowed fields. Yellow-hooded Blackbirds also frequently forage in grass and vegetation for seeds and insects, including caterpillars and weevils. The blackbird’s reproductive strategy includes harems or successive polygyny, with many Yellow-hooded Blackbirds nesting colonially in large groups of up to 100 pairs. The Yellow-hooded Blackbird is not globally threatened.

The Turquoise Tanager occurs in the Amazon Basin and nearby habitats of South America where it favors forest edge, clearings with scattered trees, tall second growth, riparian forests, and parks and gardens. It consumes about equal proportions of fruit and insects, but in particular, mistletoe berries are a very important part of the diet of this tanager. The Turquoise Tanager is not globally threatened, and may even be increasing because of its ability to occupy different stages of second growth.

The Venezuelan Troupial is the national bird of Venezuala. It is found in northern South America and several Caribbean islands. It occurs in dry woodland of acacia and tree-like cacti, but also in pastures and savanna, dry or seasonal woodlands, and sometimes old fruit plantations. The Venezuelan Troupial is omnivorous, feeding on nectar, fruits, seeds, arthropods and small vertebrates. This species usually pirates the nest of some other species, and can often be aggressive in taking over nests. Although Venezuelan Troupials are trapped for the cage bird trade, they are not considered threatened.

The Silver-beaked Tanager is a striking South American tanager of brushy forest borders, overgrown clearings, second growth, and shrubs around habitations and riverbanks. Often feeding in small groups, this tanager consumes about equal proportions of arthropods and fruit. Nesting birds are sometimes found close together, and it is occasionally a cooperative breeder with helpers attending the young. Pairs do not seem to defend territories against conspecifics.  The Silver-beaked Tanager is not globally threatened.

The Scarlet-headed Blackbird is a striking bird found in wetlands in South America. This insectivore particularly favors tropical or warm temperate marshes with tall emergent vegetation such as sedges and cattails. This bird will also sometimes use adjacent grasslands or agricultural fields. The nest is a sturdy cup-shaped structure built mostly from interlaced strips of cattail leave. Although the Scarlet-headed Blackbird is susceptible to land use changes that affect the quality and extent of wetlands, it is not globally threatened.

One look at the Red-legged Honeycreeper and it’s easy to see where it gets its name. Largest of the Cyanerpes honeycreepers at about 12 centimeters long, both male and female Red-legged Honeycreepers sport bright, candy-red legs and a long, sharp bill that’s almost as recognizable as their legs. Males in breeding plumage are a brilliant blue, with azure cap and black wings and tail. Yellow underwing coverts flash conspicuously when the birds are in flight. Females are olive-green above and paler below; males in eclipse plumage resemble the females, but retain their black wings and tails.

The Honeycreeper’s thin, downward-curving bill is an adaptation to nectar-eating, but also allows the Honeycreeper specialized access to fruit and insects. Honeycreepers are able to reach into the narrow cracks of ripening arillate fruit husks to nip bits off the rich arils inside, long before birds with shorter, heavier bills can reach them. In the same way, the bill fits neatly into cracks in tree bark and behind twisting vines to pluck out insects too small and hidden for other birds to find. These tiny insects, in fact, make up the majority of the Red-legged Honeycreeper’s diet.

Common and widespread throughout its range, the Red-legged Honeycreeper is currently not considered threatened. However, “harvesting” of the Red-legged Honeycreeper is allowed in Mexico for part of the year, most likely to supply the pet and caged bird trade.

The Red Siskin is an Endangered species owing to its popularity as a cage bird. The Red Siskin is a vibrantly colored finch that was once plentiful in Venezuela and so recognizable that their image is printed on Venezuelan banknotes, written into poetry, and appears in works of art. Native to the northern regions of Venezuela and Columbia, the Red Siskin inhabits dry deciduous woodland in the lowlands and foothills, as well as scrub or grasslands with scattered trees, and the edges of evergreen forests. Siskins are mostly granivorous, foraging on the seeds of various grasses, forbs, and trees, but they will also consume fruit and berries. Although legally protected, the cage bird trade continues to impact this species. Throughout the 20^th century the birds were trapped and exported as part of the illegal wildlife trade, and were highly prized for their coloring and were bred with canaries. Their numbers dwindled almost to the point of extinction. Now Endangered, fewer than 7,000 Red Siskins remain in the wild in small, isolated populations.

The Crested Oropendola inhabits forest edges and clearings in lowland South America east of the Andes Mountains. This species forages mostly in the upper stratum of trees on fruits, insects, and spiders, as well as small vertebrates such as tree frogs. The Crested Oropendola will also take cultivated fruits such as oranges, papayas, and mangos. Crested Oropendolas breed in colonies of 2–40 nests, with a dominant male that does most of the mating. Nests, built by the females, are spectacular pensile (hanging) pouches, open at the top, that may be as long as 5 feet. The Crested Oropendola is regarded as an agricultural pest in fruit orchards and plantations in some areas, and is locally persecuted, but it is not considered threatened.

The Capuchinbird is an unusual-looking, brown-to-orange bird of the canopy of tropical lowland evergreen forests of northeastern South America. This species primarily consumes a wide variety of fruits, but also many different larger invertebrates. The Capuchinbird gathers in leks during the mating season where males compete for the attention of the female in a communal space. Their nests of twigs are then built in the understory in the fork of branches near the lek site. The Capuchinbird is not currently considered under threat.