My Colourful Bird Memories From Brazil

Following on from the January 25 issue, ROSEMARY LOW relives some of the highlights of the birds, people and places that she witnessed during her travels last year. Not surprisingly, the ‘bird country’ of Brazil was one favourite.

- Rosemary Low

THIS is our baby. His name is Palmer,” were the first words that Patrick Pina spoke to me when I met him and his partner, Elizabeth.I did not see a carrycot – just a cage with a tiny half-feathered little creature of indeterminate species. Drab and sparrow-like, what this bird lacked in plumage, he made up for in character. Patrick took him from the cage and put him on the table. He ran to Patrick and hopped on to his hand. Palmer was a palm tanager (Thraupis palmarum)!

I was on the island of Ilhabela (also called São Sebastião) off the south-east coast of Brazil. This is the region of the Atlantic forest, which is the most threatened habitat in Brazil: only 7 per cent has survived. Patrick and Elizabeth are environmental consultants, currently censusing mealy Amazons and several other bird species. Passionate about all forms of bird life, they immediately took on the task of foster parents when the tanager chick was taken to them. It thrived on chopped fruits, such as papaya and tiny insects.

Tanagers, like all soft bills when hand-reared, need to be fed little and often. When they are hungry, the feeder’s presence causes them to gape. This little one opened his beak wide, with the soft swollen flanges of a chick, and eagerly took tiny pieces of papaya.