Social Flycatchers, Motmots, and a Surprise Outside the Bedroom Window!

Last night's rains were gentle compared with the violent evening the night before. The Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis) nest appears to have failed. The parents visited only til mid afternoon yesterday, and I saw one next to the nest this morning, but it did not enter.

The good news is that other nests survived the storm. The Social Flycatchers (Myiozetetes similis), for example, have two robust nestlings now crowding their domed nest beneath our backyard umbrella. Both parents spend their day shuttling insects to the ravenous young.

Outside our bedroom window, four and a half feet up in a small palm, a skulky pair of Grayish Saltators (Saltator coerulescens) has been nesting, unbeknownst to me. I saw the nest for the first time just an hour ago. I usually keep the window blinds closed, but when they were open, the nest was in view. I snapped a few photos of the brief feeding sessions. At times, a parent rests on the nest. We hear Grayish Saltators every day, but seldom do we see these shade-loving birds.

The Turquoise-browed Motmots (Eumomota superciliosa), meanwhile, continue regular trips to their nest in the wall. Before they swoop down to the nest cavity, they perch on the wires, bronzy insects clamped in their tweezer-like mandibles.