Birds of Brazil

Brazil has one of the richest bird diversities in the world. The avifauna of Brazil includes a total of 1832 species, of which 234 are endemic. This is enough for someone like me, who normally maintains that there are only three kinds of birds; big bird, small bird and duck, to admit that this might not be a sufficient classification anymore. And a little reluctantly I have started to find some interest in watching the birds and trying to learn the names of the different kinds. And here the birds are interesting, they come in all colours, forms and shapes, some rather funny-looking.

This morning however I felt like getting a gun and shoot some of them. Or at least one. At about five o'clock this morning I woke up by something that sounded like a very loud alarm. Several high, strong tones after each other at a regular interval, then silence only to be repeated again after some seconds, and then repeated and repeated and repeated and.... I thought first it was my alarm clock, but then rememberd it sounds completely different. Then I thougt "my godness, it must be the fire alarm", but then again no, it came from outside. Then I started to think about what kind of alarms we might have at the compound or what might actually be going on outside. It took me quite a while to realise the noise came from a bird!! And the bastard just wouldn't stop.

I had to get up and get some ear plugs to be able to go back to sleep. When you say you wake up to the sound of birds one would normally believe it to be a nice experience. This was very far from nice. This was actually the second time I was woken up by some bird, the first time it wasn't this one but some other very repetitive bird that just wouldn't stop. I hope this is not a new habit of our featherd friends.