The beautiful green jacamars, the puff-birds, and the bright-coloured
woodpeckers are found all over Venezuela in the forests, but their
relatives the toucans are among the most peculiar of the feathered
tribe. With their enormous beaks and gaudy plumage they are easily
recognised when seen, and can make a terrible din if a number of them
collected together are disturbed, the individual cry being short and
unmelodious. Several cuckoos are found in Venezuela, some having more or
less dull plumage and being rare, while others with brighter feathers
are gregarious. With the trogons, however, we come to the near relatives
of the beautiful quezal, all medium-sized birds, with the characteristic
metallic blue or green back and yellow or red breasts. The tiny, though
equally beautiful, humming-birds are common sights in the forest, but a
sharp eye is needed to detect them in their rapid flight through the dim
light; some of the Venezuelan forms are large, however, notably the king
humming-bird of Guayana; and the crested coquettes, though smaller, are
still large enough to make their golden-green plumage conspicuous. The
birds which perhaps most force themselves, not by sight but by sound,
upon the notice of travellers are the night-jars; the “who are you?” is
as well known in Trinidad as in Venezuela. The great wood night-jar of
Guayana has a very peculiar mournful cry, particularly uncanny when heard
in the moonlight. The kingfisher-like motmots have one representative
in Venezuela, but the other member of the group, which includes all the
preceding birds, constitute a family by itself. This is the oil-bird or
_guacharo_, famous from Humboldt’s description of the cave of Caripe in
which they were first found. The young birds are covered with thick
masses of yellow fat, for which they are killed in large numbers by the
local peasantry. They live in caves wherever they are found and only come
out to feed at dusk.
Other birds which are sure to be observed even by the least
ornithological traveller are the parrots and macaws which fly in flocks
from tree to tree of the forest, uttering their discordant cries.
The macaws have blue and red or yellow plumage, but the parrots and
parraquets are all wholly or mainly of a green hue. The several owls are
naturally seldom seen, and, in the author’s experience, rarely heard.
There are no less than thirty-two species of falcons or eagles known
from Venezuela, and of these many are particularly handsome, such as
the swallow-tailed kite and the harpy eagle of Guayana. Their loathsome
carrion-eating cousins, the vultures, have four representatives.
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