The moustached puffbird was a fun find for me following what had been somewhat of a frustrating day at Tinamu Reserve. I have cataracts in one eye and the other eye that had a cataract removed has clouded over and my eyesight is horrible. As a consequence I was having a hard time seeing birds, even when the guide was using a laser to point near them. I'd had many birds pointed out to me that day that I could not find, or took so much time finding them that they flew before I could get a photo. After walking down the entrance road to Tinamu, near where we turned around, this unusual puffbird stood still on a branch, relatively close, and allowed me to take photos to my hearts content.
The Wikipedia article has a photo of a the moustached puffbird taken in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia, perhaps even at Tinamu, although it does not say so. This puffbird has bristles (tufts of feathers) around the base of the bill which form the name-sake moustache. Females are darker brown above, especially on the neck and head and have a less prominent moustache. The male has a darker rufous chest and light-brown streak below on the underparts, while the female has much darker black streaks on the underparts. I saw a male.
It is found in the Andes in north and northwestern Venezuela, through Colombia and barely into northern Ecuador.
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| Moustached puffbird range - from Wikipedia |
I love tiny birds with proportionally large heads. This one is really cute.
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