Long-tailed sylph - glitter bonus, La Planada Nature Reserve, Colombia

Our 2nd day in La Planada Nature Reserve, which was our only full day in the reserve, was full of challenges. The morning hike brought an interesting set of birds, yet conditions were challenging. After lunch, extremely heavy, deafening rain set in and continued for pretty much the entire afternoon.

We retreated to our private lodge. For hours on end, I did absolutely nothing at all, a rarity in my life. I just sat at the porch overseeing the bushes in front of it, whilst Henriette went inside to read a book. Its throughout this long sit at the porch that I noticed an interesting interval.

Hugo the Hummingbird, a male Long-tailed sylph, we had seen before around the lodges of the reserve. In this heavy never-ending rain I noticed it would attend a fruit tree directly in front of me, every 20 minutes or so. Not to feed, instead to dry and clean its feathers. It would pick the same dry branch of the tree every single time, and spend about a minute there. Most hummingbirds cannot stop feeding just because it rains, so they are stuck in this perpetual cycle of feeding and drying wings.

So here's a few shots of Hugo, a 4K video, and an over-the-top drama glitter edit.