Female Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Sightings
This sighting of a female Rufous-tailed Jacamar was the only one on Trinidad. We were driving along the Blanchisseuse Road in the direction of the north coast of the island when the bird was spotted busily collecting food presumably for its nestlings. The nest was near the side of the road and we parked close and sat quietly in the vehicle and watched the bird for ten or fifteen minutes. The bird spent some of this time in nearby trees and bushes and some on a concrete edge over a stream which is where this photo was taken. It is unusual in my limited experience to see a Jacamar on the ground and especially on concrete but it gave us the opportunity of close views of this wonderful bird.

Species
Jacamars are one of my favourite bird families with eighteen species. Rufous-tailed Jacamar is the most commonly seen based on my sightings in several south and central American countries. This insectivore hunts from a perch, sitting with its bill tilted upwards, then flies out to catch insects. It sits quietly with its bill typically pointed upwards as in this photograph.

Status and Distribution
Rufous-tailed Jacamar Galbula ruficauda is a species of least concern but its population is thought to be decreasing. It breeds in the tropical New World in southern Mexico, Central America and South America as far south as southern Brazil and Ecuador. It is an uncommon resident on Trinidad and much more common on Tobago.

References
BirdLife; Wikipedia; Worldbirdnames; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 170.

Photograph
Taken at close range in bright light, the camera settings were 1/250th second, f5.6 and ISO 640.