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Bay-headed Tanager is truly one of the most strikingly beautiful birds on this planet;
I will never forget the first time I saw this species, on the entry road to the Asa Wright Nature
Centre in Trinidad. I have seen it several times since, but enjoyed particularly great looks at an adult
feeding a juvenille along the road above Boquete, Panama, in July of 2005. It was too dark to catch the feeding activity,
but I got some grainy footage of the adult pictured below. Bay-headed Tanager played a role in one of my more memorable moments
in the neotropics; in August of 2003, Carlos Bethancourt, the premier guide at the Canopy Tower,
was trying to get this species in the scope when he stepped back onto a young fer-de-lance, which promptly bit him.
To make a long story short, Carlos survived the encounter, although I've noticed that he birds with a tall pair of rubber boots these
days. The evening after the incident, we recounted the details to Raúl Arias de Para, the owner of the Canopy Tower. When he was told
that Carlos was seeking a Bay-headed Tanager when he was bitten, Raúl commented dryly, "At least it was a good
bird."!
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