We saw a lot of birds in the Amazon and they were some of the real wildlife stars of the Amazon. But they were not easy to spot and photograph in the jungle. We heard them a lot and saw many glimpses of them flying past but not often did we see one just sitting in a tree in the open.

In addition to all that, just taking photos was difficult. We never had electricity in the Amazon and I didn’t have enough batteries to last the trip. Our guide said to take out my battery and put it in a plastic bag. He also had me keep my camera in a different plastic bag. I had to do this before and after every photo to insure that I could still take photos for the whole trip. It was a trying process but successful. I also only had a three-times zoom lens. (2004)

We saw blue and red macaws, toucans, parrots, parakeets, kingfishers, storks, hummingbirds, flycatchers, woodpeckers, tanagers, and many more on our trip.

This is a blue-and-yellow macaw that we saw in a deep section of the Amazon forest.

This is a toucan – if you can find him in the photo.

This is a scarlet macaw. I never got a photo of one out in the jungle.

These are two blue-and-yellow macaws. I’m sure the food at the lodges was to help us get photos, but the birds didn’t seem to mind.

This is a parrot. This was at breakfast, on our way out the door. The birds really were just about everywhere in the Amazon. This one was helping the staff clean up after breakfast.