Flame-faced Tanager

A high priority of my birding efforts in Ecuador was attempting to see tanagers, one of the largest and most colorful families of birds in South America. I did see 15 different species of tanagers while I was there, but found it to be very challenging. Being small, tanagers are easily hidden among the leaves, and many of them also spend most of the time in the higher levels of the trees. In addition to that, they are either moving very quickly (making photography a serious challenge) or remaining motionless for long periods of time so they are not even noticed. I did manage to get one photo of a partially-obscured Flame-faced Tanager, giving just a glimpse of the beauty that is always tantalizing the birder in the tropics.