Although the wonderful birds claim most of our attention, I’ll admit that the butterflies and flowers are just a little distracting.
Cracker butterflies live only in the Neotropics. The males make a cracking sound with their wings as part of their territorial display, thus giving the name “cracker” to the genus Hamadryas. They are well camouflaged against their usual perch on the trunk of a tree.
Of these flowers, the only one I know anything about is the first, a species of milkweed. Our guide Leonidas confirms that he has seen banded caterpillars, likely of Monarch butterflies, on the plant. The other flower photos are purely for your enjoyment!
I suspect that this butterfly is one of the tigerwings, likely in the genus Hypothyris. Others in that group show a similar orange patch on the thorax.
