Lucas Bustamante
An Explosion of Colour
Cobalt-winged Parakeets, Ecuador, 2021
Category - Forests
Clay licks are relatively common in the Amazon. These are essential places that attract large numbers of animals, such as monkeys, peccaries, macaws, and parrots, among others. They go to the clay licks to eat sodium, an essential mineral in their diet that is often scarce in rainforests far from the sea. The sodium and other minerals in the clay help to neutralise toxins in their diet and strengthen their eggs during the nesting season. On an expedition to Yasuní National Park in the Orellana province, we were waiting for scarlet macaws, but they were too timid to come down to feed. At last, a noisy, colourful whirlwind of cobalt-winged parakeets (Brotogeris cyanoptera) arrived, illuminated by zenithal shafts of light filtered by the dense vegetation – in the jungle, only about 2% of the sunlight reaches the ground.
HONOURABLE MENTION
374 mm f/5-6.3 Lens - 1/30 sec at f/18 ISO 100