What birds survived the meteor that killed the dynossaurs?
At 66 million years ago a huge meteor fell on what is today the Yucutan Peninsula in Mexico, causing catastrophic ecological disruptions around the world. New evidence shows that most forests died out, as well as almost all flowering plants, and with this the habitat of many bird species. The regeneration of the trees and forests happened much later, thousands of years later, says Antoine Bercovici of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Apparently the only birds that survived this particularly catastrophic event in the history of our planet was relatively small birds that lived on the ground, which is today better represented by the family Tinamidae, the nothuras and tinamous of Latin America. Today they occupy grasslands and dense forest, with dozens of different species, almost always extremelly shy and difficult to see or photograph, hiding in the vegetation. Maybe this is what saved them in the first place?
During my tours we stand a chance of photographing a few species, like Solitary, Undulated or the Brown Tinamou pictured here. But a little patience is required 😉
Brown Tinamou from the Atlantic Rainforest
