In rescue of a Grey Headed Kite….!

We were in the YanaYacu Pucate River; it was very early morning…. There was a timid sun working its way through the clouds….we woke up early but….
It has been a very rewarding morning; we have been spotting lots of wild life on this particular morning, lots of birds, macaws, toucans, king fisher, agami heron….! Wonderful sight…!.

We happened to pass by a family of saddle back tamarin monkeys, they were resting in the branch of a tree, waiting for the sun to warm them up too….they were standing very still, as if they did not care at all that we were looking at them, it was a family of 5 and three of them just went to hide inside the foliage of the tree, the other two stood very still, just looking, just resting, everybody was taking pictures of them, I was so enthralled by the experience of them practically posing instead of hiding ,that I forgot to take pictures….! I can´t believe I could have forgotten ….! I think I will never have a more wonderful moment to take a picture of them as that precise one, we had plenty of time, but I was enjoying so much that instance….. after a while they very lazily started to make their way to the inner canopy of the tree following the rest of the family …..

It was thrilling, we were very lucky that this particular family was relaxed ….. we saw lots of other wild life, squirrels and capuchin monkeys were traveling together making lots of noise, they love to be a very noisy crowd, like most New World monkeys, capuchins are diurnal and arboreal. With the exception of a midday nap, they spend their entire day searching for food. At night they sleep in the trees, wedged between branches.

We were heading back to the boat and saw something in the water, when we passed closer we saw it was the grey headed kite we saw standing on one of the dry branches, … it looked very uncomfortable awkwardly clinging to the dry branches…..surely he was trying to fly…. but was unable to do so for some reason …. Now I think that´s why he fell and seemed to be drowning

We were desperately wondering what to do….. he was making such an effort flapping its wings, we came along side … and Adonay (one of our guides) reached out towards ….. He opened its beak as if trying to bite, but it was easy for Adonay to pick him up,… we put it on a lower branch near the river, and again it tried to pick up flight but it just couldn´t, and fell into the water again…it looked as if one of his wings was hurt….. we had to do something so…. first we decided to leave it just there on the branch, but then we felt sorry for it, it was very young, we tried to look for its nest….. but couldn´t find it….. it looked so helpless that we decided to feed it, we had meat, (piranha bait…!) Renni (our other guide) tore it in small pieces and tried to feed him, at first it just looked at us with its mouth open, looking very scared….! But a moment later it started to eat ….! Piece by piece then it began eating very fast, I think it must have been very hungry…..after that Renni gave it a little water…..slowly at first, while it shook its head because of the drops falling on it , then it caught the idea and took the water …. we thought, we it should survive if it has eaten….

Finally we decided to take it back to our embarkation port in Nauta where it is making its home. It must be said that it’s completely free to leave, no cage or restriction but it doesn´t want to go away, we have been feeding it raw fish and meat, it likes to walk around the garden, yes…..it walks with little jumps…..We just want it to be free, we hope that when it gets stronger and bigger it will feel the need to fly and just leave…. To have a free, wild and wonderful life

It is a beautiful Kite, the feathers are so soft….and its head is big and proud, looking straight in the eye, opening its beak…. It loves to be around the trees but near the ground, it doesn´t venture up high, at least not yet, we hope….it will soon…..