In just a few minutes spent in the area with lots of mature palmitos in front of the forest edge, I was able to see this morning how their ripening fruit is a magnet for some of our most charismatic bird species. A group of 4-5 White-tailed Trogons (Trogon viridis) sat perched for a long time on branches near the fruit, every now and again swooping in with their characteristic technique of picking fruit on the fly, using specially-serrated beaks. The individual here and in the top photo is a male, as you can see from the deep turquoise back and more rounded tail pattern.

The female, shown here with a palmito fruit in her mouth, has a more geometric-stripe pattern on the tail. It is a real treat to see these trogons so close up - their soft call, a bit like a distant seagull, can often be heard from quite high branches inside the forest, but it is mainly during this fruiting season that they come out into the open.

Next to arrive on the scene was this Dusky-legged Guan or Jacu (Penelope obscura), a rare opportunity to get a clear shot of this species in full light, as they tend to be most active after sunset and around dawn. Bearing in mind these are large birds about the size of a peacock or pheasant, you can see from the photo above just how abundant the fruit is on the larger palmito trees, and why it is such a draw when it emerges.

And finally the inevitable toucans turned up - this one a Channel-billed toucan, which were suddenly all over the place feasting on the palmito fruit, and they were also joined by their Red-breasted cousins.

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