The cultivation of artificially colored feathers seems to have been an old practice in the western Guianas and beyond. The Indians of the upper Orinoco utilise a frog, allied to the Rana tinctoria, the blood of which, introduced into the skin of a parrot, in places where the feathers have been plucked out, occasions the […]
Tag: South America
The ritual of the birdman cult, the Manutara of Motu Nui
The Sooty Tern breeds often in great colonies on remote rocky islands and reefs. One of its regular breeding-places is the small rocky island of Moto Nui, lying off the S.W. end of Easter Island close to the crater of Rano Kao. In this post is described the great annual ceremony which was observed by […]
Bird stories, Grey-winged Trumpeter (Psophia crepitans)
Arawak story-tellers also relate that the trumpeter and a kingfisher quarrelled over the spoils of war, and knocked each other into the ashes, which accounts for the gray of their plumage. The nakedness of the trumpeter’s legs is owing to his stepping into an ant’s nest, and getting them picked clean. The Arawaks of British […]
Bird stories, Common Piping-guan (Pipile pipile)
The common piping-guan (yura pahua) is said to lead its chicks through patches of the herb known as pahua yuyu in the early morning. In this way, the chicks will bathe in the dew accumulated on the leaves of this Ventura notes that when the piping-guans plant; this, it is believed, will make them grow […]
Bird stories, Cactus Parakeet and Campo Troupial
The Sertanejos think that keeping a Campo Troupial as a pet can attract disagreeable events. Consuming a brew made from the meat of the Cactus Parakeet is believed bythe Sertanejos to facilitate the eruption of new teeth in children. Bird nr 3 in the plate. Bezerra, D. Birds and people in semiarid northeastern Brazil: symbolic […]
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus)
The Sertanejos of Brazil make medicine of the liver of this bird, it is extracted and cooked and then reduced to a powder. If this powder is added to the drink or food of an alcoholic, without that person being aware of it, they will supposedly be cured of alcoholism. Ingesting fat from the bones […]
Bird stories, Black Curassow (Crax alector)
In the very beginning of things a trumpeter and a curassow decided upon a matrimonial alliance, but domestic troubles soon broke out, and there was no possibility of a reconciliation; it was thereupon decided to lay the case before the gods who live on the summit of Mount Duida. The wise gods ordered them to […]
Bird stories, Band-tailed Manakin (Pipra fasciicauda)
The use of whole animal from Band-tailed Manakin (P. fasciicauda) to attract more business and to use forgood luck and money making. the Band-tailed Manakin is also utilized during the performance of umbanda rituals. Umbanda is the most widespread Afro-Brazilian religion in the country, and medical treatments using popular folk medicines often occur in umbanda […]
Bird stories, Amazonian Antshrike (Thamnophilus amazonicus)
Similarly, some people refer to the Amazonian antshrike as puma pishcu (jaguar bird) because its call alerts people to the presence of a jaguar. Kohn, E.O., 2002. NATURAL ENGAGEMENTS AND ECOLOGICAL AESTHETICS AMONG THE AVILA RUNA OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR
Regent Parrot (Polytelis anthopeplus)
[order] PSITTACIFORMES | [family] Psittacidae | [latin] Polytelis anthopeplus | [authority] Lear, 1831 | [UK] Regent Parrot | [FR] Perruche melanure | [DE] Bergsittich | [ES] Perico Regente | [NL] Regentparkiet | [copyright picture] Purnell collection Subspecies Monotypic species Genus The genus Polytelis (literally translates into ‘magnificent’) of the family Psittacidae consists of three species […]