Eleven on the plum tree of cerro El Peligro

Omar Enrique Berdugo Cabeza arrived at cerro El Peligro with the morning, and what he found was worth every step of the climb: eleven Blue-and-yellow Macaws — Ara ararauna — settled into a plum tree, working the green fruits with those thick black beaks that let nothing go to waste. The turquoise blue across each bird's back and the golden yellow of their chests blazed against the clear coastal sky, and the racket they were making must have been audible long before they came into sight. While the macaws divided up the plum tree with little in the way of ceremony, a kettle of vultures drifted higher up, tracing their slow, unhurried circles above the hill. Two different worlds sharing the same stretch of sky: some celebrating among the branches, others watching patiently from above. Omar documented the scene with five photographs and eleven videos, shot from the exact spot where the plum tree casts its shade — coordinates now marked permanently on the reserve's map. Cerro El Peligro has a reputation for keeping secrets and offering surprises, and this Thursday in March was no exception.