Birding in Quito

i haven't gone birding this weekend, so I'll write about Quito's birds. Today I have just added a new county bird, the White-collared Swift. But as I had already seen in in other places it wasn't that special for me...
Quito is the capital of Ecuador, a South American country, and since September it is also my home-city. At least until August...
Like in every capital there isn't very much wildlife, but some birds are still possible to encounter...
Most aren't very interesting, but for example the very common Blue-and-yellow Tanager is beautiful and my first hummingbird ever was the Sparkling Violetear, the most common hummingbird in all this area.
So sometimes I go outside and look if something new appears...
Until now I have seen 23 species in Quito, of which 20 came actually near my house or even into our backyard...
The only time I tried to count the birds I had seen in one day (rather in some hours...) I got up to 12 species... Not bad, but in Hamburg this is much easier.
Some of the more interesting birds that came here, were the Band-winged Nightjar, that I found two times in a near field. Also the Barn Owl that flew over me, when I wanted to try my new flashlight caught my attention. (There was also another owl, month and month before, but I wasn’t into birding, so I wasn’t this interested in it. But it seems to me, like I had a Short-eared Owl…)
Once I saw a Harris's Hawk harassed by two American Kestrels, which was interesting... Apart from these, there were also 2 hummingbirds, that seem to be rare. 2 times came the White-bellied Woodstar into our garden and once a Violet-tailed Sylph surprised me as I entered our property... That was a big surprise for me, because I still didn't know very much about the birds and only seen the Sparkling Violetear and the Black-tailed Trainbearer, whose tail always seems incredible to me, when I see it.

But there are also other animals... For example I had read in the blog of exchange student, who lived with my family the year before, there were some tarantulas here. So I went on search for them and really encountered 4 holes, with tarantulas inside... Many month later did I also learn there were scorpions here. First I found a dead one in our bath, then 2 others appeared some weeks later, which I brought outside...
I have also found some small frogs, even though there is no water in this area, so it seems, these frogs are Strabomantidaes, which don't need water for their eggs...
When I made a walk in the Metropolitano, a big park I also found, somewhat luckily, there are even reptiles in Quito, in this case a snake. But it wouldn't pose for a picture, but disappeared in some hole...

So there seems to be practically everything in this city, but fish... In my region there is only water when it rains and the other flows in the south are very rapid and I think, they seem very dirty...

One of only 2 White-bellied Woodstars, that have visited our garden until now...
I still don't understand this hummer... Our dog crossed its way and it flew off into a bush, were it was hanging like this, like 5 minutes...
The Black Flowerpiercer, piercing some flowers...
That tail is just INCREDIBLE!!!
I recently found a nest in our garden. The Sparkling Violetears have already laid 2 eggs in it...