With excitement in their voices, six birdwatchers raise binoculars and scan the treetops in a private sanctuary not far from Venezuela's capital Caracas.
Look, one says, there's a blue-gray tanager. Another spots a warbler.
At the break of dawn, the birdwatchers left Caracas to take part in Global Big Day, an annual worldwide celebration in which birders observe as many species as they can in a 24-hour period.
Leading the group was Rosaelena Albornoz, a 61-year-old bird guide who has studied birds in Venezuela for nearly three decades.
Emotions were high as the group arrived at Amaranta Hummingbird House, a private sanctuary in San Jose de los Altos in the state of Miranda where some 170 species of birds have been spotted.
"Birds are an indicator of the health of an ecosystem," Albornoz tells AFP as she tallies the species they spot to upload on Ebird (https://ebird.org/), the platform to register bird sightings worldwide.
Hummingbirds fly over flowers and feeders set up by retired physician Cecilia Martinez, owner of Amaranta Hummingbird House.
A large hummingbird known as a brown violetear (Colibri delphinae) flies to Martinez to sip from a cup containing sugar water.
"Where have you been? Did you forget all about me?" she coos to the bird.
"Hummingbirds are capable of recognizing one," says Martinez, 73, a pathologist who retired in 2012 and now spends her time preserving the cloud forest tract near her home.
- 'Light pollution' -
Serenity envelops this mountain reserve -- except for the squawking of the Rufous-vented Chachalaca, a ground-dwelling bird with a squeaky shrill call.
Yet Martinez and other keen birdwatchers worry. They say human encroachment and light pollution are affecting birds and the insects they need for nourishment.
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© Agence France-Presse
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