by Piter Kehoma Boll It’s more than time to bring a fern as a Friday Fellow, and I decided to start with one of my favorites, the Neotropical tree fern Dicksonia sellowiana, known in Brazil a…

The Neotropical Palm Swift or Fork-tailed Palm Swift (Tachornis squamata) is a species of bird in the Apodidae family native to South America. This small swift is found locally in marshy habitats, or sometimes open forest, usually near Moriche Palms (Mauritia flexuosa). It builds a C-shaped nest of feathers, saliva and plant material on the inside of the dead leaf of a Moriche Palm. Three white eggs are laid in the depression of the C, and incubated for 21 days to hatching. Neotropical Palm Swift is a slender, narrow-winged species, 13.2 cm long, with a long forked tail, and weighs 11 g. The call is a buzzed djjjjjj, like an insect. (from Wikipedia) It is known in Brazil as "andorinhao-do-buriti".

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Unrelenting swarms of Azteca ants fiercely guard the Cecropia trees they live in throughout neotropical forests