Sombrerito and the Ripe Papayas of the Aviary

In the mid-afternoon hours, near aviaries #1 and #2 of the Fundación Loros, Omar Enrique Berdugo Cabeza watched the first one arrive: a green parrot that landed in a papaya tree and began pecking into the orange flesh of a ripe fruit. Before Omar could even finish taking it in, there were three parrots quarreling over the feast, and a woodpecker had joined the party as well. The scene was vivid enough to set the whole team talking about the same idea: planting more fruit trees throughout the area. While Omar documented the moment with his camera, the one keeping close company nearby was Sombrerito — the parrot known by medallion B12 — going about his own business, exploring the surroundings at his own unhurried pace. At some point, Omar spotted him stop before a balsamina fruit — that yellow-fleshed curiosity with bright red seeds inside, known among local farmers for its sweet and peculiar taste — and begin eating with the kind of unhurried ease that suggested he had been doing it all his life. In the end, four photographs and five videos remained as testament to that afternoon: wild parrots perched among the papayas, a woodpecker passing through, and Sombrerito savoring his balsamina beneath the sun of the reserve.