A lone parrot in the ficus

Among the glossy leaf litter of a ficus, where milky sap oozed through the bark as if the tree itself were sweating under the March heat, Michel Salas found an orange-winged parrot perched with the stillness of one who had spent the entire morning in the same spot. The bird was alone. The body an intense green, the head yellow, and that tail ablaze in orange, red, and yellow — as though nature had crafted it expressly to defy the monotony of the jungle. The Amazona amazonica did not stir. It allowed itself to be photographed among the branches of the Ficus — family Moraceae, one of those generous trees that offers fruit and shade in equal measure — while the milky exudate from the trunk threaded the air with its distinctive scent. No other individuals nearby. Just that parrot, that tree, and Michel with his eye pressed to the lens.