On their quest to find out more about the birds of Ecuador, the Virginia Beach Friends School 4th & 5th grade girls get up at 4 am to arrive at the La Paz reserve, near Mindo, Ecuador, just to see the famous Andean Cock of the Rock.

After hiking through the jungle at day break, we entered a hidden cover that would shield us from the shy brightly colored birds. My girls had their point & shoot cameras out ready to capture the moment. Our plan was to enter the "blind" quietly and not trip over the tripods and huge lenses of the pro birdwatchers from around the world, who were also on hand to witness the spectacle. After glimpsing the colorfully red birds, we continued our march through the jungle where they saw an even more rare bird, the giant antpitta. These birds are rarely seen in the wild. It was as if mother nature was rewarding our naive tenacity for daring to go birdwatching with tiny cameras, that my girls met "Maria" who was coaxed out of the dense forest by a local bird caretaker with a plastic box filled with worms. Maria is so spoiled now, she will only eat "clean" worms. Even the insides of the worms have to be expelled to get the dirt out. Maria has become a diva and fans can buy t-shirts with her name on them.