A Brazilian guinea pig, snacking on a few dropped sweet potatoes. These guys are related to, but not the same as, the domesticated guinea pigs that people keep as pets.

Today’s photo of the day is actually 5 photos. More specifically, five different species of tanager, all photographed in pretty much the same spot in northern Brazil. The first is a silver-beaked tanager, followed by a scarlet throated tanager, sayaca tanager, palm tanager, and hepatic tanager. There are thought to be about 240 species of tanager, all living in the Americas, mostly in the tropics, and usually very brightly colored.

This guy was the alpha male of a troop of tufted capuchins that I came across in northeastern Brazil. These are the “Einstein monkeys” you may have seen featured on the BBC special “Life.” They are believed to be the most intelligent of the new world monkeys because of their complex use of tools. More on the tool use in a future post, but for now let’s just talk about that nice hat. Looks a bit like the head gear I see on Hasidic jews walking around Williamsburg on the weekends. Google shtreimel and you’ll see what I mean.

Being the dry season, I didn’t see too many amphibians in Brazil, but I did see quite a few of these particular tree frogs — usually crawling around in my bathroom in the middle of the night. I thought this one’s face had an uncanny resemblance to Kermit.

I saw three different kinds of macaws on my Brazil trip — the hyacinth, greenwing and these guys, appropriately named blue and yellow macaws. They generally mate for life and you usually see them flying in pairs — often times synchronized in flight.

This one goes out to my young friend David Koffler who really appreciates his reptiles. The reptile in this case is a yacare caiman. The butterfly I haven’t been able to identify yet but it clearly likes to live dangerously.

Here’s another one from Brazil of a capybara and a pale-legged hornero bird. As you can see, capybaras aren’t only the largest rodents in the world, they also happen to be great at keeping secrets.

Black howler monkeys aren’t always so black. They can be lighter in color too, like this guy here who was enjoying a few delicious pink flowers for breakfast one morning along a river in the Pantanal.

Apparently, Brazil’s crab-eating fox is also quite fond of bananas. Each night, at least one of these little guys came sniffing around the lodge looking for hand outs (and getting them). They seem to be pretty common as we saw quite a few on a night drive. They’re definitely on the smallish side, even for a fox, with their short, stocky legs.