Plants, like everything else in the rainforest, grow to giant sizes. Painted ladies, monarchs, and heliconid butterflies feed on flower nectar and flash their bright colors throughout the forest. Owl butterflies search for ripened fruit. The brilliant blue morpho butterfly glistens in the soft light. There are many butterflies in the Amazon rain forest. As small as they are, they can be a fierce forest insect. Busily carrying leaves or scraps of food back to their homes, they make a marching line for miles.
Wasps, bees and bats also pollinate flowers as they collect nectar and pollen. While they collect, they carry pollen to another blossom, fertilizing the flowers as they go.
Hummingbirds hover at giant blossoms to feed on nectar. Smaller animals are busy in the forest too. A butterfly searches for blossoms, and a red-eyed tree frog waits for insects. Any animals caught unaware on the forest floor can become a meal for the hungry cat. Off in the bush a hunting jaguar, one of the biggest predators in the Amazon, sniff the air for the scent of prey. When it's finished, the leftover seed may take root in the rotting leaves, if there is enough light. On the forest floor, the agouti feeds on an avocado dropped from above. The trees are filled with sound and color - a noisy scarlet macaw, a toucan or a spider monkey. It is a lucky thing, for just above the trees a giant harpy eagle soars and looks for an animal to catch with its sharp claws.
That helps to hide it from hungry meat eaters. Its fur grows a green moss in the wet air. A three-toed sloth slowly munches green leaves. In the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, a golden lion tamarin scoops insects and other small animals out of a bromeliad for its dinner.
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