Ecuador, Day 4

On December 4th we drove to the Refugio Paz de las Aves where we were blessed by the appearance of five different antpittas.  However we started with a visit to the lek of the Cocks-of-the-Rock. It was everything I'd hoped.  Lots of male birds making a lot of noise.  All that could have improved it was a visit from a female. Dianne and I had one major goal in our photos.  Get the beak.  She succeeded better than I did, but if you look closely and not exactly where you expect you might glimpse a tiny pale orange bill.

Because I took so many thousands of photos on our Ecuadorian trip, I am trying to delete multiples. With some birds I can do this, but not very well with the Cocks-of-the-rock.  They are so red, and so  plushy looking and so unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Leaving the lek, Angel Paz and his brother Rodrigo called, or lured, in some birds that are very difficult to see randomly in the forest.

The first of these was Maria the Giant Antpitta.  We are not certain that this is the first Giant Antpitta named Maria.  We aren't even sure it is a female.  But neither of those things is important.

Our next discovery were three Dark-backed Wood-Quails.  They were fed on the edge of the mountain path where we were walking.  The guide worked diligently to hide the bananas that had lured them in so that we could pretend we'd seen them unexpectedly.  It does make for a better photo. I try to do the same thing at the more conventional feeders.

 

Then it was time for the Rufous-breasted Anttrush, a very pretty bird showing similar colours to the previous birds, just arranged differently. They must be colours that fade well into the forest floor.

The next hour or so was all Antpittas. First was the Yellow-breasted Antpitta.  Not bright yellow, but so pretty.

Then the Chestnut-crowned Antpitta, the one I was most hopeful to see before we arrived.

The Ochre-breasted Antpitta is cute and little.

The last of our five antpittas was the Moustached Antpitta.  More serious looking than the others.

Following this we wandered along some paths which revealed the Powerful Woodpecker

and a Toucan Barbet, one of my target birds of this trip. It has as many colours asJoseph's coat.

We watched this bird fly into a hole in a tree, assume that it fed a baby, and fly out again.

Later in the day we saw a few new birds including a Golden-olive Woodpecker,

a Pale-legged Hornero

and a Coopman's Elaenia whose biggest claim to fame was that it was recently separated from the Lesser Elaenia and so was a new bird for our guide as well. This is yet another member of that huge family of birds, flycatchers.

Day 4 had 30 new trip birds including 16 life birds for us.

Ecuador Day 3, Bella Vista to Sachatamia

The morning of our third day was spent around Bella Vista. We saw some of the same birds again, but spent more time looking for new ones.

One of our first life birds of the day was also the first of several using the same word in its name, the Plumbeous Pigeon. Plumbeous means dull gray such as the colour of lead.  This could have been called the Grey Dove or the Plumbeous Dove, but the namer appeared to appreciate the alliteration.

There is a family of birds that uses an interesting form of camouflage to hide in the woods.  The Common Potoo looks so much like a piece of a tree that it is very easy to miss.  Fortunately we were the recipients of inside information so our guide, or possibly our driver, found this fellow with not a lot of trouble.  The trouble came when our inexperienced eyes searched him out from quite a distance away.  As you can see, there were trees separating us but I managed to find a hole in the foliage.

Coronets are another family of birds that share a characteristic.  In this case it is the habit of holding their wings in the air for a second after they land.  If pixels can be wasted, I wasted a lot of them trying to get this Buff-tailed Coronet with its wings up.

 

 In the afternoon we went to the San Tadeo Feeders where, appropriately, we saw this male White-lined Tanager feeding a juvenile almost as big as him. With the banana right beside them, I wondered why he didn't just say "Help yourself" but maybe the youngster was younger than it looked.

 

This Golden Tanager adds colour to our day birds. We had seen one on day 2 but this was our best photo opportunity.

 

 This Masked Water-tyrant was an unexpected sight at the feeders.  We didn't see either of the pair eating bananas, but they were bathing in a little fountain.

 

 The female Flame-rumped Tanager has no red on her to suggest flames, but then, neither does her mate.  A lot of flames are yellow, anyway.

 

 The male is striking with his black suit and yellow contrasts.

 

 The Three-striped Warbler, seen earlier in a tree, was also easier to photograph as it waited its turn for the pool.

This was the third of ten days on which we were able to see Slate-throated Redstarts. Another bird that could win awards for cuteness.

We counted 73 different species on Day 3, 22 were new trip birds and 15 were lifers for Ray and me.