Bulletin 342 - 100 Birds to See Before You Die - # 3

I discovered this book "100 Birds to See Before you Die" by 2 Brits David Chandler and Dominic Couzens about 11 years ago while browsing in a bookstore on vacation. The sub title is "The Ultimate Wish List for Birders Everywhere". It sort of peaked my interest as a 'bucket list' of the rarest and most unusual birds in the world, according to the 2 authors.

It has the smallest (Bee Hummingbird)  and largest (Ostrich) birds, some of the most beautiful (Birds of Paradise) and some quite ugly (Shoebill) and strange (Hoatzin). There are birds on all the continents as well as Arctic and Antarctic regions. 

There are also a number of island endemics. In the south Pacific, there are entries for Hawaii (1), New Caledonia (2) , New Guinea (3), Sulawesi (1), Mindanao (1), and New Zealand (2). The Galapagos has 1 entry.  Madagascar has 3. The Caribbean is well represented with Cuba (1), Hispaniola (2) and Montserrat (1).

There are about 240 families of birds, so obviously they are not all represented on this list. There are 3 each of Birds-of-Paradise, Gulls and Terns, Cotingas, and Tyrant Flycatchers. There are several unique birds that are sole members of their family. These are the Hoatzin, Kagu, Oilbird, Crab Plover, Ibisbill, Wallcreeper and Shoebill, For those of us in North America, not a single New World Warbler is on the list.

Each entry has a full page photograph and facing page article of what makes the bird rare, unusual or interesting to warrant its inclusion.

This is the third group of 10 birds. The first installment is here. And the second is here.

Number 86 is the Paradise Tanager (Tangara chilensis). This very gaudy bird is what everyone thinks jungle birds should be like. It is a resident in Amazonia.

Paradise Tanager

Number 68 is the Golden-headed Manakin (Ceratopipra erythrocephala). These 3.5" birds are resident of northern South America. The males are black with a yellow head. the males perform elaborate dance displays on the lek to attract a female.

Golden-headed Manakin - male

Number 62 is the Little Forktail (Enicurus scouleri). This 5" black and white cutie is a resident along fast flowing streams in high mountains at an altitude of 5,500 to 11,000 feet in southest Asia. It is one of 8 species of forktails in the old world flycatcher family.

Little Forktail

Number 56 is the Pearled Treerunner (Margarornis squamiger). This brown bird with spotted breast is a common bird in the montane forests of the Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia. I have seen it several times. It is a member of the ovenbird family.

Pearled Treerunner

Number 53 is the magnificent Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna). It is resident in Amazonia and south-central South America. 

Blue-and-yellow Macaw

Number 51 is the Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops). This 11" bird has a huge crest and long thin bill. It is a common bird across Eurasia and one of 3 species of hoopoe. The photos in the book show it with its crest elevated but I have not seen that yet.

Eurasian Hoopoe

Number 36 is the strange looking Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoatzin). This prehistoric looking bird resides along slow moving streams in Amazonia. It is the sole member of the Hoatzin family.

Hoatzin

Number 29 is the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus). This is one of the 3 cotingas in the book and the most beautiful with his bushy crest and red and black with silver plumage.

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - male

Number 27 is the huge Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus). It is the worlds largest bird of prey with a length to 50 inches, weight to 33 pounds and wingspan of 10.5 feet.

Andean Condor

Number 19 is the Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis). It is a noctunal bird related to nightjars, but it is a fruit eater. It is unique in its own family. They roost in caves during the day. This one was photographed in Colombia. It is a resident from Panama across northern south America and on Trinidad.

Oilbird

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2019 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 280 - Colombia #3 - Marsh Birds, Cracids, Night Birds

Pablo Florez, the main guide, has co-written a book where to bird in Colombia. In it, he has a list of the Top 30 Most Sought-after Birds by a group of 40 birders visiting Colombia. I saw 12 of them on the trip and got photos of 10. When I show one of these birds,  I will mention its placement on the list.

So the next of these most sought after birds is the 35"  Northern Screamer (Chauna chavaria). Screamers are a small family of just 3 species in South America. They are closely related to ducks and geese. We saw 2 pairs way out in a field. But they responded to the tape and flew closer. This bird is only found in Colombia and Venezuela. With the current political situation in Venezuela, Colombia is only place this species can be seen.They have a black body, white throat and red face with a wispy crest. It is #22 out of 30 on the above list.

Northern Screamer

Here is a bird in the air. Notice the spur on the leading edge of the wing.

Northern Screamer

We found a couple of waders. The 21" Bare-faced Ibis (Phimosus infuscatus) is a dark bodied ibis with a bare red face.

Bare-faced Ibis

The 49" Cocoi Heron (Ardea cocoi) is similar to our Great Blue Heron. He is paler and lacks the rusty thighs of the Great Blue Heron

Cocoi Heron

The last of the marsh birds was a treat to see, a rail. The are usually so secretive, but this 12" Blackish Rail (Pardirallus nigricans) walked out of the reeds for his photo. He is brown above, black below with a long yellow bill.

Blackish Rail

The cracids are a new world family of large turkey like game birds with 55 species in 3 broad categories - chachalacas, guans and curassows. The curassows are the largest, most threatened and rarest. I have photos of only 1 curassow so far.

The 20" Colombian Chachalaca (Ortalis columbiana) is brown with a pale belly. It is endemic to Colombia.

Colombian Chachalaca

The 23" Sickle-winged Guan (Chamapetes goudotii) is brown above and rufous below.

Sickle-winged Guan

The 25" Cauca Guan (Penelope perspicax) is another Colombian endemic. It is listed as endangered. It is brown with speckling underneath and a red throat wattle.

Cauca Guan

The 2 nocturnal birds were both spectacular, despite the fact I did not get any owl photos, but not from lack of trying. The owls would just not respond to the tape. 

So here is the 16" Common Potoo (Nyctibius griseus). Potoos are a small family of 7 species of birds in Latin America and the Caribbean, closely related to nightjars. What makes them unique is that they perch on top of a broken snag or tree and sit motionless all day sleeping, so as to become almost invisible. Here is a photo of a roosting bird I took in Panama 2 years ago.

So what  was so special about the Common Potoo here. Well, as well as roosting on the broken off tree, they lay their single egg in a depression on top of the snag as well. No nest is built.  We found a Common Potoo with the fluffy white baby both on top of a snag and sitting absolutely motionless. My guide had never seen a baby before, so this was a very rare find. I had to climb up about 100 feet on a 45 degree slope to get these photos.

Common Potoo with baby

Here is a close up of the baby. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Common Potoo - baby

The other nocturnal bird was a lifer, the 18" Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis). Oilbirds are a separate family themselves, but are also related to nightjars and potoos. However, the big difference is that they are fruit eaters. Also, they are unique in that they roost during the day in caves like bats. They also use echolocation similar to bats.. This was the first time in all my travels to be at an oilbird cave. Here is a bird on a ledge on the wall of the cave.

Oilbird

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2016 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.