Bulletin 278 - Colombia #1 - Hummingbirds

Oh Colombia..the second most ecologically diverse country on earth and the most diverse per square mile.  In a country the size of Texas + California, it is estimated to contain 10% of all species on earth. It is #1 in birds with 1900+ species. It has 10% of mammals, 14% of amphibians and 18% of birds. It is #1 in orchids, It has more than 2,000 species of marine fish and is second in freshwater fish. It has more endemic species of all types than any other country.

With the dismantling of the cocaine cartels and elimination of many of the rebel groups, Colombia is open for tourism again. Birders started going back to Colombia about 8 years ago and increasing numbers are taking the opportunity to see birds that can be found nowhere else.

I went with a guide Pablo Florez and his company. I found him on birdingpal. Although he was busy, he booked 2 partners (Johnnier Arango, and  José Castaño) and they were excellent guides. We did a tour of the central Andes starting in the Medellin area, the second largest city and once infamous as the home of Pablo Escobar....head of the Medellin cartel.

Pablo Florez has cowriiten 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 we will begin with everyone's favorite - hummingbirds. Some of these were seen previously in the Ecuador series. However, I got better photos of many of them on this trip.

The pufflegs are hummingbirds of high mountain forests. We saw 2 on the trip. The 3" male Black-thighed Puffleg (Enocnemis derbyi) is green with charcoal puffy feathers on legs that can be seen in this photo.

Black-thighed Puffleg - male

The female has a spotted breast and white leg puffs

Black-thighed Puffleg - female

The 4.75" Golden-breasted Puffleg (Enocnemis mosquera) is green with a golden chest and white leg puffs. The sexes are similar.

Golden-breasted Puffleg

The 3.25" Steely-vented Hummingbird (Amazilia saucerrottei) is green with bluish wings and tail. The bill is reddish which is typical of this genus.

Steely-vented Hummingbird

Hermits are generally brown hummingbirds and many have central elongated white tail feathers. They usually have curved bills and most species do not visit feeders, so you have to catch them at a flower. I got a photo of the 5" Tawny-bellied Hermit (Phaethornis syrmatophorus).

Tawny-bellied Hermit

The 3" Wedge-billed Hummingbird (Schistes geoffroyi) is green with white on throat and a short dagger like bill that  he can uses to pierce to base of the flower and 'steal' nectar.

Wedge-billed Hummingbird

However, here is another photo showing the bird at the base of the flower.

Wedge-billed Hummingbird

The 4.5" Shining Sunbeam (Aglaeactis cupripennis) is unique in its overall cinnamon color. The sexes are similar.

Shining Sunbeam

The 3.75" Speckled Hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys)  is green with buffy underparts and green spots along flanks. It has a vertical white strip behind the eye. The sexes are similar.

Speckled Hummingbird

The 3.5" male Viridian Metaltail (Metallura williami) is all green with a blue tail

Viridian Metaltail - male

The female has a greenish tail.

Viridian Metaltail - female

Lastly is the amazing 5" Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera). The bill is 4" long. and makes the ID of this hummer. I had a chance to watch one come repeatedly to a feeder and finally he perched on a stick beside the feeder. This is the male with green underparts. The female would have spotted underparts.

Sword-billed Hummingird - male

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.

Bulletin 277 - Ecuador #11 - other birds

This will be the last of the photos from my Ecuador trip at the end of June. But don't worry I have some more from a later trip.

I got photos of 3 different jays. The Inca Jay (Cyanocorax yncas) is very similar to the Green Jay in south Texas and in fact until a few years ago, there were considered to be the same species. However, if you look closely, there are several color differences.

Inca Jay

The Turquoise Jay (Cyanolyca turcosa) is mostly blue with a black mask.

Turquoise Jay

Lastly, the Violaceous Jay (Cyanocorax violaceus) is purplish with a black hood.

Violaceous Jay

The juvenile Black Caracara (Daptrius ater) is all black with a yellow face and bill. The adult would have red in place of the yellow.

Black Caracara - juvenile

The Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana) is a typical long tailed cuckoo and yher most commonly encountered. This on is all rufous and this is the best photo I have obtained of this bird.

Squirrel Cuckoo

The cute 4" male Red-capped Manakin (Dixiphia mentalis) is black with a red head and a pale eye.

Red-capped Manakin - male

Lastly, I got photos of several guans. The Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes goudotii) has black upperparts and a rufous belly. He also had blue bare skin on his face.

Sickle-winged Guan

Spix's Guan (Penelope jacquacu) is gray brown with a red throat patch and bare blue skin on face.

Spix's Guan

The Andean Guan (Penelope montagnii) has a spotted chest, head and neck and brown back with a red throat patch.

Andean Guan

And the last is the Blue-throated Piping Guan (Pipile cumanensis). It is black with a white head and wing patches and a blue throat.

Blue-throated Piping Guan

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.

Bulletin 276 - Ecuador #10 - more Hummingbirds

This was a remarkable trip with 23 new species of hummingbirds photographed. So here are another 9.

The largest hummingbird is the 6.5" Giant Hummingbird. I saw it, but didn't get a photo before the bird flew away. The second largest hummer is the beautiful 6" Great Sapphirewing (Pterophanes cyanopterus). The male has blue wings and we saw several of them.

Great Sapphirewing - male

Another bird I love is the Collared Inca (Coeligena torquata). I had seen this bird on my previous Ecuador trip, but it is always a delight to see them. They are dark green appearing black with a white chest and white in the tail. I spent considerable time at San Isidro Lodge to get one hovering.

Collared Inca

His cousin is the rather drab Bronzy Inca (Coeligena coeligena).

Bronzy Inca

The male Purple-bibbed Whitetip (Urosticte benjamini) is all green with a small purple throat patch and white tips to the tail feathers.

Purple-bibbed Whitetip - male

Woodstars are small hummers 2.5 to 3.5 inches long. The male Purple-throated Woodstar (Calliphlox mitchelli) is green with a purple gorget. Most woodstars have white on the rump as well which helps in their ID.

Purple-throated Woodstar - male

The male White-bellied Woodstar (Chaetocercus mulsant) is green with a pink gorget and is mostly white underneath. Also just a glimpse of the white rump is visible.

White-bellied Woodstar - male

The male Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) is all green with a small pink gorget. This on was sitting on a large flower stalk.

Tourmaline Sunangel - male

The last 2 species are probably the most spectacular of the trip. The 5" Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a target bird for all birders in South America. It has an amazing 4" bill and ehrn it comes to a feeder, the body seems so far away from the feeder.

Sword-billed Hummingbird

The 4" male Velvet-purple Coronet (Boissonneaua jardini) is glittering purple in good light. I took many photos before getting this one. In poor light the bird just looks black. This is the guides (Pablo Andrade) favorite hummer in Ecuador out of 130 species.

Velvet-purple Coronet - male

I have updated my hummingbird family photos and now have 111 species of the 348. You can browse them all at this link.

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.

Bulletin 275 - Ecuador #9 - Parrots and Monkeys

Nothing says tropics quite like parrots and monkeys and we saw lots on this trip. All of these photos were obtained in the Amazon region.

The macaws are the largest and most spectacular of all the parrots and they are confined to the New World. The 36" Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is red with yellow on the wings. This one was alone in a tree. The sexes are similar.

Scarlet Macaw

And this one was flying overhead.

Scarlet Macaw

The 34" Blue-and-yellow Macaws (Ara ararauna) were further away, but there were 1/2 dozen in a tree for a spectacular sight.

Blue-and-yellow Macaws

We also saw Chestnut-fronted and Red-bellied Macaws but I din't get good photos of them.
The ubiquitous 11" Blue-headed Parrot (Pious menstruus) is readily IDed with his blue head and green body. This is my best photo yet of this bird.

Blue-headed Parrot

The 8.5" Black-headed Parrot (Pionites melanocephalus) has a black crown, yellow cheek, and white underparts.

Black-headed Parrot

There were about 9 monkey species possible in the Amazon area at Shiripuno Lodge. We saw 7 and I got photos of 6 of them. The cutest were the Common Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri scureus). They are small monkeys with clown-like faces and black lips.

Common Squirrel Monkeys - adults

This lighter colored juvenile peeked out between some leaves.

Common Squirrel Monkey

Next is the long-limbed White-fronted Spider Monkey (Ateles belzebuth).

White-fronted Spider Monkey

The next was a new mammal for me. This group of small monkeys are called titi monkeys and are undergoing a major revision in nomenclature. The one we saw in Ecuador was the Dusky Titi Monkey (Callicebus discolor). However on Wikipedia, there is a new (2016) proposed classification and the new name is White-tailed Titi Monkey (Plecturocebus discolor). I guess take your pick what you want to call it.

Dusky Titi Monkey

The White-fronted Capuchin (Cebus albifrons) is one of 4 species of capuchins. This is the Ecuadorian subspecies that doesn't have any white on the face as the name would suggest. This subspecies is listed as critically endangered.

White-fronted Capuchin
Ecuadorian subspecies

The next is a type of monkey called a Saki monkey. Again it may have a new name. The name I was given on the trip was Equatorial Saki (Pithecia aequatorialis). However, a new revision in 2014 has the range of this one as just northern Peru, so not this guy. It would appear to be a Napo Saki (Pithecia napensis) as we were on a tributary of the Napo river in Ecuador. Anyway this is a heavy set appearing monkey with a very bushy tail.

Equatorial Saki
or ? Napo Saki

Lastly is a Venezuelan Red Howler (Alouatta seniculus). Howlers as you know are the heaviest of the new world monkeys.

Venezuela Red Howler

The other monkey I caught a glimpse of was a Wooly Monkey, but it scampered off into leaves before I could snap a photo. This trip was by far the most productive of monkey species of any I have taken.

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.

Bulletin 274 - Ecuador #8 - Cotingas, Trogons and Jacamars

These are the places visited. At the end of each bird description, I will give the 2 letter code where the photo was taken.

Shiripuno Lodge in Amazon  (SH)
Mindo area on west slope has several close reserves that we visited (MI)

The cotingas are a diverse New World family of 66 songbirds. Overall they are rather difficult to find. The 12" male Andean Cock-of-the Rock (Rupicola peruvianus) is red on the west slope of the Andes where we saw several at a lek. He has a large crest and black wings with large white patches.The males on the east slope of the Andes are orange as seen here.  MI

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - male west slope

Another group of cotingas are called fruitcrows for their overall black color. We saw 2 species on the trip but I only got photos of the 11" Purple-throated Fruitcrow (Querula purpurata)  MI

Purple-throated Fruitcrow

We also got a distant view of the 7" male Purple-throated Cotinga (Porphyrolaema porphyrolaema). Although the purple throat cannot be seen, the black back, white underside and white wing patch is diagnostic for this bird. It is listed as scarce in the Ecuador Guide book.  SH

Purple-throated Cotinga - male

The trogons are worldwide family of 43 species with 2/3 in the New World. They are medium sized colorful fruit eating birds that are easy to photograph when you find them as they usually sit still. The 10" male Blue-crowned Trogon (Trogon curucui) has a blue head, red belly and yellow bill.  SH

Blue-crowned Trogon - male

The 11" female Green-backed Trogon (Trogon viridis) has gray head and chest and yellow belly. She has a blue eye ring and black bill. The male would have a blue head and chest. This bird was formerly known as the Amazonian White-tailed Trogon. SH

Green-backed Trogon - female

The 11" male White-tailed Trogon (Trogon chionurus) has bluish purple head and chest, yellow belly, pale bill and solid white tail. This individual is missing some of his white tail feathers (probably molting). This bird was formerly called the Western White-tailed Trogon.  MI

White-tailed Trogon - male

The quetzals are 6 larger birds in the trogon family with fancy plumage such as epaulets, crests, long tails etc. The 13.5" male Golden-headed Quetzal (Pharomachrus auriceps) has green back and red underparts, golden green head and black undertail. I only got a single photo of the bird before he flew.  MI

Golden-headed Quetzal - male

The jacamars are a small family of New World birds (18 species) most of which are found in Amazonia. I got 2 new ones for the trip. They resemble large hummingbirds as the have long tails and long pointed bills. The 7.5" Yellow-billed Jacamar (Galbula albirostris) is the only jacamar in Ecuador with a yellow bill.  SH

Yellow-billed Jacamar

The 7.5" White-eared Jacamar (Galbalcyrhynchus leucotis) is brown with a white cheek patch and pink bill.  SH

White-eared Jacamar

I have photographed 14 of the 43 trogons now and they can be seen here.

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.