Bulletin 412 - Colombia 2022 #9 - Guans and other non-passerines

 I was planning to go to Peru in 2022 but there were riots and road closures in the areas we were planning to go. So at the last minute I went back to Colombia and saw some other places. 

Unfortunately, there was a lot of overlap, so I did not get a lot of new birds on the trip. However, many areas now have set up feeding stations and several were built for photography. I used the same guide Pablo Florez and I had my daughter with me on the trip this year.

However on the bright side, the setups for photography and the number of places that had feeders allowed me to get many improved photos of birds I had not so good photos before.

The cracidae family consists of about equal numbers of chachalacas, guans and curassows. The former are usually easy to see and come to feeders, but the curassows are some of the most difficult birds to find. All are spectacular due to their size.

The 20" Colombian Chachalaca (Ortalis columbiana) is an endemic. It is the only chachalaca in its range in the central and western Andes. The white tips of the breast feathers gives a scalloped look.

Columbian Chachalaca

Guans are similar but even larger. The 23" Andean Guan (Penelope montagnii) is much darker than the previous bird and the breast appears streaked rather than scalloped. I just love the genus name penelope - an old fashioned girls name.

Andean Guan

The last is the  25" Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes goudotii). It is plain brown with a rufous belly.

Sickle-winged Guan

The next are single birds in each family that I photographed on the trip.

The 10" male Chestnut Wood-Quail (Odontophorus hyperythrus) was part of a covey of about 10 birds coming to a feeding station. These normally difficult to see birds are enchanting to see in the open and up close.

Chestnut Wood-Quail

Next is the 19" Andean Motmot (Momotus  aequatoralis). As you know motmots have racquet tails - with a bare shaft on the 2 long tail feathers before the racquet at the end of the tail. This is one of the 5 species that were split in the Blue-crowned Motmot complex. Here is the adult with the racquet tail. Another interesting habit is they swing their tails from side to side and not up and down like many birds.

Andean Motmot

So are they born with the racquet tail? No, here is a juvenile and his tail is normal. The adults strip the bare area themselves when preening. This is another wonder of nature!

Andean Motmot - juvenile

The only member of the trogon family for the trip was a 14" female Golden-headed Quetzal (Pharomachrus auriceps). She is the only quetzal in the Andes with a gray head and black undertail.

Golden-headed Quetzal - female

The last 2 birds were both lifers and surprising to find. I had never even heard of the 11" Spot-flanked Gallinule (Porphyriops melanops). It is mostly confined to Peru to Argentina but there is a small population in the mountains east of Bogota. It was in a pond in the middle of a cattle pasture - so I walked out to get the photo. It looks like our Common Gallinule but it has a greenish bill and shield and of course the white spots on the flank.

Spot-flanked Gallinule

The 13" Noble Snipe (Gallinago nobilis) was a special treat to see. It was in a boggy pasture and the farmer allowed us to go out to take the photos. The black line under the eye is diagnostic. Anytime I can find a snipe is always exciting.  This is the usual way that you see them - hunkered down in the grass. There are 7 snipes in South America and this was my second one to photograph.

Noble Snipe

But this one was wide open. The buffy spots on the tail are diagnostic for this species in the mountains.

Noble Snipe

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 18 of the 55 species of Chacalacas, Guans & Curassows

I have photos of 10 of the 34 species of New World Quail

I have photos of 10 of the 14 species of Motmots

I have photos of 20 of the 138 species of Rails and Gallinules

I have photos of 51 of the 93 species of Sandpipers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2023 David McDonald

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

Bulletin 289 - Colombia #12 - Miscellanous

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.

I am nearing the end of the amazing birds on my Colombia trip last fall. Here are the remaining non-passerines that I have not discussed earlier.

The puffbirds are a small (38 species) New World family. 24 of them are in Colombia. Puffbirds appear to be large headed birds with heavy  bills. They tend to sit motionless and then fly out to grab an insect or lizard. I saw and photographed 3 species on this trip, 2 of which were lifers. The one I had photographed before is the 7" White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis). This bird is rufous and white and a streaked belly.

White-whiskered Puffbird

 His cousin the almost identical 8.5" Moustached Puffbird (Malacoptila mystacalis) is darker brown in color and has a handlebars mustache. He was a lifer.

Moustached Puffbird

The other lifer was unexpected as we had stopped to photograph the Savannah Hawk, and this bird was perched right in front of us. This is the 8" Russet-throated Puffbird (Hypnelus ruficollis). 

Russet-throated Puffbird

The new World Barbets are another small (15 species) New World family.  The 7" White-mantled Barbet (Capito hypoleucus) is endemic to Colombia and obviously was a lifer as this was my first trip to that country.

White-mantled Barbet

The barbets are related to toucans and in between these families is a 2 species family, one of which is the colorful 9" Toucan Barbet (Semnormis ramphastinus). This multicolored bird is an easy ID. It is number 26 on the top 30 birds list above. I had seen this bird in Ecuador, but it was always nice to see again.

Toucan Barbet

Next is the 19" long tailed Andean Motmot (Momotus aequatoralis). These birds have a racquet tail in which there is a length of bare shaft on the long tail feathers. 

Andean Motmot

What was interesting to me with this bird which was coming to a feeder. was he did not have the bare shaft. The guide had not seen a bird without the raquet tail before. 

Here is a close up of his tail feathers. and they look perfectly normal. There has been some discussion as to how the bird gets the bare shaft. It was presumed that the bird stripped the shaft bare himself. But the latest I read, that the thinking now is the shaft just drops off the bristles. You can certainly see the tip of the 2 longest feathers are wider than the rest of the feather.

For comparison, here is another Andean Motmot I photographed in Ecuador. The bare shafts are readily seen below the branch.

Andean Motmot

I was surprised to only see 2 mammals on the whole trip. One was a squirrel, but the other was a monkey, the White-footed Tamarin (Saguinus leucopus). This small monkey has a very long tail. It is endangered due to habitat loss and is endemic to Colombia

White-footed Tamarin

And another of this cute monkey.

White-footed Tamarin

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2017 David McDonald

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

Bulletin 245 - Ecuador #7 - raptors, owls and other non-passerines

I just had a couple of good hawk photos of new species. The first was a juvenile Double-toothed Kite (Harpagus bidentatus). This 13" raptor is IDed by the dark midline whisker below the chin. This bird sat quietly for a long time and was a puzzle. In my naivete, I told the guide I thought it was a Double-toothed Kite because I knew of the field mark and really nothing else about the bird. However, he agonized over it for a while before agreeing, as most juveniles are heavily streaked on the breast but just a few have plain breasts as this one does.

Double-toothed Kite - juvenile
Buenaventura Lodge

The other was a 26" juvenile Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle (Geranoaetus melanoleucus). This bird was soaring over the road as we drove between 2 lodges. As we stopped, he landed in a small tree just 50 feet above us. The juvie is brown with a darker chest. The adult would be gray with a black chest.

Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle - juvenile

I only saw a single toucan on this trip, the 17" Choco Toucan (Ramphastos brevis). It is similar to the larger Chestnut-mandibled Toucan and best IDed by voice. It is black with a yellow face and yellow and brown bill.

20

Choco Toucan
Buenaventura Lodge

Closely related to toucans is the small family (15 species) of New World barbets. I photographed my second and 3rd species on this trip at Copalinga Lodge. I think the best known is the 6" Red-headed Barbet (Eubucco bourcierii). The male is green with a red head and chest and yellow bill.

Red-headed Barbet - male

The female is very pretty too, but doesn't look at all like the male other than green body and heavy yellow bill. She came to the banana feeders at Copalinga.

Red-headed Barbet - female

The other species was the 7" male Gilded Barbet (Capito auratus). He is black with an orange throat and yellow underparts

Gilded Barbet - male

Puffbirds are a New World family of 37 species. My guide was able to show me 2 species, but we tried very hard for a couple of others, but no response. The 7" White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis) is brown with white on the cheeks and orange breast.

White-whiskered Puffbird
Buenaventura Lodge

The 8" Barred Puffbird (Nystalus radiatus) is brown with horizontal barring all over.

Barred Puffbird
Buenaventura Lodge

I saw several species of doves, but the only notable one was the White-throated Quail-Dove (Geotrygon frenata). Quail-doves are very difficult to  see and photograph as they walk along the forest floor and are extremely shy. This is only the second species I have managed to photograph. However, it was a slam dunk as they have a feeder for them at Tapichalaca Lodge. Just a couple of minutes after putting the corn on the stump, the bird appeared and I could get photos from the blind.

White-throated Quail-Dove
Tapichalaca Lodge

The only motmot species was the 19" Andean Motmot (Momotus aequatorialis). This bird has gone through a number of name changes as it was part of the Blue-crowned Motmot complex and also know as Highland Motmot in the Birds of Ecuador. The blue crown and long raquet tail ID this bird. It is the only motmot at 1000 - 2100m elevation.

Andean Motmot
Copalinga Lodge

The 9" Coppery-chested Jacamar (Galbula pastazae) was only my second jacamar species to get on film.

Coppery-chested Jacamar - male
Copalinga Lodge

I saved my favorites for last of course, the owls. Pygmy-owls are diurnal and can be called in to the tape in daylight which makes them easy to photo if they land in the open. We caught the 6.5" Pacific Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium peruanum) on the first day as we drove to Buenaventura Lodge. Pablo Andrade, my guide, played the tape and sure enough a bird flew right in. They come in 2 colors, reddish and brown. Here is a brown one.

Pacific Pygmy-Owl

A short time later, a second bird flew in and it was the red one. My guide said he had never seen the 2 color morphs together previously.

Pacific Pygmy-Owl - pair

Lastly was the 15" Black-and-white Owl (Strix nigrolineata). This beautiful owl is one of the target birds at Buenaventura Lodge as a bird regularly comes to hunt insects under the street light in the parking lot. But he only appears about twice weekly. Finally on my third and last night there we heard him hooting, as we were finishing dinner. There is no ID problem but note the orange beak and feet.

Black-and-white Owl
Buenaventura Lodge

A moment before this, he had caught and devoured a large grasshopper. I consider this my most amazing bird photo ever as you saw in my favorites last week.

Black-and-white Owl
Buenaventura Lodge

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald

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