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

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Bulletin 243 - Ecuador #6 - Antbirds and friends, Ovenbirds

The antbirds and relatives are New World families of birds that tend to associate with army ant swarms, at least some of them do. There are 3 families, antbirds, antthrushes and antpittas and the names suggest the habits of the other bird families. There are 234 antbirds, 12 antthrushes, and 53 antpittas.

The large antbird family includes antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos and plain antbirds. If you have ever birded in the tropics and looked for these birds, the only ones that are easy to see are the antshrikes as they tend to be in the trees, The rest stay on or close to the ground and hide in thick brush.

The antpittas and antthrushes are even worse. To see either well is about 50% as difficult as seeing the Loch Ness monster. Getting a photo of one is even less likely.

My first tropical trips in the 1990's was with groups of 12 - 16 people plus a couple of guides. It was impossible. Now just by myself and a guide, I finally am able to see some of them.

The antbirds tend to be black for male and brown for females, so not too colorful. The challenge is the pursuit!

The female 4" Slaty Antwren (Myrmotherula schistocolor) is all brown. The guide IDs them by voice.

Slaty Antywren - female

The 7" Zeledon's Antbird (Myrmeciza zeledoni) is a recent split from Immaculate Antbird. The male is charcoal and there is a blue bare skin patch around the eye. The guide book says it is heard much more often than seen.

Zeledon's Antbird - male

The 6" male Blackish Antbird (Cercomacra nigrescens) stayed very hidden.

Blackish Antbird - male

I did get one antbird in the open! The 5" female Chestnut-backed Antbird (Myrmeciza exsul) is the same genus as the Zeledon's above and has the blue patch around the eye. The female has a gray head and brown body.

The Blackish Antbird was photographed near Copalinga Lodge. The rest of the above birds were at Buenaventura Reserve.

Antpittas are another story. I had never seen one well and certainly was hoping to on this trip. In the bulletin with the parrots, I mentioned that Buenaventura Reserve was established to protect the El Oro Parakeet. Well the Tapichalaca reserve in the cloud forest was established to preserve the habitat for an antpitta.

Robert Ridgely (coauthor of Birds of Ecuador guide book) who found the parakeet also found a new antpitta in 1997. The story is that he asked the natives people what they called the bird. The voice sounds like the hooting of an owl and when he played it for them to see if they knew the bird, they said it was a jocotoco (an owl). So he mistakenly called the bird the Jocotoco Antpitta. In 1998, the Foundation Jocotoco was established and bought the acreage for the preserve. They also own the Buenaventura reserve.

So that bird is the star attraction at Tapichalaca Reserve and I was hoping to see it. It is one of the world's rarest birds with an estimated 300 birds in the reserve. Another small population was found in adjacent Peru in 2006, but the area is inaccessible.

Antpittas are plump birds with long legs and appear almost tailless. They have been described as an egg with legs.

To facilitate observation of the bird, they have an antpitta feeding station, so I was excited when I saw that on the trail map. My guide didn't tell me any more the night before. As we walked a long slippery muddy trail in, he heard another antpitta and played the tape. The bird flew to the edge of the trail. I looked through my camera and saw well my first antpitta, the 4" Slate-crowned Antpitta (Grallaria nana). 

We continued down the trail and finally came to a shelter with benches and a roof. I was not prepared for the most amazing birding experience of my life. The attendant from the lodge that accompanied us, had a Tupperware container of chopped earthworms which he put on a stump, while we made ourselves comfortable and readied the cameras. Then he started calling the antpittas like you would call your dog! Sure enough a couple of them started walking down the path to get their breakfast. So here was a 9" Jocotoco Antpitta (Grallaria ridgeleyi) walking past our feet about 7-8 feet away. I was mesmerized. We sat there for about 1/2 hour and 2 or 3 birds made repeated trips to feast on the worms. It is an attractive bird with a black head and white spot below the eye.

Jocotoco Antpitta

One of the called while we were watching and it really does sound like an owl.

Jocotoco Antpitta

The funarids or ovenbirds is another New World family of mostly brown birds. There are 312 species. Most are difficult to see well except for the 60ish species of woodcreepers that climb up tree trunks.

The first one we found was in the preserve for the Horned Screamer. It was easy to see on the ground in the open. It was the 7" Pacific Hornero (Funarius cinnamomeus). It kind of looks like a large wren.

Pacific Hornero

If you wonder why this family is known as ovenbirds, here is his nest. Hornero is Spanish for oven.

Pacific Hornero mud nest

The 6" Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner (Anabacerthia variegaticeps) is all brown. Foliage-gleaners tend to be difficult to see well. This must be an easy one as we had several different species, but this was the only photo.

Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner

The 6" Pearled Treerunner (Margarornis squamiger) is the only one that I IDed myself. It has its whole underside with white spots.

Pearled Treerunner

Finally, xenops are 7 species of small funarids (4-5") with white stripes across the face.. The Plain Xenops (Xenops minutis) has plain brown underside.

Plain Xenops

The Streaked Xenops (Xenops rutilans) has streaked underparts.

Streaked Xenops

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.