1 Mar 18 - Colombia: An Endemic Wren

After an early pre-dawn walk at Montezuma, we loaded the jeeps & headed back to the nearest town where our bus driver had been taking it easy for the last two days. He was probably glad of the break, given the early starts, long drives & after dark driving. We spent most of the day driving, although there was a nice lunch stop in a restaurant next to a deep gorge. This allowed a little bit of Birding.

American Black Vulture: There were around a hundred around

American Black Vulture: Many were constantly flying over the gorge, but few were particularly close

Red-crowned Woodpecker: This species occurs from Costa Rica to Colombia, Venezuela & the Guianas

 Tropical Kingbird: The occur from Arizona to central Argentina

Palm Tanager

We had a mid afternoon roadside stop near Bolombolo to look for the endemic & recently described Antioquia Wren. It was only found in 2010 and described in 2012. They have a restricted range in the dry forest of the Northern Cauca valley. Like many Wrens, it is loud & vocal and it just goes to show that stops away from the traditional Birding sites in a country like Colombia can occasionally be exceptional. As usual, Janos was precisely aware of previous sightings from Birdquest trips, but we drew a blank where they had been seen the previous year. Consequently, we walked down the road about a half mile to where Janos had seen then on a previous trip he had led. We tried a few suitable points in between the two sites. While they didn't produce the hoped for Antioquia Wren, we did see a few other species that were new for the trip.

Western Slaty Antshrike: Female

Grey-cheeked Thrush: They are winter visitors from the US & Canada

Black-striped Sparrow: They have an extensive range from Honduras to Colombia, Venezuela & Ecuador

Antioquia Wren: We were more successful at the second site where a pair were seen

Antioquia Wren

With the target Wren seen, we were quickly back in the bus as we still had an hour & a half of driving to get to the final stop of the day to allow a bit of Birding on the edge of the picturesque town of Jardin.

20 Feb 18 - Colombia: Payande

We arrived at our final destination of the day, Payande, near Ibaque, with a couple of hours of light left. We had dropped significantly in altitude & were now on the lower Eastern slopes of the Central Andes. It was noticeably warmer than it had been and a lot drier & dustier.

It was dry scrubby country, with a couple of small pools

The local cement works dominated the view

But it was good to stretch the legs after a few hours in the minibus. One of highlights was our first Colombian Chachalacas heading off to roost in the trees.

Colombian Chachalaca: This was one of only two sightings I had on the trip of this endemic Cracid

A couple of Apical Flycatchers were another Colombian endemic at this site. Like the Colombian Chachalaca, they are Central Andean species.

Apical Flycatcher: This was an underwhelming species, despite being an endemic. It is separated from the similar looking Pale-edged Flycatcher, by the lower elevation and the diagnostic pale tips to the tail

Rusty-margined Flycatcher: This was another underwhelming & commoner Tyrant-flycatcher. The rusty margins are not always as apparent as the name suggests. It can also have a golden crown stripe, but this was worn on this individual, with just a few pale tips to the crown feathers

Rusty-margined Flycatcher: Superficially, it looks like a small Great Kiskadee, but has a noticeably smaller & finer bill

Great Kiskadee: Note, the much heavier bill & the wings would look a lot rustier (if visible)

Black-striped Sparrow: This is a species I've seen before in Costa Rica & Ecuador. It occurs as far North as Honduras & also to Venezuela and the Northern edge of Brazil

The dry scrub wasn't the most exciting of sites, but I also saw my first White-bellied Antbird & Black-chested Jay. I was glad we had made an afternoon visit to the site, rather than use up a morning, as the mornings generally seemed to have more Bird activity. It was getting dark & time to head on to the uninspiring Hotel Ambala in Ibague for the night, which was less than an hour's journey.