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
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.
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.
