22 Feb 18 - Colombia: Rain Almost Stopped Play

After a late arrival at the Otun-Quinbaya Reserve, we were up pre-dawn as the plan was to look for some Owls. However, it had thrown it down for quite a bit of the night & was still raining too heavily to make it worth looking for Owls when we got up. We still heading out before dawn so we could get wet from first light. I had bought a camera cover, but as the rain was steady, I decided that this wasn't going to be the first time to check out whether the cover was as waterproof as it was reported to be. As a result, the camera stayed in the room for the morning. In the circumstances, it was probably the best result. As it got light, we started Birding along one of the forest tracks. Fairly quickly we saw the first of a number of the endemic Cauca Guans, along with a couple of Sickle-winged Guans. Also, my first White-naped Brush-finches & a couple of Chestnut-breasted Wrens. But our main target was the exquisite Hooded Antpitta. This near endemic Antpitta is smaller than a Robin with a pale orange head, pale brown upperparts, off-white underparts & a uniquely bright yellow bill. It has been a target species for many Birders on previous trips, but few had succeeded. However, Janos had a recording of its call & was aware of a rough area of the reserve where Birdquest had seen it for the first time during the previous year's tour. But, after a couple of hours in the rain, it wasn't looking hopeful as we walked up & down about a half mile of the one of the main tracks. As happened on a number of occasions, most of the group were keeping close to Janos. Brian & I often lagged behind as we were taking photos & we were confident in our abilities to find our own Birds. On this occasion, with no camera, I was birding with Rob, the other Brit Birder, while Brian was a bit further behind us. Suddenly, I heard Brian quietly call, I've got it. Knowing Brian well, I knew that without any species being called, it had to be a Hooded Antpitta. I turned to call to Janos, before started to quietly run to where Brian was. But, in the excitement the legs didn't get it right & I ended up going flying. I started running as I was rising & went flying a second time, before finally getting the coordination right on the third attempt. Brian was over thirty metres away, so my falling wasn't going to disturb the Hooded Antpitta. Rob beat me by a few yards to where Brian was crouching. I arrived a few seconds later & immediately Brian got me onto the gorgeous Hooded Antpitta, sitting low in the vegetation, & occasionally calling, less that ten metres away. Brian later said he heard the call & was looking for it, when it flew closer & perched up. Unfortunately, my camera was in the room. But I reckon it would have had a significant knock as I hit the ground & so maybe it's a good thing I didn't have the camera with me. I never got around to asking Brian for a copy of his photos & now sadly, it's too late. But he was really pleased to have found the Bird of the trip & with his photos. Anybody wanting to see what a Hooded Antpitta looks like & why it was voted Bird of the trip, can try this link. This website even has a copy of its thin call. After we had all had some great views of this mythical species, we walked back to where the minibus was parked by a couple of buildings in the forest. Here we had a late breakfast & enjoyed a bit of shelter from the rain. By late morning, we were heading back to the park accommodation for lunch. Finally, it had stopped raining & there was the opportunity for some photography around the accommodation. Like many forest reserves I've visited over the years, the park accommodation had a good selection of species around it, with a few individuals having become a bit easier to see than those within the main reserve. This site was no exception & with the sun finally out, I could finally give the camera some exercise.

US Birder Rich photographing some Hummingbirds by the park restaurant & visitor centre

I was glad to see there were some more Cauca Guans near the accommodation & they were more approachable than the ones we had seen earlier.

Cauca Guan: Sadly, this endemic species is now a local species in the Cauca valley of Central Colombia

Cauca Guan: A wider shot to show this stunning forest

Cauca Guan

Cauca Guan: The range, red dewlap (throat) and lower elevation than Andean Guan, all help with the identification

Lesser Green Violet-ear: Also known as Lesser Violet-ear

There was a lot of noise near the entrance to accommodation, as three Red Howlers appeared & started calling, before finally settled down.

Red Howler

Red Howler

Red Howler

It was time for lunch.

18 Feb 18 - Colombia: Afternoon Coffee With Extra Hummers

After a two & a half hour journey in the minibus from the upper slopes of Sumapaz National Park, we finally reached our destination for the afternoon: Chicaque Park. We were quickly to discover that it was never quick travelling between sites in Colombia, even though the destinations weren't always far apart. This was partly due to travelling in a minibus on roads with few opportunities for overtaking. Chicaque Park looks to be a large national park, although we spend most of our time drinking coffee whilst photographing the Hummers coming into the feeders by the cafe. I normally find it takes a while getting my eye at a new place with Hummer feeders. This isn't helped by my normal pattern of travelling around in the Neotropics. No sooner than I get familiar with the typical Hummer species at one site, then I'm moving onto a new elevation or Andean slope & have to start working out & learning the regular species again. Additionally, many species have overlapping features & I can't remember all the features in my head. Seeing 64 species in three & a half weeks didn't help either. The best way to start is to find a species that looks obvious & familiar. Collared Incas are fairly obvious to pick out, as they are distinctive and have a large range from Colombia & Venezuela to Peru & Bolivia, which means that I've bumped into them on a few occasions in Ecuador.

Collared Inca: I was happy with this photo considering it was an overcast & damp afternoon & the light wasn't great

Collared Inca: They are a fairly large Hummingbird with this distinctive large white collar & a lot of white in both the undertail & the outer tail feathers on the upper side of the tail and a long straight bill

This Hummingbird looks superficially similar to a Collared Inca, but is a female Tourmaline Sunangel.

Tourmaline Sunangel: Female. This has an obvious white throat, but the white doesn't extend around the sides of the neck. Additionally, it doesn't have the white in the tail & is noticeably shorter-billed

Tourmaline Sunangel: Male. The males are more non-descript, especially when the light doesn't catch the purple throat

The next easy identification was a Woodstar. Woodstars are one of my favour groups of Hummingbirds as they are small & hyperactive. Most of the Woodstars I've seen hover while feeding, so it was good to see one which was happy to come in & perch up: making it easier to photograph them. A check of the excellent Pro Aves field guide & it was confirmed as a female Gorgeted Woodstar. At just over 2 inches long, it one of the world's smallest Birds.

Gorgeted Woodstar: The small size, pale underparts & pale collar suggest this is a Woodstar. The buff underparts & rufous uppertail & the Eastern Andes location indicates this is a female Gorgeted Woodstar

The next species to get my eye in on was a Puffleg. Pufflegs are less obvious, but have noticeable white feathering around the legs. This is a very useful feature as it helps to narrow the range of pages to check down from thirty two, to just two.

Glowing Puffleg: This individual is starting to develop its shiny purple gorget which is surrounded by a narrow buffy border on the Eastern Andes vestita subspecies

Another of the more subtle Hummingbirds was this Lesser Green Violet-ear. A few years ago, this species was known as Green Violet-ear. When the Northern subspecies was split as Mexican Violet-ear, the remaining subspecies from Costa Rica to Peru, Bolivia & extreme NW Argentina was renamed Lesser Violet-ear. Rather than lose all links to the original name, I often try to keep a reference in the English name to the original name.

Lesser Green Violet-ear: This is an all green Hummingbird with a noticeable purple lower face and ear coverts

Finally, we saw our main target species for Chicaque Park: a Golden-bellied Starfrontlet. No amount of sharpening will cover up that this photo wasn't in focus: but it's the best I have of this near endemic Hummer.

Golden-bellied Starfrontlet: This species occurs in the Eastern Andes & just over the border into Venezuela

Brian was using the same camera & lens as I was: a Canon 7D Mark II with the Mark II 100 - 400 mm lens. I was disappointed for the few days with my photographs compared to what Brian was getting. Finally, I realised the image stabilisation wasn't enabled on the lens & that made a big difference, especially on days when we were in the forests & the light wasn't great. We had a short walk along the entrance track, before the minibus caught us up & we returned to our hotel in Bogota. it had been a long day, but good with ten Ticks. I was glad we had arrived early the previous day so that we had had chance to start getting over the jetlag & used to the altitude.