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: Laguna Pedropalo & La Mesa

We had enjoyed a good morning, but there was still some time for a bit more Birding as we walked back along the main track at Laguna Pedropalo for another hour. 

Birding along the track

The main track lead past a few hotels with nice gardens, as well as, fields & scattered patches of trees, which had a good selection of species.

Spectacled Parrotlet: I won't win any competitions with these photos, sitting in an isolated tree

Black Phoebe

Golden-faced Tyrannulet: Clements lumps this with Coopmans's Tyrannulet: the latter occurs in the Santa Marta Mountains and nearby Venezuela

Golden-faced Tyrannulet: Whether it is lumped or not is academic from my viewpoint as it was Tick

Black-billed Thrush: This is a common South American species which occurs from Colombia to Venezuela and South to Peru & Bolivia

Streaked Saltator

As we were in open grassy fields & hedges, then it was no surprise we also saw a few junk habitat species.

Yellow-bellied Seedeater

Shiny Cowbird

One of the endemic species we had been unsuccessful in seeing during the morning was Black Inca: a West slope of the Eastern Andes endemic Hummingbird. By this point, the minibus caught us up & Janos decided to try another Black Inca site near to La Mesa. This turned out to a track between a lot of small farmsteads and houses with large gardens and was probably only a shadow of its former self. Unfortunately, we didn't see any Black Incas. The highlight was some closer views of Spectacled Parrotlets, but otherwise a selection of more junk habitat species. We only spent about an hour here, before moving on.

Spectacled Parrotlet: A pity it isn't sharp

Great Kiskadee: A large and widespread Tyrant-flycatcher that is worth getting to know, given there are a few similar looking species. It occurs from Texas to Central Argentina

Social Flycatcher: Another smaller & less colourful common Tyrant Flycatcher which occurs from Mexico to Central Argentina

Palm Tanager: This is always a sign of degraded habitat

Saffron Finch: Male. This must be one of the most intense yellow species

Saffron Finch: Female. There are far more subtle coloured, but still a nice-looking species

Summer Tanager: This species from the United States winters as far South as Amazonian Brazil and Bolivia

Butterfly sp.

These red berries look like they will be nice & poisonous

It was time to move on. We had a two hour journey as well as, a food stop before we reached our final destination, Payande, for the late afternoon.