Golden-breasted Puffleg (Eriocnemis mosquera) - 16Aug2024

Our most cooperative puffleg species on my second trip to Colombia was the Golden-breasted Puffleg at Hotel Termales Del Ruiz.  Maybe we just got lucky, but it perched next to some feeders in perfect light.

Coppery-bellied Puffleg (Eriocnemis cupreoventris) - 08Aug2024

This near endemic Colombian hummer does cross over slightly into Venezuela.  We saw them at Chingaza National Park high up on Chingaza Rd.  Its always nice to see a bird in its natural habitat away from any feeders.  You can only just barely make out the coppery belly on this one.

Black-thighed Puffleg (Eriocnemis derbyi) - 17Aug2024

This high elevation speciality likes scrubby ravine habitat from 8k to 10k feet up in the Andes.  The area surrounding the Hotel Termales Del Ruiz was perfect for this, but we only saw one that I was aware of.  I still owe it a proper photo shoot, but managed a couple quick frames.

Glowing Puffleg (Eriocnemis vestita) - 06Aug2024

We saw this species at Reserva Bosque Guajira on my second trip to Colombia.  Apparently they can be seen in all three of the central cordilleras in Colombia, but we only saw them in one or two places.  So like many of these species, it is important to get the time you can with them while you have it.  The first two were females and the last a male.

Greenish Puffleg (Haplophaedia aureliae) - 13Aug2024

Greenish Pufflegs are yet another high elevation species of hummer found in the Andes Mountains.  Although the distribution is restricted to a very thin area in the horizontal, they are found all the way from Peru up to Panama.  We saw these at the Apia Birding Ecolodge.

Viridian Metaltail (Metallura williami) - 17Aug2024

We had cracking good looks at this hummer at the Hotel Termales Del Ruiz on the slope down from of Los Nevados National Park in the central cordillera.

Green-bearded Helmetcrest (Oxypogon guerinii) - 07Aug2024

Much like the Buffy Helmetcrest, this species is part of a complex of 4 hummers that previously were lumped in the Bearded Helmetcrest species.  We saw a couple during our visit to Sumapaz National Park but they didn't perch for us.  However, we were able to track one female down to a nest on an overhang over the road.  I will be back preferably on my own so I can take my time and photograph this species as it should be.

 

Buffy Helmetcrest (Oxypogon stuebelii) - 17Aug2024

I didn't do this gorgeous bird justice so I will be back...  This was photographed at Los Nevados National Park.  Buffy Helmetcrests are not only a Colombian endemic, they occupy a very restricted range within Colombia.  They basically only live on Nevado Del Ruiz, an active volcano in the central cordillera.  If you catch them in good light, they have a thin glittering blue and green gorget.

Rainbow-bearded Thornbill (Chalcostigma herrani) - 17Aug2024

This is another hummingbird species that I found on my second trip to Colombia that I totally failed to get good pics of.  Many of these thornbills and helmetcrests only visit flowers and not feeders, making them difficult to photograph.  This one below was photographed only when I split from the main group and did some exploring on my own outside the Hotel Termales Del Ruiz.  Unfortunately the bird did not face me and so I couldn't see the amazing rainbow "beard".  As I was photographing it the tour leader called me back and I had to leave it uncrushed.

Bronze-tailed Thornbill (Chalcostigma heteropogon) - 07Aug2024

This thornbill only just crosses into a very small sliver of Venezuela so it is a near endemic to Colombia.  We had ours in the Paramo habitat of the eastern cordillera while visiting Sumapaz National Park.  I hope to return to this spot in the future to get better photos.

The bronze tail was only visible when it perched down low.

Purple-backed Thornbill (Ramphomicron microrhynchum) - 16Aug2024

We had a couple of these tiny gems at the Hotel Termales Del Ruiz in Colombia.  

The first one was a female and it took me a while to ID it.

The male was more obvious but only when the light hit it just right.

Black-tailed Trainbearer (Lesbia victoriae) - 08Aug2024

These high elevation hummers are found in the Andes in several South American countries, but we only saw a handful in one place on my second trip to Colombia.  I wish I could have stayed longer to do them justice.  These photos were taken at the Observatorio de Colibries east of Bogota.

Violet-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus coelestis) - 14Aug2024

These amazing long-tailed beauties inhabit the cloud forest of the western Andes.  I saw mine during my second trip to Colombia at the Montezuma Rainforest Lodge and up the Montezuma Road.  We stopped at a nectar station that the staff set up half way down the road and the photography with the natural setting of the palms was perfect.

The female doesn't have the long tail but is equally as striking as the male.

Of course the male is the crowd-pleaser with the long violet tail.

Long-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus kingii) - 10Aug2024

I think we saw this species in multiple locations on our second trip to Colombia but the photo ops were best at Ukuku Lodge in the central cordillera near Ibague.

As you can see tail length varied greatly between individuals.

Speckled Hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys) - 18Aug2024

Speckled Hummingbirds are kind of unusual in that they are monomorphic, meaning the males and females are indistinguishable.  Apparently they are also solitary in nature and the males don't help in raising the young after copulation.  That must have been hard for the scientists to decipher considering that they are monomorphic.  Maybe they painted the females to determine it.  These were photographed at the Reserva Ecologico Rio Blanco in the central cordillera near Manizales.

 

Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) - 10&19Aug2024

These jewels are similar to the Longuemare's Sunangels I saw earlier in my second trip to Colombia but are located further west.  I saw these at Ukuku Lodge but also at Hacienda El Bosque.  

Longuemare's Sunangel (Heliangelus clarisse) - 06Aug2024

There is lots of controversy over this species.  Some authorities consider it a subspecies of Amethyst-throated Sunangel. Both of those would be lifers to me, so I am just rolling with it.  This one was seen at Reserva Bosque Guajira in Colombia.

Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) - 14Aug2024

We saw a couple of these rippers during my second trip to Colombia, but this was special because it was visiting the feeder directly outside of my hotel room at the Montezuma Lodge.

November Ramblings (03-30Nov2024)

November in North Carolina is the month where we get vagrants that migrated the wrong way and now are stuck in our beautiful state.  So its always good to get out and look around.  This November the biggest  rarity was a White-throated Swift that Ed C found on the way to the Rarity Roundup in Dare County.  It was only seen for several hours and I never pulled the trigger on chasing it.

Brown Pelican - of course its always in the back of my mind when I visit my favorite spots like Fort Fisher Rocks to look for rarities.

Prairie Warblers flag as rare in eBird this time of year but really are pretty expected.  This one was at Airlie Gardens.

Nothing rare about Northern Flickers in November.

Baltimore Oriole - There was still plenty of ripe fruit on the Ghost Dogwood tree at Airlie Gardens into mid November.

Laughing Gulls are back to basic plumage.

Boat-tailed Grackle hormones never seem to calm down.

Another Prairie Warbler down at Battery Buchanan.

Orange-crowned Warbler

The Loggerhead Shrike at the Ferry Parking is still hanging out.

Young Red-shouldered Hawk at Fort Fisher.

I was on my way to Wrightsville Beach when I noticed some swallows flying around near the Bridge Tender restaurant.

Cave Swallow!

Every late fall we usually get 1-2 reports of Cave Swallows flying through, usually on a good NW blow.  This time they have stuck around in pretty large numbers even up to the day of my writing this (11Dec).

Red Knot at sunset.

The next day I went in the morning to try and get some better photos of Cave Swallows.

I could have sat there all day trying for the perfect shot, but I moved on to Airlie Gardens.

Another Orange-crowned in the camellias.

Hermit Thrush in the Ghost Dogwood.

A very late Swainson's Thrush had also been gorging on the Ghost Dogwood berries.

Blue-headed Vireos will always be one of my favorites in Wilmington.

The huge flock of Gadwall are back at Ashley High School ponds.

Sam and Jacob found this Ash-throated Flycatcher at Fort Fisher in almost the exact same spot that I found one in several years prior.

White-winged Scoters are hard to come by most years but this year they have already been offering good looks at Fort Fisher.

Black Scoters are much more common but its still good to see them up close.

Surf Scoters are not rare in NC but also not usually easy to see in New Hanover.  They really like sounds like the ones up in Carteret County where you can see hundreds in large flocks.

You could almost mistake this Surf Scoter for a Black Scoter if you weren't careful, but the bill structure is very different.

The ocean was so calm this day that an American Coot mistook it for a lake.  I can't recall ever seeing a coot on the ocean.

Great Blue Heron at the north end of Wrightsville Beach in the morning light.

A Nelson's Sparrow doing calisthenics.

Tundra Swans doing a flyby at Airlie Gardens.  They are quite rare in New Hanover.

A pair of Bald Eagles have started nesting already at Airlie Gardens and this one took a break to get a drink.

This Hermit Thrush almost looked like the Swainson's with the eye-ring but I think it was in fact a Hermit.

Could this have been a different Swainson's in the Ghost Dogwood, a younger looking bird?  If so that means there was at least two of them hanging around.

My parents and brothers came for Thanksgiving and we had a great time.  My brothers and I went fishing at Fort Fisher and caught a mess load of Bluefish.  I think my fishing spark might be re-ignited.  Lately I have been taking my rod with me when I go birding.

My father is totally into star-gazing lately and he convinced us to head to Green Swamp at night so he could take some videos.  It wasn't ideal but the light pollution was definitely less than in Wilmington.

My brother Noah took this photo with his iPhone.

Dinner at Circa with my wife to celebrate a successful hosting of my extended family.  Melissa was exhausted after feeding 12 people on Thanksgiving so we treated her to a nice dinner out.