Colombia Day 5 Part 3 - Jardim Botanico San Jorge (10Aug2024)

So after being poured on at Ukuku, we motored into Ibague and the rain started to let us so we decided to hit up the Botanic Garden in town for an afternoon session.  The rain never fully went away.  It was mostly drizzle except for a couple times where we had to take shelter under an awning.  So out came my camera rain cover which explains why my photography was limited despite the very good birding.  I suppose many of the birds were getting active again after a downpour and some downtime. 

Scrub Greenlet

Sooty-headed Tyrannulet

Saffron Finch

Female Black-faced Dacnis

Orange-billed Sparrow

The somewhat newly minted Western Cattle Egret which is now a separate species from the Eastern Cattle Egret seen over in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Blue-headed Parrot

Ochre-bellied Flycatcher

Chestnut-capped Warbler

White-vented Plumeleteer female.

And male...

There were a ton of Yellow-headed Caracaras throughout the trip but I never got good photos ops in good light.

We were just walking back to the van in some drizzle and we ran into a nice flock basically in one tree.

Streak-headed Woodcreeper

Olive-gray Saltator

Rufous-browed Peppershrike

Black-faced Dacnis - wow what a looker!

Red-crowned Woodpecker

Blue-necked Tanager

Plain-colored Tanager

Rusty-margined Flycatcher

Spot-breasted Woodpecker

Guira Tanager - we saw plenty of these on my Brazil trip, but none of them were breeding males so this was a treat.

That was a wrap on Day 5 which was probably the best overall day if you measure by number of species and photo ops.  That being said, the rest of the trip is worth seeing so stick around for the next installment.

Colombia Day 5 - Ukuku Part 2 (10Aug2024)

I can't remember when they served breakfast at Ukuku, but it was awesome.  Scrambled eggs with fresh oregano from the garden, home made pastries, local coffee and some hot chocolate.  However, I knew our time was limited so I scarfed what they served and continued to snap away at the awesome photo ops.

Palm Tanager

Golden Tanager

Bay-headed Tanager

And here are some of the birds that didn't come to feeders but visited the nearby forest at the edges of Ukuku.

Montane Woodcreeper

Squirrel Cuckoo

Olivaceous Piculet

Common Tody-Flycatcher

Slaty Spinetail

Brown-capped Vireo

Blue-gray Tanager

Buff-tailed Coronet

Long-tailed Sylph

Orange-bellied Euphonia - this one has a purple throat which is a subtle difference from the Thick-billed if you are not paying attention to the details.  We only had a couple of these.

Long-tailed Sylph - the ones with shorter tails are almost more stunning because the tail is thick and the blue sticks out more.

Streaked Saltator

I found an Elaenia high up in the canopy that was a candidate for Small-billed Elaenia but the guides were not able to pin in down to a definite ID.

Any experts want to try?

Montane Foliage-gleaners are very tricky to see well due to the skulking behavior, so most shots are through leaves and not in focus.  

Black-and-white Seedeater

Tolima Blossomcrown

Streaked Saltator

Golden Tanager - I know I have posted too many of the same species, but just look at those colors and patterns!  Amazing birds....

Bronzy Inca

Black-billed Thrush

Bay-headed Tanager - what the F..... Such an eye-popping bird.

Green Hermit - they rarely visit feeders or if they do its a quick visit so be ready!.

White-booted Racket-tail - what an amazing little bird! They are very small which I didn't expect. For some reason I had it in my mind that they wer

e large. Maybe because of all the larger than life photos out there on the interwebs.

Lunch time at Ukuku!  Trout, Chicken and Ajiaco! 

The proprietor, cook and ambassador of Ukuku.

Although lunch was delicious, I scarfed it down and headed back out.  I wanted to maximize every minute at this magical place.

Unidentified butterfly that will go on iNat.

Storm clouds started brewing so we had high-tail it down the trail again as we didn't want to get stuck and it was a good mile back to the van.

We were just scanning the river about half way down looking for Torrent Ducks and Torrent Tyrannulets but it started to rain.  This Bare-faced Ibis was the last bird for the list before the skies opened up and we ran the last couple hundred yards back.  I got soaked but its all good when you have that many birds under your belt and it was only 1:30pm.

We did hit up a place in town for the afternoon, but I will cover that in the next post.