Day 12 started with some birding around the hotel grounds shortly before and after breakfast.
Our Colombian guide, Kristian Daza. A very talented birder but also guide. He has the perfect combination of birding skills and people skills.
A pair of Black-backed Bush Tanagers was probably one of the birds of the trip for our Colombian guide as he doesn't see them often and I think he didn't have pictures before this.
Black-thighed Puffleg is a near endemic to Colombia, with some making it into northern Ecuador.
Brown-bellied Swallow is the default swallow at high elevation but getting a picture was tough until we found some roosting on the hotel eaves.
After breakfast we headed up to the Los Nevados National Park which gets very high indeed.
The main target was the Buffy Helmetcrest.
Buffy Helmetcrest - I was really bummed that I only got a few sub-standard shots and we had to leave. It's tough for the leaders because they want to maximize the number of species, but this means we often don't spend enough time at the really important spots. This Colombian Endemic is really only found in this very small area of Paramo habitat so personally the less than 1 hour we spent up there was just not enough.
Andean Tit-Spinetail
We had to pack up and head downslope to check out some lake and pasture areas that held some other speciality birds of the region.
Plain-colored Seedeater
Stout-billed Cinclodes
This Noble Snipe was really far down in a pasture seen from the road. Getting closer was not an option unfortunately. We saw some Andean Teal as well but they were sleeping and the photos were horrendous.
Much of the paramo habitat has been turned into farm pastures up there.
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Grass Wren
By lunch time, we were already headed back to the hotel to check out and eat lunch before looking for some final birds around the hotel.
Paramo Seedeater - this was spotted way off in the distance on the way down to the hotel. We never got better looks.
Meanwhile back at the hotel, a Pale-naped Brushfinch came in for close looks.
Blue-backed Conebill
Purple-backed Thornbill
The hotel grounds as viewed from the hummingbird garden.
Shining Sunbeam
Hooded Mountain Tanager!
The ubiquitous Great Thrush.
Pale-naped Brushfinch
Viridian Metaltail
While most of the group stuck around the hotel gardens, I was getting frustrated because we were still missing one of the stars of the area, the Rainbow-bearded Thornbill. So I decided to hike down the hill from the hotel to look for them in the flowering shrubs.
Black-crested Warbler
Rainbow-bearded Thornbill! I finally found one when the leaders called to me to come back as the group was leaving. I would have really loved to get a better shot of a male with the raised rainbow crest and beard. Oh well, for another trip.
We headed downslope to our next base of operations in Manizales, the town we could see from way upslope at Termales. On the way down we stopped once and birded the road for a bit.
Golden-crowned Tanager
Manizales was a really nice town to spend the night although I admit I would have loved to stay longer at Termales del Ruiz. We had a great dinner at the restaurant downstairs from the hotel and hit the hay.
More posts coming soon!
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