Day 7 started bright and early so we could make the treacherous journey to the San Lorenzo Ridge. The trip requires some hard core 4x4 slow crawl up a couple thousand feet. We had a fleet of three Toyota Land Cruisers bring us high on the ridge and started birding just after sunrise. All the birds with Santa Marta in the name are endemics.
Santa Marta Brushfinch
Black-cheeked Mountain-tanager
Santa Marta Bush-tyrant
Santa Marta Parakeet
Andean Siskins
Rusty-headed Spinetail - a skulky little guy...
Hermit Wood-wren
Tyrian Metaltail
Someday I will identify this butterfly....
Tyrian Metaltail female.
On the way down the mountain we stopped for a drink and snack at the research station. The lady that works there has trained an antpitta to come out of the woods and eat worms. The pioneer of this method of luring the ultra secretive antpittas out was a guy named Angel in Ecuador.
Santa Marta Antpitta
Band-tailed Pigeon
We decided to hike down the rest of the way to El Dorado which was a couple miles downslope and probably easier than riding in the Land Cruisers.
White-throated Tyrannulet
Montane Woodcreeper
Golden-breasted Fruiteater
Masked Trogon female
Crimson-crested Woodpecker
Montane Foliage-gleaner
Back at El Dorado it was more geri-birding and I loved every minute of it.
Sparkling Violetear - note the purple belly.
Lesser Violetear
Lazuline Saberwing
Saberwing female
Lesser Violetear flaring its "ears".
I saw several White-lored Warblers but only managed a horrible shot in the understory.
The White-tipped Doves on the other hand were obliging.
In the evening we headed downslope for another specialty bird. Hummingbirds are usually not pegged to a specific location unless there is a special flower or something. However, our guide was able to find this next hummer at a random spot in the jungle with no flowers in sight.
Santa Marta Blossomcrown
Gray-breasted Wood-wren is another understory skulker.
Finally our last stop for the evening was a nice montane farmstead.
White-lined Tanager - the white line is not usually visible.
Yellow-backed Orioles are the high elevation species of Oriole.
Rusty Flowerpiercer
Pale-breasted Thrush
Bay-headed Tanager
Swallow Tanager - a great bird to end the day on.
I neglected to take pictures of El Dorado the lodge itself, but I can describe it here. The Lodge is perched with a nice view overlooking the valley and at night the lights of Santa Marta twinkle in the distance. There is a nice deck overlooking hummingbird feeders, regular bird feeders and the compost pile. Best of all are the dinners which are not fancy, but delicious and indicative of local fare. There is no choice on the menu, but that suited me fine as the meals were all good and a nice little dessert always capped off the night nicely.
The next morning we decided to go back up to the ridge so more eye-candy incoming.
Santa Marta Brushfinch
Black-cheeked Mountain-tanager
Santa Marta Bush-tyrant
White-sided Flowerpiercer
Santa Marta Parakeet
Andean Siskins
Rusty-headed Spinetail - a skulky little guy...
Hermit Wood-wren
Tyrian Metaltail
Suppose this is why they call it a metal tail...
Someday I will identify this butterfly....
Tyrian Metaltail female.
On the way down the mountain we stopped for a drink and snack at the research station. The lady that works there has trained an antpitta to come out of the woods and eat worms. The pioneer of this method of luring the ultra secretive antpittas out was a guy named Angel in Ecuador.
Santa Marta Antpitta
Golden Grosbeak
Band-tailed Pigeon
We decided to hike down the rest of the way to El Dorado which was a couple miles downslope and probably easier than riding in the Land Cruisers.
White-throated Tyrannulet
Montane Woodcreeper
Golden-breasted Fruiteater
Masked Trogon female
Crimson-crested Woodpecker
Montane Foliage-gleaner
Back at El Dorado it was more geri-birding and I loved every minute of it.
Brown Violetear
Sparkling Violetear - note the purple belly.
Lesser Violetear
Lazuline Saberwing
Saberwing female
Blue-naped Chlorophonia
I saw several White-lored Warblers but only managed a horrible shot in the understory.
The White-tipped Doves on the other hand were obliging.
In the evening we headed downslope for another specialty bird. Hummingbirds are usually not pegged to a specific location unless there is a special flower or something. However, our guide was able to find this next hummer at a random spot in the jungle with no flowers in sight.
Santa Marta Blossomcrown
Gray-breasted Wood-wren is another understory skulker.
Finally our last stop for the evening was a nice montane farmstead.
White-lined Tanager - the white line is not usually visible.
Yellow-backed Orioles are the high elevation species of Oriole.
Rusty Flowerpiercer
Pale-breasted Thrush
Bay-headed Tanager
Swallow Tanager - a great bird to end the day on.
I neglected to take pictures of El Dorado the lodge itself, but I can describe it here. The Lodge is perched with a nice view overlooking the valley and at night the lights of Santa Marta twinkle in the distance. There is a nice deck overlooking hummingbird feeders, regular bird feeders and the compost pile. Best of all are the dinners which are not fancy, but delicious and indicative of local fare. There is no choice on the menu, but that suited me fine as the meals were all good and a nice little dessert always capped off the night nicely.
The next morning we decided to go back up to the ridge so more eye-candy incoming.
Amazing haul of birds - and your ability to remember the names of each species is also amazing!
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