Lunch on the second full day was spent at a local family's house eating a delicious Ajiaco and watching the hummingbird feeders.
Our tour group with the owners of the house. On the far right is Cristian, the amazing bird guide we had for the duration of the trip and next to him was Alejandro, our driver.
Sparkling Violetear
Black Flowerpiercer - In the Eastern Cordillera these have a small blue shoulder patch like the Glossy but the patch is much smaller and less shiny. The ones in the other Cordilleras are all black.
Superciliaried Hemispingus - that's a mouthful.
After we ate, we walked down the street a bit and found one of the speciality birds of the area.
Black-backed Grosbeak - although they do range pretty far in South America, they are uncommon.
Then we picked up Silvery-throated Spinetails which were very skulky as is typical of this family. Normally I would not include such a bad pic, but this spinetail species is endemic to this small geographic area in Colombia so here is my record shot.
Nothing interesting happened for the drive back to Bogota except maybe some bad traffic. Dinner at the Hilton was delicious but unremarkable. So fast-forward to the next day where we headed up bright and early to Chingaza National Park and birded the high elevation roadside.
A Coppery-bellied Puffleg was the best bird of the early morning. It is a near endemic as it can show in parts of Venezuela. Seeing hummingbirds that don't typically visit feeders is always tricky so we were lucky to find its favorite perch even through it was quite high in the canopy and difficult to photograph.
Our strategy this morning was to find some feeding flocks of tanager but things were slow and it was raining off and on the whole time which made it tricky to have the camera out.
Golden-crowned Tanager - this was the only time we saw this montane tanager but it has a wide range in high elevations in South America.
Rain definitely makes photography a challenge for multiple reasons including low light, so it usually takes 3 times more shots to get one or two decent ones that aren't speed-blurred.
At the top of the road, we finally bagged a White-chinned Thistletail which is found in several South American countries but is a challenge to see well.
As you can imagine, it is difficult to find birds in such a big area with dense vegetation.
Black-crested Warbler is a common species but I never really got any great pics at any point during the trip, so this will do for now.
Juvenile Plumbeous Sierra Finches kind of look like juvenile Juncos.
Blue-backed Conebill - I had to add this one to the group checklist because apparently not everyone saw it. Pro-tip - when the group gets on a moving flock you need to pay attention and be ready to check all the birds in the flock quickly because they typically move by in a flash. This was the only time we saw this species although it is far-ranging in South America.
Another of the white-faced variety of Golden-fronted Redstarts.
I think I was the only one to get on this Rufous Wren which was part of the moving flock.
Glossy Flowerpiercers were abundant in Chingaza - note the much larger blue patch on the forewing.
We eventually threw in the proverbial towel when the rain picked up and headed downslope for lunch.
The restaurant was quirky and I tried my first mountain farmer plato typico which included Blood Sausage, Chorizo, Chicharrones, Beans, Eggs, Rice, Plantains and some other unidentified things. Interesting but I didn't order it again on the trip.
The afternoon visit was spent at an awesome hotel that had an array of Hummingbird feeders called the Observatorio de Colibries (Hummingbird Observatory). I kind of wish we had stayed up there for the night as it was much more charming than the Hilton in Bogota.
Black-tailed Trainbearer - this is a species that I got many sub-standard pics of. I feel like I needed a couple more hours trying in order to do it justice. This is the only spot we saw them.
White-bellied Woodstars are fun to photograph because unlike most of the larger hummingbirds, they will hover in one spot long enough for you to focus on them while flying.
I should have played more with my ISO in order to get the wings frozen, but like I said this stop was very short. Way too short in my opinion. I know the tour leaders wanted to get back to Bogota before the bad traffic, but that was already a reality by the time we got back.
Glowing Puffleg male.
After leaving we made the drive back to Bogota and got stuck in some of the worst traffic I have seen in years. Cars and trucks at a standstill in central Bogota with motorcycles zipping around the mess like blood in an almost clogged artery. It was good to have my noise-canceling earphones and listen to some music while loading and editing pics into my MacBook. We got back to the hotel so late that I decided to skip dinner and get to sleep. Day 3 was a little slow so I was looking forward to the next day's itinerary.
No comments:
Post a Comment