Colombia Day 13 - Reserva Ecologica Rio Blanco (18Aug2024)

The Reserva Ecologica Rio Blanco is a nature reserve just east of Manizales and is one of the handful of places that has been building on the legacy of Angel in Ecuador by feeding Antpittas.  We started bright and early with a breakfast made at the main house and of course they had hummingbird feeders.

Buff-tailed Coronet

The Coronets tend to do this weird thing where they open their wings as if to make themselves bigger and flash the buff color in their arm pits (axillaries). 

After scarfing down some eggs, farmer's cheese and Coffee/Chocolate, we headed to the first Antpitta stop.

Bicolored Antpitta - it didn't take long for this one to show after the guide began calling for it.

Rufous-crowned Tody-Tyrant - this was inexplicably one of the my favorite birds of the trip and I even bought a key chain with its likeness on it later in the trip.  I think it was mainly because I was happy to get a good photo of a bird that flits around high up and is usually hard to see.

Collared Inca

Crimson-mantled Woodpecker - what a striking and imposing woodpecker!   It was quite large.

Grass-green Tanager - this beauty was heavily backlit so I had to ramp up the exposure compensation.

Black-capped Tyrannulet

It wasn't long after the first Antpitta stop that we came to another.

Green-and-black Fruiteater - apparently fruiteaters are starting to learn that they can also benefit from these stops and have learned to take mealworms from the guides too.

Chestnut-crowned Antpitta - its such a cool experience to see these amazing birds so close up even if it feels a little like cheating.  Also, most of the guides name the birds and sing to them in order to bring them in when it's feeding time.  Hearing the locals sing this love song and then seeing these enigmatic birds pop up on a log is something everyone should experience, birder or not.

We actually tried for some other Antpittas that we dipped on so they are not all reliable.

Masked Saltator - apparently this is a really good bird so I had to deal with the poor backlit conditions and make do with this record shot.

Flammulated Treehunter - another very difficult to see bird.

Blue-capped Tanager

The city of Manizales as seen from the reserve.

Sickle-winged Guan

Gray-browed Brushfinch

Golden-plumed Parakeet

Tarantula

Russet-crowned Warbler

Blue-and-black Tanager

Streaked Xenops

Plushcap

Back at the main house the bees were swarming the hummingbird feeders but we still picked up a new one with this Speckled Hummingbird.

Buff-tailed Coronet

Bronzy Inca

Fawn-breasted Brilliant

Buff-tailed Coronet

White-sided Flowerpiercer stealing nectar by piercing the base of the flower.

White-throated Daggerbill!  A new one for us.

Much like the flowerpiercers this guy also parasitizes the flowers.

Chestnut-bellied Chat-Tyrant

Golden-headed Quetzal!!  This stunning bird was on everyone's wishlist.

The head is not so much gold as it is green.

With the Quetzal under our belt we called it a day a little early for my taste but it was kind of nice to recharge in the hotel room for a bit.

The view of Manizales from my room.

The next post will be a good one, we went to Hacienda El Bosque and got some more Antpittas.  Stay tuned.

Colombia Day 12 - Termales del Ruiz and Los Nevados (17Aug2024)

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

Superciliaried Hemispingus

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!