Ecuador 2023: 29 Nov

We left Copolinga Lodge for Yankuam Reserve and as usual stopped at several places on route. The first stop was at Cumbaratza where there was a fairly flat open and partly cultivated area. Here our sightings included Bat Falcon, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, Masked Tityra, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Black-tailed Donacobious, Greyish Saltator, Eastern Woodpeewee and Blue-black Grassquit.

Yellow-tufted Woodpecker - A widespread species
across the whole of NW South America.

Small-billed Elaenia - A very widespread species across much of South America
as for south as central Argentina.

White-eyed Parakeet - Another very widespread species
which is found from Venezuela down into Uruguay.

Black-capped Donacobius - Another very widespread species
which is found in Panama and as far south as the northern border of Uruguay.

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Our next stop was at a private garden for Spangled Coquette, which we saw really well. At the same site we also several other birds including Little Woodstar, Golden-tailed Sapphire and Magpie Tanager.

Spangled Coquette - A rare species in lowlands and foothills up to around 1,200 m
in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. We had excellent views at this private site.

Spangled Coquette

Little Woodstar - Found only in Ecuador and NW Peru with the odd
record from SW Colombia.

Little Woodstar

Glittering-throated Emerald - A widespread species found in all of the South American countries excluding Chile and Argentina.

A roadside stop later on in the morning was quite productive, the sightings including Plain-breasted Ground Dove, Laughing Falcon, Chestnut-eared Aracari and Blue-headed Parrot.

Laughing Falcon - A fairly common and widespread species found
from Mexico to Northern Argentina.

Blue-headed Parrot - The distribution is from Costa Rica as
far south as Bolivia and Brazil.

Chestnut-eared Aracari - Found in a range that sweeps from Colombia
through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia into Brazil and Paraguay.

Another roadside stop in a marshy area appeared to be fruitless until Miguel heard a Gray-breasted Crake calling. After searching for several minutes from the road, Miguel managed to see it moving through the tall grass. Eventually we all managed to get a view of the bird. We also saw a Spotted Sandpiper here.

As we got closer to Yankuam we were driving on a road that followed the Nangartiza river. Sadly the river valley has been extensively mined for gold and the waste and current mining operations are very obvious all the way along the river valley. Some birds don't mind the mining and we saw Brown-chested Martins, Southern Rough-winged Swallows and White-banded Swallows.

We arrived at Yankuam Cabins where we would stay two nights. After a quick look around we drove along the Nuevo Paradiso Road to the Maycu Reserve which is the home of the Orange-throated Tanager. On the way we were delayed by workmen who were carrying out maintenance on the bridge and the rather unusual and rather large model of a Toucan.

Dave P inspecting the work on the bridge!

Entering the area of the reserve for the Orange-throated Tanager

We were birding along the road to Nuevo Paraiso and Peru

We were birding along this fairly quiet road, our sightings included Black-faced Dacnis, Lemon-throated Barbet, Gilded Barbet, Green-backed Trogon, Long-tailed Tyrant, Roadside Hawk, Masked Tityra and Ecuadorian Tyrannulet. Photography was difficult with many of the birds perched high in the tall trees. With limited time we failed to find the star bird of the area, the Orange-throated Tanager.

Roadside Hawk - A common and very widespread species being found from
Mexico through Central America and throughout most of South America apart
from the very south and with very few records from Chile.