Masked-Trogon-male-Tandayapa-Bird-Lodge-Ecuador-12-Dec-2012-IMG_6775.jpg
8 August 2012
Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe
One of a pair seen near the antennas.
6 August 2012
Broad-billed Motmot
This bird was attending an antswarm with White-whiskered Puffbird, Bicolored Antbird, Dusky-faced Tanager, Orange-billed Sparrow, Buff-rumped Warbler, Tawny-faced Gnatwren, Black-striped Woodcreeper, and Plain Brown Woodcreeper.
4 March 2012
Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager
29 February 2012
Collared (Pale-mandibled) Aracari
Currently lumped with Collared Aracari under the Clements taxonomy.
2 March 2012
Crimson-bellied Woodpecker
Not a good shot, although it is a rare bird so I have left it in here! Only my 2nd sighting at this site.
2 September 2011
White-capped Tanager
One of a flock of seven birds.
18 June 2011
Golden-headed Quetzal
Male, emerging from its nest.
12 June 2011
Golden-headed Quetzal
Female at the same nest cavity in June 2011.
18 June 2011
Andean-Cock-of-the-rock
Female nesting ON the lodge! Two chicks are hidden underneath her.
18 June 2011
Andean-Cock-of-the-rock
One of two ugly chicks, thought to be around week and a half to two weeks old.
5 June 2011
Andean Gull
Adult in breeding plumage (lacks the black head when not breeding).
5 June 2011
Andean Lapwing
One of a hundred or more seen that day.
5 June 2011
Plumbeous Sierra-Finch
Males are lead-colored (like this one), and females are brown and streaky sparrow like birds.
11 January 2011
Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager
12 January 2011
Red-headed Barbet
This one's the breathtaking male.
25 November 2010
Black-tipped Cotinga
Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATS80 HD scope.
5 March 2010
Wire-tailed Manakin
Digiscoped with Swarovski ATS65 HD scope.
6 March 2010
Common Potoo
Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATS65 HD telescope.
6 March 2010
Crested Owls
Once again the local guides had a pair of these incredible owls staked out at a day roost behind the lodge. One of the most striking owls in Ecuador.
27 December 2010
Crested Owl
One of two day roosting behind the lodge.
25 January 2010
Chestnut-collared Swallow
25 January 2010
Chestnut-collared Swallow
4 February 2010
Collared Antshrike (female)
27 January 2010
Loja (Golden-faced) Tyrannulet
This "form" of Golden-faced Tyrannulet, with the distinctive call is sometimes considered a separate species.
5 February 2010
Pale-browed Tinamou
We taped this bird in close and enjoyed incredible views, and were all smarting from the fact that none of us had a camera ti record this rare moment. Amazingly when we returned to the area twenty minutes later the bird had moved close to the track and was now calling in the open still. It remained there for some time, allowing me even to leg it back to the car and pick up my digiscoping gear. My one and only time I have managed to digiscope a tinamou!
5 February 2010
Gray Hawk
Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATS65 HD telescope.
5 February 2010
Gray Hawk
Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATS65 HD telescope.
This bird was seen on all of our three visits during this tour, when it was almost constantly calling from a regular perch in an open cecropia tree.
30 December 2009
Black-necked Red Cotinga
Digiscoped with Swarovski ATS HD85 telescope.
30 December 2009
Red-capped Cardinal
Nesting under the boardwalk for the boat dock, seemingly completely not bothered by people passing noisily overhead on a regular basis! Good predator protection I guess.
21 December 2009
Carunculated-Caracara
One of over 100 birds seen this day there, along with at least 40 Black-faced Ibis!
16 December 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
16 December 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
16 December 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
January 2008
Scaled Antpitta (nesting)
29 October 2009
Pale-legged (Pacific) Hornero
Sometimes split as a separate species, Pacific Hornero.
12 November 2009
Guayaquil Woodpecker (female)
1 November 2009
Black-chinned Mountain-Tanager
1 November 2009
Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager
30 October 2009
Black-striped Woodcreeper
Best woodcreeper in the NW of Ecuador?
31 October 2009
Bananaquit
Heading for the hummer feeders.
1 November 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater (male)
2 November 2009
Moustached Antpitta
Third individual seen that day!
2 November 2009
Moustached Antpitta
Second individual seen that day (jose!)
2 November 2009
Moustached Antpitta
First individual seen that day.
31 October 2009
Collared (Pale-mandibled) Aracari
1 November 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater (female)
1 November 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater (female)
29 July 2009
"The San Isidro Mystery Owl"
For almost a decade this strange owl has been coming and hunting insects around the cabins at this east Andean lodge, although no one knows quite what it is. Bird distributions are tied strongly to elevation and specific slopes in the Andes in Ecuador. There are two other Ciccaba owl species in Ecuador, neither of which fit perfectly with this owl. Black-and-white Owl is confined to lower elevations on the western slope of the Andes, and Black-banded Owl only occurs at lower elevations east of the Andes. The bird does not appear exactly like either species, and so may well be a completely new species to science, or it may be that all the "species" involved are all in fact races of a larger species (they certainly all call similarly). Who knows the truth, although the fact remains it is one very smart and intriguing owl!
29 July 2009
"The San Isidro Mystery Owl"
26 June 2009
Chestnut-crowned Antpitta
"Her" name is Panchita apparently!
26 June 2009
Chestnut-crowned Antpitta
The lovely "Panchita" once more.
3 July 2009
Pacific Flatbill NEST
OK so it is not a bird although the nest of this bird may never have been found before, or if it has only very rarely. So I put this in for information.
3 July 2009
Pacific Flatbill
Found nesting along the Tawny-faced Quail trail. The nest was a big hanging ball of sticks and leaves, around 4.5m up in a tree.
22 June 2009
Oilbird
Nothing like climbing down a couple of rickety bamboo ladders, down into a deep, dark ravine, being splashed by the neighboring waterfall as you descend, and then walking into a mob of these strange, strange birds at the end of it all. Great way to get a new family!
3 June 2009
Rusty-breasted Antpitta
Only recently discovered in Ecuador (first found at this site by Nick Athanas on April 18, 2003), and so not in the field guide.
30 May 2009
Ochre-breasted Antpitta
More photos of the "hipster" Shakira, in between a period of hip-wiggling!
30 May 2009
Ochre-breasted Antpitta
Amazingly the "Antpitta Whisperer" Angel Paz and his brother Rodrigo have managed to habituate an Ochre-breasted Antpitta (along with their now "usual" Yellow-breasted and Giant Antpittas). As is his way Angel has named them all. This ones 'Hips Don't Lie', and is named "Shakira" as it appears to wiggle its hips from side-to-side much like the famous, pint-sized Colombian pop star.
30 May 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
30 May 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
30 May 2009
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
30 May 2009
Toucan Barbet
The "Clown of the Andes", currently one of Angel's faithful followers, coming to his heavily loaded fruit feeders regularly at present. With recent and dramatic changes in taxonomy under the "Clements" list Toucan Barbet has been moved out of the "New World Barbet" family into the "Toucan Barbets", a family it shares with one other Central American species, the Prong-billed Barbet. Both species have this strange prong on their bills, so they have a markedly different bill structure to the other "New World Barbets".
31 May 2009
Crimson-rumped Toucanet
A feeding frenzy at Angel's amazing feeders saw us eyeballing up to three toucanets fighting over the fruit with 3 Toucan Barbets, a single female Red-headed Barbet, up to 8 Sickle-winged Guans, a group of 6 Black-chinned Mountain-Tanagers, and the odd Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager. A great post dawn show.
Andean Potoo
I had wanted to see one of these scarce potoos for a while, and traveling back from the Loreto Road I was passing the Guacamayos Ridge in darkness so decided to see if any nightjars or owls were calling. A brief silhouette of a male Swallow-tailed Nightjar disappearing into the forest led me to do a broad sweep with my spotlight which picked up some bright red eyeshine right beside the road. I lifted my bins to my eyes expecting it to produce a perched nightjar or owl at best and was frankly gobsmacked to find this potoo standing sentry by the roadside. The bird was hawking insects near a small shrine for the Virgin Mary, so many Ecuadorians were regularly stopping to pay their respects, but were soon distracted by what we were 'worshiping'. Pretty soon we found ourselves surrounded by a confused crowd of travelling Ecuadoreans, which made for a pretty surreal experience. The potoo remained in this area for some time afterward.
30 December 2006
Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant
21 November 2006
Fasciated Tiger-Heron (juvenile)
30 March 2007
Harpy Eagle
This same juvenile at around a year old was still regularly coming back to its 'natal' tree, where it would still frequently beg for food from the adults.
30 March 2007
Harpy Eagle
I saw one of the parent adult birds first in April 2006 (which was my 1001st species for Ecuador), when it was incubating. A year later this mature juvenile was still 'twitchable', amazingly coming regularly back to its 'natal' tree.
August 2007
Orange-breasted Fruiteater
Just another scarce species on offer regularly at Angel's superb Andean refuge.
11 September 2005
Pale-headed Brush-finch
A critically endangered Ecuadorian endemic.
11 September 2005
Pale-headed Brush-finch
A critically endangered Ecuadorian endemic.
January 2008
Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan
Anyone who ventures into the Choco region of northwest Ecuador understandably wants to see this technicolored toucan pretty bad when they arrive. This one was photographed in the Tandayapa Valley, a great spot for this incredible bird.
19 February 2009
Short-tailed Field-Tyrant
August 2007
Toucan Barbet
One of three birds that at the time were coming in close and feeding on bananas laid out for them at this amazing refuge near Mindo.
15 March 2005
Vermiculated Screech-Owl
This race was formerly split by some as Choco Screech-Owl.
5 January 2007
White-bellied Antpitta
It has become fashionable in recent years to feed anpittas, following the remarkable success of the original 'antpitta whisperer', Angel Paz near Mindo. San Isidro cottoned onto this method quickly, and so another tricky antpitta suddenly became gettable. I visited there just a short time after they begun this process so was unsure what to expect, I certainly did not expect this brazen bird showing on a trail long enough to get these digiscoped shots. Looking back it is easy to forget that this was once widely touted as one of the most difficult of all the antpittas, my sole views prior to this being far from satisfactory flashes of rufous as the bird raced across the trail at lightning pace, at the same venue. How times have changed, undoubtedly for the better.
5 January 2007
White-bellied Antpitta
The same smart bird from San Isidro.