Gracias Ecuador Part 2

30th September 2014

Rio Canande Camp

Today, as we would every other day we rose at 5am. Still in the dark when we began our breakfast it rapidly got light and after breakfast, gathering our gear plus as much water as we could carry we set off into the rain forest in earnest, following The Banded Ground Cuckoo Trail, a well marked but narrow trail no more than a couple of feet wide that wound endlessly through the forest, up and down inclines and over small streams.

Trail through the forest

It was tough going just keeping your balance on the slippery wet leaves, so many and so deep that the ground felt sponge soft below your feet. This was my first time in a proper cloud forest and I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer profusion of plant life that grew here. The forest was dripping from the drenching it had received during the night and a constant falling of water droplets from the millions of leaves above our heads made it seem like it was still raining. Mosses, Epiphytes, Ferns and Bromeliads sprouted from countless branches and tree trunks and all sorts of creeping and hanging plants grew with them, festooned on the trunks of the trees. Not an inch of bark was spared but was covered by some plant or other. Ferns, mosses and plants that I had only ever before seen in garden centres grew now in gargantuan size and profusion, but the majority of the forest floor was a carpet of dark rotting brown leaves, criss-crossed by tangles of roots and tendrils. There is no real season here so leaves are dropped singly and every so often a large brown leaf would spiral gently to earth from on high, its purpose done. Occasionally a huge crash would rent the air as a discarded palm frond broke away and likewise hit the ground with some force.

The Forest floor

The whole forest smelled of sweet, stale compost and the fecundity meant that plants were constantly attempting to recolonise the trail made through the forest. Leave it untouched for a year and you would never know it had been there as the forest would have re-claimed it. The humidity and warmth quickly had the tee shirt stuck to my back and any exertion produced an onset of sweating and soon every item of clothing not just my tee shirt was stuck to my body. There is no wind or even a breath of breeze to cool you in the forest, just still, moist, oven warm air.

Hardly an inch of space on either side of the track was not occupied by something either growing or declining in a continual cycle of growth and degeneration. Leaves of shiny glossy green and duller olive contrasted with those that were now brown and had run their course. 

They grew and died below trees so immense that the sky was hardly visible, turning the whole forest interior into a cathedral of green stillness and gloom as we walked through it. Nothing had prepared me for this although I had read of others experiences. Nothing they could have written would even have approached capturing the reality this unique feeling of awesome, at times fearful majesty. We saw very few birds to begin with and indeed would walk for up to thirty minutes with not a sight or sound of one. Occasional disembodied whistles and calls would penetrate through the forest, siren calls from the depths of the foliage above and around us, leading us onwards, but that was all.

When we did encounter anything realitvely near to us Dusan used his tapes to call up the birds in question and we would snatch brief glimpses of  shadowy shapes as they responded to the tape. You had to be incredibly quick and observant to catch their movements, low down, often almost at ground level, ephemeral shadows in the green depths and jungle of leaves and branches.

An enchanting moment came when deep in a tiny, gloomy grotto of the forest by a small stream, a White tipped Sicklebill (a hummingbird) came to investigate us. I marvelled at its specialised bill, crazily bent in a semi circle as it flew backwards and forewards, flying almost into our faces to check us over before zooming away into the mysterious depths of the humid forest. We carried on walking, with Dusan calling up a Dagua Thrush and various antwrens such as Pacific, Checker-throated, White-flanked and Dot-winged Antwrens. 

The ultimate prize in the forest is to find an antswarm, by no means guaranteed, which attracts its following of specialised birds such as the antbirds. As we walked on we luckily found an antswarm, alerted to its presence by the wheezing calls of a pair of Bicolored Antbirds. We stopped and waited and eventually the Bicolored Antbirds responded to Dusan's tape  perching low down and fanning their broad short tails as they slowly raised and lowered them. It was a nightmare trying to take any photos in the light deprived forest and my camera really struggled but one does one's best!

Bicolored Antbirds

Immaculate Antbird - female
Note how all the antbirds have large eyes presumably to cope with the gloomy environment

Dusan told me that there were probably other birds with the Bicolored Antbirds as the antswarm was a considerable one. I could testify to this, as to see the birds we had to put ourselves in the front line of the ants and they swarmed over our boots and soon I felt a number of bites through my socks. Thankfully my trousers were tucked into my socks otherwise it could have been much more painful! We retreated out of the main tide of ants that were crossing the path in their thousands to a less ant populated area and sure enough a slight movement, almost imperceptible in the green light metamorphosed into a Green Manakin, beautifully camouflaged, which sat silently for a long time contemplating us before we were distracted by the appearance of a female Immaculate Antbird, dark brown and featureless apart from a patch of bare blue skin around its eye. It was very wary and kept itself well hidden for most of the time. 

All were forest dwellers that never ever really saw full daylight but spent their entire life  hiding in the lower third of the forest.

Green Manakin

Then the ultimate prize for me was the appearance of an Ocellated Antbird. I had seen pictures of it in a birdguide and always thought it a beautiful creature and well worth seeing but to see the real thing was another experience altogether. Beautifully and ornately patterned with a scaly back and underparts, an orange band running from its breast around its neck and  huge patches of sky blue skin around its eyes, it really was a treat to behold, especially as they are so shy and difficult to encounter. It flew from one side of the path to the other and then down onto the path showing its bright pink legs and feet. 

Ocellated Antbird

Half an hour of blissful birding passed as we watched the antbirds and waited hoping for a Banded Ground Cuckoo to possibly show up, a mega if ever there was one but the swarm and the birds had by now moved on and we had to concede defeat on that. It was all over but we had been lucky to encounter the ants. Just before we left a Northern-barred Woodcreeper, resembling a giant treecreeper with attitude sidled up a tree trunk above the antbirds.

Northern-barred Woodcreeper

I learnt later, from someone who has studied them, that the ants form into a tight ball for three weeks in some secluded hole or similar hiding place before swarming for the next two weeks, constantly moving, until they decide after two weeks of swarming, on another place to form their antball and then the whole process is repeated. The antbirds do not eat the swarming ants but follow the ants as they flush other invertebrates before them and the antbirds seize the fleeing invertebrates as food. Antbirds usually check at least four antswarms a day to see which one they consider suitable to follow.

We stopped often, for water and to cool down if possible and during one of these stops Dusan heard an Indigo crowned Quail Dove calling not far from us. We tried to tape it in but it was not interested but whilst waiting for it we were visited by another hummingbird with an enormous curved bill, a Band-tailed Barbthroat. 

Band-tailed Barbthroat

Like all its compatriots it was endearingly confiding and would sit near us while we waited for the quail dove to appear. Every so often it would whirrrr off to feed nearby on some most extraordinary looking, exotic and unworldly, bright red pendulous flowers which hung down like a two edged chainsaw, feet long, from the tangle of green around us. I think they are called Helliconias.

We walked on, going ever deeper into the forest, checking the canopy for feeding flocks whenever we heard a bird call. There are two kinds of birdflock in the forest; canopy flocks and understory flocks. The former involve back breaking, neck bending contortions with vertically lifted binoculars to check minute movements in the very tops of the trees. It's really hard work for often very little reward. The understory flocks are more easily coped with as they are often at eye level or slightly above. We encountered both as we progressed along the trail and eventually we came to The Mirador, which means Viewpoint, some 300m above where we had set off from. Here we, thankfully, rested on a bench, looked out over the top of the vast forest that stretched for miles and ate our boxed lunch of rice and chicken whilst swallowing prodigious amounts of water to make up for all the fluid lost in sweat. 

The view from The Mirador

Dusan and the bench we rested on

We had been walking now for seven hours. An hour later and we set off again to complete what was to be a circular route via The Tawny faced Quail Trail. All through our walk butterflies of  varying size from mind stoppingly enormous to more familiar proportions, floated and fluttered at all levels of the forest. Often the appearance of a butterfly on high would startle me into thinking it was a bird but on checking I would feel foolish as I realised it was just a butterfly. Falling leaves had the same effect but in my defence this was my first time and the forest is so still that any movement has to be checked just in case. Even the slightest movement of leaves or branches requires minute examination.

The walk back was arduous, as by now I was feeling the strain of constant physical exertion in extreme humidity and heat and the walk entailed a very steep descent on a treacherous, slippery, leaf strewn path that dropped almost vertically at times. One slip or a missed toe hold and you would go crashing downwards for a long way. 

A natty millipede with a blackberry coloured shiny body and all white legs trundled away over the tree roots before us and strange exotic flowers and plants would occasionally add a minute point of colour to the all pervading green.

Millipede

Carefully we descended and slowly became aware of a tremendous screeching coming from the trees beyond us. At first we thought it was Mealy Amazons as they can make an incredible racket but I was not so sure. It sounded more mammalian. Fortunately the path wound on towards the noise which was now exceedingly loud and we agreed it could only be monkeys. It was and they took not one iota of notice of us so engrossed were they in whatever they were complaining about and they just continued bellowing and shouting. We worked out that it was some vary rare Squirrel Monkeys competing with some Howler Monkeys. They were all in the same tree, very agitated and seemed to be having some sort of stand off or shout off. The noise went on for a good half an hour and Dusan recorded the shouts and screams of the monkeys before they finally separated and silence fell on the forest.

Howler Monkeys

We walked on, though very little else appeared. A Great Tinamou crashed away unseen from our progress but just as we were about to leave the forest Dusan heard a Spotted Antbird and called it up with his tape. An absolute stunner appeared from the forest depths and just for a few brief moments sat before us and then it was gone. I was too tired to raise the camera and anyway it is good to forget the camera sometimes and just look and marvel

When we got back we played the monkey tape and related our experience to the guides at the camp and they told us that in thirty years they had never heard or seen such a thing. Night fell and I was so tired I could hardly walk to dinner although we did manage to do the bird log. We had been walking for twelve hours over rough, uneven terrain, up and down steep inclines. I slept very well that night even though it was incredibly hot under the mosquito net. Oh and it rained all night- again.

Bird species seen or heard today

h = heard only
ec = Choco Endemic

Great Tinamou (h); Little Tinamou (h); Rufous fronted Wood Quail (h); Ruddy Pigeon (h); Dusky Pigeon (ec) (h); Pallid Dove (ec); Indigo crowned Quail Dove (ec) (h); Rose faced Parrot (ec)(h); Mealy Amazon (h); Squirrel Cuckoo; Band tailed Barbthroat; White whiskered Hermit (ec); Stripe throated Hermit; White tipped Sicklebill; Tooth billed Hummingbird; Choco Trogon (ec); Western white tailed Trogon; Collared Trogon (h); Black throated Trogon; Rufous Motmot; White whiskered Puffbird; Orange fronted Barbet (ec); Choco Toucan (ec)(h); Chestnut Mandibled Toucan (h); Black cheeked Woodpecker; Red rumped Woodpecker; Western Woodhunter; Tawny throated Leaftosser; Wedge billed Woodcreeper; Northern barred Woodcreeper; Spotted Woodcreeper; Western Slaty Antshrike (h); Russet Antshrike (h); Spot crowned Antvireo; Checker throated Wren; White flanked Wren; Dot winged Wren; Spotted Antbird; Immaculate Antbird; Chestnut backed Antbird; Bicolored Antbird; Ocellated Antbird; Black headed Antthrush; Golden faced Tyrannulet; Brown capped Tyrannulet; Olive striped Flycatcher; Ochre bellied Flycatcher; Black capped Pygmy Tyrant(h); Scale crested Pygmy Tyrant(h); Black headed Tody Flycatcher; Golden crowned Spadebill; Rufous Piha; Purple throated Fruitcrow(h); Red capped Manakin; Blue crowned Manakin; Golden winged Manakin; White bearded Manakin(h); Green Manakin; Lesser Greenlet(h); Dagua Thrush; Bay Wren(h); Stripe throated Wren; Southern Nightingale Wren; Tawny faced Gnatwren; Buff rumped Warbler; Scarlet and White Tanager; Yellow collared Chlorophonia (ec) (h); Orange bellied Euphonia; Gray and Gold Tanager; Emerald Tanager; Golden chested Tanager(ec)(h); Lemon spectacled Tanager (ec)(h); Ochre breasted Tanager (ec); Dusky faced Tanager; Tawny crested Tanager; Slate colored Grosbeak (h);

73 species (47 new)

Howler Monkey
Squirrel Monkey


01 October 2014

Rio Canande Camp and Bodrosa Road

There was no way I could walk another twelve hours in the forest today and Dusan was not that keen either but there was another option. The man in charge of the camp had a pickup vehicle similar to the one owned by the now absent Rolando and was willing for $60 for the day to drive us along the Bodrosa Road, a 50km logging road built along a ridge and named after the company that were allegedly doing selective logging in what was still prime tropical rain forest. This was too good an opportunity to miss as birding along the road would be good, we would see a lot of birds, we could cover a lot more of the ground with a vehicle and best of all our tired limbs would be given a rest.

The plan was that we would stand in the back of the pickup and everytime we saw or heard something we would tap on the cab roof and the pickup would stop. It would be ideal and so we set off at just after 6.30am. We wound our way along the dirt road and just before we came to a village we spotted what appeared to be a distant Swallow-tailed Kite circling high up and coming towards us. As it came closer to our amazement we saw it was a juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird. Unbelieveable but it really was, miles inland and presumably lost

Magnificent Frigatebird

We passed through the village with some crazy Latin music belting out from one of the wooden houses but no one seemed particularly troubled by this even though it was only just gone 7am. A Laughing Falcon, perched on a bare dead tree just before the end of the village, was new for me, its cream head and black face mask very distinctive. We stopped for another scan at the far end of the village and we could hear some parrots.You can hardly fail to hear them they are so loud and obvious. We found them sat in a palm tree across the fields from us and this was a really good find because instead of the Mealy Amazons we were expecting they were a pair of Red-lored Amazons and according to Dusan are imminently to be split into a new species.Whatever they become they are also highly endangered so we spent quite some time with them before they flew off.

Red-lored Amazon

There were birds everywhere, mornings are always best and it seems pointless to list everything we saw as we progressed so I will stick to the highlights. We left the parrots and circumvented a recalcitrant Black Vulture that was not keen to move out of the road. Others were drying their wings after a night of rain by standing on bare branches with wings outspread

Black Vulture

The vegetation was now becoming more and more lush and the forest more and more pristine as we pushed on. Occasional illegally built houses had made inroads into the forest and cleared a small area to grow crops - a by product of the logging company opening up a road which provides ready access to the forest not only for them but for illegal settlers. It really is a conundrum with no answer.The people who illegally settle are often desperately poor and living virtually hand to mouth so you can hardly blame them. 

The Bodrosa Road

Various tanagers and flycatchers were everywhere, feeding on the fruits of the trees or flying insects and another good find was some Orange fronted Barbets feeding in a Cecropia Tree and also a Choco Toucan, very similar to the Chestnut billed Toucan but with a smaller bill and which, naturally, is endemic to the area.

Orange fronted Barbets c Dusan Brinkhuizen

Choco Toucan  c Dusan Brinkhuizem

What I thought were huge Swallowtail butterflies but are actually Green banded Urania Moths with black wings intricately patterned with emerald green were regularly crossing the road but never seemed to settle. Meanwhile Dusan was calling my attention to various birds non stop. No sooner had I located the latest than he was drawing my attention to another 'must see' species. It was relentless all morning and really stimulating and exhilerating. We eventually stopped for lunch at the side of the road and here, for some reason, the moths had decided to settle. Some seemed to be mating whilst others formed groups and presumably were extracting minerals from the road's muddy surface.

These are moths not butterflies. They are Green banded Urania Moths

I drank two bottles of water immediately I was so thirsty and felt better as I replaced all the fluids lost un-noticed during a morning of frenetic birding. A guy on a motobike, the main form of transport around these parts, with no crash helmets and often no lights after dark, stopped to tell us about a Sloth he had seen feeding in a tree by the side of the road further on but when we went to the spot regrettably there was no sign of it.

We moved on, bizarrely finding a migrant Spotted Sandpiper feeding by one of the puddles on the forest road, another North American migrant in the form of a Red eyed Vireo and then a slice of good fortune came our way when we stopped to watch yet more tanagers and another gorgeous male Scarlet chested Dacnis feeding in the trees by the road. We looked over the other side of the road and there was a Barred Puffbird perched right in the open on a branch of yet another Cecropia Tree. These birds really do it for me being a sort of cross between a kingfisher and a shrike.They have big heads seemingly too big for their body and a shortish narrow tail giving them an almost top heavy impression. Barred Puffbird is one of the larger species in the genus and a really good bird to see. It just sat there and even puffed out its throat on one occasion to demonstrate just why it got its name. Enthralled we watched until it flew away. 

Barred Puffbird

Buoyed by this unexpected find we carried on down the road and came across a Western White-tailed Trogon  sat quietly in a tree.These birds are for me the very essence of the tropics, brilliantly coloured and quite unlike anything found in Europe.They sit motionless and inconspicuous in a tree and move their head very slowly, looking round, up and down, searching quietly for large insects and when they see one fly out to seize it. Wonderful birds

Western white-tailed Trogon-male

Western white-tailed Trogon-female

Further on still we came to a right turn in the road where they have a small market on some days but not today and here we stopped to look over the forest as we were high on a ridge. Behind us some male White Bearded Manakins were lekking in the deep cover of lush vegetation. The noise the males make is quite extraordinary. In fact there are two noises, one sounds like a whip being cracked or a twig being snapped in half, the other I can only describe as like putting your tongue between your lips and blowing short and sharply. There is a four letter word to describe the sound but I will refrain from using it. The sounds are not vocal but are made by the wings and they can start up virtually anywhere there is cover as the bird itself is quite ubiquitous in unspoilt habitat

White Bearded Manakin -male  c Dusan Brinkhuizen

Now comes an exciting episode. In some awe inspiring prime rain forest habitat I had left the vehicle and was watching, from the road, a Pale Mandibled Aracari high up in a huge tree, its pale eye making it look quite sinister and also in the same tree there was a Choco Toucan. 

Toucans can be quite shy and wary and these are typical views of ones high in trees

Pale Mandibled Aracari  c Dusan Brinkhuizen

Dusan had also left the pickup and was walking down the road towards me when he heard what he thought was a Speckled Mourner call. A plaintive, sad sounding single note. He played the tape of its call and it responded, which then caused great excitement as Dusan had never seen one. It would be a lifer for him and for me, I guess, but then virtually everything was a lifer for me. We went into full twitch mode. The Speckled Mourner is virtually identical to the commoner Rufous Mourner, both are overall reddish brown and are flycatchers.To confirm the sighting we had to see the bird as the only real difference between the two is that the Speckled Mourner has rufous spots on the dark wing coverts. The bird called again as the tape was played and then flew high across the road into some trees. The trees were huge and the vegetation dense and we were looking for a small bird in an awfully large area of leaves. It appeared hopeless. We just could not see it although we knew where it had landed. I lost count how many times it went back and fore across the road responding to Dusan's tape but it would never settle where we could get a view. It would then fall silent and not respond to the tape but eventually it would call again. Hearing it was also not that easy as a flock of Mealy Amazons were creating a hell of a racket in some adjacent trees, one parrot is bad enough but a group of them is a nightmare of raucous screams and shrieks and it did not look like they were about to stop anytime soon. It was mayhem for a while as the parrots upped the volume and we cursed them out loud whilst trying to hear the Speckled Mourner's plaintive soft call. At last the Speckled Mourner on one of its sorties across the road settled where we could see it, get some images of it and crucially see the spots on the wing coverts. It was confirmed! A Speckled Mourner, very rare and a lifer for Dusan who has seen just about everything in Ecuador. What a triumph. 

Speckled Mourner - you can just about see the crucial spots on the wing coverts

Speckled Mourner

This identification had taken about an hour and we decided that as it would take a few hours to get back to the camp and nightfall was at 6pm it would be sensible to now turn around and head for home although we planned some birding on the way back.

We stopped back where we had made the right turn at the market place and scanned across the trees from the ridge for raptors. Two Chestnut fronted Macaws flew across in front of us which was a real treat and a couple of Howler Monkeys fed in a tree below us but there was no sign of any raptors 

The main event on the way back was taping out two White-throated Crakes from some marshy grasses by the roadside. Dusan set the tape on repeat by the side of the road, we retreated a discrete distance and bingo, two crakes were out immediately to investigate what was going on. I swear that when they saw the tape player they shrugged their shoulders and retreated back into the cover of their marshy home. You could almost hear them saying 'Bloody birders again!' 

White-throated Crakes

A marvellously named Chestnut Oropendola was also a good find at the very top of a tree. Like a small crow but with chestnut and black plumage and a large amount of yellow in its tail. They are uncommon and to see one calling and displaying as this did was a definite bonus.

By now it was getting dark but one more delight awaited us as we were buzzed by a Short tailed Nighthawk, another uncommon species, which then responded to Dusan's tape by continuing to zoom round the stationary pickup and giving an all round display of its finery and flying skills. Further down the road a couple of Pauraques, another form of nightjar were resting on the road and fled, illuminated by the headlights as we drove towards them. 

It was now dark and the night chorus of frogs, cicadas and assorted invertebrates which had been tuning up since before dusk swung into full concert mode while huge toads, bulbous eyed and flabbily squat sought out insects on the still warm road surface.

That night we went owling with a spectacular lack of success.We got very close to a Choco Screech Owl  by scarily wandering in the forest in the pitch dark trying to get near it without treading on any snakes but it would not respond to our tape. According to Dusan, sometimes they do, sometimes they do not. We did however nail a Derby's Woolly Opossum Caluromys derbianus or by its other name Central American Woolly Opossum, high in a tree - a strange creature looking a bit like a huge elongated rat with an even longer rat like tail. Western Ecuador is at the southernmost edge of its range

That night the Bodrosa logging lorries slowly laboured up the road with their full loads of logs, passing the camp all night long. So close to my room it shook. I shuddered at the noise of the straining engines and also at the realisation that yet more of the remnant 2% of Choco Forest had been felled. Greed, folly and corruption seemed to permeate the air just as much as diesel fumes tonight

Quite a day with 121 species seen 47 of which were new to me but the Barred Puffbird definitely won the day in the popularity stakes for me 

I'm having the time of my life!

Bird species seen or heard today

h = heard only

ec = Choco Endemic        

Great Tinamou (h); Little Tinamou (h); Magnificent Frigatebird; Snowy Egret; Black Vulture; 
Turkey Vulture; Hook billed Kite; Swallow tailed Kite; Double toothed Kite; Roadside Hawk; Laughing Falcon; Rufous fronted Wood Quail (h); White throated Crake; Spotted Sandpiper; Rock Pigeon; Pale vented Pigeon; Ruddy Pigeon; Dusky Pigeon (ec); Chestnut fronted Macaw; Rose faced Parrot (ec); Blue headed Parrot; Bronze winged Parrot; Red lored Amazon; Mealy Amazon; Squirrel Cuckoo; Choco Schreech Owl (h); Short tailed Nighthawk; Pauraque; Band rumped Swift; White necked Jacobin; Rufous tailed Hummingbird; Blue chested Hummingbird; Purple chested Hummingbird; Purple crowned Fairy; Western white tailed Trogon; Northern Violaceous Trogon; Barred Puffbird; Orange fronted Barbet (ec); Crimson rumped Toucanet; Pale mandibled Aracari (ec); Choco Toucan (ec); Chestnut Mandibled Toucan; Lita Woodpecker (ec); Cinnamon Woodpecker; Lineated Woodpecker (h); Black cheeked Woodpecker; Red rumped Woodpecker (h);Guayaquil Woodpecker (ec); Plain Xenops; Plain-brown Woodcreeper; Wedge-billed Woodcreeper; Black-striped Woodcreeper (h); Streak-headed Woodcreeper (h); Fasciated Antshrike (h); Western Slaty Antshrike; Russet Antshrike; Pacific Antwren (h); Dusky Antbird; Spotted Antbird (h); Immaculate Antbird (h); Chestnut backed Antbird (h); Bicolored Antbird (h); Black headed Antthrush (h); Golden faced Tyrannulet; Brown capped Tyrannulet (h); Southern Beardless Tyrannulet (h); Gray Elaenia (h); Greenish Elaenia (h); Black capped Pygmy Tyrant; Common Tody Flycatcher; Long tailed Tyrant; Rufous Mourner; Boat billed Flycatcher; Rusty margined Flycatcher; Gray-capped Flycatcher; White-ringed Flycatcher; Streaked Flycatcher; Piratic Flycatcher; Tropical Kingbird; Snowy throated Kingbird; Cinnamon Becard; One colored Becard; Masked Tityra; Speckled Mourner; Rufous Piha (h); Purple throated Fruitcrow (h); Blue crowned Manakin; White beraded Manakin; Red eyed Vireo; Lesser Greenlet; Grey breasted Martin; Blue and White Swallow; White thighed Swallow; Southern Rough-winged Swallow; Band backed Wren; Bay Wren (h); Stripe throated Wren (h); House Wren; Southern Nightingale Wren (h); Bananaquit; Purple Honeycreeper; Green Honeycreeper; Blue Dacnis;Yellow tufted Dacnis; Scarlet breasted Dacnis (ec);Thick billed Euphonia; Orange Crowned Euphonia;Gray and Gold Tanager;Golden hooded Tanager; Bay headed Tanager; Rufous winged Tanager;Blue gray Tanager;Palm Tanager;Lemon rumped Tanager;Lemon spectacled Tanager (ec) (h  );Dusky faced Tanager (h); Scarlet browed Tanager(ec); Buff throated Saltator; Slate colored Grosbeak (h); Lesser Seed Finch; Variable Seedeater;Yellow bellied Seedeater;Orange Billed Sparrow;Chestnut headed Oropendola;

121 species (47 new)

Central American Woolly Opossum
Howler Monkey(h)

to be continued