A Tarantula in my Suitcase Part 4 January 2016

Day 13

This morning was a bit of a struggle as we had to be up by 4.30am in order to make the three hour drive to the Magdalena Valley to meet our next birdguide who, confusingly, was also called Juan. The other Juan, our driver, having stayed at another cheaper hotel in Manizales met us on the dot at our hotel, which after a good start with the laundry yesterday let us down by failing to provide us with any coffee, claiming it was too early in the morning. Not a great start to the day.

We headed off into the night through the deserted streets of Manizales. Sitting in the front of the 4x4 I chatted with Juan as we left the city behind and negotiated our way along darkened main roads illuminated only by the glare of undipped headlights from onrushing, brightly lit, huge trucks. 

Juan, who is still quite young told me something of his life and how he was divorced and lived with his mother in Medellin and how she looked after his two young children while he was away from home. He told me he was a professional driver and did other work apart from driving birders around, mainly it seemed driving geological survey teams to various isolated places in Colombia. So not much different to driving birding groups around I guess. His ambition was to be a bird guide and he was enthusiastically learning as much as he could about birds, their calls and identification. I wished him well as he was really kind, patient and helpful to us throughout our stay and I for one felt he had just the right temprament to be a bird guide. Over the time he was our driver we became good friends.

He told me other things about Colombia such as there is no driving test just a medical and then away you go, you can drive anything from a motor bike to a  huge truck and also that there are no railways in Colombia, the last line being closed just a few years ago which seems really short sighted but apparently the road haulage lobby is very powerful in Colombia and like many other places in the world politicians in Colombia can be corrupt and not to be trusted. He related how expensive cars were to buy in Colombia and especially the 4x4 he was driving us around in for which he had to borrow a lot of money from a bank.

We were headed for a roadside cafe called La Marjoria  at Penyalisa in the Cauca Valley which runs sort of parallel with the Magdalena Valley, where we would meet the other Juan, and Juan our driver was then going back to Medellin to see his family but would hopefully be coming back to drive us for the last part of our trip.

So we travelled on, discussing life in our respective countries as the dawn broke and the sun rose. We were descending to a fairly low level of about 600m and Juan had warned us it would be very hot in the Magdalena and Cauca valleys compared to where we had been. We were by now in the Cauca Valley and nearing our destination with the rocky Rio Cauca flowing alongside the road. The surrounding countryside was all too obviously showing the hand of man, denuded of much of the forest and where the land was cleared given over to growing oranges and lemons or being utilised as pasture for cows. The folly and risks of clearing the forest was evidenced by two huge landslips scarring the denuded mountainsides as we drove along.

At 8am we arrived at La Marjoria and met Juan our bird guide and transferred all our bags to his pickup and stocked up with containers of water. They would be needed.

The two Juans. Juan the driver on the left and Juan the birdguide on the right.

Juan the bird guide, who had his own IT company in Medellin was also going to do all the driving as well as the guiding. Whilst waiting for the breakfast to arrive I took some photos of birds coming to some bananas put out to attract them below the terrace on which we were going to eat.

Thick billed Euphonia

Immature male Summer Tanager

Blue Gray Tanager

Scrub Tanager

Red crowned Woodpecker

Crimson backed Tanager

I had a pleasant breakfast of scrambled eggs whilst sat in the shade and open air. We said our goodbyes to Juan the  driver and then drove uphill on  the tarmac road to try and find our three endemic target birds, Greyish Piculet, Apical Flycatcher and Antioquia Wren. Leaving the shade of the café I realised just how much the temperature had increased on our descent from Manizales. It was becoming hot, very hot even at this early time in the morning. We drove uphill on the winding road and, as you can do in much of Colombia outside of the main urban conglomerations, we just stopped the pickup on the main road, got out and walked back downhill, birding the trees and bushes on both sides of the road whilst Juan fetched the pickup every so often so we did not have to walk back up the hill.

We never saw a police car or police motorbike in the whole time we were in rural Colombia apart from at road checks, and as for yellow lines? Totally unknown. The sun was remorseless, beating down from a cloudless sky and then reflecting off the tarmac to double the 'scorchio' effect. It was also very humid and my clothes were soon damp with sweat as every pore in my body perspired. I just kept drinking water in an effort to replace the fluids I was losing. Wherever and whenever  I could I sought shaded areas that were marginally cooler under the trees by the road and just to get out of the burning direct sun. Everything was bone dry, the leaves  and twigs burnt dry by the heat, crackling under our feet and not a breath of wind came to cool us unless a big truck whooshed past us on the road. This was quite an ordeal, well for me anyway but there were birds to find so I had to get on with it.

Sadly we were not doing too well in our quest as we walked the road, dodging the occasional huge Kenworth truck and trailer combo as they came swinging  round a bend in the road. A Yellow Headed Caracara regarded us from on high as we walked along the side of the road.

We moved to several likely locations along the road with Juan driving us but there was no sign of the birds we wanted. Whilst walking the side of the road I looked over the edge, down into a dry rocky gully and three strange mammals ran along the top of the rocks. They were mainly black and in size like huge pine martens. Their proper name was Tayra, and although they are found across the whole of the Andes they were a total surprise and it was great to see them. They were gone almost as soon as we saw them and then it was back to our fruitless bird chase. 

At last, after a couple of false alarms with similar looking flycatcher species we found an Apical Flycatcher in a tree close to the road. A big flycatcher with a marked crest and diagnostic white tips to its tail  feathers, it showed itself really well before flying further up the steep hillside and was gone. One endemic down and two  to go. The easiest of the three to see was meant to be the Greyish Piculet but not for us. We moved further down the road and came to a bend with a rocky, vegetated dried river bed running up into the hillside, a likely looking place for finding Antioquia Wren. Sure enough an Antioquia Wren commenced  calling from higher up and with the tape we lured it down. We stood on the rocks in the stream bed to get a view of it on the other side of the gulley. As with most wrens it was hard to locate and as we looked upwards with our bins I took a step backwards from the rock on which I was standing into - well - nothing. I was sure there was a rock behind me but no, so I fell badly, bruising my shin and hip. Ouch! It hurt but the wren was priority so no distractions could be allowed to interfere with our mission. I rubbed the parts that hurt, drank the best part of another bottle of water and resolved to deal with the cuts and bruises later. Now where was that wren? We found it dodging and constantly moving up and down amongst the trees growing on the slope facing us. A fairly large wren with brown upperparts and dull white underparts, a prominent supercilium and barred undertail coverts. So two endemics down and now it was only the Greyish Piculet to go.

I would love to say that it all went to plan but despite searches in what we considered likely areas we failed totally to find any sign of one. Hot, sweaty  searches in searing heat found other birds including another Apical Flycatcher but not the elusive piculet. We even found another pair of Antioquia Wrens, possibly the rarest or hardest of the three species to see which  showed themselves amazingly well but Greyish Piculet? Nada.  By late morning the heat was intense and we gave up the search. We had another opportunity tomorrow but for now it was over, we had to admit defeat and embark on our drive to Jardin to book into our hotel, the Hotel La Casona. The relief to feel some air blowing over my face and drink yet more water as the car drove up the long winding road to Jardin was palpable. This afternoon it would be marginally cooler as we were not going back to the valley but uphill in search of Red bellied Grackles and then coming back to visit an Andean Cock of the Rock lek right by Jardin, something I had been looking forward to greatly.

Jardin was a pleasant small hill town of narrow streets situated as all the small towns are around the focal point of a huge town  square dominated by a gigantic Catholic Church situated on one side of the square. The square was where the townspeople and tourists alike congregated in open fronted cafes and bars to sit,  drink and while away the hours watching the world go by, shaded under the verandahs and trees and why not?  I can think of worse ways to spend the day.

One end of the enormous Catholic church towering above the end of the street

The most popular mode of transport in Colombia - motorbikes

Those white hats were ubiquitous. I wish I had bought one now

The Town Square and above some images of street scenes from Jardin

Hotel La Casona can best be described as idiosyncratic but not without charm and many birders stay there when they come to Jardin. Access is gained through a small doorway directly from the street leading into an inner sanctum  of mainly red decor, highly decorated walls and an open to the air courtyard and guest rooms off to the side - this, combined with its general air of tackiness  allows the hotel to just about get away with it. A very glamorous Latin lady, all black hair, flashing eyes and large amounts of bling greeted us and checked us in. We each had our own room, the only problem being my room was hardly big enough for the bed, let alone me and my suitcase and backpack. The toilet had to be entered sideways it was so small and promptly broke when I used it. Back to reception to complain and without argument I was given another much larger room with two double beds in it and a separate bathroom. A bit spartan and with the now customary cold shower but it was only for one night so I could live with that. 

The entrance to Hotel La Casona

The reception desk of the hotel with the always present coffee urn to dispense free

coffee to guests. Sadly no sign of the glamorous Latin lady!

Me taking a photo of myself taking a photo

Another group of birders, mainly from the UK were also checking in. I looked at them, virtually all of them well overweight and looking singularly unfit and wondered how they were coping with the strenuous activities that we had endured so far and which would be required in the coming days to see many of the more desirable  bird species that Colombia had to offer. Perhaps they wouldn't bother. Many were also in shorts and I noticed how some had been horrendously bitten on their exposed legs. Oh dear! 

We met Juan an hour or so later and went for lunch in a café by the Square. It was so good to sit down, out of the sun and swallow a refreshing cold drink. The heat in the valley had been debilitating and my feet ached from all the walking I had done in sweaty walking boots on the hot roads down in the valley.

We wandered back across the square to the hotel after our lunch and then Juan drove us through the narrow back streets of Jardin until we started to ascend, leaving the tarmac and driving onto the all too familiar unsurfaced and rutted road. No matter, we drove upwards, passing little shack like homes and sleepy, dusty dogs crashed out by the side of the road. We stopped on a little bridge where a mountain stream cascaded down under the road.

Juan told us this was a good place to look for Red bellied Grackles and he was right as in very little time we found a small group of them feeding in the surrounding trees. They crossed the road from our right and landed in the trees by the stream we were looking down on from the road. Smart birds in glossy black and crimson red plumage with the character and demeanour of a Magpie, they hopped around in the trees before dropping lower, heading downstream and out of sight. 

Red bellied Grackles

A group of Russett backed Orependolas were also there to entertain us. Such weird looking birds with their strange calls, huge pointed beak and triangular head profile. 

Russett backed Orependola

We walked further up the road but there was little else to see and now it was time to return to Jardin and go to see the Andean Cock of the Rock lek. We left the car outside the Hotel La Casona and walked down the road at the end of which we joined a very steep, dusty, uneven track that wound down below and out of the town for a short way before leading us to a set of iron gates.

The road out of Jardin leading to the track down to the Cock of the Rock lek site

Note the various modes of transport visible

We could already hear the male Andean Cock of the Rocks  calling, well before we could see them, a strange noise that begins as a wheezing and escalates into a full blown screech. We walked through the gates and continued to follow the path downwards to a steep, forested  ravine with a stream at the bottom. This was where the lek was taking place and indeed was in full swing when we got there. I was amazed that there was a lek here as the town was literally right above us, with houses perched precariously on the steep cliff like hill face while the hillside on the other side of the forested ravine was stripped of  most of its vegetation and had scattered houses built on it. Where did all the males come from and go to when they were not displaying at the lek? The person who owned this land, a nice man called Orlando, makes a reasonable living from charging people to come and see the lek so its future is reasonably secure but nevertheless it was a surprise to see such a lek functioning so close to the town. It was also a big lek with at least twenty males displaying and calling. This was so different to the lek I saw in Ecuador two years ago where there were only five males and it was early in the morning so no good for photograph. Also it lasted for only forty or so minutes before it was all over and the birds dispersed. Here the lek was going at full throttle in the mid afternoon  and had been active for sometime before we arrived and was still going when we left some ninety minutes later.

There were around twenty people already looking at the lek and the wooden viewing platform was full. 

The lek was in the trees to the left of the group as was the viewing platform

The best positions for photography on the viewing platform being already taken, I walked back a little way up the side of the ravine to find my own spot. First you had to find a male bird close enough and then it had to be perched with not too many leaves or branches in the way which was no easy matter. I found  such a male in a good position and standing on the edge of the ravine,  I waited until its movements on the branch took it free of any intervening leaves and then got my photographs. Satisfied with this I moved to another spot and repeated the process and  so it went on until finally I found myself on the now less crowded viewing platform and chatting to two professors from a University in the USA, finding we had a mutual interest in the Edward Grey Institute in Oxford. I did my research for my book on Stonechats there and they had done research on one of the American Sparrows there also. These coincidences have happened to me so often now that I am no longer surprised but it is always nice when it occurs.

The male Andean Cock of the Rocks, bulky birds about the size of a woodpigeon were almost unbelievable in their spectacular plumage of scarlet, black and grey, their heads looking really weird and misshapen due to the disk like crest which all but hides their yellow bill. The males were scattered amongst the trees and positioned well away from one another. They would sit quietly as if listening and then suddenly would go into paroxysms of bowing, neck twisting and wing flapping to show off their magnificent plumage whilst uttering their wheezing, screeching cries although not all the males would display at the same time. The display would last for around a minute and then they  would return to sitting motionless and quietly until they were seized by another frenzy of bowing, neck bending and wing flapping. I never saw a female and do not know if each male's display was brought on in response to one being in sight or not. Obviously females must have been there but they remained invisible to me. The males rarely came into conflict as they were spaced well apart although they would move position and only on one occasion did two males come into conflict and even then it was just a lot of wing flapping and screeching. Reading about this later I learnt that these two birds were indulging in something called a 'confrontation display' which also serves to attract a female.

Heaven knows how many images I took. It was irresistible with such beautiful and weird creatures cavorting and creating such a cacophony of colour, calls and frenzied activity right in front of you. We finally declared we had enough, if you can ever have enough of such a sight and after an abortive attempt to lure a pair of Tanager Finches out of the vegetation lower down the slope we departed up the hill and through the hallowed gates even as other people were arriving. I do hope Orlando will continue to protect this lek and he will prosper from all the visitors he attracts to his little reserve.

It was a slow walk up the very steep hill, back into the town and to the Hotel La Casona. I sat quietly in the little open courtyard writing up my notes and drinking bottles of water. It was still hot and humid even in the early evening. By seven it was dark and we headed back to the same café we had eaten in at lunchtime. The menu was very limited so I just stuck to the soup and some rice. I had very little appetite anyway as it was so hot and humid.

And so another memorable day in Colombia came to an end.

Birds seen on Day Thirteen

(h) heard only

Snowy Egret; Cattle Egret; Black Vulture; Turkey Vulture; Roadside Hawk; Band tailed Pigeon; Ruddy Ground Dove; Squirrel Cuckoo; Smooth billed Ani; White collared Swift; Green Hermit; Rufous tailed Hummingbird; Red crowned Woodpecker; Yellow headed Caracara; American Kestrel; Spectacled Parrot; Bar crested Antshrike; Black crowned Antshrike; Western Slaty Antshrike; Streak headed Woodcreeper; Azara's Spinetail (h); Mouse coloured Tyrannulet; Yellow bellied Elaenia; Streak necked Flycatcher; Ochre bellied Flycatcher; Sooty headed Tyrannulet; Common Tody Flycatcher; Yellow breasted Flycatcher; Cattle Tyrant; Apical Flycatcher; Great Kiskadee; Rusty margined Flycatcher; Andean Cock of the Rock; Red eyed Vireo; Green Jay (h); Blue and White Swallow; Southern Rough winged Swallow; Antioquia Wren; Gray breasted Wood Wren (h); Tropical Gnatcatcher; Clay colored Thrush; Black billed Thrush; Great Thrush; Tropical Mockingbird; Yellow Warbler; Russet crowned Warbler; Golden crowned Warbler; Golden fronted Whitestart; Crimson backed Tanager; Flame rumped Tanager; Blue Gray Tanager; Palm Tanager; Scrub Tanager; Blue necked Tanager; Saffron crowned Tanager; Ruddy breasted Seedeater; Buff throated Saltator; Grayish Saltator; Rufous collared Sparrow; Summer Tanager; Red bellied Grackle; Shiny Cowbird; Russet backed Orependola; Thick billed Euphonia

Mammals seen

Tayra

Neotropical Pygmy Squirrel

Day 14

We left Hotel La Casona well before dawn as we were going to seek another endemic parrot, Yellow eared Parrot and the best time to see them is when they leave their roost sites in Wax Palms, just after dawn. Yellow eared Parrot was at one time thought to be extinct  due to hunting and the Wax Palms, in which they roost and nest, being chopped down for their leaves which are used in the annual Palm Sunday processions in this most religious of countries, but the species was rediscovered in 1999 and commendably ProAves has brought the population back from the brink of extinction with only 81 individuals in 1999 to a population of 1500 in 2012 and probably even more by now.

They have achieved this by purchasing two areas of forest, and creating two reserves, the one we were visiting comprising 800 hectares and the other near Tolima comprising 10,000 hectares giving a combined  protected area of over 10,800 hectares. Nest boxes have been placed on the palms in those protected areas and fencing off areas has allowed the Wax Palms and natural vegetation to regenerate and not be eaten by illegally grazed cattle. Although there is still a long way to go to bring the population back to an acceptable level and a secure future, the species now has a reasonably assured prognosis. The project is recognised as being one of the most successful of its kind in Latin America.

We followed the same route as yesterday out of Jardin but this time in full darkness. The same dogs were still asleep but now in the middle of the road and with begrudging effort, stiff limbed, they removed themselves from our path only at the last possible moment. I had no impression of where the mountains finished and the sky began, it was so black, but a huge illuminated cross I presume somewhere on a distant mountainside made a bizarre and somewhat spooky sight as it appeared to be floating in mid air.

Juan stopped the pickup after we had driven quite a few kilometres up into the mountains and suggested this would be a good place to try and attract an owl. We got out of his pickup and listened. A Rufous banded Owl was calling so we got the tape and set about attracting it. After a few goes with the tape the owl responded and as the sky began to lighten we saw it fly over us and into a big tree but it remained invisible once in the tree. We tried the tape again and this time the owl landed  in a much smaller tree  and by the light of our torches we saw it illuminated on its perch. It turned its face towards us and I can recall the prominent curving white 'eyebrows' above its eyes and similar white markings below creating a distinctive X pattern on its face. It only remained for a minute or two and then flew. The dawn was rising quickly now so Juan told us we had better get a move on if we wanted to see the parrots.

After a short drive we duly arrived at the ProAves Lodge of Las Venturas  some 2785m high and where we would have breakfast after viewing the parrots, although the only thing guaranteed here was the breakfast as the parrots were an unknown quantity.

Las Venturas

Leaving the pickup we made a short walk down the dirt road, then walked up a bank and across some grassland to a rise in the ground where we could survey all around us, looking down into a natural amphitheatre surrounded on all sides by distant forested ridges. In the amphitheatre were the isolated Wax Palms, the supposed roosting sites of the parrots. We waited, now in dull grey daylight but there were no parrots. Another British birder joined us. His name was Steve and he had made his way independently by taxi to this spot. He was very chatty and worried he had missed the parrots but we reassured him he had not. Lucya, the lady from Las Venturas kindly brought us out some coffee in a flask with sugar, milk and cups. There is always coffee available in Colombia!

We waited some more and then heard the parrots but they had been roosting way up on the ridge and were very distant, flying away and just specks in the sky if I am honest. So not that good. We waited a bit more and then two Yellow eared Parrots flew much closer into the amphitheatre and at last we got some good views of them as they dipped below the treeline, with one perching very distantly in a tree but with the aid of Juan's scope we managed to get a really good view of it as it remained perched for quite some time. Then a few others returned and flew around and two perched  right at the top of a dead tree trunk silhouetted on the skyline giving us further reasonable views. So in the end we saw about twenty Yellow eared Parrots  most of them satisfactorily, if a little distant.

Yellow eared Parrot

After viewing the parrots we returned to the road and went with Lucya to see a Rufous Antpitta which she had habituated to come at her call, for some worms. We took a little track off the road and walked uphill to a cleared area where we could sit and wait. Lucya whistled and called 'Conchita, Conchita' the name she had given to the antpitta and threw some worms out onto the ground but there was no response. A pair of Green and Black Fruiteaters came to investigate the worms just like they had done at the antpitta site at Rio Blanco.

Green and Black Fruiteater - male

Green and Black Fruiteater - female

We waited a long time, maybe forty minutes as Lucya told us it sometimes took that long for the antpitta to come to the site but it was a no show from Conchita so it was decided we would go back to the Lodge for breakfast and try again later.

So back to Las Venturas we went for our breakfast and while waiting we watched the hummingbirds on the feeders and did a little birding around the Lodge.The British birders we had encountered at La Casona arrived in two 4x4's  and parked on the road below the Lodge but did not join us, instead walking down the road birding. This seemed strange that they should arrive now as surely they would have wanted to have seen the parrots? Perhaps they had seen them somewhere else nearby that morning? As we learned later, they had.

Blue and White Swallow

After breakfast we went back down the road with Lucya clutching her little tin of worms and met the British birding group coming back and somewhat gallingly telling us what good views they had just had of the Rufous Antpitta! I just hoped they had not scared it off and 'Conchita' was still in the vicinity.

We took up our positions again and waited. 'Conchita, Conchita, where are you?' Nothing stirred but then a little movement came at the back of the cleared area. It was the antpitta, surely, but I could not be certain as the movement was far back in the undergrowth. However all doubt was removed as a small antpitta hopped down to within a few metres of us and set about the worms Lucya had thrown out for it.

Rufous Antpitta

It was as its name implied, an appealing rich, bright rufous all over with pale grey knitting needle thin legs and an almost tailless body. It looked at us with its large dark eyes in that perky robin like manner they have, What a charmer. Yet another close and personal antpitta moment to savour. We watched it for around twenty minutes and then it departed and another good bird was added to our list. It is thought that this species which is fairly widespread may eventually be 'split' into more than one species. We will see.

We walked back with Lucya  to the Lodge and then we drove back down the road stopping to bird sections of it and running into the British birders again. One of the more overweight of the party was already sitting in the back of the 4x4 not being able to carry on due to the physical effort required.

We were lucky and ran into a large roving bird party, the best bird out of this lot for me was a couple of Plushcaps which I saw really well, as they usually remain very much in cover. We stopped further down the road for our lunch and with the aid of Juan's scope Paul found a Chestnut crested Cotinga. It remained perched prominently on the tip of the topmost branch of a dead tree miles away on the skyline but remained long enough for the bird group to catch us up and see it through the scope. 

Even the guy in the back of the 4x4 got out and saw it!

Lunch over we drove back to Jardin and then down into the dreaded Cauca Valley. The shock of descending from the pristine cloud forest and cool of the mountains to the dry oppressive heat of the Cauca Valley took some getting used to. It was back to the water bottle and skulking in the shade again for me but there was one thing on our minds, Greyish Piculet. Every visiting birder sees it here. It is meant to be easy. Why were we having such trouble? We searched every likely looking area we could find but of the piculet there was no sign. We tried, we really did but we could not find one and in the end had to give up, resigned to defeat as we had to make the long drive to Las Tangaras, a ProAves Lodge up in the mountains where we were to spend the next two nights.

The drive was long and arduous as a lot of the road we were on was being upgraded and consequently unsurfaced. We had to negotiate contraflows and endure slow moving buses and trucks with clouds of dust emanating from both as we trailed in their wake and with nowhere to overtake. A lot of the road was really rough going from tarmac to dirt and back again but we carried on, driving through some incredible forested mountain scenery rising high above the serpentine road on both sides. Much of the area was pristine forest but we saw at least two fires where the forest was being burnt, probably illegally to create pasture for cattle.

After what seemed an age we arrived at ProAves' Las Tangaras Lodge and joy of joys we each had our own double room. We were the only guests so they could afford to extend us this luxury. Like all the ProAves Lodges the room was of a high standard, spacious and to my relief provided a hot shower. I put my bags in my room, relaxed and went to sit quietly with my camera at a long outside table overlooking the garden and hummingbird feeders.

I helped myself to the always available free coffee. A short wander around the garden of the Lodge produced an Andean Motmot, which sat silently below the canopy before swooping off. Their distinctive racquet tips to their tails are caused by the birds nibbling off the feather barbs on the new tail feathers to create the effect

Andean Motmot

In the evening we had our meal at another outside table laden with fruit, bananas, passion fruit, oranges and mangos and situated by the roaring waters of the rio (river). The food was of a very high standard as the lady who prepared it was an exceptional cook. We did the checklist and then I retired to bed with a constant accompaniment of rushing river water as a soothing background.

Birds seen on Day Fourteen

(h) heard only

Tawny breasted Tinamou (h); Andean Teal; Sickle winged Guan (h); Cattle Egret; Black Vulture; Turkey Vulture; Short tailed Hawk; Band tailed Pigeon; Ruddy ground Dove; Rufous banded Owl; Collared Inca; Buff tailed Coronet; White bellied Woodstar; Andean Emerald; Rufous tailed Hummingbird; Golden headed Quetzal (h); Andean Motmot; Black billed Mountain Toucan (h); Red crowned Woodpecker; Spot breasted Woodpecker; Spectacled Parrotlet; Yellow eared Parrot; Bar crested Antshrike; Chestnut crowned Antpitta (h); Chestnut naped Antpitta (h); Rufous Antpitta; Blackish Tapaculo (h); Spillman's Tapaculo (h); Montane Woodcreeper; White browed Spinetail; Red faced Spinetail; Azara's Spinetail (h); White banded Tyrannulet; Mountain Elaenia; Cinnamon Flycatcher; Smoke colored Pewee; Black Phoebe; Vermilion Flycatcher; Streak throated Bush Tyrant; Slaty backed Chat Tyrant; Rufous breasted Chat Tyrant; Rusty margined Flycatcher; Sulphur bellied Flycatcher; Tropical Kingbird; Green and Black Fruiteater; Chestnut crested Cotinga; Black billed Peppershrike; Blue and white Swallow; Gray breasted Wood Wren (h); Tropical Gnatcatcher; White capped Dipper; Black billed Thrush; Great Thrush; Blackburnian Warbler; Golden fronted Whitestart; Black capped Hemispingus; Superciliaried  Hemispingus; Northern Waterthrush; Flame rumped Tanager; Lacrimose Mountain Tanager; Buff breasted Mountain Tanager; Blue Gray Tanager; Palm Tanager; Blue capped Tanager; Scrub Tanager; Golden hooded Tanager; Blue necked Tanager; Beryl spangled Tanager; Bay headed Tanager; Saffron crowned Tanager; Black Flowerpiercer; White sided Flowerpiercer; Masked Flowerpiercer; Plushcap; Bananquit; Buff throated Saltator; Tanager Finch (h); White naped Brush Finch; Slaty Brush Finch; Rufous collared Sparrow; Russet backed Orependola; Andean Siskin;

to be continued