Notes on Some Rare Or Previously Unrecorded Birds in Ecuador
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Notes on some rare or previously unrecorded birds in Ecuador with additional information on identification and habitat Robert S. Ridgely ORITS SIZE, Ecuador, with over 1400 and many patches of lush Polylepis Jatuncocha -- A small lake near the species to its credit, supports the woodland, located west of Cuenca, lower Yasuni River, situated lessthan 10 richest avifauna in the world. During the Azuay Province, in the Western Andes km upsteam from the mouth of the Ya- past five years I have been fortunate in (elevational range c. 3000-4200m). The suni into the Napo River, below Nueva spendinga substantial period of time in region appearsto have been previously Rocafuerte. The area is close to the Per- this small but varied country. My first little explored ornithologically. uvian frontier in extreme eastern Napo three trips to Ecuador, in 1976 and 1978, Province. Equasal lagoons -- A saltworks lo- had specificresearch objectives concern- cated on the Pacific coast about 8 km lng the present status of various parrots southeast of Salinas, Guayas Province. Loja-Zamora road -- A 60 km gravel and other endangered birds, while the A series of artificial shallow lagoons, road connecting these two cities in two subsequentones, in 1979 and 1980, frequented by large numbers of water- southeastern Ecuador. It surmounts the have been more generalin nature. I have birds. crest of the Eastern Andes at only now spent a total of about sevenmonths in the country, and during that time 81ø 80ø 79•' have visited most regions, including a number of very remote ones. Many in- teresting and significant bird records COLOMBIA have been accumulated,and it is my pur- pose here to put many of them on rec- ord, leaving a few for more detailed ESMERALDAS I ', treatment elsewhere. A total of 45 bird speciesis discussed :-- •_:.'i;•A•U.A,, in the following accounts. Fifteen are here formally recorded from Ecuador '", PICHINCHA for the first time, using Meyer de Schau- ." j aOuitø NA P 0 Zancudococha ensee'smost recent (1970) reference as i"ßß FieldRIo Palenque,,'-"$ta.'-',[' _ moN^•O the standard. Several speciesreferred to /CO¾O,,AX,,,'.E C U A D O R Jat. here as "first records" for the country I TuNGU-L-..... RAHUA ;, d • '•._o• t have actually already been listed by But- I eløCo •'cøi ler in his recent Checklist of Ecuadorian Birds (1979); I have here provided the in- formation which supported their inclu- GUAYAS sion in that work, which in each casewas '"' ; MORONA- ß" -• SANTIAGO based on my own records. The data for ..(' CA•AR ', the remaining speciesare concernedwith important new distributional or status Las Ca/as Nat'l Recr.Area information within Ecuador. Notes on / identification, and ecologicaland behav- ioral data, are given where appropriate. ORO",, The taxonomy of Meyer de Schauensee (1970) is followed throughout. ßOJA ,•-o1• The following have been among the more important localities visited during the course of this field work (each has been mentionedat leasttwice in the spe- cies accounts): Las Cajas National Recreation Area -- A large protectedarea of paramo and ii ø 8o ø high lakes, with some temperate forest Figure 1. Map of Ecuador 242 AmericanBirds, May 1980 2800m, and then descends their eastern meters upstream lies the s•te of another new SangayNational Park, •n Morona- slope to Zamora, situated at the base of abandoned town, El Placer, now reduc- Santiago Province. The area we visited the mountains at 1050m. From the crest ed to a singlecrumbling hovel in a regen- was c. 25 km northwest of Macas, at eastward it is within Zamora-Chinchipe erating meadow. 1500-1600m on the south side of the Province. river. High water levels prevented us Sabanilla-- The only villagealong the from crossingthe river and actually en- Mindo -- A town situated in a valley Loja-Zamora road (see above), at about tering the park. A wild and still remote on the western slope of the Western 1750m, in Zamora-Chinchipe Province. region, the subtropical forests here are Andes at 1300m, in Pichincha Province. Excellent roadside forest begins below completely undisturbed within the park Accessible via a side road off the Nono this town, in the valley of the Zamora boundaries, while south of the river a -San Miguel de los Bancos highway. River, and continuesin patches all the few small clearingshave appeared in re- Very extensive forest remains in this way down to near Zamora itself. cent years. region, although it is not continuous along the road itself; on the whole, the Tandayapa -- A road junction town, area supports the most diverse avifauna at about 1450m, located on the highway Zancudococha -- A lake about 10 km of any easily-reached region in the from Nono, on the western slope of the south of the Aguarico River in extreme Ecuadorian Western Andes. Western Andes. Here the road divides: eastern Napo Province near the Colom- one route goes to Mindo and beyond, bian and Peruvian boundaries. Ashde Planchas -- A locality in the upper while the other continuesto Nanegalito. from a few small army frontier posts, Palora River valley at 2900m on the east- Excellent roadside forest existsalong the the river is uninhabited from at least ern slope of the Eastern Andes, in Mor- road to Mindo and along the route back here downstream to its confluence w•th ona-Santiago Province. Now located toward Mindo; the Nanegalito area has the Napo. A trail cuts south through un- w•thin the new Sangay National Park. been more disturbed. touched forest from the river to the lake, Although apparently at one time a town and continues on some 30 km to the existed here, at present there exists but large army base at Tiputini, situated on one hut in a small clearing set in a vast Upano River ['alley- A river form- the Napo River upstream from Nueva expanseof temperate forest. A few kilo- ing part of the southern boundary of the Rocafuerte. SPECIES ACCOUNTS GREAT BLUE HERON Ardea herodias saltworks managertold me that a small group had been continuously present for several years; the birds frequent the more remote inner An adult was observed at the Equasal lagoons on July 13, 1978 ponds,and havenot beendisturbed, hence are now relativelytame P (with D. Wilcove). Another, also an adult and conceivablythe same Greenfield (pers. comm.) found a group of 20 here on August 20, individual, was seen(with D.W. Finch et al.) at the same place Feb. 1978. The Chilean Flamingo was not recorded for Ecuador by either 12-13, 1980. Specific identification centered on the bird's rufous Blake (1977) or Meyer de Schauenseein his first (1966) South thighs, its white stripe down the center of the crown, and its mostly American book. The latter, however, did comment in his later (1970) grayishtawny neck. The Great Blue Heron hasnot previouslybeen re- book that "Flamingos seen in w. Ecuador probably belong to this corded from Ecuador (Meyer de Schauensee,1970; Blake, 1977). species." This was in apparent referenceto Marchant's (1958) obser- Whether these sightingsrepresent the migrant North American race, vations in the samegeneral area of "flamingos, probably P. chilensts, nominate herodias, which is known to winter south to the upper but never satisfactorilyidentified." Specificidentification in this case Cauca River valley in southwesternColombia (Meyer de Schauensee, presentedno problem, as the birds could be approachedclosely 1964),or the presumablyresident Galapagos race, cognatus, could not enoughthat their pinkish-redjoints on otherwisedull bluish legs, a be determined. The former would seem the more likely, despite the characteristicshared by no other flamingo(Johnson, 1965), could be July date. easily seen. Three Chilean Flamingos were noted in 1977 only a few km southeast of Playas, Guayas Province. (P. Greenfield, pers CAPPED HERON Pilherodius pileatus comm.)This flamingois the mostnortherly ranging of the threeSouth American species;it regularly winters along the Peruvian coastto the This widespreadneotropical heron was only first recorded from Departmentof Lima (T. Parker,pers. comm.),and hasbeen recorded Ecuador as recentlyas 1963 (Norton, 1965). Another was collected, north to Tumbes Department. A few may now visit Ecuador annually, and individuals seen at intervals, at the same locality, Limoncocha, or may even be non-breeding residentsin the country. Napo Province, during 1975-1976(Tallman et al., 1977). The Capped Heron may actually now be quite widespreadin easternEcuador: not PEARL KITE Gampsonyx swainsonii only doesit occurall alongthe Napo River, but I - 4 wereseen almost daily along the lower Aguarico River upstreamto Zancudococha,in One Pearl Kite was observedat length as it perchedalong the edge September 1976. P. Greenfield •ers. comm.) has also found it of the grassyairstrip at Tiputini, Napo Province,Sept. 27, 1976, this regularly along the upper Aguarico River, to the north of the Napo. locality is on the north bank of the Napo River about 30 km upstream Its requirementseems to be a wide river with numeroussandy islands from the Peruvian frontier. The speciesis not recorded from eastern and backwater channels;narrow, forest-fringed rivers are much less Ecuadorby either Meyer de Schauensee(1966, 1970)or Blake (1977), favored. Its apparent increasehere may well be genuine, although dif- but was accorded "uncertain" status at Limoncocha in the most re- ficultto explain,for easternEcuador was well covered by commercial cent check-listfrom that locality (Tallman et al., 1977); P. Greenfield collectorsduring the first half of the 20th century, and they seem •ers. comm.) observedone here on October 20, 1979 (with D. Pear- unlikely to have overlooked such an obvious and handsomeheron. son), and has also found it along the Lago Agrio-Coca road to the west, with a total of three seen here on March 28-29, 1979. This cOn- CHILEAN FLAMINGO Phoenicopteruschilensis spicuousand unmistakable raptor is evidently still very rare in the up- per Amazon basin: it is still unknown from Amazonian Colombia A flock of nine flamingosof this specieswas found at the Equasal (Hilty and Brown, MS), and has not been found in northeasternPeru lagoonsJuly 13, 1978 (with D.