Tropical Birding Tours - Trip Report EASTERN ECUADOR RARITIES Custom Tour/ Nov-Dec 2020 A Tropical Birding Tours CUSTOM BIRDING TOUR EASTERN ECUADOR RARITIES 26 Nov-6 Dec, 2020 Report and photos by ANDRES VASQUEZ N., the guide for this tour One of the most wanted birds of the World, the mighty queen of the jungle, Harpy Eagle (picture above at a nesting site). This is probably the easiest access to a nest of this awesome bird of prey in all of Latin America. It involves only a 5-minute car ride from the door of the hotel, 15 minute boat ride on the Napo River, and 2 easy walks of about 10 minutes each on flat but muddy terrain. The nesting pair has been recorded on this site a couple years ago by a local farmer who did not know much about the importance of the bird and therefore it remained “hidden” to the birding world until this year when the same farmer saw the couple again and this time mentioned it to the local guides who recently had been more active in terms of birding. The word spread out quickly and we were forced to tweak the itinerary that we already had for this custom tour and included a visit to the site. It was a tricky visit since just two days before our arrival, a group of scientists that visited the site recommended that no tourists should visit yet. However, since we were already there and it was only two visitors, we joined an already scheduled monitoring visit during which we stayed at the nest site for exactly 3.5 minutes, saw the bird, took a couple photos and left. It was superb, and entirely worth it. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p. 1 Tropical Birding Tours - Trip Report EASTERN ECUADOR RARITIES Custom Tour/ Nov-Dec 2020 INTRODUCTION: I do not want to mention too much about World’s Public Enemy number one this year but given the circumstances and how the World has changed, I cannot avoid making references to Covid on this tour. This was in fact the first international tour that Tropical Birding Tours ran in 2020 after the start of the pandemic and of course the first one for me in many, many months. We had already ran safely and successfully a few tours inside the US where our company is based, but this one was the first that involved international travelling for our clients and, not a coincidence, it was here in Ecuador, my home country, since it was the one of the first to open up to international traveling and tourism a few months earlier. This was a custom tour for my great friends Richard and Andrew Goldfarb who have been traveling with TB for over a decade and have done over a dozen of tours with me alone. I have to mention this was a backup plan as the original tour was meant to take us to Chile and the Patagonia but since that country had not opened its borders, we changed the plan, and visited Ecuador instead. This was their 6th time in the country so we needed to really come up with an itinerary completely out-of-normal, to maximize the potential lifer list for well-traveled Richard in particular. At the end of the tally, he got 18 lifers (out of about two dozen new birds for his Ecuador list) and even three lifers for me from a total of 427 species recorded (364 seen) in 9 days; I have to mention that a ton of common birds were not seen or even recorded on the tally since we focused only on the scarcer targets. The rare and localized Black-thighed Puffleg (picture above) was one of the mutual lifers The favorites of the trip were, in no specific order, White-rimmed Brushfinch, Rufous and Andean Potoos, Imperial Snipe, Pavonine Quetzal, Collared Puffbird, Black-thighed Puffleg, Sand-colored Nighthawk, Bicolored Antpitta, Black-collared Jay, Azure Gallinule, Yellow-backed Tanager, Cinereous Harrier, Orange- fronted Plushcrown, White-lored Antpitta, Red-necked Woodpecker, and Amazonian Grosbeak (lifers for both www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p. 2 Tropical Birding Tours - Trip Report EASTERN ECUADOR RARITIES Custom Tour/ Nov-Dec 2020 participants), plus Harpy Eagle, Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, White-throated Screech-Owl, Spectacled Owl, White-naped Brushfinch, and White-capped and Red-hooded Tanagers. DAILY NARRATIVE: Nov 27: Papallacta Pass and to the Amazon: The start of this custom tour required some driving since between Quito and the lowland Amazon we only had a handful of potential birds to find and therefore it did not justify spending any nights on the way. We did some birding at specific spots along the highway and some spots I had done earlier research on, produced great birds. Firstly we tried for a nemesis flycatcher atop of the Andes, a bush-tyrant which remained a nemesis, sadly, but the short time birding in the Papallacta pass produced various Tawny Antpittas, White-chinned Thistletail, Many-striped Canastero, Andean Tit-Spinetail, Blue- mantled and Rainbow-bearded Thornbills, Variable Hawk, Chestnut-winged and Stout-billed Cinclodes, and a couple more high Andes specialties. We then moved down slope and stopped for just a short while at Guango Lodge, where a long-staying day roost of an Andean Potoo was the main attraction. We got it thanks to the local caretaker of the lodge. The hummers that make Guango Lodge famous were great company during a much- needed coffee break. Sword-billed Hummingbird was accompanied by Turmaline Sunangel, Chestnut-breasted and Buff-tailed Coronets, Collared Inca, White-bellied Woodstar, Buff-winged Starfrontlet, Speckled Hummingbird and Long-tailed Sylph. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p. 3 Tropical Birding Tours - Trip Report EASTERN ECUADOR RARITIES Custom Tour/ Nov-Dec 2020 We dropped in elevation a bit, and took a lunch break in a nice, forested, spot. Right before eating our sandwiches, a nice flock with the uncommon Short-billed Chlorospingus, Andean Motmot, Pearled Treerunners, the first of many (too many) Blackburnian Warblers, and a surprising Fawn-breasted Tanager. Then we drove for a while until we got into the steaming Amazon, where we met our local guide who was going to help us out for the next couple days. Together we did a couple stops in specific places I had done a little research on and got rewarded by a large group of Sand-colored Nighthawks (picture on previous page) roosting during the day. We found over 90 individuals, some scattered along the top of a large metallic roof, and others in the nearby trees. We did a few more stops after a few typically common amazon birds, before reaching our final destination, the area of Gareno. However, our birding was not over just yet. By night a pair of Spectacled Owls were easily spotted behind the lodge. Nov 28: Gareno area: The famous Gareno Lodge is not operational anymore, but it was still possible to bird the area with the same local guide who knows the site better than anybody. Now, we had to stay in a good hotel, located just 15 minutes’ drive away from the birding area, so arguably the situation is now better than it was. We moved early in the morning to the birding location and started by birding the roadside while it was still dark inside the forest. This is when we got one of our main targets, Red-necked Woodpecker. A few other cool birds showed up, including Black-headed Parrots, Scaly-breasted Woodpecker, Fasciated Antshrike, Long- billed Gnatwren, Green-and-gold Tanagers, and more. The disappointment though, was Fiery Topaz which normally is regular on a tree next to the road, but as it was not flowering the bird did not show up; bummer. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p. 4 Tropical Birding Tours - Trip Report EASTERN ECUADOR RARITIES Custom Tour/ Nov-Dec 2020 We then moved inside the forest via some trails and soon found another of the big targets, the awesome Collared Puffbird (photo page before), which responded well to playback. Other targets we found during that morning were Pavonine Quetzal and Dwarf Tyrant-Manakin. Apart from those, we found some typical understory birds like Yellow-browed and Sooty Antbirds, Golden-headed and Blue-crowned Manakins, and Green-backed Trogon, to name a few. As an anecdote, the local guide walking behind me, told Richard and I that we had both stepped on a Fer-de-Lance unknowingly while we were walking on the trail! He said the serpent did not react trying to bite back, but instead only snaked away in its semi-unconscious state, (as a nocturnally active serpent). Alive, but not vindictive, thankfully. This dull bird, the Dwarf Tyrant-Manakin (photo above), was considered one of the top birds of the tour for Andrew not because of its Hollywood blockbuster looks, but because of the challenge this tiny bird represents in finding it most of the times. It calls all day long, constantly from a hidden perch but seeing it is very hard unless it decides to respond to playback which it only does seldomly. This behavior gave it the local nickname “the eye of God” since you cannot see him but he sees you from above. Plus there is a local legend on this bird that narrates only truthful men can see it, men that have two women cannot! www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.