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.