On to Tandayapa!
Next stop was the Tandayapa area of Ecuador - slightly higher in elevation compared to Mindo. One of our target species here was the plate billed mountain toucan. This is a fairly compact toucan with dusky blue and chestnut brown feathers. It is so named after the cream coloured plate on its bill that looks like it has been superglued into position! It is something of an Ecuadorian icon but it is notoriously shy. We returned to the site that we had so much success with last year - however we arrived early and the caretaker asked us if we fancied seeing an Oscillated Tapaculo first, an extremely shy bird that likes to skulk in the undergrowth. It is however quite a pretty bird with rusty black and brown feathers and striking white spots, so we agreed to try to find it. The caretaker - armed with a bucket of soil and worms strode off down a path and we followed, until we reached a tiny clearing…
It was obvious that the caretaker knew this individual very well, these are extremely rare birds and hardly ever seen. But some whistles and a few gentle words and out popped the bird for a few worms. It was very difficult to get pictures of, and even harder to film, but it was lovely to see a bird that few people will ever see!
A few pictures later we set off back up the path and all the way up to the mountain toucan site. There is always a lot of patience involved in waiting for the toucan, but there were plenty of hummingbirds to keep us amused here, including the feisty buff tailed coronets, and the beautiful gorgeted sunangel…. Eventually we heard the calls of the mountain toucan and were rewarded with a brief visit to the perch. For the toucans it is nesting season, which is good for them, but bad for us, as it meant that they were very territorial with the site and had been driving other toucans away from the nest, and hence the site. We stayed until the fog rolled in, with virtually no visibility we decided to descend down the valley to our next lodge in the Tandayapa Valley.
The plate billed mountain toucan - a very smart looking bird!
The next morning it was a very early start, which was pretty easy given that we still seem to be on UK time. This was the morning that we were going to be visiting the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek, a bizarre experience where the males all gather in the same place to try to impress any females. It is a very loud and showy affair, but it can be hard to photograph the birds as the males are constantly moving from perch to perch in the fairly dense forest. Luckily for us it was a very busy lek; there were plenty of males and it lasted for well over an hour; towards the end of the session the males tend to calm down and sit for longer periods of time which makes getting portraits of them a lot easier.
Andean Cock-of-the-Rock
After such a successful visit it was time for a very welcome breakfast with a lovely view of the garden and the hills beyond.
In the afternoon it was time for another one of our target species; the violet tailed sylph. This is a beautiful hummingbird with a very long violet tail; it is a fairly rare hummingbird so we visited a hummingbird garden that has them in good numbers. The flowers for the birds were carefully selected and sugared up and we sat ready and waiting. They were slow to come, but eventually we started getting regular visits from them, as well as the velvet-purple coronet, another stunning bird. Towards the end of the afternoon the number of visits started to decrease and we decided to head back to the lodge and an early dinner. The next day would see us start the next leg of the journey…
Violet-Tailed Sylph
