Experiencing "Un Poco del Chocó": Introduction

The Chocó Bioregion is a narrow zone of wet rainforest that extends from southern Darien province in Panama to northwestern Ecuador, and is home to a great variety of flora and fauna, many of which are not found anywhere else on the planet.  My friend Rafael Luck and I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to northwestern Ecuador in mid-December in order to experience this special and diverse area.  Our basecamp was "Un Poco del Chocó", a private reserve owned by the German Biologist Nicole Büttner and her Ecuadorian husband Wilfrido (Wilo) Vaca.

Biological Station

There, we settled on a modest but comfortable station in the middle of the forest at 1200 meters above sea level.  We shared the station's common areas with some post-grade students and volunteers from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany... and enjoyed the delicious meals prepared by Wilo.  In fact, both Rafael and me are thinking on doing an internship at the station just to learn how to cook! But we were there for the birds... and the list for the reserve is impressive.  Of course, we were after the Banded Ground-Cuckoo, a kind of Holy Grail for the Neotropical twitcher that reappeared at the reserve one month before our visit... well, we do not get it... we got to the reserve just few days late... the antswarm followed by the ground-cuckoo moved to an inaccessible site of the reserve.  However, we had a great time watching other species, both common and localized at the reserve.

Well, Gloriela DID get her Banded Ground-Cuckoo (on her T-shirt)

We spend most of the days walking along the well-marked trails (guided by one of the owners or by Christian Montalvo who is part of the reserve staff) or viewing the birds at the feeders by the station.  The trail system goes all the way from the station at 1200 masl to the Pachijal river, at 950 masl.  Every trail is well marked and identified with a different color.  And the names are quite picturesque too.  Every detail was taken into account ... even the steepest areas had steps and even a ladder to help pass.

And what about the birds?  Well, Ecuador is bird paradise for sure, and although it was not our first visit to the country, we still had many lifers.  Not only Chocó endemics (that will be the subject of another entry), but also more widespread species as well... and some with such fancy names like Ecuadorian Thrush or Guayaquil Woodpecker, for example.

Ecuadorian Thrush

Guayaquil Woodpecker

Right at the garden, the flowering Verbenas attracted several species of hummingbirds, including such gems like Green Thorntail and Booted Racket-tails.  You can't get bored of seeing these amazing creatures hovering in front of the delicate flowers!

female Green Thorntail 

male Booted Racket-tail

The altitudinal range covered through the trails contributes to the high variety of bird species possible in and around the reserve, just like the variety of habitats.  For example, Bronze-winged Parrots are very common over both cleared and forested areas, while the White-capped Dippers are found only at the Pachijal river (where we saw a new species for the reserve: Spotted Sandpiper).

Distant Bronze-winged Parrot

Pair of White-capped Dippers

And inside the forest the possibilities are infinite... including crossing an antswarm attended by ground-cuckoos, Esmeraldas, Bicolored and Zeledon's Antbirds, Northern Barred and Plain-brown Woodcreepers, and many more!

male Zeledon's Antbird

Plain-brown Woodcreeper

We spend two and a half days at the reserve and recorded 130 species, including many lifers and special birds.  We dipped on some species, like the Banded Ground-Cuckoo and other Chocó specialties, so we have a good excuse to return!  Thanks to our hosts at Un Poco del Chocó and stay tuned for more photos from our memorable trip.

Christian, Rafael, Wilo and Nicole

Ground-Cuckoos Gallery

Have you felt jealous ever? I mean, in a good way. Well, right now I'm feeling that way thanks to a very good friend of mine. I received an e-mail from Rafael Cortes, an enthusiastic and full-of-energy mexican birder now resident in Colombia, telling me on his last birding trip to Anchicaya, in the colombian Choco bioregion, along with his son Luis Francisco and two other birders. Back in Panama few years ago, we were birding buddies practising what we liked to call target birding: to list the most rare or beautiful birds and then to organize trips to find each one of the targets. By this method we found great life birds (Agami Heron, Three-wattled Bellbird, Bare-necked Umbrellabird, Yellow-billed Cotinga, Great Jacamar, Harpy Eagle and many more), but somehow we failed to locate our target bird # 1 (Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo) despite all our efforts. Some years after he left Panama, I got a glimpse of a Ground-Cuckoo during a Christmas Bird Count in Pipeline road, and more recently, I delighted myself with a cooperative individual, again in Pipeline road (and this was after Rafael's quick visit to Panama last year... we dipped on the bird in Pipeline road during the only chance he got for birding). At this point, maybe you already guessed that Rafael finally achieved his life Ground-Cuckoo, and you are right... then, you may ask why I'm so jealous (in the good way) if I already have seen Ground-Cuckoos twice? Well, because he and his son not only saw, but also photographed and even videotaped a BANDED GROUND-CUCKOO attending an antswarm... one of the rarest birds in the world!!! Compared with it, the Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo would look like a rock star, considering all the lucky birders that have seen and photographed it in central Panama (probably the best place of the world to find it). A quick search in Google only produced a trip report and few pics of the bird from northern Ecuador (some are of a netted bird), demonstrating partly its genuine rarity, since it does not cross often with birders or photographers. OK, enough of so many chat and lets go directly to the photos, nicely shared by Rafael and Luis Francisco.

The full account of the trip is so vivid (thanks to Rafael's narrative skills) that I almost felt the excitement of the moment as if I had been with them! The place was so magical that the Ground-Cuckoo was not the only highlight (hard to believe ah?), with Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Sapphire (perhaps Indigo-capped) Quail-Dove and Long-wattled Umbrellabird also recorded!

CONGRATULATIONS to both of you and thanks for sharing that experience. Rafael, we also miss you here in Panama, I hope to see you soon.