Landing in eastern Venezuela!

After so many preparatives, finally, Rafael Cortes and your blogger host were heading to eastern Venezuela in search of those Guianan shield and Tepuis endemics. I have to say that it is not easy to get by your own into interior Venezuela, but somehow we managed the trip without incidents. We spend almost a full day flying from Bogota (Colombia) to Caracas and then to Puerto Ordaz, at the margins of the mighty Orinoco river. Puerto Ordaz is a HUGE city, with wide avenues, modern malls and all the facilities you need. We spend the night in downtown, with Carib Grackle as my only life bird for the day (watched at the airport near Caracas).

Very early the next day, we hired a taxi cab to ride us to the little town of El Palmar, the gate to the forests of the Sierra de Imataca. The average speed of our taxi was around 120 km/h, due to the excellent highways and little traffic on route. We left the main highway (that eventually reach La Gran Sabana and the Brazil border) just before the town of Utapa and took a windy paved road through pasture land with savanna-like habitat and many lagoons. Despite the velocity, we did saw some birds, including a flock of Yellow-hooded Blackbirds, many heron species and even a Black-collared Hawk.

At the main plaza, we asked for a local guide, Blas Chacare who works monitoring Harpy Eagle's nest and chicks (more about Blas and this project in another post). We didn't knew him in advance... Rafael only had some references by some colombian birders that met him before. Eventually, we reached Blas' house close to the main plaza, and after the corresponding introductions, Blas agreed to guide us the next three days and even offered to stay at his house, with his beautiful family. I already was counting my first life birds of the day: Green-rumped Parrotlets, Gray Seedeater, Orange-fronted Yellow-Finch, Pale-breasted Thrush, and so on... Of course, I didn't count the pet Spix's Guan they have in their backyard, but it was useful to familiarize with its jizz and size. In addition, the rice thrown to the guan was attracting Tropical Mockingbird, Ruddy Ground Doves, a Spectacled Thrush, and Palm, Blue-gray, White-lined and Silver-beaked Tanagers allowing decent photos.

Soon, we were on route to the forest of the Sierra de Imataca, entering through the bridge over the Rio Grande, more or less 45 minutes from El Palmar. The forest was impressive, but it was already a little late and hot, so we decided to follow Blas (and his son) inside the forest, walking narrow trails and sometimes making our own trail... Blas has an excellent sense of orientation and we crossed several mixed flocks with highlights like Black Nunbird, both Brown-bellied and Rufous-bellied Antwrens, a male Fulvous Shrike-Tanager (feeding VERY low!!!) and the bird of the day: a Ferruginous-backed Antbird that responded well to playback.

Before leaving the forest, we crossed a huge group of Collared Peccharies (surely more than 100 individuals, known as Báquiros), but they went away quite scared before we were able to check if a "baquirero" (Rufous-winged Ground-Cuckoo) was following them. We left the forest interior and started the return journey through the main road, finding some interesting hummingbirds in the way. The most colorful was a White-chinned Sapphire shining with the sun, but then Blas pointed me a tiny one perched atop the bushes that turned out to be a female Festive Coquette! I also managed to take a photo of a White-chested Emerald in the same spot, its all-black bill separates it from the very similar Versicolored Emerald (which we also saw).

We spend all the day out in the forest, and in the evening (back at Blas' place), we celebrate our first day of birding with a couple of beers. The plan the next morning was to visit one of the active nests of Harpy Eagle that Blas have been monitoring since a couple of weeks before... stay tuned!

Birding the eastern slope

After my quick introduction the previous day to the birds of the Bogota savanna (Colombia), Rafael took me to the eastern slope

of the eastern cordillera, picking up Oswaldo Cortes in the way. I knew about Osvaldo and his birding skills time before meeting him, thanks to the technology (facebook), and it was a real pleasure to have the opportunity to bird with him in one of his area of expertise. Our main destination was Monterredondo, the type site of the near-mythical Cundinamarca Antpitta, described in 1992 by G. Stiles. We quickly left Bogota behind and started the winding road descending the eastern cordillera, passing at first the entrance to Monterredondo in order to have a tinto (black coffee) in the town of Guayabetal. Of course, we did bird in Guayabetal, waiting for the weather to improve in the higher slopes, and the birding was very good. Oswaldo showed us a reliably spot for Green-bellied Hummingbird, which we saw, right by a pristine creek and a flowering tree that was attracting tons of birds, including my life Silver-beaked Tanager (female in the photo), Bananaquits, Spectacled Parrotlets, and so on. An important note, that area was severely affected by the insecurity some years ago, and rapidly, a pair of cops asked for our ids cards when they noticed our cameras and binoculars; however, as soon as they realized we were birders, they wished us good luck!

In the way to Monterredondo, a short stop to appreciate a pair of Cliff Flycatchers resulted in a myriad of birds, including Swallow, Fawn-breasted and Blue-necked Tanagers, Purple Honeycreepers, Golden-faced Tyrannulet and a very cooperative Crested Oropendola (again on a flowering tree).

The way up to the right habitat for the Cundinamarca Antpitta was long and slow, and the weather was not improving... it was very cloudy, with occasional showers. However, in the first stop we made to check, we heard a Cundinamarca Antpita quite close! The bird didn't respond to playback and it slowly walked away. Considering that it didn't make the alarm/aggression call, it probably was a female or a young bird. In any case, I was happy with simply hearing it... since I read Stiles' article,

always I have wanted to have the opportunity of experiencing this enigmatic bird! The site was also very good for mixed flocks, but the mist sometimes prevented us from identifying its members. A pair of Ochre-breasted Brush-Finches showed well... they were gorgeous... no illustration in any guide match its colors! Above our heads, a Stygian Owl was quietly following our movements... the mist only add a mysterious touch to its presence. We tried other spots for the antpitta, without answers, so we decided to go down, to the entrance of Monterredondo where the flowering trees were alive with birds, and we quickly add more and more species to our growing list. One of the main targets, the Magpie Tanager, was pointed out by Oswaldo... in the photo you can see the beautiful jay-like tanager with a Spectacled Thrush, which was also a life bird for me.

The place was also extremely good for migrants, with American Redstart (a female), Tennesee, Blackpoll, Black-and-white and Blackburnian Warblers showing very well.

More color was added in the form of Inca (Green) Jay, an absolutely gorgeous Red-headed Barbet (can you find it in the photo?), and very vocal Russet-backed Oropendola of the pale-billed sub-species (next to the bromeliad in the photo).

It was an excellent morning birding the eastern slope, the company of Rafael and Oswaldo was simply incomparable, and the birds, exceptional! A short stop in the way to Bogota produced some more species, but we (Rafael and me) were in a hurry in order to prepare ourselves for our next day's flight to our first international birding destination: eastern Venezuela!