Finding "El Payaso"

The group of birders conformed by Rafael Cortes, Mauricio Rueda and your blogger host were already taking a well deserved rest at our cabin in Playa Guio (Guaviare department, Colombia), after an intense walk through a variety of habitats in the morning.  I decided to spent the rest of the afternoon birding close to the cabins, along with Mauricio and our guide Luis Fernando ("Lucho") Galindez.  The strategy was to take some chairs of the dinning hall and to wait in a nearby patch of forest.  This turned out to be a good choice since we spied many species of birds just standing quiet and waiting.  Again, a two Black-fronted Nunbirds appeared from nowhere, very close to our feet... I think they had a nest close... but we didn't look for it.

While seeing a flock with antwrens and woodcreepers passing by, we started to hear soft blows against a trunk... surely some kind of woodpecker.  Mauricio moved slowly, trying to find the source of the sound, while Lucho and me stayed watching the flock.  Then, Mauricio desperately tried to gain our attention, whispering our names as loud as a whisper can let you (surely he didn't want to scare whatever he was trying to show us) while taking photos.  We hurried to reach him... and there it was: a glorious Cream-colored Woodpecker above our heads!  First we saw its back... but then the bird turned its head almost 180º, showing its conspicuous red cheeks!

This bird was the main reason why Rafael wanted to visit this place... our main target, the créme de la créme... but wait a second... Rafael was not with us... he was taking a nap at the cabin, some 50 mts away!  I ran to the cabin, crossing a field while yelling his name (certainly I looked like a mad man).  Rafael hurried to dress up and ran to the site I was pointing to him... however, once there, the bird was gone (as usual).  A pair of Purple-throated Fruitcrow was a consolation prize... but you know that feeling of frustration when you see a MEGA bird and your friends do not?

We returned to the cabin, while Lucho returned to San José del Guaviare.  We were seated in the balcony of the cabin when two birds landed on the tree right in front of us... two Cream-colored Woodpeckers!!!  And this time, Rafael was with us... watching, enjoying, photographing the birds!  Both male and female were feeding with fruits... the female (without red in the head) was more confiding, letting us to approach quite close in order to take more photos.

The excitement was so that nobody cared about the Spot-breasted Woodpecker, nor about the male Scarlet-crowned Barbet that were feeding close to the woodpeckers tree.

The male Cream-colored Woodpecker was a little more shy than the female, always staying high, always in the move and in the shade... however, I managed a couple of good shots.  Those red cheeks are the reason why the locals call him "payaso", meaning clown.

I can't imagine a better way to call a day... not only we saw a spectacular bird, but also my frustration became joy because Rafael saw his dreamed bird! 

Playa Guio's night creatures

After our excellent first day birding around Playa Guio  and Laguna Negra (Guaviare, Colombia), Rafael Cortes, Mauricio Rueda and your blogger host were ready to have a well deserved rest at our cabin, realizing that we were not alone.  In the forest surrounding us, many of the birds that we saw during the day was just starting to become active... and that was marked with lot of noise!  First, a very familiar voice for me... a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl started calling as soon as the sun disappeared.  It reminded me Penonomé (Coclé province, Panamá), where one of this awake me every morning!  The photo was taken in the morning very close to the cabins.

I heard a distant Tropical Screech-Owl... its characteristic call is the reason why we call it currucutú in Panamá.  Curiously, we saw a sleepy bird inside a dense bamboo thicket in our way to the Guaviare river during our morning walk.

And talking about the Guaviare river, we saw another night creature during the day in its shore.  The nighthawks, as the name suggest, are associated with darkness... but the Sand-colored Nighthawks are frequently found in daytime resting in sandbars or at trees, as we did that day.

However, the most impressive voice of the night was the explosive, loud and bombastic BUAAAARRRRRR!!!!! of the Great Potoo.  We were lucky enough to see not one, or two, but three different individuals around Playa Guio and Caño Negro creek roosting vertically, perfectly camouflaged thanks to their cryptic plumages.

So it was a productive first day -and night- in Playa Guio... keep in touch if you want to know what we found the next day!

Around Playa Guio

After our arrival to Playa Guio, in the department of Guaviare (Colombia), we started to bird around the cabins and then took a trail leading to the shores of the wide Guaviare river.  This trail passes first through quite disturbed habitat, then enters a nice gallery forest along a creek where we used fallen trunks to pass, and finally reach the river shore from where you follow it along the river for a while before returning to the cabins essentially crossing the same types of habitats, except that using a different trail.

Rafael crossing over a falling trunk

This variety of habitats is ideal if you want to see many birds... as we did.  The activity was pretty amazing at the disturbed habitats (around the houses, plantations, etc...).  Many species where taking advantage of the fruiting trees, like Violaceous Jays, Lettered Aracaris and Russet-backed Oropendolas.  Notice that the subspecies present in the lowlands have black bills and plain faces, quite different from those at the Andes (see the photo at the bottom of this post for example).

Another pretty common, and colorful bird of that type of habitat was the Scarlet-crowned Barbet.  It is quite large for a barbet, and quite active too... always in the move.

Once in the forest, the activity decreased, but we saw good birds anyway.  An unexpected species for me was the calling male Collared Trogon.  I know now that this species is quite common in the lowlands forests of South America... but I was used to see them as highlands species in Panama.

Another common bird inside the forest was the Black-fronted Nunbird.  Several times we flushed individuals that were in the ground... probably excavating nests?  Once you detected them, they simply left us to approach quite close... remembering me our encounter in Venezuela with its relative, the Black Nunbird.

Eventually, we reached the huge Guaviare river... I felt like in the Amazonas itself! (despite this river joins eventually the Orinoco -not the Amazonas- river).  Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns patrolled the shores, while a group of South American Black Skimmers were resting in the sand banks (trust me, they are in the second photo below).  Even a Boto (Amazon River Dolphin) showed up!!!

Can you find the Black Skimmers in this photo?

The birding close to the river was simply excellent... not only the terns and the skimmers, we also saw Red-capped Cardinals (which are tanagers), migrant Scarlet Tanagers (which are cardinals), Gray Seedeater and a pair of Drab Water-Tyrant.  Both the drab and water parts of its name are very adequate!

Another bird strongly associated with the river was the White-banded Swallow.  Flocks of this attractive species flew fast and low over the water, perching always close to the river.

The White-winged Swallow was also found always close to water.  It is very similar to our Mangrove Swallows in Panama, and is known for Panama only from the extreme east... and only by one report.

We returned to the cabins just in time to have lunch and to prepare for the next outing, a "boat" trip birding the caño Negro (the creek in front of the dinning hall below).

Birding in colombian llanos and amazon region

After a great, but quick, birding trip to northwestern Ecuador, Rafael Cortes and your blogger host were again in Colombia's capital city, Bogota, making our bags in order to start the last part of this epic trip... we were heading to the eastern lowlands, to the llanos and the amazonic region around San José del Guaviare, in the department of Guaviare (and where the road actually ends!).  For this part of the trip we were joined by Mauricio Rueda, a friend of Rafael who only counts the birds he photographs... and is very good doing that!  We left the busy Bogota city and took the same highway that we used for our first birding trip out of the huge city some weeks before (with Oswaldo).  The winding road runs parallel to a rushing river, and I was searching it, trying to find the Fasciated Tiger-Heron that we saw the last time, but no luck on that (photo from that day).  However, we saw several others birds from the car, including Cliff Flycatchers, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swifts, Crested Oropendola, Magpie Tanager (near the Monterredondo), and many more.

It was mostly a travel day... but that doesn't mean that we didn't see any bird... as soon as we left the andean slopes we started to see species typical of the lowlands: Roadside Hawk, Pale-vented Pigeon, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Carib Grackle, Oriole Blackbirds, tons of herons and ibises.  Definitively, the bird of the day was the Scarlet Ibis.  Mauricio spotted a flock so Rafael stopped the car in order to have better views... it was a spectacular lifer for me, that color is unreal!  Compare it with the abundant Bare-faced Ibis in the second photo (also a immature Wattled Jacana in the same frame).

We arrived at night, left our thing at our rooms in the hotel and then had dinner with our guides Luis Fernando Galindez ("Lucho") and Derly Blandon (who is training in order to become a guide)  at a tiny restaurant by the main square.  Very early the next day, we left San José del Guaviare and drove all the way to the community of Playa Guio, our home for the next three days.  The cabins were in the opposite of the Caño Negro creek, so we left the car and loaded the boat with all the bags and photographic equipment.  We started birding immediately... the first birds being hordes of ancient-looking Hoatzines (we were no longer in the Andes anymore!).   

Right in the dinning hall, I got my first lifers for the day.  A pair of attractive White-eared Jacamars were flycatching while a gang of noisy Thrush-like Wrens inspected every single branch around the house.

A Ruddy Pigeon started to call right in front of us and soon we were having good views of this canopy dweller.

I'm used to the heat... but in Playa Guio, it was suffocating... however, we enjoyed the beauty of the forest and the river.  A pair of Scarlet Macaws flew in front of us... they turned out to be semi-pets of the house, but they wander freely in the forest (I'm not including this species in my list, of course).

At our cabin (powered by solar panels), we have a close encounter with a young Rufescent Tiger-Heron that allowed some VERY nice photos!  This was our second Tiger-Heron for Colombia.

And all this even before our first walk through the forest!  Stay tuned for more!