Having made it so far as Loja the previous evening, we still had a substantial amount of driving to do during the morning before we reached our destination for the day, the Reserva Maycu in the far southeast of the country, where the Andes meets the Amazon. The journey was long with many winding roads to contend with, but the real horror was the dirt road that consumed the last two hours of driving with endless potholes and bumpy surfaces. The only consolation was a rather dapper male Chestnut-bellied Seedeater which was feeding by the side of the road as we passed, allowing for some nice photos.
We eventually arrived at our accommodation for the reserve,
the very nice Yankuam Lodge, at midday, just as the first drops of rain began
to fall. As such we had a couple of hours rest while the rain passed, before we
set out birding in the Maycu reserve itself. The lodge manager came with us to
show us the best location to look for the sites number one target, the Orange-throated
Tanager. Not long after we arrived, he picked up the calls of the bird, and
with a little persuasion, a pair came to the roadside allowing us to get
excellent views. Normally visiting birders are restricted to canopy views, but
since we had a clearing next to our location, where the hillside dropped down,
we got nice, if a little distant, views of the birds feeding almost at
eye-level.
After that we spent the rest of the afternoon birding around the road through the reserve. We found activity to be quite limited, and in the end managed only a handful of species. We did see Green-and-gold Tanager and Masked Crimson Tanager, which were both new for me. And a dapper male Lined Antshrike also came in response to playback, allowing us to get some nice photos.
Reserva Maycu: Smooth-billed Ani, Squirrel Cuckoo, Grey-rumped Swift, Roadside Hawk, Lined Antshrike, Ecuadorian Tyrannulet, Ornate Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tyrant, Social Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird, Black-capped Donacobius, House Wren, Orange-bellied Euphonia, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Masked Crimson Tanager, Orange-throated Tanager, Turquoise Tanager, Green-and-gold Tanager, Purple Honeycreeper, Blue-black Grassquit, Chestnut-bellied Seedeater,
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