Our day in the Podocarpus National Park started nice and early, conveniently just 15 minutes drive from our hotel in the city of Zamora. Unfortunately, although it started brightly with a couple of nice tanager flocks, it quickly turned against us when at around half past nine, the torrential rain began, not stopping until 11, by which point we had already bailed out for an early lunch, hoping to make the most of a rain free afternoon.
And while we lost the mornings birding, there were still a
few good species on offer that we were able to connect with. The first and
foremost of these was the Amazonian Umbrellabird, of which we saw two
individuals perching up conspicuously in the open canopy. Another nice bonus species
was White-capped Dipper, when we had a brief encounter with an individual on
the main river. Although not a new bird for me, it is always good to see a
dipper, and was a new species for Lia, which she was very excited about.
After lunch we arrived in the park around 14:00. The
mornings rain had taken its toll on our optics, my camera especially required
some warmth from the sun to dry out the internal condensation. It was perhaps fortunate
then that the afternoon birding took some time to get going, with species only
starting to appear after some time searching. We spent the first hour of the
afternoon looking at the plethora of butterflies enjoying the now warm and sunny
afternoon.
Once the birding got started we were able to catch up on a
few key targets, like we had hoped. We concentrated our efforts on the trail
following the river, and this produced Orange-crowned Flycatcher and
Fulvous-breasted Flatbill. Neither of these species is particularly exciting,
but both are quite range restricted and good targets for this site. We also had
fantastic views of an Andean Motmot and a lively mixed species flock contained
a nice Spotted Tanager for us to look at. Using tapes we also managed to get good
views of Foothill Stiplethroat.
In terms of none target species that we encountered, perhaps
the highlight was two female Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Neither perched
particularly showy, but its always good to see these spectacular crow sized
birds. We rounded off the day with a short night birding session that produced
nothing on the birding front, but a Common Tapeite wild rabbit was nice to see
as it ran across the road.
Parque Nacional Podocarpus: Sickle-winged Guan, Feral Pigeon, Band-tailed Pigeon, Squirrel Cuckoo, Grey-rumped Swift, Ecuadorian Piedtail, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Andean Motmot, Red-headed Barbet, Lineated Woodpecker, Foothill Stipplethroat, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Amazonian Umbrellabird, Streak-necked Flycatcher, Fulvous-breasted Flatbill, Ornate Flycatcher, Orange-crested Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, Tropical Kingbird, Inca Jay, Blue-and-white Swallow, White-capped Dipper, White-necked Thrush, House Sparrow, Orange-bellied Euphonia, Bronze-green Euphonia, Yellow-throated Bush Tanager, Ashy-throated Bush Tanager, Orange-billed Sparrow, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Russet-backed Oropendola, Crested Oropendola, Tropical Parula, Slate-throated Whitestart, Orange-eared Tanager, Spotted Tanager, Blue-necked Tanager, Paradise Tanager, Bay-headed Tanager, Green-and-gold Tanager, Golden Tanager, Bananaquit, Buff-throated Saltator,
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