Today was a much more relaxed day, having decided to spend the morning searching for a few bits around our lodging, before spending the afternoon catching up on the itinerary and what our plans were for the following days.
Our chosen site for the morning was a dry Andean valley to the southwest of the town of Huancayo. This was a site that we had identified as having a good chance to find the western population of the stunning Bearded Mountaineer hummingbird. We had hoped that it would be easy to find but it proved difficult, with it taking a good few hours before we finally spotted a bird in flight. Shortly after we saw the same bird feeding on the side of the road, before half an hour later we found another further down the road, but this individual also did not perch up at all.
In terms of other birds, the best of the rest occurred right at the end of the morning when we had a flock of around 50 Andean Parakeets feeding in the trees near the road. This was a species we hoped to find, but was absolutely not guaranteed, so a big bonus species. I also had lifers with a brilliant performance from a pair of Creamy-crested Spinetail, and brief views of Black-throated Flowerpiercer.
In total, during the morning, I had just over 30 species, which was a good return for a high Andean valley like this, especially being so dry and almost desert-like conditions. Despite having a ground frost in the morning, it had quickly warmed up and the heat had slowed birding right down by early afternoon. For the rest of the afternoon we organised logistics in order to make better progress over the following days.
Carhuapaccha: Spot-winged Pigeon, Bare-faced Ground Dove, Eared Dove, Andean Swift, Sparkling Violetear, Green-tailed Trainbearer, Bearded Mountaineer, Giant Hummingbird, Cinereous Harrier, American Kestrel, Andean Parakeet, Streak-backed Tit-Spinetail, Creamy-crested Spinetail, Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant, White-crested Elaenia, White-winged Black Tyrant, Streak-throated Bush Tyrant, White-browed Chat-Tyrant, House Wren, Great Thrush, Chiguanco Thrush, Hooded Siskin, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Scrub Blackbird, Black-backed Grosbeak, Blue-and-yellow Tanager, Cinereous Conebill, Black-throated Flowerpiercer, Rusty Flowerpiercer, Plain-colored Seedeater, Golden-billed Saltator,
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