Bolivia Day 10; Cerro Tunari

  For the morning we would bird a well-known area called Cerro Tunari where there were a few montane species we needed to find, before we would commence a seven-hour drive to our next site, to be ideally placed for the following day, when we would have an eight-hour drive. We had a few brutal days coming up, but we were ready and hoped that the morning would go smoothly to save some time.

  And the morning did go reasonably smoothly, with both key target species found fairly easily; the Cochabamba Mountain Finch showed well early in the morning, before we then found the Wedge Tailed Hillstar feeding on flowers about an hour later. With both target species safely seen, we also enjoyed finding other commoner Andean species, such as the Bolivian Warbling Finch again, plus Ringed Warbling Finch, as well as Rufous-bellied Mountain-Tananger, Red-tailed Comet, Giant Hummingbird and an impressive flock of c.50 Andean Parakeet. All of these species (except Giant Hummingbird) I had only seen once before, so it was nice to see them again.

  But the highlight of the morning was undoubtedly a very showy Olive-crowned Crescentchest that came out of the bushes and sang right in front of us early morning. When I first played the tape the bird ran across the open and even perched exposed on a rock and a cactus, before taking a perch and singing unobstructed giving fantastic views.

  Sadly our drive did not go as well as the mornings birding. After four and a half hours driving we reached the town of Caracollo, to find that locals had blocked the road as a form of protest. We knew this was a risk in Bolivia, as it frequently occurs, but it was still maddening to run into. We managed to spend two hours driving on dirt roads across the puna to get around the town, but we were exhausted by this point and completely fed up, with three hours still to go to our destination. Still, we had a decent sized flock of Black Siskin on our detour, so it was not a complete loss.

  And as we were nearing our stop for the night, we passed a herd of around 30 Vicunia. So despite the setback, we were still able to make the best of our crappy situation. 

Species List:
Cerro Tunari: Andean Tinamou, Bare-faced Ground-Dove, Andean Swift, Sparkling Violetear, Red-tailed Comet, Andean Hillstar, Wedge-tailed Hillstar, Giant Hummingbird, Andean Condor, Variable Hawk, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Mountain Caracara, Grey-hooded Parakeet, Andean Parakeet, Rufous Hornero, Cream-winged Cinclodes, Brown-capped Tit-Spinetail, Streak-fronted Thornbird, Rusty-vented Canastero, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, White-winged Black Tyrant, Spot-billed Ground Tyrant, House Wren, Chiguanco Thrush, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Greyish Baywing, Ringed Warbling Finch, Rufous-bellied Mountain-Tanager, Blue-and-yellow Tanager, Grey-bellied Flowerpiercer, Rufous-sided Warbling Finch, Bolivian Warbling Finch, Cochabamba Mountain Finch, Golden-billed Saltator,