came with spotting this bird...
It's a red-crested cotinga. You can put the blurring
down partly to my excitement at this little triumph!
My next moment of glory followed fairly soon afterwards.
We had been looking down into the valley below, admiring
a sickle-billed guan that had perched in the bare branches of
a tree (in the photo it was above the silvery leaved tree in the
middle of the shot).
When that bird flew off the others drifted off
to look elsewhere. I stayed looking down to see if
I could still see our last "target". Then a bright red
bird appeared in the tree.... an Andean Cock-of-the-Rock!!
http://www.ontfin.com/Showcase/Birds/Andean_Cock_Rock.htm
Indeed "a stunning bird" as William would say!
Another couple of stunning birds were to be seen later
cutting short our lunch break. Both birds were seen at the same
altitude level as the distinctive silver leaved cecropias.
In an ideal world one of these birds would be visible in this shot..
But to see what the toucan barbet here looks like
I refer you to:
http://www.montereybay.com/creagrus/toucan-barbets.html
{n.b. If you scrolled down past the first image on
that web page you will have come to another image
which is how my own shot SHOULD have looked
(i'm jealous!). The text tells how typical toucan-barbets
are typically seen in this kind of scenario}
Our other stunning lunch-time birds were two
plate-billed mountain toucans who flew into a roadside
tree and displayed for us. Wonderful. Have a look at:
http://www.tandayapa.com/birdtours/PBMT.htm
to see a great piccy of this species.
Amongst the many other birds we saw on our
meandering journey down the Chiriboga road
were a good selection of tanagers, of which the
mountain tanagers seemed the most spectacular.
Here, for instance, is a blue-winged mountain tanager:
or again, this time taken at close range at a Bellavista lodge
hummingbird feeder which it had learnt how to "raid".
Later in our holiday, and lower in altitude we made
visits to areas of what is properly refered to as
Choco forest. This type of habitat extends into
north-western Ecuador from south-western Colombia
and has a wide variety of wildlife endemic to it.
It was therefore well worth a look, and did not disappoint!
Our first encounter with this habitat was at Milpe:
http://www.mindocloudforest.org/Milpe.html
It was a place for developing sore-necks..
...but worth the effort to see displaying
club-winged manakins:
(looking for a decent picture on the net)
and golden winged (?) manakins:
(likewise)
Easier to see was this rufous motmot
Also seen here, though not photographed,
were a small flock of gorgeous chlorophonias
(that's not a musical instrument!), some cinnamon
flycatchers and this plumbeous kite.
Back at the car park,
still hoping vainly to see umbrella birds, we encountered
a striped cuckoo close to, ending a pleasant visit to this lovely little
reserve.
Also down in the West we travelled to see choco forest fragments
near the town of Pedro Vincente Maldonado (named after an Ecuadorian
President). This last selection are images taken on this visit.
..some pigs out for a stroll...
... a pacific parrotlet hanging around...
...a passion flower
a manioc plant....
and, finally, one more nice flower.
Next come some images from the Amazonian
section of my holiday.
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