Ecuador day 8

Choco Toucan

20 February - Wednesday. We made an early start this morning heading for the Ricaurte road and on to the Sirua Reserve which is part of the Awacachi project dedicated to raising awareness of the need to create and preserve corridors between isolated pockets of habitat (and ultimately to prevent future habitat fragmentation) from the lowlands to higher terrain in order to maintain continuity for species distribution and diversity.

The Pancho Foundation

Birding in the hollow at the reserve

Dragonfly

We were fortunate here to come upon several White-bearded Manakins lekking deep in the undergrowth. Whilst they were very difficult to see we could hear the amazing sharp ‘fire-cracker’ sounds apparently made by their wings.

Having had a relatively dry and sunny morning it rained for an hour at lunchtime and by 2pm we were on our way towards coastal wetlands at Laguna de la Cuidad. Here were our first real waterbirds – grebes and herons, Pinnated Bittern and Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. Also spectacular were Vermillion Flycatchers and Peruvian Meadowlark.

With the threat of rain approaching we made a brief visit to the nearby Esmeraldas coast to look at our only true seabirds on a very grey and choppy Pacific Ocean. Rain eventually drove us back to the lodge for a 7pm dinner.

White-necked Puffbird (lower picture EJP)

Western white-tailed Trogon - back view in the shade!

Today the total species count came to 134 - our best day so far! A long list of species seen only today included many wetland and coastal species as would be expected from our itinerary, and included, Orange-fronted Barbet, Ecuadorian Ground-Dove, Blue Ground-Dove, Purple Gallinule, Greater Yellowlegs, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, Wattled Jacana, Laughing Gull, Royal Tern, Harris’s Hawk, Laughing Falcon, Least Grebe, Cocoi Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Pinnated Bittern, Brown Pelican, Magnificent Frigatebird, Pacific Antwren, White-flanked Antwren, Lesser Greenlet, Tawny-crested Tanager, Red-breasted Blackbird, Peruvian Meadowlark and Great-tailed Grackle. Today was the first day that we had no specialities only heard! Numerous species today, other than those figuring in the list above, were Smooth-billed Ani, Pacific Parrotlet, Blue-headed Parrot, Mealy Parrot, Pale-vented Pigeon, Plumbeous Kite, Roadside Hawk, Neotropical Cormorant, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Vermillion Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird, Pacific Hornero, Grey-breasted Martin, Blue-and-white Swallow, Southern Rough-winged Swallow, Lemon-rumped Tanager, Blue-grey Tanager, Variable Seedeater and Chestnut-throated Seedeater.

Pale-mandibled Aracari (image EJP)

Three-toed Sloth sleeping in a Cecropia at the back of the Tandaloma Lodge