For our final day of our long weekend in the Choco, Andrew Spencer and I headed up the "new' Chical Road (that heads straight north into Colombia from the town of Gualchan). Our plan was almost foiled by a lack of hotels willing to take guests late the night before in Gualchan. However, Andrew somehow managed to persuade them (albeit begrudgingly) to accept us, and our plan was back on track, with a night in a tiny, tiny car called a "Spark" avoided in the process. We were here for several reasons. Mine was clear, having only visited the site once before I was keen to nail down another tanager lifer (which would be my third in three days): Purplish-mantled Tanager. Furthermore, as this site was only discovered in 2010, with few people having visited it since we were both keen to see what else could be found there. The site rose to prominence due to the patches of Choco foothill forest along there having been found to hold Star-chested Treerunner and the Purplish-mantled Tanager, both normally rare and difficult birds to find in Ecuador.
Our first forays on the near side of the pass were quiet except for a rowdy mob of Beautiful Jays, a pair of Plate-billed Mountain-Toucans, and an immaculate White-rumped Hawk perched by the roadside. Still tanager-less, we decided to change our focus to the forest patches beyond the pass. We had barely crossed the low mountain pass when the high-pitched song of the Purplish-mantled Tanager drifted into our ears, and we soon lined up our first pair of these gorgeous birds, (by the end of the day we had racked up another 3 of them). Soon after, we hit a flock of half a dozen or so Black-chinned Mountain-Tanagers, before we descended further down the other side. We then bumped into an awesome flock that yielded a close Star-chested Treerunner, a pair of Pacific Tuftedcheeks, a pair of Glistening-green Tanagers and a party of Handsome Flycatchers (distinctly rare and local in the northwest of Ecuador) among others. Later bird parties led us to a pair of Indigo Flowerpiercers, and we also found the scarce White-tailed Hillstar perched by a rushing Andean river. Heading back towards Gualchan we found the White-rumped Hawk of the morning had now been replaced by an adult Semicollared Hawk a very rare find indeed (and only my fourth Ecuador sighting)....
More from the Chical area to come, including some country firsts for Andrew and I...
Our first forays on the near side of the pass were quiet except for a rowdy mob of Beautiful Jays, a pair of Plate-billed Mountain-Toucans, and an immaculate White-rumped Hawk perched by the roadside. Still tanager-less, we decided to change our focus to the forest patches beyond the pass. We had barely crossed the low mountain pass when the high-pitched song of the Purplish-mantled Tanager drifted into our ears, and we soon lined up our first pair of these gorgeous birds, (by the end of the day we had racked up another 3 of them). Soon after, we hit a flock of half a dozen or so Black-chinned Mountain-Tanagers, before we descended further down the other side. We then bumped into an awesome flock that yielded a close Star-chested Treerunner, a pair of Pacific Tuftedcheeks, a pair of Glistening-green Tanagers and a party of Handsome Flycatchers (distinctly rare and local in the northwest of Ecuador) among others. Later bird parties led us to a pair of Indigo Flowerpiercers, and we also found the scarce White-tailed Hillstar perched by a rushing Andean river. Heading back towards Gualchan we found the White-rumped Hawk of the morning had now been replaced by an adult Semicollared Hawk a very rare find indeed (and only my fourth Ecuador sighting)....
More from the Chical area to come, including some country firsts for Andrew and I...
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