Refugio Paz de las Aves
Tuesday 24th November. Today we made a very early start, breakfast at 4.30 in order to get to Paz de las Aves in time to catch the Andean Cock-of-the-Rocks at the lek. As it happens we were there well in time and were in for a good display. The following is a description from the internet,-
The Refugio Paz de Las Aves is a private property of 120 hectare, of which 70 hectare are the forest protected by the Paz family. The site is located at roughly 1850 m in elevation. Most of the protected area consists of steep primary forest. The Paz brothers, Angel and Rodrigo, are the local guides on their land, and are certainly well able to look for the best places to find the bird specialties protected at their property. Many of the birds from Refugio Paz de Las Aves can be also seen in the Mindo Valley, but their place is world famous because is one of the few places anywhere to see at least four antpitta species without disturbing their behavior by means of sound play back. The brothers, nearly miraculously, call these species in with food and gentle calls.
Strangely this description does not even mention the Cock-of-the-Rock lek, I am not sure why. Anyway upon arrival we walked up a short forest trail to reach the blinds from where we watched these spectacular birds. It was pre-dawn and very dark, but after a short wait our patience was rewarded by the arrival of a superb male Cock-of-the-Rock. It was somewhat frustrating that the light was so poor that I had to set my ISO up to 6400 to even get an exposure.
The Refugio Paz de Las Aves is a private property of 120 hectare, of which 70 hectare are the forest protected by the Paz family. The site is located at roughly 1850 m in elevation. Most of the protected area consists of steep primary forest. The Paz brothers, Angel and Rodrigo, are the local guides on their land, and are certainly well able to look for the best places to find the bird specialties protected at their property. Many of the birds from Refugio Paz de Las Aves can be also seen in the Mindo Valley, but their place is world famous because is one of the few places anywhere to see at least four antpitta species without disturbing their behavior by means of sound play back. The brothers, nearly miraculously, call these species in with food and gentle calls.
Strangely this description does not even mention the Cock-of-the-Rock lek, I am not sure why. Anyway upon arrival we walked up a short forest trail to reach the blinds from where we watched these spectacular birds. It was pre-dawn and very dark, but after a short wait our patience was rewarded by the arrival of a superb male Cock-of-the-Rock. It was somewhat frustrating that the light was so poor that I had to set my ISO up to 6400 to even get an exposure.
Andean Cock-of-the-Rock male
However as time went on even more males arrived and as the light improved, so did my photographs. I was never able to reduce the ISO setting to less than 5000 and as any photographer knows this is not conducive to getting great quality results. My Canon EOS 7D is also well known for high noise levels in low light, but looking at the images I was actually quite pleased. Since being in Indo-China I am quite used to zapping up the ISO to get the shot, it's better than getting nothing.
Andean Cock-of-the-Rock male
| I had actually seen a Cock-of-the-Rock a couple of days earlier. We stopped in passing at a nest site quite near Tandayapa Bird Lodge and were fortunate to see a female fly out. I remember at the time wondering why our guide Gabriel described her as "Dull". Well everything is relative, compared to the fiery red of the male her orange plumage was put in the shade. Today all we saw were males being generally noisy and posturing to attract the females. Once they have mated the female does all the work, nesting, incubating and rearing the chicks. Does all this remind you of another species? No obvious comments welcome. |  Andean Cock-of-the-Rock male |
This was a tough act to follow, but we were then treated to the spectacle of the Paz brothers calling out their semi-tame antpittas from the forest. Each one had a name would you believe. As I recall Esmerelda was the Moustached Antpitta, or was it Maria? I'm not sure but they all had names and seemed to know them, or perhaps it was the promise of some juicy ragworms rather than just wanting to be sociable.
Moustached Antpitta
Some were easier to coax out than others and in fact one of the Brothers had to go off into the forest to find the birds, but find them he did. Next was the Giant Antpitta. Remember these birds are incredibly hard to see by normal birdwatching. The usual method is to use playback to attract them into sight once their call has been detected. Here no playback was used, the birds came on the promise of some grub, no pun intended, or perhaps just responding to their names.
Giant Antpitta
| Once the Giant Antpitta was out in the open she was joined by a much more timid bird, a little Ochre Breasted Antpitta. This little lady was a lot more nervous than her larger cousins and consequently hung well back in the undergrowth, hence the poor quality of the image. nevertheless it is an excellent record of an otherwise very hard to get bird. Not exactly "Hunting" in the truist sense, but great sightings anyway. To be honest I can't quite remember in which order all these birds showed up, I just remember being delighted to see so many secretive forest species being fostered and nurtured by some very astute individuals who used infinite patience and dedication to pull this off. Good on them. |  Ochre Breasted Antpitta |
The chaps above feeding on banana are Dark Backed Wood Quail, and the fellow below was an extremely timid Rufous Backed Antshrike, a very difficult bird to see and one that took a long time to get even a murky view of.
Rufous Backed Antshrike
 Yellow Breasted Antpitta | Finally, the last of the Paz brothers' little flock, a Yellow Breasted Antpitta appeared, another very timid individual but one whose desire to take the grub was greater than the instinct to run and hide. This place is a lister's paradise, so many hard to get wild forest species in one go. I'm pretty sure Ruth Miller & Alan Davies came here when they set the World birding record in 2008 (see The Biggest Twitch). Incidentally I see that this record has been well and truly broken now, check this site |
Crested Guan This organised bird show did not happen just in one place, we were moving from site to site depending on where the various birds usually appeared, and meanwhile we were also looking out for other birds, and in this we had some success. For example peering down a steep slope we spotted a Crested Guan nestling with spread wings on the ground. We believe it was "Anting". I quote from www.birds.com
Anting behaviour is when birds open their wings and lie down over an active anthill allowing ants to climb up onto them for reasons not fully understood, but it does seem that one part of anting remains consistent: birds prefer using ants that produce formic acid. Ants use the formic acid as a defense mechanism, they spray it at their attackers, but it seems to provide birds with a certain something that scientists would love to discover.
One theory is that the formic acid could be a fungicide, bactericide and/or an insect repellent, while others choose to believe that it's the vitamin D content in the acid that birds are after.
Whatever the reason this Crested Guan was definitely anting, and I only managed to get a reasonable photo when it finally folded its wings.
There happened to be a small rocky river running through the refuge where we were pleased to see a White Capped Dipper plying its trade amongst the rocks. Very nice.
Anting behaviour is when birds open their wings and lie down over an active anthill allowing ants to climb up onto them for reasons not fully understood, but it does seem that one part of anting remains consistent: birds prefer using ants that produce formic acid. Ants use the formic acid as a defense mechanism, they spray it at their attackers, but it seems to provide birds with a certain something that scientists would love to discover.
One theory is that the formic acid could be a fungicide, bactericide and/or an insect repellent, while others choose to believe that it's the vitamin D content in the acid that birds are after.
Whatever the reason this Crested Guan was definitely anting, and I only managed to get a reasonable photo when it finally folded its wings.
There happened to be a small rocky river running through the refuge where we were pleased to see a White Capped Dipper plying its trade amongst the rocks. Very nice.
White capped Dipper
As well as the Dipper a Torrent Tyrranulet was foraging for insects along the riverside. These birds are always seen close to water.
And in the tall trees by the river, looking down upon us was a Broad Winged Hawk.
Broad Winged Hawk
After Paz de Los Aves it felt like a whole day had passed, but because of our early start we still had the entire afternoon left for birding. So onward and upward to the Mindo - Nanbillo Cloud Forest Reserve where more special birds were in store. By now rain was coming down intermittantly but it didn't dampen the spirits of a group of Chestnut Mandibled Toucans who moved about in the tall trees all around us, making lots of noise and being seemingly oblivious to our presence. This Toucan species is very similar to the Choco, but there are slight differences in bills and call.
Chestnut Mandibled Toucan
Out here I was delighted to get an excellent shot of a Golden Tanager in a forest setting, away from any feeders.
Golden Tanager
The next shot is not of the same quality, but it's a lovely Beryl Spangled Tanager and I think it's worth posting in its natural forest setting.
Beryl Spangled Tanager
It was becoming apparent that birds were more active when there is heavy cloud cover or even rain. Gabriel told us about this quite early on, and so it proved as the rainy conditions brought out the birds in numbers. The Toucan Barbet below was a superb looking bird which in good light would have made an outstanding photo. But you can't have everything and with my ISO set at 2500 I at least got record shots of a great bird.
Toucan Barbet
Toucan Barbet
There's not much one can say about the Crimson Rumped Toucanet, the pictures say it all, fabulous. This was bird watching at its very best, the birds and the forest were amazing.
Crimson Rumped Toucanet
Crimson Rumped Toucanet
Sometimes it was hard to know where to look, trying to get a bead on the Toucanet & Gabriel announces "Powerful Woodpecker!" which is a large and uncommon species that one shouldn't miss, but the Toucanet... oh well try to get both. Made it.
Powerful Woodpecker
I have seen many woodpeckers but this is one of the best. Well proportioned, strikingly marked, strong. Aptly named.
Plenty of small birds about too, a Slate Throated Whitestart comes into view.
Plenty of small birds about too, a Slate Throated Whitestart comes into view.
and a common House Wren showed quite well on a nice sloping tree trunk.
House Wren
This is a very innocuous looking Yellow Bellied Elaenia taking some berries. Not the most exciting bird in the World but they all count, and I love the name, so here it is.
Yellow Bellied Elaenia
Eventually we left the forest and made our way into Mindo Town. Here we searched the Town Centre Gardens and found a few more birds to add to our tally. Hopping around on the grass was a nice Pacific Hornero. A common bird but one that I needed a decent photograph of, and here it is.
Pacific Hornero A pair of Masked Water Tyrants were nesting in a garden tree. Striking looking birds in black and white. They are common but still attractive.
Masked Water Tyrant
| One final treat was in store for us on the way home. At a routine stop and scan we picked up a Toucan family bird in the distance. The rain was steady now as I recall and Gabriel said "Pale Mandibled Aracari". We looked at it briefly from a distance, I fired off a few long range shots and we continued on our way home to the Lodge. It is only now that I can see on my computer that they were not Pale Mandibled Aracaris at all. The markings are entirely consistent with the Collared Aracari - pteroglossus torquatus. This is also consistent with data in the Field Guide which says it's the only Aracari in the Western subtropics, which is where Mindo is located. Strangely this species is not even included in my Mindo Bird Tours list of species. I have emailed Gabriel for an opinion and await his reply. |  Collared Aracari |
Collared Aracari
On a final footnote, I discovered one more bird not previously listed. I took this photo at the Paz de los Aves after the Cock-of-the-Rock lek while we were waiting to see the Antpittas. I remember spotting a humminbird perched within good range, fired off a shot and thought no more of it. Looking at it carefully now there is little doubt that it is a Brown Inca. Not otherwise recorded this adds another species to my trip tally which it currently stands at 421.
Brown Inca
It had been a long but very satisfying day. More birds than ever and of such quality. We slept well that night
