We arrived in Ecuador at 11pm and having finally cleared all the official stuff, we were met by our good (and mad) friend Iain Campbell, who was kind enough to let us crash at his humble pad. Jetlag notwithstanding, Iain promptly insisted we started our Ecuador bird list by cruising the dark side roads of Quito for Band-winged Nightjar. A totally futile exercise and one that we don’t recommend at all! To complete our evening, we arrived at Iain’s place only to find he had forgotten his doorkeys. Physically breaking down the door looked like a very strong probability until at last we (and the door) were saved as it was opened from inside. All too soon, it was a 5am start this morning and we headed out of Quito for Yanacocha. This is familiar ground for us as we guided here during the ABA conference in Quito in September 2007. The forest was cloaked in cloud and quite eerie and very damp as we set off along the trail. We soon hit birds with Rufous Wrens at close quarters and brief looks at Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager. We moved further along still shrouded in thick mist and collected two hummingbirds – Rainbow-bearded Thornbill and Sword-billed hummer! The first flock we hit held stunning birds including Hooded Mountain-Tanager and Blue-backed Conebill. At the feeders at the far end of the trail we were treated to close-up views of Golden-breasted Puffleg and Buff-winged Starfrontlet, birds that are just as juicy as their names suggest. Plunging off the main trail, we followed the Spectacled Bear Trail (sadly no bears) as it climbed down and up the side of the mountainside, with the occasional landslide and mud underfoot making walking treacherous in places. OK, so we’re not superfit but boy was that hard work in the high altitude of the mountains around the Pichincha volcano. But all our hard work was rewarded by amazingly confiding views of Blackish Tapaculo, a particularly skulking and hard-to-see bird and even more special, Rufous Antpitta, possibly even harder to score. Our final bird here was Stripe-headed Brush-Finch, which is usually hard to see but today put on quite a performance. Sadly the rain by now prevented any digiscoping to prove the point. Bird species total 487.
13.1.08