28th December. A quick 5am breakfast and we stepped out into the warmth of a Macara pre-dawn. This morning we headed for higher elevation above the town, twisting and turning our way keeping an eye on the fuel gauge as we went. A small nightjar flew across the road but the brief view meant it went unidentified. As the light came we turned off the tarmac, well patches of it between potholes, and onto a dirt track that led to an area of scrub. We soon had our first new bird, a pair of Hepatic Tanagers feeding in a thorn bush. A loud trilling call drew our attention to a Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner and amazingly it showed off right above us. Next up was Line-cheeked Spinetail before our attention was taken by bizarre raucous calls from higher up the hillside. A large long tailed bird swooped, no that’s not right, swoop sounds elegant, this was a barely controlled fall, down from one tree to the next below, Rufous-headed Chachalaca. We trained the scope on the tree and found a whole gang of these ungainly rather chicken like creatures feeding on berries.
We headed further up hill and into thick mist, ugh! Undaunted we continued to search for new birds. It was hard work as no sooner you saw a bird it vanished in the murk. At last we found one of our target birds close enough to enjoy great views, a handsome Black-cowled Saltator.
Back to the car and ever up wards, luckily we broke out of the mist and were treated to a view of high hills peeking out from a sea of cloud. Now in the clear new birds came quickly with Grey-headed Antbird, Jelski’s Chat-tyrant and Piura Hemispingus, all cracking birds. Next we entered the Jocotoco Reserve of Bosque de Hanne, a ridge top cloud forest. Here we were looking for a very special bird, Black-crested Tit-tyrant, a very sexy looking bird, about the size of a European Great Tit done out in black and white stripes, white face and of course black crest. We walked the trails seeing some nice stuff, Silver-backed and Blue and black Tanagers, Red-crested Cotingas but nothing new and no sign of the star bird. We tried a different track and our luck changed we quickly found a beautiful Rainbow Starfrontlet hummingbird, wow! Moments later Nick had a glimpse of the Tit-tyrant but we both missed it. Tense wait as we scanned the stunted trees, then, yes! Black-crested Tit-tyrant in full view, what a wonderful bird.
We finished off sitting by the hummingbird feeders where we added Purple-throated Sunangel and Mountain velvet-breast to our list, superb birding!
We headed back down towards Macara stopping at each petrol station in the hope of finding fuel but each and every one was closed. Back in town the same story so tomorrow will be interesting.  Will we have enough fuel to reach a petrol station that has any fuel left?
Bird species total 4327
Posted 28th December, Macara.
The Biggest Twitch website will remain online in 2009 to keep you up to date with our birding adventures and let you know how we settle back into normal life, if we do!! We will also share more of our adventures and lots of photos from The Biggest Twitch.