Potential first record for Ecuador!
Early morning we arrived at the Fundacion Jocotoco Reserve just outside Macara. We birded the trails here in this new habitat for us, so new birds came quickly. Just as we stepped out of the car a pair of Red-masked Parakeets landed in a bare tree, and we enjoyed great scope views. A few yards up the trail and a Gray-and-gold Warbler popped into view, a Pale-browed Tinamou scuttled across the path in front of us, Black-capped Sparrows showed off in the adjacent scrub, Rufous-headed Chachalacas called from the treetops, Henna-hooded Foliage-Gleaner showed briefly, a pair of Scarlet-backed Woodpeckers drummed enthusiastically, a White-tailed Jay swooped in and gave us wonderful views at close range. As the temperature climbed to the low 40’s we headed back to town for a welcome cold drink and late lunch.
With the temperature still baking we headed out west from Macara on an exploratory trip as Nick wanted to test out a new area of dry scrub which he was confident would hold some good birds. How right he was! First stop produced a Baird’s Flycatcher but little else so we moved on again and tried a more promising area along a dirt track near a rubbish dump. We pished in a pair of Tropical Gnatcatchers and as we watched these another bird flew in and landed in a low bush just a couple of meters away. It was obviously something different so we quickly drew Nick’s attention to the bird and his response is not printable but it was obvious we were onto something very special. Nick instantly had his camera trained on the bird and fired off some shots. It was only then that he told us the identification of our mystery bird: Tumbes Tyrant, a potential first record of this species ever in Ecuador! We also added Tumbes Sparrow and Hummingbird, along with Superciliated Wren to bring our total number of new birds for the day to 26.
Bird species total: 4315
Posted 27th December, Macara, Ecuador
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.