Ecuador!

I'm closing out my 2013 posts with this trip report from Ecuador. ES
Choco Cloud Forest, Ecuador

September 16-October 1, 2013

Eric & Lorna Salzman, Sam Sage, Merryl Edelstein

The Choco cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains in northwestern Ecuador and western Colombia is one of the wettest places on earth. It is also one of the biologically richest places in the world and it harbors a very large number of endemic and threatened species – far more than, say, the Amazonian rain forest. This includes many different forms of life; for example, the olinquito, a newly discovered mammal, and the ‘Pinocchio’ lizard, recently rediscovered, are both indigenous to this region). But it was, of course, the birds that that drew us there. Because of the wealth of bird life in the Choco, Colombia is the #1 country in the world for sheer numbers of bird species and much-smaller Ecuador takes first place for numbers relative to the size of the country.

We were in Colombia’s western cordillera for part of our trip to that country in 2012 and we touched upon the region (without knowing much about it) during a long-ago trip to Ecuador in 1990. Peter Joost, our friend and fellow birder on that 1990 visit, has since purchased a tract of farm and rainforest in an area known as Intag in the mountains west of Otavalo in northwestern Ecuador and built a lodge there and now we were finally able to take up his long-standing invitation to visit. The trip was organized around four days at Peter’s lodge, El Refugio del Intag, preceded by three days in Quito and the Quito area and followed by a week in the mountain town of Mindo, a major center for birding the Choco. Sam Sage, director of the Atlantic States Legal Foundation (one of the country’s leading advocates of environmental law as well as an old colleague of Lorna’s) was with us the whole way. Merryl Edelstein, a retired city planner from L.A., joined us for the week in Mindo.


Monday & Tuesday, September 16-17: The flight to Quito from New York via Miami is an hour late and we reach our destination, the Hotel Andino in the new town of Quito, close to midnight. Marco Arenas and his bird guide are there to pick us up at 6:30 the next morning for a drive to Parque Jerusalem, the unlikely name for a park/reserve outside of Quito. This is a dry forest of a type that once covered the central valley of Ecuador; this one is said to be the last such area left and it has its special flora and fauna including a briefly glimpsed Giant Hummingbird and the handsome Blue-and-Yellow Tanager.

Wednesday, September 18: A day on the slopes of the Pinchinca Volcano at the Yanacocha Reserve, a flagship property of Ecuador’s Jocotoco Foundation. This reserve protects the last remaining colony of the critically endangered Black-chested Hummingbird which, alas, we did not see. We did see other hummers but my most remarkable sightings were two views of the Blackish Tapaculo – once as a flying black puffball whizzing across the trail and shortly thereafter perched in the open on a branch for about a millisecond. This is high-end tapaculo watching – by far the best views I have ever had of a bird in this family of skulkers. The trail is surprisingly level for a high mountain as it is built on top of a major aqueduct that provides mountain water for Quito. Outstanding birds seen here (in addition to the tapaculo) were hummingbirds: the Great Sapphirewing and three non-Black-chested species of puffleg.

Thursday, September 19: A full day in the Old Town of Quito, still quite charming and containing some of the gems of Spanish colonial architecture, notably the elaborate Jesuit Iglesia de La Compañia. Another fascinating monument was the town house of one of the local grandees, an aristocratic lady who lived in traditional style well into the 20th century.

Friday, September 20: We drive across the equator to Otavalo and El Refugio de Intag with stops at equator itself and the local crafts towns of Peguche (woven goods) and Cotacaxi (leather), both to the north before the turn into the mountains. This whole drive is remarkable for having volcanoes in sight almost all the way, many of them covered with ice and snow Ecuador’s third highest peak, Cayambe, looms above the town of the same name; it is the only place on the equator covered with glaciers and, if you cross it and go down the other side, you are in the Amazon rain forest. After Otavalo and its satellite towns, we head west into the mountains. The road is no longer paved but it has been graded and will apparently be paved in the near future (the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has embarked on major road-building initiatives  which will help tourism and business but not the environment). At the remote mountain village of Santa Rosa, we turn onto a rocky track that leads to El Refugio de Intag. We arrive in mid-afternoon and, after being greeted by Peter and shown to our accommodations by a rushing mountain stream, there is still time for a streamside walk and a general visit to the immediate property.



Saturday, September 21: We are driven up to the higher reaches of the Neblina Cloud Forest by Osvaldo, Peter’s jack-of-all-trades refuge manager. The word neblina means mist or fog and suggests how the clouds form and settle on these mountain slopes creating a wet forest of mythic proportions. This forest can be birded only from the road and conditions are alternately windy and misty, making birding difficult. Osvaldo makes a daring descent down the side of the road to reach a strand of sparkling yellow orchids which we bring back to El Refugio. In addition to birds, Ecuador (and the Choco in particular) is famous for its orchids and there are nearly always some of them in bloom.

         In the afternoon, we drive and walk up to La Florida to visit a near neighbor of Peter’s who has an upland pasture and farm as well as uncut forest. Sandra was married to an Ecuadorian environmental activist (they are divorced but both still live on the ranch) and is herself an organizer of the local women who produce beautiful craft work. From this high perch, you can hear the calls of the male Cocks of the Rock on their lek deep in the forest below.



Sunday, September 22: Siempre Verde is a nearby cloudforest reserve set up for visits by schools. It is reachable only by a very bad rock road and the last portion has to be traversed on foot; it is high in the forest with beautiful views and abundant flora and fauna. Like many areas in the Intag, it is distinguished not only by its birds but also by its wildflowers. The highlight is a Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan on branches right over the road on the way back.

         Sandra accompanies us to Siempre Verde and, later in the day, I walk with her part of the way back from El Refugio. Eventually I turn around and shortly run into another American who lives still further up the valley. She is a woman in (I would guess) her 60s and she is coming back from the Sunday market at Abuelo. This is a good-sized walk of 12k (or more) each way – perhaps 15 miles in all – and her groceries are being carried home in little saddle packs on the backs of each of her three dogs!

Monday, September 23: Back to Neblina in the morning with much more luck than on the previous visit. A last walk around El Refugio in the afternoon to search for Torrent Ducks on the river is unsuccessful but our consolation prize is a handsome White-capped Dipper.

Tuesday, September 24:  Back to the outskirts of Quito where we hook up with Franklin Duran from Mindo and Merryl Edelstein who is joining us for this part of the trip. We skirt the capital as best we can and head into western Andes to Mindo. This is the ‘new Nono-Mindo Road’; when we were here in 1990,  there was only the old, unpaved road. Mindo is actually a few kilometers off the road in its own picturesque valley and it seems just as ramshackle today as it was when we were there before, almost a quarter-century ago. What has changed is the development of an eco-tourist business mostly concentrated in fancy, expensive lodges in the environs. Lorna has, however located a BioHostal in the middle of town that is basic but comfortable and reasonably priced. We stayed in a residencia on the town square in 1990 and, in order to turn on the lights, you had to hook two bare wires together! Now we not only have electric light switches but a private bath and a comfortable room just a block or two off the square.

Here we meet Julia Patino, the first woman bird guide in Ecuador, and together we plan out the week.

Wednesday, September 25: Angel Paz, a local farmer/rancher, has become Ecuador’s most celebrated curator of birds for a simple reason. A number of years ago he discovered that he could attract antpittas and antthrushes into the open by offering them worms. Before Angel Paz, hardly anybody ever saw these denizens of the cloudforest understory; now they are seen every day: Yellow-breasted Antpitta, Giant Antpitta, Ochre-breasted Antpitta (these last two, the largest and smallest of the local antpittas) plus the Rufous-breasted Antthrush! Only the Moustached Antpitta did not show (we had previously missed it in Colombia where they have adapted Angel’s feeding techniques with equal success: lots of antpittas but no Moustached). In the afternoon, we bird the Via Cinto and Rio Nambillo near Mindo.

Thursday, September 26: The Bella Vista Cloud Forest Reserve is about 50k from Mindo. Our birding day starts from cattle pastures outside the reserve, follows a narrow forested ridge and ends up on the old Nono-Mindo Road where the Bella Vista Lodge is situated. This was all very active early in the morning and the lodge itself is well stocked with hummingbird feeders and hummingbirds. The original plan was to eat lunch here but it turned out to be very expensive so we went down the road to the nearby town of San Miguel de los Bancos where we ate in a rather fancy restaurant which more than made up for its culinary shortcomings by having an active banana feeder right next to the dining area (two beautiful new tanagers as well as other good birds close up). In the afternoon, we end up in the garden of a local who has set up his garden with hummingbird and banana feeders that are frequented by non-stap avian traffic.

Friday, September 27: Up well before dawn for the long ride to the Rio Silanche Sanctuary, a slice of lowland Choco forest that preserves many birds that are normally seen closer to the coast. This reserve has a canopy tower that gives good looks at the early-morning flocks that whiz through the nearby trees as well as a number of raptors. As almost everywhere, there are hummingbird feeders and a different collection of hummers. An all-day expedition.

Saturday, September 28: Milpe is much closer to Mindo but an early morning start was still called for and the reason soon became apparent; we were headed to a nearby farm/ranch to watch the early morning arrival of the Long-wattled Umbrellabirds. And the birds cooperated nicely, emerging from the adjacent forest and perching out in the open before flying off in search of sustenance – presumably some fruiting trees ripening somewhere in the vicinity. After this stunning performance by one of the strangest members of the entire avian tribe, we proceed to the Milpe Sanctuary to look for lekking Club-winged Manakins (didn’t show) and Golden-winged Manakin (which did show but I missed them). Many other birds as well.

Sunday, September 29: Since yesterday’s Milpe visit took place rather late in the morning, we decide to revisit early this morning, a plan that was however somewhat dampened by our first and only rain of the trip (rainy season was, in any case, due to begin shortly). Again we had no luck with the Club-winged Manakin and, after a bit, we took off on a long ride into the valley of the Guayllabamba River at a place called Chontal. After a stop at a local estancia to pick up a guide and keys, we went down into the cliffs below the road to find an Oilbird Cave. Now we have seen tens of thousands of Oilbirds emerge at dusk from a cave in Caripe, Venezuela, (where they were discovered by Alexander von Humbolt) but this cave is quite different. It is hardly more than a cleft in the rock with a spring flowing out and it is home to perhaps a dozen or two of these strange, big and scary-looking birds. They are sitting on the edge of the rock face only a few yards away from us, quite out in the open and looking like nothing so much as a cross between a giant nightjar and big owl. Unlike the Caripe birds, these are not only extraordinarily close but also active in full daylight; one bird flies around making horrible noises as if to scare us away! We eat our ‘box lunch’ back at the estancia and then return to Mindo to bird the nearby San Lorenzo road in the late afternoon. Here, after what seemed like days of looking, we finally found the extraordinary-looking Club-winged Manakin, a male and two females feeding on fruit.

Monday, September 30 & Tuesday, October 1: Since we don’t have to be in Quito until late in the day, we are able to plan a morning back on the San Lorenzo Road. This popular road (it was full of cars and tourists on Sunday but quiet today) leads to waterfalls and swimming holes but eventually also to the Mindo/Nambillo Cloudforest. As on the previous evening, it proved to be one of the best birding spots of the entire trip. In addition to the manakin, we found a Barred Puffbird and Julia called in the Cloudforest Pygmy-Owl for a sensational finish to our visit. After lunch, we are off to Quito and a guesthouse near the airport for our early morning return to New York.

Bird List: Before 2013, the principal references for the birds of Ecuador were the massive two-volumes works by Robert S. Ridgely and Paul J. Greenfield (The Birds of Ecuador (Cornell U. Press, 2001) and Birds of Northern South America (Robin Restall with Clemencia Rodner and Miguel Lentino; (Yale U. Press, 2006). Now there is a handy Fieldbook of the Birds of Ecuador by Miles McMullan and Lelis Navarrate (Jocotoco 2013). closely modeled on the very similar Birds of Colombia (Pro Aves, Colombia); both of these are convenient, pocket-size guides to an otherwise almost unmanageable bird megafauna. At over 1500 species, Ecuador is one of the birdiest countries in the world (no. 5 by some counts); if size is taken into consideration, it is perhaps the birdiest place of all.

The following list follows McMullan/Navarrate with notes from the other two volumes. Note that as bird taxonomy changes and as new species are discovered and/or described, the discrepencies between the various lists tends to mount. Recent examples (not included in any of the books) are the lumping of the Green- and Purple-crowned Woodnymphs as Crowned Woodnymph and the split of Immaculate Antbird (the bird we saw is now called Zeledon’s Antbird).

Heard only birds are indicated by a superscript ‘H’; Choco endemics are marked with a superscript ‘E’


HLittle Tinamou (Crypturellus soui) - (heard only)

Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes goudotii)
Wattled Guan (Aburria abburi)

HDark-backed Wood-Quail (Odontophorus melanomotus) – (heard only)

Cattle Egret (Bubulus ibis)  - very common everywhere
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) – less common than the Black
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) – most common vulture everywhere

Double-toothed Kite (Harpagus bidentatus)
Tiny Hawk (Accipiter superciliosus)
Barred Hawk (Leucopternis princeps)
Roadside Hawk (Buteo magnirostris)
Variable Hawk (Buteo polysoma)
Laughing Falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans)
HCollared Forest-Falcon (Micrastur semitorquatus) – heard only

Lapwing? [called as Southern Lapwing but may have been Andean Lapwing]
Spotted Sandpiper (Actitus macularius)

Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerina)
Rock Dove (Columba livia)
Band-tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata)
Plumbeous Pigeon (P. plumbea)
Ruddy Pigeon (P. subvinacea)
*EDusky Pigeon (P. goodsoni) – Choco endemic
Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata)
White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi)
EPallid Dove (L. pallida) – Choco endemic

Maroon-tailed Parakeet (Pyrrhura melanura)
Blue-fronted Parrotlet
ERose-faced Parrot (Pyrilia pulchra) – Choco endemic
Red-billed Parrot (Pionus sordidus) – most common parrot
Speckle-faced Parrot (P. seniloides)
Bronze-winged Parrot (P. chalcopterus)
Mealy Parrot (Amazone farinosa)

Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana)
Striped Cuckoo (Tapera naevia)

Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium nubicola) – Choco endemic and a highlight of the trip
Mottled Owl (Ciccaba virgata) - seen near El Refugio (whistled in pitch darkness by Osvaldo)

Oilbird  Oilbird (Staetornis caripensis) – We saw tens of thousands of these birds emerging from their cave as dusk in Caripe, Venezuela (where the bird was ‘discovered’ by     Alexander von Humboldt); however the tiny cave – at Chontal – hardly more than a cleft in the rock with water gushing out of it with perhaps a dozen or so birds – was a close-up, daylight experience of these incredible birds (one of them was actually flying and calling as if to try and chase us away)
Ch       
            Chestnut-collared Swift (Streptoprocne rutila)
Grey-rumped Swift (Chaetura cinereiventris)
White-collared Swift (S. zonaris)

White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora) –  more of a lowland hummingbird but apparently gaining ground in the mountain valleys
*EWhite-whiskered Hermit (Phaethornis yaruqui) – a Choco endemic
*Tawny-bellied Hermit (P. syrmatophorus)
Brown Violetear (Colibri delphinaae) – one singing right in front of the BioHostal, Mindo, on our arrival; also seen at other locations
Green Violetear (C. thalassinus)
Sparkling Violetear (C. coruscans)
*EGreen Thorntail (Discosura conversii) – Choco endemic
Speckled Hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys)
EViolet-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus coelestis) – Choco endemic
Black-tailed Trainbearer (Lesbia victoriae)
Tyrian Metaltail (Metallura tyrianthina)
Glowing Puffleg (Eriocnemis vestitus) – all three pufflegs were seen on 9/18 at Yanacocha on the slopes of the Pinchicha Volcano near Quito. [N.B. the critically         endangered Black-chested Puffleg (E. nigrivestis) whose entire world population is on the slopes here was not seen.]
*ESapphire-vented Puffleg (E. luciani) – Choco endemic
EGolden-breasted Puffleg (E moquera) – Choco endemic
EBrown Inca (Coeligena wilsoni) – Choco endemic
Collared Inca (C. torquata)
Buff-winged Starfrontlet (C. lutetiae)
*Mountain Velvetbreast (Lafresnaya lafresnayi)
Sward-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera)
Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas)
Great Sapphirewing (Pterophanes cyanoptera)
Buff-tailed Coronet (Boissonneaua flavescens)
EVelvet-purple Coronet (B jardini) - Choco endemic
Booted Rackettail (Ocreatus underwoodii) .
*Purple-bibbed Whitetip (Urosticte benjamini)
Fawn-breasted Brilliant (Heliodoxa rubinoides)
EGreen-crowned Brilliant (H. jacula) – Choco endemic
Purple-collared Woodstar (Myrtis fanny)
*White-bellied Woodstar (Chaetocercus mulsant)
*EPurple-throated Woodstar (Calliphax mitchelli) – Choco endemic
EWestern (or West Andean) Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) – Choco endemic
Green-crowned (Crowned) Woodnymph (Thalurania [columbica] fannyi) - N.B.: this has recently been lumped with the Violet-crowned Woodnymph (T. columbica)
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl)
*Andean Emerald (A. franciae)
Blue-chested Hummingbird (A. amabilis)
*EPurple-chested Hummingbird (A. rosenbergi) – Choco endemic [N.B.: 35 species of hummingbirds in all]

Golden-headed Quetzal (Pharomachrus auriceps)
Masked Trogon (Trogon personatus)

Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata)

Broad-billed Motmot (Electron platyrhynchum)
Rufous Motmot (Baryphthengus martii)

Rufous-tailed Jacamar (Galbula ruficauda)

Barred Puffbird (Nystalus radiatus) – whistled in by Julia on the San Lorenzo Road near Mindo

EOrange-fronted Barbet (Capito squamatus) – Choco endemic
Red-headed Barbet (C. bourcierii)

EToucan Barbet (Semnornis ramphastinus) – Choco endemic (no longer considered a barbet)

Black-mandibled (Chestnut-mandibled) Toucan (Ramphastos [ambiguous] swansonii)
*EChoco Toucan (R. brevis) – Choco endemic
Crimson-rumped Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus haematopygus)
*EPlate-billed Mountain-Toucan (Andigena laminirostris) – Choco endemic
EPale-mandibled (Collared) Aracari (Pteroglossus [torquatus] erythropygius) – Choco endemic as a sp. or ssp.

Smoky-brown Woodpecker (Picoides fumigatus)
Golden-olive Woodpecker (Colaptes rubiginosus)
Yellow-vented Woodpecker (Vernilornis dignis)
Crimson-mantled Woodpecker (C. rivolii)
*Cinnamon Woodpecker (Celeus loricatus)
Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)
Guayaquil Woodpecker (Campephilus gayaquilensis)

Pale-legged or Pacific Hornero (Furnarious leucopis)
HAzara’s Spinetail (Synallaxis azarae)
HRufous Spinetail (S. unirufa)
*White-browed Spinetail (Hellmayrea gularis)
ERed-faced Spinetail (Cranioleuca erythrops) – Choco endemic? Is it split from a Central American form?
Pearled Treerunner (Margarornis squamiger)
EScaly-throated Foliage-gleaner (Anabacerthia variegaticeps) – Choco endemic
*Linneated Foliage-gleaner (Syndactyla subalaris)
Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner (Philydor erythrocercum)
Buff-throated Foliage-gleaner (Automolus ochrolaemus)
Plain Xenops (Xenops minutus)
Plain-brown Woodcreeper (Dendrocincla fuliginosa)
Spotted Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus erythropygius)
Montane Woodcreeper (Lepidicolaptes lacrymiger)

HStreak-headed [Long-tailed] Antbird (Drymophila striaticeps) – this is a split from the Long-tailed Antbird
Dusky Antbird (Cercomacra humeralis)
*Zeledon’s (Immaculate) Antbird (Myrmeciza [immaculata] zeledoni) – recent split from the Immaculate Antbird and (I think) a Choco endemic
*ERufous-breasted Antthrush (Formicarius rufipectus) – Choco endemic

*EGiant Antpitta (Grallaria gigantea) – the largest of all the antpittas; Choco endemic
*EYellow-breasted Antpitta (G. flavotincta) – Choco endemic
HTawny Antpitta (G. ruficapilla) – heard only (the easiest of all the antpittas to see so, of course, we did not see it)
*EOchre-breasted Antpitta (Grallaricula ferrufineipectus) –  the smallest of the local antpittas; Choco endemic
HOcellated Tapaculo (Acropternis orthonyx) – heard only
*EBlackish Tapaculo (Scytalopus latrans) – seen twice at the head of the Yanacocha trail 9/18 (once as a black fuzz-ball rocketing across the patch a few inches off the ground at my feet and then again perched on a branch in the clear! Best views I’ve ever had of a tapaculo!; Choco endemic

*White-fronted (or Rough-legged) Tyrannulet (Phyllomyias zeledoni)
*Tawny-rumped Tyrannulet (P. uropygialis)
Yellow-bellied Elaenia (Elaenia flavigaster)
Sierran Elaenia (E. pallatangae)
White-tailed Tyrannulet (Mecocerculus paecilocercus)
Another tyrannulet (White-banded or Rufous-winged)?
EChoco Tyrannulet (Zimmerius albigularis) – Choco endemic (split from the Golden-fronted Tyrannulet)
EStreak-necked Flycatcher (Mionectes striaticollis) – possible Choco endemic
Slaty-capped Flycatcher (Leptopogon superciliaris)
Flavescent Flycatcher (Myiophobus flavicans)
Cinnamon Flycatcher (Pyrrhomias cinnamomeus)
Cliff Flycatcher (Hirundinea ferruginea)
Smoke-colored Pewee (Contopus fumigatus)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)
Smoky Bush-Tyrant (Myiotheretes fumigatus)
Masked Water-Tyrant (Fluvicola nengeta) –
Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant (Ochthoeca rufipectoralis)
Long-tailed Tyrant (Colonia colonus)
Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis)
Social Flycatcher (M. similis)
Golden-crowned Flycatcher (Myiodynastes chrysocephalus)
Streaked Flycatcher (M. maculatus)
Snowy-throated Kingbird (Tyrannus niveigularis)
Tropical Kingbird (T. melancholicus) – just about everywhere
Dusky-capped Flycatcher (Myiarchus tubericulifer)
Sooty-crowned Flycatcher (M. phaeocephalus)

HBarred Fruiteater (Pipreola arcuata) – heard only
HAndean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus) – heard only
Purple-throated Fruitcrow (Querula purpurata)
*ELong-wattled Umbrellabird (Cephalopterus penduliger) – Choco endemic

[Golden-winged Manakin (Masius chrysoptera) – seen by Sam and Myrrl but not by me (down a very steep and slippery trail)]
*EClub-winged Manakin (Machaeropterus deliciosus) – 1 male and 2 females; Choco endemic
Red-capped Manakin (Pipra mentalis)

Masked Tityra (Tityra semifasciatus)
Cinnamon Becard (Pachyramphus cinnamomeus)
White-winged Becard (P. polycopterus)

Brown-capped Vireo (Vireo leucophrys) –
Red-eyed Vireo (V. olivaceus) – this is the local ssp which used to be called the Chivi Vireo
Lesser Greenlet (Hylophilus decurtatus)

Turquoise Jay (Cyanolyca turcosa)

Blue-and-white Swallow (Pygochelidon cyanoleuca) – most common swallow everywhere, particularly in forested areas
Brown-bellied Swallow (Orochelidon murina)
Southern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgiopteryx ruficollis)
Grey-breasted Martin (Progne chalybea)

White-capped Dipper (Cinclus leucocephalus)

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
Mountain Wren (T. solstitialis)
Band-backed Wren (Campylorhynchus zonatus)
HPlain-tailed Wren (Thryothorus euophrys) – heard only; could not lure him out from his bamboo grove
HBay Wren (T. nigricapillus)
Grey-breasted Wood-Wren (Henicorhina leucophrys)

*Slate-throated Gnatcatcher (Polioptila schistaceigula)

HAndean Solitaire (Myadestes ralloides)
*Spotted Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus dryas)
*EEcuadorian Thrush (Turdus maculirostris) – Choco endemic
Great Thrush (T. fuscate)
Glossy-black Thrush (T. serranus)
Superciliated Hemispingus (Hemispringus superciliaris)
Grey-hooded Bush-Tanager (Cneomoscopus rubirostris)
White-shouldered Tanager (Tachyphonus luctuosus)
White-lined Tanager (T. rufus)
Lemon-rumped Tanager (Ramphocelus icteronotus)
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus)
Palm Tanager (T. palmarum)
Blue-and-Yellow Tanager (T. bonariensis)
Hooded Mountain-Tanager (Buthraupis wetmorei)
Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager (Anisognathus igniventris) – most spectacular of the mountain-tanagers
Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager (A. somptuosus)
Golden-crowned Tanager (Iridosornis rufivertex)
Swallow Tanager (Tersina viridis)
Golden-naped Tanager (Tangara ruficervix)
EGrey-and-Gold Tanager (T. palmeri) – Choco endemic
EScrub Tanager (T. vitriolina) – Choco endemic
Golden-hooded Tanager (T. larvata) –
Blue-necked Tanager (T. cyanicollis) –
ERufous-throated Tanager (T. rufigula) – Choco endemic
Beryl-spangled Tanager (T. nigroviridis)
*Metallic-green Tanager (T. labradorides)
Bay-headed Tanager (T. gyrola)
Saffron-crowned Tanager (T. xanthocephala)
Flame-faced Tanager (T. parzudakii)
Golden Tanager (T. arthus)
Silver-throated Tanager (T. icterocephala)
Yellow-tufted or Black-faced Dacnis (D. [lineata] egregia)
Scarlet-thighed Dacnis (D. venusta)
Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza)
Guira Tanager (Hemithraupis guira)
Blue-backed Conebill (Conirostrum sitticolor)

Glossy Flowerpiercer (Diglossa lafresnyii)
Indigo Floweriercer (D. indigolica)
Masked Flowerpiercer (D. cyanea)

EDusky or Dusky-bellied Bush-Tanager or Chlorospingus (Chlorospingus semifuscus) – Choco endemic
Yellow-throated Bush-Tanager or Chlorospingus (C. flavigularis)
Dusky-faced Tanager (Mitrospingus cassinii)

Bananaquit (Coebra flaveola)

Yellow-faced Grassquit (Tiaris olivacea)
Dull-colored Grassquit (T. obscura) 

EBlack-winged Saltator (S. atripennis) – Choco endemic
Buff-throated Saltator (S. maximus)
Streaked Saltator (S. striatipectus)

Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) – everywhere
Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola)
Orange-billed Sparrow (Arremon aurantiirostris)
*Yellow-breasted Brush-Finch (Atlapetes latinuchus)
*White-winged Brush-Finch (A. leucopterus)

White-winged Tanager (Piranga leucoptera)
Southern Yellow or Golden-bellied Grosbeak (Pheuticus chyrosgaster)

Tropical Parula (Parula pitiayumi)
Blackburnian Warbler (Dendroica fusca)
*Olive-crowned Yellowthroat (Geothlypis semiflava)
Slate-throated Whitestart (Myioborus miniatus)
Spectacled Whitestart (M. melanocophaus)
EGolden-bellied or Choco Warbler (Basileuterus [Myiothlypis] chrysogaster) – apparently a Choco endemic
Black-crested Warbler (B. nigrocristatus [nigrocritata])
HRusset-crowned Warbler (B. coronatus) – heard only in many locatio
Three-striped Warbler (B. tristriatus)
Riverbank or Buff-rumped Warbler (Phaeothlypis fulvicauda)

Russet-backed Oropendola (Psarocolius angustifrons)
Scarlet-rumped Cacique (Cacicus microrhynchus)
Giant Cowbird (Molothrus oryivorus)
Shiny Cowbird (M. bonaiensis)

245 spp

Eric Salzman