September
22, 2015
Today’s plan
was a straightforward visit up Cerro Tunari, a mountain just outside of
Cochabamba. Our hotel is on this side of the city, so it’s a quick drive to the
nice habitat on the lower brushy slopes where we looked for several
specialties. I have just a couple of photos of birds we saw. One was of a flock
of Andean Parakeets in some roadside shrubs.
Another was
this cooperative Rufous-sided Warbling-Finch, the most abundant of the Poospiza here. We also saw several of
the local Cochabamba Mountain-Finch.
After
enjoying a Yungas Pygmy-Owl, we stopped for this Junonia vestina, Andean Buckeye, one of few butterflies flying
today.
We
eventually reached the dry tundra-like habitat above about 12,000 feet
elevation where we had several target species. In this particular place we
found the very local and scarce Short-tailed Finch.
Other
species we saw here included many Bright-rumped Yellow-Finches…
...and this Buff-breasted
Earthcreeper. This is a member of the suboscine family Furnariidae, distantly
related to other suboscines such as antbirds and tyrant flycatchers, but its size,
shape, and behavior are very reminiscent of the thrashers back home.
The last
birds we stopped for before heading back down the mountain were these Torrent
Ducks on a flood control structure.
We made one
last panic stop on the way down for what would be our only Bolivian
Warbling-Finch that flew across the road in front of the van. After we got out,
I pished a bit, the bird sat up, and all got brief but good looks at it before
it vanished.
Tomorrow we
drop down in elevation to bird some cloud forest habitats on the moist slope of
the Andes.
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