September 21,
2015
A very long,
bumpy dirt road to Cochabamba was our itinerary for the day. But it passes
through some very nice patches of habitat, so we left early this morning to
take advantage of the morning hours. It was worth it.
We first had
to retrace our steps from yesterday up the Serrania de Siberia, but we went a
bit farther before picnic breakfast, this time passing by the town actually
called Siberia. They may get the occasional frost after the passage of a cold
front, and it’s never very warm here, but it’s not like the Russian namesake.
Our first
stop was in the highest elevations on the road, in short, mossy forest where we
saw our third species of Scytalopus,
a Diademed Tapaculo that scurried like a mouse (as they all do) between stunted
bushes, suddenly popped up from behind a mossy clump on the ground and nearly
sat on my iPod. Other good birds we had here were a singing Undulated Antpitta
and the Bolivian endemic Black-chinned Thistletail at the utter southern edge
of their ranges.
The flowers
of this moss- and epiphyte-laden tree were quite showy; my guess was family
Solanaceae, but I haven’t found the genus.
We then made
a couple more stops lower down in patches of humid cloud forest that drape down
protected draws. This Hooded Mountain-Toucan was a huge surprise at such a
stop. I hadn’t seen one in Bolivia in years; the usual favorite spots on the
Chapare road aren’t as productive any more.
Another stop
didn’t have so many birds, but this Passiflora
pilosicorona was a nice find.
We made an unplanned
stop in a drier location near Pongo when I looked out and saw an Andean Condor
soaring over this nearby hill.
Turns out
there were two, sometimes landing on the slopes of the hill, then flying
around, giving us all angles, no farther than 300 meters away.
Then someone
noticed this male Red-tailed Comet perched only 20 meters away in a Eucalyptus
tree. It was still very windy everywhere, so it was hard to get a photo of it
actually in the frame as its perch swayed up and down.
Looking down
to the right from where we were standing I noticed this White-bellied
Hummingbird at even closer range, but hiding in a clump of bushes sheltered
from the wind. What with the condors and the comet putting on such a show, I
couldn’t convince anyone to have a look.
Here’s the
happy group watching the Andean Condors.
One last
stop was for our picnic lunch in semi-sheltered draw where Rufous-bellied
Saltators, Fulvous-headed Brush-Finches, and this band-winged grasshopper were
highlights.
We’ve
arrived at our hotel in the outskirts of Cochabamba, ready for four full days
of birding using this as a home base.
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