PIB Loves Colombia Birding, and You Will Too

It’s a Yellow-eared Parrot.

Not one you’ll get for your life list in Arizona or even L. A.

Pictures are wonderful, thanks to lightweight digital cameras.  But this guy you want to see for yourself.  Neblina is PIB’s partner in the Colombian tours and they sent a scouting team across the hotspots you could see on one of our several trips.  The first one is in April of this year but we have another half dozen before the end of 2010.  We love Colombia birding.

They actually saw more than just this one parrot on their scouting trip.  On their first day out, “We  started driving up a road  to higher elevations. Our first stop was made near Jardin.  Here we observed:  Yellow-faced Grassquit, Blue–necked Tanager, heard White–throated Crake near the road, Black and White Seedeater, Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Southern Lapwing,  among other open field birds.”

Later in the trip, they spent a morning in lush jungle.

“We began a walk on a trail in the very lush Chusquea forest with an incredible number of bromeliads. This is a fine trail, but due to the heavy rain during the night before, it was a bit quiet. After some time and patience we saw: Three – striped  Warbler, Slate-throasted Whitestart, Yellow–throated Bush Tanager, Azara’s Spinetail, Unicolored Tapaculo.

 “After these birds, and a hike up a hill, Manuel [Neblina guide] spotted the Moustached Puffbird.  It was such a great bird and we all got fine scope views.  After almost 4 hours walking we were please to see the bird of the day,  Parker’s Antbird, both male and female. This bird has such bizarre  behavior.” 

The Parker’s is a Colombian endemic and considered a threatened species.

That’s why we like working with Neblina, they know their territory and keep abreast of any changes in local birding locations.  Nothing beats local knowledge when you’re looking for birds with limited range or specific habtat needs.

Tags: Neblina, Parker's Antbird, PIB, Yellow-eared Parrot