GET YOURSELF TO ECUADOR

PIB has great trips to various habitat zones in Ecuador. And there’s a book you want to take with you. It’s the first-ever, one volume nature guide for anyone headed to Ecuador’s wondrous mountains and rain forest and arid western slopes:
Wildlife of Ecuador:
A Photographic Field Guide to Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, and Amphibians
Andrés Vásquez Noboa. Photography by Pablo Cervantes Daza. Princeton Press. 2017. $29.95.
I wish I’d had a book like this when I was in Ecuador…or even Panama where I got far too close to a pit viper without recognizing it. The bird section is fine but the real value is in all those other critters: face-to-face shots with snakes. It’s the head that matters…look for the heat-sensing pits. You may want to keep your birding guide nearby or back at the ecolodge because only breeding plumage shots are given for most avian species.
Now I know there are two species of agouti in Ecuador and I saw the black in Coca. Not sure even my bird guide knew there were two, certainly didn’t tell us.
Superbly clear range maps. Both English and Latin indices.
My favorite Ecuadoran bird is at the top of page 140…the Collared Inca.
ECUADOR GALLERY FROM MY VISITS:
Yellow-tufted Woodpecker:
Great Ani:Hoatzin at Sani Lodge:Squirrel monkey:
Swallow-tailed Kite over Napo River in Amazon Basin:

BIRDING AUSTRALIA?

Review of  “The Australian Bird Guide” by Peter Menkhorst, et al. 560 pages. Over 240 color plates. Princeton University Press.  paperback. 2017.  $39.95.

Harry Fuller writes: Long separated from the nearest major continent, Australia has many endemic species and is a birder’s wonderland for all the lifers awaiting you there.  I have never been but my good friend and fellow bird-nut, John Bullock and his wife Stephanie visit there often.  Their son lives there with his family.   So here is a review of Princeton latest guide to Aussie birds, by guest reviewer, John Bullock:

Australia Bird Guide Review

If you’re an Australian birder, with the challenge of over 900 species to

identify, your choice of guidebooks has recently been expanded by the

production of The Australian Bird Guide, a stunning and very complete work of

art and science, the making of which has consumed over ten years, involving

over 200 citizen contributors (think eBird on a small scale).

The impetus for a fresh guide to Australian avifauna was initiated by the

head of the Australian Scientific Research Organization, who secured the services

of Jeff Davies, one of the country’s pre-eminent bird illustrators. Jeff was joined

by five additional authors and illustrators.

Historically, avian artists have depended on museum skins for their

guidebook renderings. Enter digital photography, and a large number of birders

eager to capture pixels of every species in every imaginable pose, in all of their

plumages. For Davies and his partners, this turned out to be a bonanza of over

half a million images.

There are 56 species of Honey Eaters in Australia, many of them very

similar. The digital images have resulted in more accurate illustrations: an

improvement much appreciated by the more determined birder faced with a

Honey Eater, that at first sighting, could be one of ten or twelve similar species.

The guide, in addition to being an amazingly brilliant and vibrantly

detailed collection of illustrations, retains the essential elements of proper

ornithological and taxonomic protocol, as well as the valuable information on

where and when to find Australian birds.

Australia is a unique continent, noted not only for its flora and fauna, but

also for its people. Visitors are always impressed by the friendly open-ness of

Aussies. Having had the fortune to spend part of the past five years there, I can

vouch for this impression, and enlarge it by noting that Australians are very

proud of their relatively young culture and eager to learn about and protect their

environmental heritage. The Australian Bird Guide fits this picture perfectly. Its

a fresh and compelling addition to Australian birding literature, and I look

forward to using it during my upcoming annual sojourn.

–John Bullock

BIRDING WESTERN ECUADOR?

Here is a great reason to go birding in western Ecuador.  This is the endemic White-tailed Jay:And now the Princeton University Press has issued a photographic guide to the birds of Western Ecuador.  Living here in the Pacific Northwest I first notice the birds that aren’t found in this part of the Neotropics.  No scoters, no alcids. But then you settle in to thumb through the book and you notice 8 raptors named “kite,”  over 20 members of the dove/pigeon family, three pages of tinamous and guans (think big pheasants in the forest).  Toucans, barbets (my favorite gang of tropical thugs), hummingbirds for page after page, Tanagers, endless tyrant flycatchers, antwrens and antvireos and antbirds,  Finally near the back of the book you get to the euphonias, dressed like a junior high marching band.This is a Thick-billed Euphonia.

The book includes range maps for each species showing its range across Ecuador.  The book does NOT include the Galapagos.   If you go after that White-tailed Jay, take this book along. Partnership for International Birding offers a panoply of birding trips to Ecuador.  Check ’em out.

Birds of Western Ecuador: A Photographic Guide Nick Athanas & Paul J. Greenfield With special contributions from Iain Campbell, Pablo Cervantes Daza, Andrew Spencer & Sam Woods Paperback | 2016 | $45.00 |  ISBN: 9780691157801 448 pp. | 6 1/2 x 10 | 1,500 color photos. 946 maps.  It is also available as an ebook.

GALAPAGOS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The latest Audubon magazine has three pieces on the future of the Galapagos’ unique habitat and birdlife…in the face of climate change.  You can click here to read those articles.

If you want to see the Galapagos as they are now, PIB has a variety of trips to both the islands and to the rich birding locales on the Ecuadoran mainland.  You can click here to read about the Ecuador/Galapagos trips we offer. Some photos from a recent PIB trip to the islands. The birds, from top to bottom: Lava Gull, Lava Heron, Wilson’s Plover. Blue-footed Booby, Brown Pelican with his outboard motor, Vermilion Flycatcher. Elliot’s Storm-Petrels. And a couple of endemics: Make that three endemics” Dove, Mockingbird and Penguin.  The latter loves to swim around with snorklers, even slow-moving hominids with plastic faces on.

CAL-GAL #1

Here is the first gallery of California photos (hence Cal-Gal) from birder Barbara Bens, one of the folks on my recent California Coastal birding trip for Partnership for Interantional Birding.
Female California Gnatcatcher near Pt. Vicente, LA County:
Ruyfous-crowned Sparrow, also at Pt. Vincente:

Hiding Cal Towhee:

Curlew in the fog, Morro Bay.

Diving Brown Pelican, Morro Bay State Park.

Santa Cruz Island:
Above: the endemic Island Scrub-Jay.

Banded Song Sparrow on Santa Cruz Island off Ventura:

Willet and friend at Moss Landing:


Yeloow-billed Magpie up Pine Canyon near King City in southern Monterey County.

Two of three Great Horned Owls in Monterey cypress trees, Pt. Reyes.
On this trip we got both North American endemics: Island Scrub-Jay and Yellow-billed Magpie, the latter requiring us to drive far from the coast in search of dog in an outdoor location. When we inquired about the species locally one woman told us she can only feed her dog at night because the magpies onto the food instantly in the daytime. These are farm dogs not fed in the house. Neither, presumably are the magpies fed indoors, though if you left the door open…