Various Oregon Birding Piks: THE BIRDWATCHER'S HOUSE

3/16/21

The ride from Quito to Mindo took about 2 hours, and in that time Javiar and I had plenty of time to discuss birding ideas and plans. He mentioned the place called, “The Birdwatchers’s House.” I’d first read about the Birdwatcher’s House about 15 years ago, I think, and it seemed I remembered the short piece I read about it was not so glamorous. But Javiar relayed a different story, and the owner’s name was Venicio Perez, who’s name I was familiar with from past reads.

We left at 06:00 as his place was only about 30 minutes away. We ascended up the main highway and then took a right turn on a gravel road. It looked vaguely familiar, so I asked Javiar if this was the road to Jane Lyon’s place, and he said it was. Rosie and I had been to her place in ‘2008 on our first trip here, and she and Viciento were companions for a few years before that, so it was interesting that they both created birding lodges near one another in the cloud forest.

Venicio's place was impressive. A quite modern looking house with a large concrete driveway/patio area. The walkways were all concrete, and the cabins were all quality.

We arrived shortly after dawn, and Javiar led me along a concrete walkway which meandered around until we came to a large blind. In front of the blind was a clearing about half the size of a basketball court, and on each end, to our right and left, was a sheet mounted with 2 flourecent lights fixed in place on them. Those lights would be turned on at night attracting insects, some of which ended up stuck on the sheets or fell to the ground, making a bit of a feast for the birds in the morning. There was also a bird bath in the middle of the clearing.

A Masked Flowerpiercer in the bird bath

We sat in the blind for about an hour watching the birds. A pair of Uniform Antbirds were there when we arrived, and came and went the whole time we were there. Here’s a few pictures of them.

Male Uniform Antshrike

Female Uniform Antshrike

Male Uniform Antshrike

Others that we observed there were Tri-colored Brush Finch, Spillman’s Tapacoulo, Cinnamon Flycatcher, Smoke-colored Pewee, Tawny-bellied Hermit, Strong-billed and Montane Woodcreepers, Gray-breasted Woodwren, Glossy-black Thrush, Dusky Chlorospingus, Russet-crowned Warbler, Slate-throated Redstart and Streak-capped Treehunter.

Spillman’s Tapacoulo

Streak-capped Treehunter

Cinnamon Flycatcher

Glossy-black Thrush

Russet-crowned Warbler

Montaine Woodcreeper

Slate-throated Whitestart

it was then time to check out the feeding station. Venicio had created a great setup for feeding and photographing the birds. The main food for the non hummers was bananas, which are in no short supply in this country. Off to one side of the large patio was a bit of an opening in the forest where he put a large vertical board with nails exposed to which he stuck bananas on. Above that was a bare dead branch to which many birds perched as they were arriving to eat, and so make for better photography options. There were just 2 hummingbird feeders which were certainly being visited, but there were many flowering bushes and plants adorning the surroundings to which they came also. So it was a little overwhelming being exposed to so many birds at once. So which ones should I try to get a picture of? I reasoned that the hummers would come and go the whole time, so I could put off photographing them and focus on what birds landed on the dead branch.

The stars of the show were the Plate-billed Mountain Toucans, gaudy large birds of the cloud forest. They were noisy at times as well. Here’s a few shot of them.

Plate-billed Mountain Toucan

Others that came and posed for the camera were: Toucan Barbet, Orange-bellied Euphonia, Blue-winged Mountain Tanager, Blue-capped, Golden-naped, Flame-faced and Golden Tanagers, and Masked Flowerpiecer,

Toucan Barbet

Blue-capped Tanager

Golden-naped Tanager

Venicio finally came out and asked us if we wanted coffee, to which we did. So he brought out the brewer to a table.

While we were standing around shooting the breeze, Venicio told Javiar that a large earthworm had come out, and was exposed just over near the corner of the house. I got wind of it and went over and, so here is proof of those large worms!

My foot is included in the photo
for a size comparison. Venicio said
he saw one a couple days ago that
was 2 meters long!

Once I got pics of many of them, I turned my attention to the hummers. We ended up seeing 11 species here. One, the Hoary Puffleg was the most to be desired to be seen as it is endemic to Ecuador and rare in this location. I did not get a great pic of him, so this will have to do.

Hoary Puffleg

Two hummers I really wanted to photograph here were the Velvet-purple Coronet and the male Violet-tailed Sylph, and you can see why.

Violet-tailed Sylph

Velvet-purple Coronet

Here are the others I managed reasonable shots of:

Speckled Hummingbird

Gorgeted Sunangel

Fawn-breasted Brilliant

Buff-winged Coronet

One tanager I had not gotten a good pic of yet away from the bananas was the Flame-faced Tanager. So when I told that to Venicio he said to go to the other side of the patio to a small blind. He had a 6 X 15 foot raised concrete shallow pond of sorts, and on the far end he place bananas just below the edge, with another dead branch above that.

The regular feeding station

The photographers feeding station

I sat there while he removed the bananas from the main feeding station. His strategy was that the tanagers would now move over here, and in a few minutes the birds began arriving. The desired tanager finally made it. Here he is:

Flame-faced Tanager

I think we were there for about 2.5 hours, and then began walking the road, but the opposite way of which we came. There were small farms here and there, and the forest was said not be primary forest, but was cut down many years ago, and had now grown back. As the day wore on the birding activity waned, but we still saw a number of birds. One of those I’d had not seen before in prior trips which I finally did this time was the Green and Black Fruiteater. My pics if not very good though:

Green and Black Fruiteater

Other birds we saw were: White-sided Flowerpiercer, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-capped Brushfinch, White-tailed Tyranulet, Orange-breasted Fruiteater, Azara’s and Red-faced Spinetails, Pearlet Treerunner, Smoky-brown Woodpecker, Roadside and Barred Hawk.

Most of the walk was downhill, and our driver met us just before we reached the highway. Good thing Javiar brought some organic bananas as I was needing the energy. I jokingly asked him if these were grown in Ecuador. He said yes and that they were organic. I responded that some end up in Oregonian Supermarkets.

It was a great morning, and one I’ll remember for a while. Lots of pictures to keep the memory alive.