THE ESMERALDES WOODSTAR

Esmeraldes is a city on the NW Coast of Ecuador, thought to have have originated from the slaves of a shipwreck back in the 1500s. The word translated into English means “Emeralds,” and refers to the lush green area there.  Luckily for Ecuador, one of its 8 endemic species includes that name - The Esmeraldes Woodstar.  Woodstars are tiny hummingbirds and can easily be mistaken for large insects if not seen well.  The females only measure 2-1/2 inches. 

These days tourists don’t head there anymore.  It is simply unsafe.  It is on the border with Columbia, and about 1/3 of the cocaine Columbia produces finds its way through Esmeraldes en route to other places, which is unfortunate because it could be a reasonable tourism destination and also has some great birding in the vicinity. 

On my first jaunt up the Ayampe River, I had the good fortune of finding a female Esmeraldes Hummingbird building a nest.  The story is as follows:  I was about 1/2 of a mile up the river, wading in the middle of the shallow water, when I spied movement above me.  I looked up and was not sure if what I was seeing was a bird or an insect.  Some of the bumble bees and other insects here are quite large.  It took me 3-4 seconds to figure out this was indeed a small hummingbird, a Woodstar, one of the smallest of hummers.

It appeared she was attending a nest which I could not see.  Her behavior tipped me off that there was probably a nest there, but at the angle I was seeing her, I just could not see anything that resembled a nest.  She was only there a little longer and then flew about 30 feet away, where I got a poor look at her as well.  I knew identifying her would be a challenge, so all this time I was desperately trying to get photos which would show enough to identify her.  Plus, I did not know if a nest of this species would be new to science as there were estimated to be less than 1000 birds comprising this species. 

All too soon she vanished, and while I looked where I thought a nest to be, I just could not find it.  And being that she did not return, I resumed meandering upstream. But I made some mental notes of the location and upon returning, I decided I’d stay and wait it out. This was good strategy for she showed up in about a minute.  That is when my camera really got it in gear. 

I had positioned myself on the south bank so I’d be up just high enough for the dark jungle background to the north to be a factor, so as to result in better photos.  She came back a second time as well. I reasoned I could get closer by moving to the other bank, so I repositioned myself over there, about 10 feet on the other side of the small tree, of which her nest was about 10 feet high as well, and the background trees provided a dark background. 

She came often, and was building the nest more than she was gone.  So I got photos of her from various angles, and even got some of her using spider webbing to “glue” the nest material together.  A large portion of the nest of most hummers are reinforced with spider webbing, which does indeed act like glue, holding the various other materials together.  Also, if I did not know this to be a female by sight, I’d know it would be a female as the males have nothing to do with nest building, brooding eggs, or feeding young. Guess they have quite the easy life.  

You can see her using spider webbing to glue her nest

In this shot you can see the green central tail feathers, which clinch the ID

Here she is again using the webbing on her nest

Another reason I took plenty of photos was because I knew this female and the females of two other species, the Little Woodstar and the Short-tailed Woodstar, were supposed to be quite similar.  And after downloading some 150 photos, I then began the identification task.  Then I ran into a challenge:  according to the older, standard field guide it did not look like the Esmeraldes female.  That book was printed in 2001.  I also had a newer, abbreviated version from a different author that was printed in 2013, and according to the plate there, it looked quite a bit like a female Esmeraldes Woodstar.   So then I read the species account in the older book, and found it to be confusing. (I’ve since learned that 20 years ago the literature was not accurate, hence the confusion.). The reason for the inaccuracy of information was likely due to the fact it was thought to be extinct by 1912.  It was rediscovered in 1990, so it took some time to figure out more specifics about it, so we can excuse the shortcoming of info. I next looked at the photos in the eBird library, which made me lean toward Esmeraldes Woodstar rather than the others.  I next mailed photos to two people who should certainly know the difference.  

One of those people was Mike Ellis, who is a graduate student from Oregon State University  who has been doing undergraduate work at the Ayampe reserve and elsewhere in Ecuador. The Ayampe Reserve has 3 tracts of land somewhere up the river as well.  Mike is not here currently,  but as I’d been in touch with him, knew he was planning on arriving back in the country soon.  He wrote back after a few days and confirmed it was indeed an Esmeraldes Woodstar, and even though he has worked in the area in the past and has a large bird list for the area, had still never seen one.  So I felt quite privileged to have had this experience and hope that I can show him this particular bird.  Sadly though, Mike will be headed to another parcel of land owned by the Jocotoco Foundation on the north coast, so our paths probably won’t cross.    

The other person I sent pictures to was Roger Alman, who is an experienced birder, and also an eBird reviewer for some or all of Ecuador, who also confirmed it to be the female Esmeraldes Woodstar.  

As it turns out, some research has been done in recent years.  Nests have been found, birds have been captured and studied, and newer information has been released helping us to differentiate between species.  Even another field guide has come out to add to the ever growing knowledge of avian information, which I plan to get once back home

This was a fun experience and quite intriguing to go through the identification challenge, something I usually fall short on - leaving a bird unidentified.  And since it appears that some who go looking for this tiny hummingbird never see one, I was indeed fortunate to find one building her nest, something I won’t soon forget. 

Thirteen days later I was with a bird guide heading out the Colibri Road and we stopped to chat with a birder who actually had a male Esmeraldes Woodstar in his scope, so we got out to have a look.  I took some pics, but they were not of a good quality.  So I told Dan, another birder who I met recently about it, and where to go, and headed out there the next day to try to get better pictures.  

Here you get an idea of the size of the
bird as compared to a large dragonfly

We met out there and I got better pictures, and then we had some big ideas about walking the river back to Ayampe and relocating the nest, but as Dan had some other obligations and could not spare the time, I took the river way back.  

I did find the nest along the way.  But it was hot and I was going to be overheating if I did not get back soon, so left within a few minutes.  I explained to Dan just where to find it, but as it had rained torrents a couple nights later, the river was just to much to navigate to return there, so we hope the best for the little hummer. 

Shortly afterward Dan relayed he did refind the nest and the hummer, so that was good news.