Trip Report - Tumbes till Tarapota: March 2005
by Wim ten Have
Introduction:
I liked to investigate the possible extensions for our Northern Peru trips.
Tumbes and the road from Rioja to Tarapoto were new for me and my driver (and
birding partner) Juvenal Ccahuana. Juvenal and I started in Tumbes. From Chiclayo
to Tarapoto two Dutchmen -Tom Kompier and Job van Amerom- accompanied us.
Itinerary and daily log (also explains the columns in the species list)
Tumbes (column Tum):
March 13: the manglares of San Pedro. A lot of new birds for our Peru list: Mangrove Warbler, Mangrove Black-Hawk, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (the only place in Peru), Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Rufous-necked Woodrail (only heard) and more.
March 14: after getting our permit for the Tumbes Reserved Zone we left the city of Tumbes around 11 a.m. We arrived at the Mirador around 1 p.m. and started birding. For an afternoon surprising how much activity we met. Best birds: Black-and-white Tanager, Grey-breasted Flycatcher, Ochre-bellied Dove, Black-billed Cuckoo, Ecuadorian Ground-Dove, One-coloured Becard and Saffron Siskin. Pale-browed Tinamou was very common. Around 5:30 p.m. we arrived at the police station El Caucho, our campsite for the next 3 nights.
March 15: a walk between El Caucho and El Faical, the INRENA station.
Nice birding in a beautiful ambience. Although this is dry forest, now at the
end of the rainy season it looked like a real rainforest.
Best birds: Pacific Royal Flycatcher on its nest, very good view of Henna-hooded
Foliage-gleaner, Violet-bellied Hummingbird, Ecuadorian Trogon (a split of Black-tailed
T.) and Lesser Greenlet. Black-and-white Tanager and Ochre-bellied Dove (both
seasonal species) we didn´t give much attention anymore, they were rather
common. Top bird: a female Lemon-rumped Tanager, last year discovered as a new
species for Peru.
March 16: a walk from El Faical nearly to Campo Verde.
A long walk, but rather quiet. Some lifers for us like the possible splitted
Pacific Fire-eye, a pair of Red-rumped Woodpeckers, the rare Pallid Dove heard,
some new hummingbirds and Slaty Spinetail. We had a very bad look at a possible
Crested Guan.
Back to our campsite in heavy rain.
March 17: going back to Tumbes.
March 18: Tumbes-Chiclayo. Just south of Tumbes - in and near Zorritos-
we discovered at least 600 Chestnut-collared Swallows, possibly the most remarkable
ornithological fact during our trip. It is the first time that they are reported
here and on top of that such a huge number was unknown in Perú.
Chiclayo-Jaen (column CJa)
This part of the trip I have done several times already -no part of the investigation- so we tried to show the specialties to our "customers" as quickly as possible.
March 19: pick up of the 2 Dutchmen at the airport of Chiclayo and a morning birding at the reserve of Batan Grande. The specialties were found very quickly: Peruvian Plantcutter, Rufous Flycatcher and Tumbes Swallow. This reserve is always a beautiful site with a lot of bird activity. New for me at this site were Grey-backed Hawk, White-throated Kingbird and Black-necked Woodpecker. On the way to Quebrada Limon we found Crimson-breasted Finch, but we missed Tumbes Tyrant. Camping at Quebrada Limon with Scrub Nightjar around.
March 20: birding in Q. Limon, leaving the area around midday The local
guide showed us 6 White-winged Guans. Nice views of Tumbes Swifts, but only
1 White-winged Brush-Finch (normally common). New experience for me: this normally
very dry forest was very beautiful now at the end of the rainy season, and gave
another set of bird species. Seen before, but not this time: Guayaguil Woodpecker,
Plumbeous-backed Thrush and Tumbes Hummingbird. On the other hand, birds not
seen/heard before in the dry season: Pale-browed Tinamou, Black-and-white Becard,
One-coloured Becard, Chestnut-collared Swallow, Black-and-white Tanager, Henna-hooded
Foliage-gleaner and Common Potoo.
On to Abra Porculla for another night of camping. Scaled Antpitta started calling
near the tents at dusk and Tom heard Peruvian Screech-Owl on his night walk.
March 21: Birding at Abra Porculla. We missed some good species here
this time, due to the mist and possibly to the time of the year. Chestnut-naped
Antpitta and Elegant Crescentchest seemed much more common than in another time
of the year, they were calling everywhere. The warblers, the Brush-Finches,
Ecuadorian Piculet, Chapman´s Antshrike and Piura Chat-Tyrant were found,
but Watkin´s Antpitta and Black-cowled Saltator were not.
Drive to Jaen and afternoon birding near the Monastery just outside Jaen. Specialties:
Chinchipe Spinetail and Marañoñ Crescentchest.
March 22: to Tamborapa, 60 km north of Jaen. The special ones - Marañon Spinetail and the Marañon subspecies of Northern Slaty Antshrike- were found, but this time no overflying Military Macaws. Back to Jaen and on to Bagua Chica for Little Inca-Finch. In the late afternoon arrival at Pomacochas (Florida).
Abra Patricia(column Pat)
March 23: in the morning we birded the higher part of Abra Patricia
(km 364- 373).
A very lucky start with Johnson´s Tody-Tyrant, Royal Sunangel and Bar-winged
Woodwren, all belonging to the ten best birds that can be seen here. The trail
at km 373 was quiet but after an hour a nice flock came by. Surprisingly a
Burnished-buff Tanager in that flock. Very good looks at a Red-ruffed Fruitcrow
on the same trail.
Our main goal for the afternoon was the Marvellous Spatuletail near Pomacochas.
The Rio Chido trail -before a small trail but now a real broad (unpaved) track
- was unaccessible because it had rained the last few days.
March 24: Abra Patricia till KM 390 (new numbers differ 11 km from the old ones, so before this site was indicated as KM 401). Soon we had a flock with Variegated Bristle-Tyrant, Golden-faced Tyrannulet, White-lined Tanager and many more. Canada Warbler was rather common, from now on we saw this migrant from N-America every day. Equatorial Greytail was seen by only one of us. Lower on we met some flocks. Besides more tanagers, we saw Speckle-chested Piculet. Back in order to camp near the pass. If we were camping Tom always went out with his sound equipment. Thanks to him we saw Andean Potoo, for all of us a very exciting species.
March 25: Abra Patricia, the first kilometers down from the pass. On one place a nice setting of birds like Collared Inca, Emerald-bellied Puffleg, White-sided Flowerpiercer, Bush-Tanagers, but not the Yellow-scarfed Tanager and White-capped Tanager that the clients liked to see. Going down we started again at KM 390, hoping at least to hear Ash-throated Antwren. No success. Good birds we saw: Lanceolated Monklet, Yellow-cheeked Becard, Chestnut-tipped Toucanet, Olive-chested Flycatcher, Ecuadorian Piedtail.
On our way back on April 3 Juve and I found 2 Ash-throated Antwrens
in the same area near KM390
At KM373we found a real surprise. I should say Rufous-vented Whitetip, but the
Handbook of Birds of the World talks about an intermediate form between Urosticte
benjamini and U. ruficrissa.
Aguas Verdes (column Ver)
March 25: In the afternoon we did a trail starting from the village of Aguas Verdes. Rather disturbed habitat but it offered us some good flycatchers (Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher, Alder & Olive-sided Flycatchers) and a couple of Moriche Orioles. Three Swallow-tailed Kites gave a fantastic show. Around a flowering Inga tree a lot of hummers, mostly Golden-tailed and White-chinned Sapphires.
March 26: we birded the trail that starts in front of the restaurant
at KM 397.5. It started raining and the trail was already very muddy. Lined
Antshrike, Stripe-chested & Slaty Antwrens and Short-tailed Antthrush. A
good flock with Ash-throated Bush-Tanager and Yellow-breasted Antwren amongst
the more common species of tanagers. A Napo Sabrewing at the end of the trail
where the forest already was destroyed .
In the afternoon we did another trail starting from Aguas Verdes, this one with
a better habitat of white sand forest. White-browed Purpletuft, Napo Sabrewing,
Green-fronted Lancebill, a pair of Red-Shouldered Tanagers (White-lined and
Black-faced T. were more common) and Scaled Pigeon (common!). Blackish Rail
crossed the sandy road at the border of the village.
March 27: Some of us did the same trail as yesterday in the afternoon
and discovered that Zimmer´s Antbird was rather common. Yesterday none
were singing, now almost a dozen.
I did a forest trail at the other side of the road and found Dusky Spinetail
and Lettered Aracari.
Rioja (column Rioj)
March 27 Just before Rioja we birded an area called Yacumama. On our
way back (April 2) we did a trail just outside Rioja. Nice area, lots of birds
to see but not very special ones.
Tataupa Tinamou, Russet-crowned, Rufous-sided & Uniform Crakes heard, while
Yellow Tyrannulet, Olive-chested Flycatcher and the gustavi race of Cobalt-winged
Parakeet as the most remarkable species seen.
March 28: The whole day at Morro de Calzada, an isolated peak between
Rioja and Moyobamba. A lovely place, nice to camp (what we did).
Including the next morning we had a list of around 115 species here. A very
good place for Tody-Tyrants, we found Black-and-white, White-bellied, Stripe-necked
and Pearly-vented (Buff-throated is here too). Also a good place to study the
Tyrannulets (like Mishana) and other small Flycatchers. While we found a lot
(nearly everything mentioned in column 5), we missed also some important species
(if we have to believe the info in Valqui´s book): Striped Manakin and
White-bellied Pygmy-Tyrant should be the most interesting ones.
March 29: Leaving Morro de Calzada we headed to Tarapoto after midday.
On the way we stopped at a place with good forest. It produced a tanager flock
with Fulvous-shrike Tanager in it.
Tarapoto (column Tara)
March 30: To an area north of Tarapoto, known as the tunnel.
Our breakfast stop 3 km before the tunnel gave us our second Lanceolated Monklet
for this trip, rather exceptional I think. Our walk there produced a mix
of lowland and foothill species: Fasciated Antshrike, Olive Tanager (surprisingly
common), Koepcke´s Hermit and a huge colony of White-tipped Swift amongst
others. We spent a lot of time on both sides of the tunnel, a very good birding
area. Including the morning of April 1 we saw there goodies like Maroon-tailed
Parakeet, Festive Coquette, Brown-mandible Aracari, Chestnut-tipped Toucanet,
Spectacled Bristle-Tyrant, Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo and White-winged Tanager.
A little bit lower down we saw Black-and-chestnut Eagle and Rufous-winged Antwren,
but not the expected Blackish Pewee.
After our lunch break passing San José (16 km from the tunnel on a very
bad road) we starting our afternoon birding. We met a hugh and high quality
flock with a lot of tanagers/honeycreepers in it. I hoped to find Dotted Tanager
in it, but no success. After the flock had gone, Tom and I walked on, while
Juve stayed (more patience). After a while Juve came running, crying Dotted
Tanager! Running uphill for nearly 1 km, we arrived breathless on the original
spot. The flock had broken up and there was nearly no activity left. We felt
that we had to stay here. Enjoying Pale-rumped Swifts flying by and seeing
sometimes a few birds from the original flock we waited more than half an hour.
Suddenly a small, very green/blue bird flew in and gave us excellent views.
All together we cried out: Dotted Tanager! Undoubtedly the best species for
the whole trip.
March 31: This day we went south of Tarapoto, first to the most far
part 50 km of Tarapoto, passing Buenos Aires. A little bit a deception: agricultural
fields and small forest patches much drier than expected. Plain-breasted Ground-dove
(on the way), the huallagae race of Northern Slaty-Antshrike and Rusty-backed
Antwren were the best species.
Several times we had poor looks of Hermits and it was not clear if these were
Planalto H. as reported here. No sign of the wanted Chestnut-throated Spinetail,
which should be rather common here. Back in the direction of Tarapoto we saw
Comb Duck on the Huallaga river.
The afternoon birding near Juan Guerra (20 km from Tarapoto) was not very special.
Again a disturbed habitat and rather dry. Ashy-headed Greenlet was the best
species. And several times birds that we could identify as Sulfur-bellied Tyrant-Manakins,
we were surprised at how common they seemed to be. Their remarkable song was
not heard.
Click here to see the complete Species list
The list contains 516 species, seen (x) or heard (h)
Added with (y) are 26 remarkable species that we have seen in 2004.
Back to Survey of Trip Reports
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