Peru, Day 7 May 8, 2010 I get high on birding!

We left our hotel in Olmos and headed up to the Abra Porculla area. The pass is at 2100 meters, just under 7,000 ft, not all that high, but enough to have a little chill in the air. The views from the pass are breathtaking! The clouds were below us and the birds in the area were great. There are a number of endemics which we were looking for.




We did quite well here, picking up Chapman’s Antshrike, Rufous-necked Foliage Gleaner, Black-cowled Saltator and the sometimes difficult to find Piura Chat-Tyrant. I got a decent look at Bay-crowned Brush-finch. A Peruvian Sheartail, though not rare, was a big treat. There is something about long-tailed hummingbirds… Spot-throated Hummingbird is far from a “looker”, but we were very happy to add it to our list. I was walking along the road and heard what sounded like a bumble bee. I looked up and saw a tiny hummingbird zipping off, a Short-tailed Woodstar. Unfortunately no one else saw it. Luckily after a little searching we re-located it. We had both Black-chested Buzzard-eagle and Variable hawk flying over. Maranon Crescent-chest was probably my favorite bird here



We stopped at a scrubby hill side to look for Little Inca Finch. It took some real effort, but we finally got good looks when one responded to Alex’s play back. We also had Elegant Crescent-chest. How could anyone complain about a two crescent-chest day? There were a couple of spinetails working a mossy tree and we had the obligatory grassquits and seed-eaters.



Photos for the day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sngcanary/sets/72157624029110989/



Bird list for the day:



1 Great Egret



2 Snowy Egret



3 Cattle Egret



4 Black Vulture



5 Turkey Vulture



6 Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle



7 Variable Hawk



8 Rock Pigeon



9 West Peruvian Dove



10 Eared Dove



11 Ecuadorian Ground-Dove



12 White-tipped Dove



13 Groove-billed Ani



14 White-tipped Swift



15 Gray-chinned Hermit



16 Sparkling Violetear



17 Spot-throated Hummingbird



18 Amazilia Hummingbird



19 Andean Emerald



20 Peruvian Sheartail



21 Short-tailed Woodstar



22 Azara's Spinetail



23 Necklaced Spinetail



24 Rufous-fronted Thornbird



25 Point-tailed Palmcreeper



26 Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner



27 Chapman's Antshrike



28 Collared Antshrike



29 Northern Slaty-Antshrike



30 Chestnut-crowned Antpitta- Heard



31 Maranon Crescentchest



32 Elegant Crescentchest



33 Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet



34 Mouse-colored Tyrannulet



35 Tawny-crowned Pygmy-Tyrant



36 Common Tody-Flycatcher



37 Vermilion Flycatcher



38 Piura Chat-Tyrant



39 Tropical Kingbird



40 Blue-and-white Swallow



41 Speckle-breasted Wren



42 Superciliated Wren



43 Mountain Wren



44 Tropical Gnatcatcher



45 Great Thrush



46 Long-tailed Mockingbird



47 Citrine Warbler



48 Three-banded Warbler



49 Bananaquit



50 Rufous-chested Tanager



51 White-lined Tanager



52 Silver-beaked Tanager



53 Fawn-breasted Tanager



54 Streaked Saltator



55 Black-cowled Saltator



56 Plumbeous Sierra-Finch



57 Ash-breasted Sierra-Finch



58 Little Inca-Finch



59 Blue-black Grassquit



60 Black-and-white Seedeater



61 Chestnut-bellied Seedeater



62 Dull-colored Grassquit



63 Rusty Flowerpiercer



64 Saffron Finch



65 Bay-crowned Brush-Finch