After going pretty intensely for the last 3 days, having a day off from intense birding served to both give my feet a break and give my mind a chance to catch up on everything. After breakfast and packing up from my hostel in Papallacta, I walked down the hill to the main road to catch the bus. A large-ish bird perched on the top of a tree along the way caught my eye, and getting the bins on it revealed a lifer Red-Crested Cotinga! A second one joined it, and I got to observe them show off their red crests and display. This definitely put the day off to a good start, and I left Papallacta on a high note.
After a couple bus rides, I got to my next destination, where I’d base myself for the majority of the next week. Cabañas Tamiaju is located mid slope, and this foothill habitat contains a totally different set of species than the high mountains. The owners of this lovely place, Toni and Eladio, are birders, and provided me with the most wonderful welcome. After getting settled in, I headed out for some afternoon birding.
They have one of the best hummingbird feeder setups I’ve seen, which attracts an nicely diverse array of species. Over about half an hour of watching I observed Bronzy and Collared Incas, Peruvian Racket-tail, Green-backed Hillstar, Long-tailed Sylph, Fawn-breasted Brilliant, Greenish Puffleg, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, both Gorgeted and White-bellied Woodstars, and many, many Speckled Hummingbirds!
After getting my fill of the hummingbirds, I headed out on the trails to see what I could come up with in the late afternoon. After walking in the very quiet forest for a bit, I encountered a nice mixed flock, which kept me busy for the better part of the next hour. It’s incredibly hard to see things well up in the canopy, when everything is backlit by a bright overcast grey sky. But by staying with the flock and getting on everything I could, I eventually picked out some nice birds including lifer Handsome and Rufous-breasted Flycatchers and my favourite, a very adorable little Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher!
A lovely dinner and hanging out with the family concluded the day, and I went to bed excited to see what the morning would bring!
