Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus)

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Tara

The Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) is a medium-sized South American songbird of the Tanager family, Thraupidae. Its range is from Mexico south to northeast Bolivia and northern Brazil, all of the Amazon Basin, except the very south. It has been introduced to Lima (Peru). On Trinidad and Tobago, this bird is called Blue Jean.

This delicately hued little beauty has a wide range throughout Central and South America (easily reached with airline miles) and can be easily seen in most of the national parks. I saw them in Crooked Tree, Belize; Tikal, Laguna del Lagarto & Savegre, Costa Rica; and Soberania in Panama.

The breeding habitat is open woodland, cultivated areas and gardens. The Blue-grey Tanager lives mainly on fruit, but will also take some nectar and insects. This is a common, restless, noisy and confiding species, usually found in pairs, but sometimes small groups. It thrives around human habitation, and will take some cultivated fruit like papayas (Carica papaya). Many eco-lodges put bananas out to attract them closer. I have no problem with this since bananas are part of their normal diet. Breeding season is from March to July. During this time, the female lays one to three mottled eggs, which she incubates for 12 to 14 days. Once hatched, both parents feed their chicks.

Adult blue-gray tanagers are preyed upon by felines, snakes, birds of prey and crocodilians. Other predators, such as raccoons, eat young birds and eggs. Habitat destruction due to deforestation is the primary threat to this species.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BIRD

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Rainforest Alliance

VIDEO

This one is long but watch for a few minutes to see the bird’s feeding habits and sound.

Fuertes’s Parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi)

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Tara

The Fuertes’s Parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi), also known as Indigo-winged Parrot, is a critically endangered parrot which has a highly restricted range on the west slope of the Central Andes of Colombia.The Fuertes’s Parrot is about 24 cm longand is green with indigo wing feathers, red shoulders, and a blue crown. The bird’s pale ivory bill has chestnut feathers at the base. It was rediscovered in 2002 after an absence of 91 years on the slopes of a volcano in Colombia.

HELP THIS PARROT

For over 90 years, the Fuertes’s Parrot was thought to be extinct; it was the cause of great celebration when in 2002 a team of Colombian conservationists from Fundación ProAves, a WLT partner, rediscovered a small colony of 15 individuals clinging to existence on a small and highly fragmented patch of cloud forest habitat located above the town of Cajamarca in Central Colombia.

ProAves has worked tirelessly since then to save the species and in 2009 established the 361 acre Giles-Fuertes Nature Reserve to protect one of only two tiny surviving populations of parrot, as well as many other threatened birds and mammals that are dependent on these cloud forests.

It is now vitally important to protect a further 363 acres alongside Giles-Fuertes Nature Reserve. While the parrot’s core breeding colony is protected, the encroachment of pasturelands into the sensitive cloud forests surrounding the reserve threatens further fragmentation and destruction of key foraging and nesting areas for this magnificent parrot.

Red-bellied Grackle (Hypopyrrhus pyrohypogaster)

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Tara

The Red-bellied Grackle is an uncommon and distinctive blackbird found only in the Colombian Andes. It is large, long-tailed, and heavy-billed, with a bright red belly and glossy black plumage; adults also have a light yellow eye.

It is usually found in noisy groups of up to 50 birds in the forest canopy along edges, often in mixed flocks along with other large bird species such as oropendolas.

Getting to Colombia is easy with airline miles. Since Colombia is in the northern South America region with Peru, please see this post for details on how many miles you would need. The main airport, Bogota is well served by both Star Alliance (Avianca, Copa, United, Lufthansa, Air Canada) and One World (American, LAN, Iberia).

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BIRD

American Bird Conservancy

Birdlife

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

ECO-TOUR OPERATORS

Colombia Birding

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

VIDEO

Rusty-faced Parrot (Hapalopsittaca amazonina)

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Tara

The Rusty-faced Parrot is most threatened by habitat destruction and fragmentation. Extensive logging and clearing for agriculture, development, and mining have destroyed much of its historical habitat in the Andes.

Hapalopsittaca amazonina has three subspecies in the Andes of Venezuela and Colombia. A sight record from Ecuador in 1992 was presumed by range to be this species (Ridgely and Greenfield 2001). Subspecies theresae is restricted to the Sierra de Mérida (Trujillo [Sharpe et al. 2001], Mérida and Táchira), Venezuela. Nominate amazonina occurs on both slopes of the East Andes in south-west Táchira, Venezuela; and Cundinamarca, Boyacá and historically Norte de Santander and Santander, Colombia. Subspecies velezi is known from both slopes of the Central Andes in Caldas, Risaralda (R. Strewe in litt. 1999) and Tolima (B. López-Lanús in litt. 2000), Colombia. There are recent sightings of Hapalopsittaca species from the head of the Madgalena valley, Huila, Colombia, and northern Ecuador (Robbins et al. 1994a, G. H. Rosenberg in litt. 2000), probably all amazonina (Juniper and Parr 1998). A recent Colombian population estimate of 2,500-10,000 individuals based on a hypothetical density c.1 individual/km² and 25% occupancy of the estimated 13,890 km² of suitable habitat (Renjifo et al. 2002) may be over-generous, but it is likely that the Colombian population numbers several thousand birds (P. G. W. Salaman in litt. 2005). There are c. 250 birds of the nominate subspecies in the Soata bird reserve, Boyacá (O. Cortes and A. Hernandez-Jaramillo in litt. 2007). The Venezuelan population unknown, although it is encountered regularly in several different parts of the Mérida Andes (C. J. Sharpe in litt. 2003, Weller and Rengifo 2003, Rengifo et al. 2005, Rengifo et al. 2005).

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BIRD

American Bird Conservancy

Birdlife

World Parrot Trust

ECO-TOUR OPERATORS

Colombia Birding

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

VIDEO

Dusky Starfrontlet (Coeligena orina)

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Tara

The Dusky Starfrontlet (Coeligena orina) is a hummingbird species in the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found only at high altitudes in the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia, and was first discovered on Páramo de Frontino. Its status was mysterious for a long time as it was only known from a few museum specimens; it was often held to be a mutant or color morph of some other species of Coeligena. When it was rediscovered in 2004, in what is now the Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve, its status as a distinct species was confirmed.

This species has a very restricted range, being known from two tiny forest fragments at Páramo Frontino and Farallones del Citará in north-west Colombia. There are only five other localities in the entire western Andes that retain suitable habitat. The combined area of all potentially suitable sites is thought to be less than 25 km². Therefore, the species’s global population is unlikely to exceed 250 individuals.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BIRD

American Bird Conservancy

Birdlife

Wikipedia

ECO-TOUR OPERATORS

Colombia Birding

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

MINI-DOCUMENTARY VIDEO

This video has a fund raising campaign where you can buy 1 acre of land to donate to bird conservation for $100.

Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis)

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Tara

The Yellow-eared Parrot nests and lives among wax palms in a few areas of Western and Central Cordillera of Colombia, where it inhabits cloud forests about 1800–3000 meters above sea level. It nests in the hollow trunks of the palms, usually 25–30 meters over the floor level. It also occurred very locally in northern Ecuador where wax palm grows. Their numbers had been greatly reduced, and only 81 individuals were recorded in the Colombian census of 1999. Their populations have been impacted by hunting and habitat destruction, particularly the harvesting of wax palm, which was traditionally cut down and used each year on Palm Sunday. There has been no confirmed records of this parrot from Ecuador since the mid-90s.

This colorful, green and yellow parrot was believed to be extinct until April 1999, when a group of researchers, sponsored by Fundación Loro Parque and ABC, discovered a small population of just 81 individuals in the Colombian Andes. Fundación ProAves, which was formed as a result of this discovery, has been working on recovering the species ever since.

The Yellow-eared Parrot has suffered greatly from habitat loss and fragmentation – over 90% of montane forests in Colombia have been cleared for agriculture or settlement, and Quindio wax palms, on which the parrot depends, have been decimated by logging and disease. Wax palms were also being unsustainably exploited for use in Palm Sunday celebrations within the parrot’s range.