Tag Archives: Maroon-tailed Parakeet

Morning Birding Around Wildsumaco Lodge

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When booking with Wildsumaco, I had also booked a morning of birding with their local guide and requested packed breakfast so we could make an early start.  As of April 2016 the guide fee was  full day for $60 and  half day for $40. Half day schedule is from 06h00 AM to 12h00 (noon), and from 13h00 pm to 18h00 pm.  He knows the bird names in English but speaks Spanish only.  I think his name was Jonas but I am not sure on that.  He brought a friend along, not sure if it was for training or just for fun but we were only charged one guide fee so it was cool.

We drove down the road from the lodge and ended up at this small shack overlooking the valley.  I struggled to get decent photos, very few birds were close enough to focus on.  Some of the parrots zoomed by too quickly and I missed them:  Scaly-napped Parrot and Red-billed Parrots were overhead fly-bys.  We heard Barred Parakeets in the trees but they stayed well-concealed.  On the brighter side, I finally got some perching Maroon-tailed Parakeets and Chestnut-fronted Macaws!DSCN2168 DSCN2171

The scenery was beautiful and was constantly busy with birds going back and forth.DSCN2169 DSCN2170

We ended up with a pretty impressive bird list though I didn’t get photos of them all.

Crested Oropendola

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Orange-bellied Euphonia

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Blue-grey Tanager

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Silver-beaked Tanager DSCN2190a DSCN2196

Magpie Tanager

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White-lined Tanager

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Ruddy Pigeon

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Yellow-rumped Cacique

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Russet-backed Oropendola

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Black-billed Thrush

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Maroon-tailed Parakeet

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Lineated Woodpecker

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Channel-billed Toucan

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Black-mantled Tamarin DSCN2234 DSCN2233 DSCN2221a

Chestnut-fronted Macaw

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We stayed there for a couple hours as I was desperate to see Military Macaws but they never showed up.  So we stopped at a trail leading to some hummingbird feeders and watched them for a while, then went back to the lodge.  I grabbed some coffee and sat down to do the bird checklist (supplied by the lodge).  The Singaporean group had just come back with their guide.  Suddenly I heard a shout “MILITARY”!  I leaped up with my camera and we all rushed to the edge of the verandah just in time to see this.

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4 Military Macaws flying past the outlook!  I was snapping away, the Singaporeans didn’t even try.  The shots above were the best I could get but at least they were better than nothing!

Maroon-tailed Parakeet (Pyrrhura melanura) & Choco Parakeet (Pyrrhura pacifica)

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Depending on which birding field guide you have you may see these birds lumped together with Pyrrhura melanura as the nominate with these subspecies or as two separate species as per the title of this post.

  • P. m. berlepschi
  • P. m. chapmani
  • P. m. melanura
  • P. m. pacifica
  • P. m. souancei

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I did see them in 3 separate locations in Ecuador so I know I have at least two varieties!  The photos above were taken at Wildsumaco Lodge and were the only Maroon-tailed Parakeets I saw perched.  I also saw them flying through trees at the Waterfall Trail in Mindo & from the canopy tower at Napo Wildlife center.  The ones at Mindo and Rio Silanche are definitely the Choco Parakeet being the only species seen in the western side of the Andes (red).  The ones above could possibly be P.m. souancei (dark green) or the nominate (lighter green).  The ones at Napo were most likely Pyrrhura melanura.  Splits are so confusing!

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LEARN MORE ABOUT MAROON-TAILED & CHOCO PARAKEETS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife – Maroon-tailed

Birdlife – Choco

Neotropical Birds

Information about the split

VIDEOS

This is pretty much all I get with smaller birds like Pyrrhura Parakeets – just a fleeting glimpse!

Here’s some bird porn to make up for it – filmed at Wildsumaco.

 

Mindo’s Waterfall Trail

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The road that goes up into the hills is actually called San Lorenzo Road but it is also called the Waterfall Trail because of the hikes in the area to various waterfalls.  There is also a zipline company operating here.  You can walk from Mindo town if you are fit and keen, otherwise a taxi can drop you at the birding place and you can walk down the hill.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the drop off place but there is a fork from the side of the road about 2-3km up the hill leading to a farm.

We birded this area twice.  The first day was with one of the best bird guides in Mindo – Alex Luna.  The second day we went back on our own as Alex was booked that day to try again for Rose-faced Parrots.

The weather plays a huge part in how lucky you will get.  So you can imagine I wasn’t thrilled with this kind of fog!

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This is the entrance to San Lorenzo Road.  Keep driving a few km, look for a fork leading to a farm on your right, then jump out and start birding.DSCN1287 DSCN1289 DSCN1290

Here’s some shots from Day 1.  Alex tried his best but the weather was working against us.  We did get some Red-billed Parrots, Bronze-winged Parrots, Collared Aracari, Choco Toucan and some beautiful Tanagers but the photos didn’t come out.

Day 1 Bird List

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Here’s some shots from Day 2.  This time the weather was slightly better, the fog lifted earlier and we hung around until 9:30.  The Rose-faced Parrots finally did show up but it was closer to 9am when they did and they hung around quite a while so we got to spend some quality time watching them.  We also saw Red-billed Parrots, a quick fly-by of Maroon-tailed Parakeets and a lot more!  I tried to keep the photos together but we were using 2 cameras – a Canon 60D & a Nikon Coolpix P900 (the one with 83x zoom).

Day 2 Bird List

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This is Alex Luna, the wonderful birding guide in Mindo.  You can contact him by email ayalu_82@hotmail.com  if you would like to organize a trip with him.  He speaks English very well, knows all the birds and if you have target birds, he will do all he can to make sure you see them (though he can’t do anything about the weather)!

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