Refugio Paz de las Aves

Another early 5:30 am departure to Paz de las Aves. We had a tour with two other birders and their guide and our guide. Both Angel and Rodrigo Paz, the founders who turned their family farm towards eco-tourism starting 20 years ago also acted as guides. I highly recommend visiting.

We had a boxed breakfast in the hour and a half car ride to the lek.

We started at the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock Lek where the bird were active at sunrise.

We saw the Quetzal and the Guan from the same hide as the Cock-of-the-Rock.

We stopped a few more times going up the road for some other birds. Notice the three foot long tail feathers on this Nightjar. They made the resting place for the bird along the road and put food out to coax the bird to sleep here.

We arrived up at the farmsite and small restaurant that they run.

We looked for a few birds in the area while they made a traditional breakfast for us. After we finished breakfast, we spent a little time at the hummingbird feeders by the breakfast area waiting for the others to finish.

Rodrigo and Angel had trained some wild birds to come for food when called. The birds had names, but lived in very different areas. We got to see and photograph four. These birds live in a fairly dense forest, so it would be difficult to see them without this help. They put the food out on a log or stump in a small clearing and once the bird moves a foot or two out of the clearing, they are hidden again.

Before walking down the hillside to see Andrea, we spent some time at a hummingbird and tanager feeding area to rest. Off to the side was an overlook over the valley.

While walking to see the Antpittas we saw some other birds.

The environment is a cloud forest, so sometimes the clouds move in and make the birds difficult to see.

Then we head to lunch at the Choco Toucan Lodge and birding.

This Crimson-rumped Toucanet was drinking from the bromalid flower and when he raised his head quickly kicking some water drops up in the air.

As we were leaving, our guide spotted this Kite hiding in a tree.

Good food and lots of birds, not as many photos as we’ve seen many of them multiple times. Freddy did a great job spotting them. We went back to Sachatamia for our last night there. We arrived in the mid-afternoon, it wasn’t raining, so we went looking on the trails behind the lodge. It was getting foggy, so the photo isn’t the best.

Then it started raining, we went back to the bird feeders in front that had a covered viewing area. The agouti’s were out.

It rained much of the evening, so I worked on photos, only 1100 photos today after deleting all the out of focus and bird half out of the frame photos.