Tablas Montes - Miguelito Road

Left at 4am and drove a couple of hours back up to Tablas Montes where we took a different side track and enjoyed another field breakfast. A calling Rufous-faced Antpitta was ‘encouraged’ to cross the track in front of us, whilst Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanagers fed around us. The key species here was the endemic Black-throated Thistletail and we nailed this sucker pretty quickly thanks to some good spotting by The Dungeonmaster! 

Black-throated Thistletail

The open area held the rare Rufous-bellied Bush-Tyrant, as well as Sierran Elaenia, several Red-crested Cotingas, White-browed Brush-finch,Citrine Warbler, Masked Tityra, and Hooded Mountain Tanager.

Then we drove lower to about 1650m approx. and followed another side track that led us to many new species. First up was some Russet-backed Oropendolas nesting beside Dusky-green Oropendolas, a Grey-breasted Wood-Wren was watched building its nest and a Golden-crowned Flycatcher adorned a nearby treetop. Then a Slaty-capped Flycatcher flicked along the track in front of us and a singing Yungas Warbler was tracked down and showed very well. We followed this with decent views of Andean Solitaire and finally a Blue-banded Toucanet just wanted to be seen by our appreciative group! 

Blue-banded Toucanet

The forest opened out from here and became quite degraded but in one small pocket of habitat a Ochre-faced Tody-Flycatcher had taken up residence and was reasonably confiding. So we drove to the next patch of good forest where a flyover Plum-crowned Parrot was followed a little later by a Red-billed Parrot scoped at the top of a tree. A Crested Quetzal was called in and we had eye-level views of this stunning bird, and we followed this with a diminutive Hazel-fronted Pygmy-Tyrant flicking around a bank right in front of us. 

Crested Quetzal

Hazel-fronted Pygmy-Tyrant

Our great morning continued when we walked up a steep incline and could scan the treetops and found a Saffron-crowned Tanager, quickly followed by some treetop hugging and exceedingly rare Straw-backed (Green-throated) Tanagers– what a bird! Behind us a Versicolored Barbet came in to take a look at us, but it was just a  shame the calling Bolivian Tapaculo wouldn’t play ball. However, we then had a close Deep-blue Flowerpiercer, followed by a pair of close Chestnut-tipped Toucanets, which was very pleasing considering the poor views we had at Los Volcanes some time ago.

Versicolored Barbet

Lunch was taken in the field where a calling Yungas Tody-Tyrant called invisibly from a dense area of bushes and bamboo. So we drove out of here and birded the noisy main road back up to the pass, but Lady Luck was on our side today as we called in a rufous-morph Yungas Pygmy Owl that gave fine scope views. 

Yungas Pygmy Owl

There was a distant calling Hooded Mountain Toucan that some of the group saw in flight, several Hooded and Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanagers around as well, and a flyby Southern Mountain Cacique to round off a great day. 

Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager

We headed back to the hotel at a little after 4pm for an early dinner.