La Florida - Pedro Palo

Our international group from the UK, New Zealand, South Africa and USA were finally all together and we set out early doors to La Florida wetlands this morning. This is one of the best places to see Bogota Rail and we enjoyed fine views of several birds both along the path to the hide and also some more distant birds from the hide. It took a little while to see our first one but after that we were treated to better and better views. We also saw Andean Duck, American Coot, Blue-winged Teal, many Bare-faced Ibis, Southern Lapwing, Grey-breasted Martin, Carib Grackle and several Yellow-hooded Blackbirds. 

Bogota Rail

We left here and headed through the infamous Bogota traffic to Pedro Palo an area of rolling hills and remnant patches of forest and even a lake. We walked along the road for around 2.5kms to a house where we enjoyed a fantastic lunch. The road was quite productive and we began with a showy Tropical Mockingbird before noticing the trees and bushes were alive with tanager. Literally the first bird was a Metallic-green Tanager that eluded most of the group but more and more birds kept appearing. The common and widespread Palm and Blue-grey Tanagers were next up, but there was also Blue-necked, Black-capped, several Crimson-backed, Lemon-rumped and lots of Scrub Tanagers. It was an exciting session as we followed the flock up the road. At a sharp bend in the road the birds seemed to halt and began to feed in some quite low trees giving better views and we saw Mountain Elaenia, Crowned Woodnymph, Rusty-margined Flycatcher,Red-billed Emerald, Montane Woodcreeper, Brown-capped Vireo, Bay-headed Tanager, Streaked Saltator, Yellow-bellied Elaenia and best of all, Rufous-naped Greenlet.

Continuing our walk we saw a few Streaked Xenops, Smoky-brown Woodpecker, several Golden-faced Tyrannulets, Azara’s Spinetail, and a large flock of White-collared and Chestnut-collared Swifts. The next patch of forest was quite dense and we managed to pull out Plain Antvireoand Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant. Moving on, Yellow-backed Oriole showed nicely, a Rusty Flowerpiercer was new, and an Acorn Woodpecker appeared just as we reached an overlook above the lake. 

Golden-faced Tyrannulet

Yellow-backed Oriole

In the surrounding roadside trees Plain Xenops, Tropical Parula, Flame-faced Tanager, Red-crowned Woodpecker and Olivaceous Piculet showed well. The fields next to our lunch site held Saffron Finch, many Yellow-bellied Seedeaters, Lesser Goldfinch, Smooth-billed Aniand a few Spectacled Parrotlets. But we were more interested in the stunning endemic Turquoise Dacnis feeding in a tree out in the fields – what a bird!

Lunch was surprising good and we overindulged a bit but by lingering here we bumped into another flock with all the same tanagers etc but this time added Streak-necked Flycatcher, Golden-crowned Flycatcher and a cracking Red-headed Barbet to our list. An endemic Black Inca was also seen here by a few of the group. Walking back to meet the minibus was a bit tiring but was enlivened by Beryl-spangled Tanager, an obliging Grey-breasted Wood-Wren and Moustached Brushfinch.