Los Flamencos

What a day this was as we added over 50 new species to our ever growing list including a fine selection of Guijara Peninsula specialities. We began with Rufous-vented Chachalaca, Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, Scrub Greenlet, Northern White-fringed Antwren, Tocuyo Sparrow, Barred Antshrike, a pair of Glaucous Tanagers, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Pearly-vented Tody-Tyrant, Ruddy Seedeater and a Brown-crested Flycatcher. Driving towards the coast we stopped along the road to scope a pair of Double-striped Thick-knees, and as we watched them we also noticed a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Vermilion Flycatcher,American Kestrel, several Fork-tailed Flycatchers, and a few Bare-eyed Pigeons. 

Tocuyo Sparrow

Once at Los Flamencos we walked along a track through the sand forest and notched up many new birds. In fact, new birds came thick and fast and we quickly saw Tropical Mockingbird, Wood Stork, Slender-billed Inezia, Northern Scrub Flycatcher, many Tropical Gnatcatchers, Pileated Finch, a pair of cracking White-whiskered Spinetails, Black-crested Antshrike, Shining-green Hummingbird, Black-backed Antshrike, and a group of 3 Chestnut Piculets.

Black-backed Antshrike

Driving on to the next site we saw a pair of Green-rumped Parrotlets at their nest hole in a telegraph pole and a Reddish Egret feeding in a lagoon. Another path to a large pond was very productive as we saw a pair of awesome Vermilion Cardinals, Grey Kingbird, Straight-billed Woodcreeper, another Northern White-fringed Antwren, Orinocan Saltator, a confiding Baird’s Sandpiper, Black-faced Grassquit, some flyover Magnificent Frigatebirds, Buffy Hummingbirdand Bicoloured Wren.

Vermilion Cardinal

Grey Kingbird

Baird's Sandpiper

Orinocan Saltator

Lunch was at a fabulous setting along a palm-fringed beach where a flock of American Flamingo’s flew by.

We finished our birding at a huge lagoon with numerous shorebirds and terns roosting in front of us. There were many Cabot’s Terns, as well as Least, Common, Gull-billed and Royal Terns too. 

Cabot's Tern

An American White-faced Ibis skulked below some bushes at the water’s edge, several Laughing Gulls patrolled the area, but our main focus were the shorebirds. There were Semipalmated Plovers, a pair of huge Wilson’s Plovers, Semipalmated and a Western Sandpiper, Willet, a group of Short-billed Dowitchers, Ruddy Turnstone, both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, American Oystercatcher, and a breeding-plumaged Dunlin. A distant Cocoi Heron was scoped, a Western Osprey flew by. And that was us done and we had to leave and head towards the Santa Marta Mountains. At the base of the mountains we were met by a couple of four-wheel drive vehicles for a short drive up to Minca, stopping along the way to scope a bunch of Military Macaws at their roost.