It was a first Amazonian rainforest experience for most, and we discovered together some of the joys of Amazonia while based in comfort at Sacha Lodge—even when the rainforest lived up to its name!

The Gilded Barbet's series of two hollow notes repeated is one of the classic sounds of Amazonia. (Photo by participant Rachel Hopper)

Sacha’s strengths are many: its high metal towers connected by a canopy walkway, its more intimate wooden canopy platform in the emergent ceiba tree (complete with water-filled bromeliads for bathing pools), its quiet blackwater channels into flooded forest around the cocha, and its access to phenomenal clay licks across the Napo where seven to eight species of parrots show up almost daily to socialize and to ingest diet-critical minerals.  Though more challenging to bird, the diversity of forest trails on both banks of the Napo is not bad either.  We enjoyed them all!

Just a few of the highlights of our trip would have to include:

—Our two exceptional mornings in the canopy, with an almost constant parade of birds sitting up or visiting nearby fruiting trees, from fancy big toucans and aracaris, cotingas, and tanagers, to displaying raptors, tiny flycatchers, and the colorful Orange-fronted Plushcrown (which was anything but somber!)

The Golden-collared Toucanet is surely one of the most handsome of a very handsome family of birds. (Photo by participant Rachel Hopper)

—the incredible gathering of parrots to the river-edge clay lick across the Napo, all amid a cacophony of screeches and screams, especially the masses of Mealies, Yellow-crowned’s, and Blue-headed’s on the outermost bank

—The wonderful views of such nocturnal species as Tropical and Tawny-bellied screech-owls, Crested Owl, and both Common and Great potoos, the last two on two nearby dayroosts

—The haunting dawn chorusing of Common Potoos around the cocha and the roaring of Red Howler Monkeys

—No fewer than 4 species of jacamars and 8 species of puffbirds (including the striking Collared Puffbird and Lanceolated Monklet)

—The many wonderful looks at tiny Pygmy Marmosets, acrobatic Common Squirrel Monkeys, and lethargic Red Howlers

We owe special thanks to our hosts at Sacha, where we had delicious food and great service, and to our exceptional local guides Oscar and “Pupa,” who not only paddled us day and night, carried our ponchos, scope, and lunches, but guided us through the rainforest, sharing their extensive experience.  Special thanks also to Rachel for her great photos.

To read more about our Amazonian Ecuador: Sacha Lodge tour, go to our tour page. You can see a fun slideshow of great Sacha birds and places by clicking on the photo mosaics on the left side of the tour pages. And you can check out Rose Ann’s upcoming schedule of tours on our guide page. Just click on her photo.

Dusk recedes to the west as we paddle back across Pilchecocha to Sacha. (Photo by guide Dan Lane)

I was playing tic-tac-toe with the bushbird’s head. Cross branches of bamboo several feet deep between me and a lifer look. Something is crawling up my pant leg (don’t scratch), sweat dripping down my forehead (don’t swipe), don’t move I told myself. The black object had made progress towards our small group, calling much of the time, now it was perched just in front of us. Easy, easy, take a step slowly to one side…

Success! Guide Richard Webster captured this evocative image of the bushbird he and Jesse spotted with their group on a recent Field Guides Colombia tour.

The Recurve-billed Bushbird (Clytoctantes alixii), as it is awkwardly (for me, anyways) called, went nearly 40 years without a single documented record. C. alixii was once thought to be endemic to northern Colombia, but it was rediscovered in the Sierra de Perija of Venezuela near the Colombian border in April 2004. That find was part of a Rapid Assessment Program team involving Venezuelan Audubon, the Phelps Collection, with financial support from Conservation International. With this confirmed sighting, interest shifted back to Colombia, a country quietly but steadfastly healing after years of internal conflict and neglect by the birding community. Sure enough, a year later, Colombia had its rediscovery by Oscar Laverde at Agua de la Virgen, near the bustling city of Ocaña. Thankfully, for us and the bushbird, it has now been recorded at several more sites.

My expectations of this bird were that the bill was going to be bigger than the bird. I think in part because every photo I had seen of it was taken at an angle, bill on and bird-in-hand, which exaggerates its size in comparison to the head. So, when I finally did see this bird my first impression was, “Well, cool, the bill is much smaller than I thought.” However, the bill is big, the culmen nearly straight, with the mandible curving up to meet the bill tip. Why does it have such a bill structure? Gusanos, amigo. Worms and bamboo, dude. The bushbird uses its bill to slice open thin bamboo shoots, like slicing open a can of cranberry sauce with a pocket knife. However, once the bill is inserted it is forced upward using the straight-edge to cut the bamboo stalk. Inside, it works to dig out larvae of beetles and other arthropods. Interestingly enough, not all bushbirds have been found within thick bamboo stands (“bushbird” is more appropriate than “bamboobird”), so they are obviously able to survive searching for prey in other ways. So, why have that strange bill?

As Jesse demonstrates, the bushbird uses its bill on bamboo like a can opener, with the resulting tell-tale signs in the image at right above. (Photos by Jesse Fagan)

This bird is truly spectacular. Not a let down. It lives up to all expectations. Rare, certainly local, loud and vocal, and that bizarre bill, this is a bird to see (or try to). Deep within the bamboo, I managed to get one decent photo of the bird. Not great, but it captured a split second in a memorable experience for our group on the recent Field Guides BOGOTA, THE MAGDALENA VALLEY & SANTA MARTA tour I co-led with Richard Webster, who scouted and developed this exciting itinerary.

Use the player below to listen to my recording of the bushbird:

[If you have trouble using the player, here's the direct mp3 file link.]

And did you know? Currently, Clytoctantes is not monotypic. The Rondonia Bushbird (C. atrogularis), equally rare and local, was only recently discovered in 1984 from a small area of southwest Brazil. There are currently just four reports of this species, and no male specimens. Despite outward similarities and behavior with C. alixii, the vocalizations of Rondonia Bushbird appear closer to Black Bushbird (Neoctanes niger) and according to Bret Whitney would keep C. alixii “within a monotypic genus despite similarities to Rondonia Bushbird.” You can discover additional information about the Recurve-billed Bushbird at Birdlife International.

We have a whole lot of Colombia coming up in our 2011 schedule, with 3 distinct itineraries and 4 departures.  Jesse will be returning for COLOMBIA: BOGOTA, THE MAGDALENA VALLEY & SANTA MARTA while Richard will guide both our COLOMBIA: THE CAUCA VALLEY, WESTERN & CENTRAL ANDES and COLOMBIA: SANTA MARTA ESCAPE tours. A few spaces remain open as of this posting.

Folks, we have a wonderful new guide we’d like you to meet. His name is Marcelo Padua and he’s from Belem — that big Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon River. Marcelo has been leading his own birding tours in Brazil for a few years now and has gained a remarkable knowledge of not only the amazing bird life of Brazil, but also of what it takes to be a superb tour guide.

Marcelo Padua

I’ve known Marcelo since 2005, and last year he informally co-led parts of tours with me at Alta Floresta, Manaus, and Carajas. We had a great time on each of those trips and participants have had overwhelming praise for him. Marcelo loves guiding tours and it shows! Marcelo will join me for most of the Brazil tours I’ll lead in 2010 and 2011 (we just completed a great Northeast Brazil together; see the tour’s Birding Wrap-up); so you lucky folks already signed up for those trips are going to have two guides for the price of one! That’s “Beleza!” with two big thumbs up! Indeed, many of our Brazil tours fill quite early, often going to waitlists, and we don’t have enough staff to handle the flow. Marcelo will soon be guiding Field Guides tours on his own, and you’ll have even greater opportunity to see beautiful Brazil and all of its rare birds.

Marcelo is already first rate around his home in Cuiaba, both in the Pantanal and cerrados and also the complex rainforests of Alta Floresta, and he’s learning fast how to consistently show people the rarest endemics of the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil and the treasures of the northern and central Amazon. For the talented birder, the birds come with practice and patience. What doesn’t always come naturally are the people and logistical skills that make for an outstanding tour guide, but Marcelo comes with the complete skill set, everything you expect of one of our Field Guides guides. He went to high school in Middletown, Pennsylvania, speaks English fluently, and even taught English in Brazil for a couple of years.

We encourage you to come birding in Brazil and to meet Marcelo on his home turf, either with the two of us as guides or on one of his new tours starting in 2011. A sneak-peek into Marcelo’s future (details will be up on our website soon): a new, 12-day tour to the Pantanal and neighboring areas of Mato Grosso to maximize chances of spotting a Jaguar and the ultra-rare Cone-billed Tanager (on the books as Conothraupis mesoleuca). The tour will be scheduled for July/August of 2011 and the itinerary will be available in spring 2010. Check out Marcelo’s complete upcoming schedule of tours on his guide page.

Oh yes, and when you’re down there, ask Marcelo to tell you the full story of how he suddenly became a birder…and watch out when you see displaying manakins of any kind — he’s got a weakness (or is it a strength?) there!

The first couple of days of the tour produced some beauties, especially Long-tailed Woodnymph, Pinto’s Spinetail, Willis’ Antbird, Yellow-faced Siskin, and Forbes’ Blackbird…but we’d missed our shot at finding the ultra-rare White-collared Kite due to rain and miserably muddy roads through sugar cane fields. Though this would have been our best venue for the bird, I consoled everyone that we’d have another chance for it later in the trip.

The beautiful Seven-colored Tanager is among the many rare endemic birds of Northeast Brazil. (Photo by guide Bret Whitney)

Two weeks of great birding later—highlighted (to mention only a few) by Spot-winged Wood-Quail at our feet; a White-browed Antpitta rocking on a limb at eye-level followed by a magnificent view of Great Xenops; amazing Araripe Manakins below eye-level; Pygmy Nightjars and Least Nighthawks on the ground in broad daylight; and about 16 gorgeous Lear’s Macaws feeding and flying around in the remote interior of Bahia—we found ourselves once again climbing a sugarcane road to a hilltop where we could scan, and pray, for a White-collared Kite.

The morning was waning, already growing hot and humid, when I called in a big bunch of Jandaya Parakeets, certainly among the fanciest of Neotropical parakeets. The scopes were busy on them for a while, then Marcelo (Marcelo Padua, my co-leader for the tour; meet Marcelo here) began to methodically scan all the visible forest ridges while I covered another angle. Admittedly, it didn’t look very promising for seeing the kite, but we’d come a long way to take a shot at it and we’d give it some time. A half-hour went by, then Marcelo called out, “Bret! Come take a look at this bird!”

Marcelo Padua gets part of the group on a pair of very rare Alagoas Antwrens. (Photo by guide Bret Whitney)

I was at the scope in seconds. What I saw was an incredibly distant, perched, white-bellied, dark-backed raptor. It was facing left with its head down over its right shoulder. I said, “It’s something good but I need a clear view of the head.” (I must have sounded like a sniper in a war zone.) I took a deep breath and crossed my hands behind my back. A few seconds later, its head came up in perfect profile and it was absolutely, perfectly, an adult White-collared Kite!

The line had already formed behind the scope and everyone had a couple of turns of good viewing before it launched into flight. Almost immediately, an adult Mantled Hawk came after it and for the next few minutes these two rare raptors performed short flights and perched for the scopes. Later that morning we managed closer views of the same birds and even got to witness the “butterfly” flight display of the White-collared Kite, a mega-rare treat for sure!

When you nail a great bird like that, and it sinks in just how incredibly rare it is, it puts into perspective all those lousy roads through cane fields once cloaked in verdant, humid forest. I think all of us had that same feeling many times during the tour after long drives through barren landscapes brought us to enclaves of forest habitats where wonderful birds like Silvery-cheeked Antshrike, Pectoral Antwren, Pink-legged Graveteiro, Hooded Visorbearer, and Broad-tipped Hermit carry on with their lives.

I’m back home in Austin now, but my mind is still overflowing with memories of Northeast Brazil. Next January, Marcelo and I will be there in Recife, waiting for you so we can do it all over again.

Evocative, granitic rockscapes characterize the badlands of interior Northeast Brazil. (Photo by guide Bret Whitney)

To read more about our Northeast Brazil: Long Live the Lear’s! tour, go to our tour page. You can see a fun slideshow of great Northeast Brazil birds and places by clicking on the photo mosaics on the left side of the tour pages. And you can check out Bret’s and Marcelo’s upcoming schedules of tours on our guide page. Just click on their photos.

We ran a little contest as part of our February e-mailing, and we’ve posted the answers and our two winners. Learn a little about Peru and its birds by checking our answer page, and thanks to all who participated!!

The highest, coldest, driest, and most southerly continent, Antarctica is the stuff of legend. In many ways it remains a frontier, one rich in history, and we tried to make a little of our own during our visit to the continent, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Orkneys, and the South Shetlands before finishing in the world’s southernmost city of Ushuaia. We saw all seven expected penguin species and also enjoyed some unusual whale and seabird encounters against a backdrop of some of the world’s most magnificent scenery.

Close-up of a Black-browed Albatross at a nest. (Photo by guide George Armistead)

At sea we familiarized ourselves with what would be our most steadfast and seaworthy companions in the Cape and White-chinned petrels and Black-browed Albatrosses. These species were welcome and expected daily, but most unexpected was a dapper little Many-colored Rush-Tyrant. This tiny flycatcher provided a splash of color against an otherwise monochromatic sea.  Once at the Falklands we drank in the sights of a large Rockhopper Penguin/Black-browed Albatross colony and quickly snagged sightings of the endemics, including the steamerduck, the Striated Caracara (Johnny Rook!), and Cobb’s Wren while also enjoying nice encounters with Rufous-chested Dotterel and Canary-winged Finch, among others.

Some elegantly attired King Penguins, one of the few species that can be found breeding almost year round. (Photo by guide George Armistead)

En route to majestic South Georgia Island, we crossed the Falkland Plateau where the tubenose show really blossomed. Smart-looking sprites like Blue Petrel and Gray-backed Storm-Petrel appeared first, followed by some dazzling aerialists like Soft-plumaged, Atlantic, and Kerguelen petrels—all tracing arcs across the sky. Once at South Georgia we wallowed with enormous Elephant Seals and marveled at the thousands of King Penguins and nesting Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses.  South Georgia is simply one of Earth’s greatest treasures. With the incomparable scenery, the Snow Petrels, and various penguin colonies, it’s a tough place to leave, but we still had a continent to add to our list.

At Neko Harbor, West Antarctica we put foot on that continent. It felt good indeed, and we were welcomed by hundreds of Gentoo Penguins—and some Adelies, too—and an impressive set of glaciers. That morning at Neko was unforgettable, not to be surpassed but added to by a cruise down the Lemaire Channel and a landing at Peterman Island, where we reached our southernmost point (nearing 64 degrees south) and where the Adelie Penguins and Antarctic Shags really have the run of things.

Antarctic Petrel was one of our most sought-after species. We found about 7, our first just north of the South Orkney Islands. (Photo by guide George Armistead)

We set sail from Antarctica heading north to the South Shetlands, landing on Deception Island. As we crossed into the bay, which is formed by the caldera of an active volcano, steam rose from the beaches and a Leopard Seal eyed us from a nearby ice floe. Once on the ground we found close Weddell Seals and watched Cape Petrels feeding on krill boiled in the warm volcanic waters as Antarctic Terns “clicked” and cried overhead. Our last landing at Half Moon Island netted us close encounters with the trim Chinstrap Penguins, and then it was on to cross the fabled Drake Passage. Surprisingly, the weather was perfectly (and almost disappointingly) calm, but a magical dusk encounter with a pod of Orca made the scene serene and surreal.

To read more about our upcoming ANTARCTICA: Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia & the Falklands tour (January 5-26, 2011), go to our tour page. There you can see a  slideshow of great Antarctica birds and places by clicking on the photo mosaics on the left side of the tour pages. And you can check out George’s upcoming schedule of tours on our guide page. Just click on George’s photo.

Our February e-mailing is posted, with an updated version of our popular Recent Photos gallery.

Check out the new pics, read about updates on various upcoming tours, find out about the discovery of a new species of flowerpecker in Borneo by Richard Webster and Rose Ann Rowlett, view a slideshow of George Armistead’s photos from his recent tour to Oman & the UAE, try your luck at answering 5 questions in a little contest we are running (deadline Feb. 19), and more! The link to our e-mailing’s web page (and from there to the Recent Photos gallery and other pages) is below. Enjoy!

February 2010 E-mailing

Just a sample of the images to see in this month's recent photos gallery!

We’ve recently posted the following detailed itineraries for 2010 Field Guides tours, all in PDF file format. With more than 130 departures in our 2010 schedule, there’s much to choose from!

BAFFIN ISLAND: POND INLET
June 15-24, 2010 — [tour page]

NEWFOUNDLAND & NOVA SCOTIA
July 2-12, 2010 — [tour page]

SLICE OF CALIFORNIA: SEABIRDS TO SIERRAS
September 4-13, 2010 — [tour page]

CHINA: BEIDAHE & TIBETAN PLATEAU
September 10-28, 2010 — [tour page]

RIO NEGRO PARADISE: MANAUS, BRAZIL
September 11-24, 2010 — [tour page]

BOLIVIA’S AVIAN RICHES
September 11-26, 2010 — [tour page]

OUTBACK AUSTRALIA
September 11-October 3, 2010 — [tour page]

NEW GUINEA & AUSTRALIA
October 7-25, 2010 — [tour page]

BRAZIL: ITATIAIA, IGUAZU FALLS & THE PANTANAL
October 16-31, 2010 — [tour page]

SAFARI BRAZIL: THE PANTANAL & MORE
October 16-November 1, 2010 — [tour page]

LOUISIANA: RED BEANS & YELLOW RAILS
November 4-8, 2010 — [tour page]

Birding Plus EL SALVADOR & BANDING
November 6-13, 2010 — [tour page]

NORTHERN PERU: ENDEMICS GALORE
November 7-27, 2010 — [tour page]

Note: When you click on a PDF file link, the file should either open automatically in your browser or else download and open automatically with Acrobat Reader, if you have that installed.  If you need to pick up the free Acrobat Reader software from Adobe to read PDF files, you can get it here.

We’ve added the following triplists from recent Field Guides tours, all in PDF file format, in the past few weeks. Enjoy reading some of our recent reports from the field!

AMAZONIAN ECUADOR: SACHA LODGE — January 14-23, 2010

PANAMA’S CANOPY LODGE — December 27, 2009 – January 3, 2010

HOLIDAY AT SAN ISIDRO, ECUADOR — December 27, 2009 – January 5, 2010

COSTA RICA: RANCHO NATURALISTA — December 19-27, 2009

ANTARCTICA — November 1-23, 2009

AUSTRALIA (PART II) — October 13-28, 2009

CARAJAS: LOWER AMAZONIAN BRAZIL — October 4-13, 2009

RIO NEGRO PARADISE: MANAUS, BRAZIL — September 21- August 4, 2009

BRAZIL’S RIO ROOSEVELT — July 29- August 12, 2009

Note: When you click on a PDF file link, the file should either open automatically in your browser or else download and open automatically with Acrobat Reader, if you have that installed.  If you need to pick up the free Acrobat Reader software from Adobe to read PDF files, you can get it here.

This moment of quiet at home (with a Giant Hummingbird perched outside my window) gives me a chance to reflect on what an enjoyable trip we had, from great birds and gut-wrenching laughter to marvelous scenery, and of course, Carmen’s delectable food.  Not only did we see a lot of fabulous birds, but the group camaraderie was particularly delightful.

A bathing Chestnut-breasted Coronet at Guango Lodge, on the road to San Isidro. (Photo by guide Richard Webster)

We had an ideal sampling of the birds to be found, all the way from Quito down to the eastern foothills through a staggering diversity of bird-packed habitats.  Here are a few of the highlights that really deserve special note:

*an adult Fasciated Tiger-Heron concentrating on the fish at hand along a beautiful rushing river

*that family of Torrent Ducks at Guango, as well as the White-capped Dipper that popped in nearby

*all three possible species of Guans—Andean, Wattled, and Sickle-winged

*a pair of Rufous-bellied Seedsnipes pecking away at the tundra-like growth high in the paramo on our second (and final) attempt, whew!

*awesome views of the ‘San Isidro’ Owl after it played some hardball for a number of nights

Definitely a show-stopper—the Sword-billed Hummingbird. (Photo by guide Richard Webster)

*excellent back-to-back studies of Rufous-bellied Nighthawk and a male Swallow-tailed Nightjar, and then that spectacular male Lyre-tailed Nightjar a few nights later

*a mind boggling array of hummers, but I don’t think you can top the Sword-billed or Black-tailed Trainbearer for sheer shock value and excitement

*males of all three of the possible trogonids: Masked Trogon and Crested and Golden-headed quetzals

*a pair of Black-billed Mountain-Toucans calling through the scope

*that dazzling Crimson-mantled Woodpecker and that cooperative family group of Powerfuls at San Isidro

*four species of seen antpittas—the White-bellied at San Isidro stole the show

And finally, a White-bellied Antpitta, seen well at San Isidro. (Photo by guide Richard Webster)

*good looks at both Scarlet-bellied and Black-chested Mountain-Tanagers

*an obscene collection of other tanagers—colorful and drab—including the Rufous-crested (picking insects from under a roof!), Yellow-throated, Vermilion (wow!), Paradise (double wow!), Golden-eared, Saffron-crowned, and Flame-faced

There are so many more that I could just go on, but I need to stop—I feel a little like James Brown being dragged off stage…somebody throw me a towel!

To read more about our Holiday at San Isidro, Ecuador tour, go to our tour page.  Several of our other Ecuador tours also visit San Isidro, including Montane Ecuador this summer.  You can see a fun slideshow of great Ecuador birds and places by clicking on the photo mosaics on the left side of the tour pages.  And, finally, you can check out Mitch’s upcoming schedule of tours on our guide page.  Just click on Mitch’s photo.