92Shawman's 1992 3VZ-E SR5 Pickup

Ecuador!

In 2014 I did a banding trip out of Mindo at a reserve called Las Tangaras. This summer I went again with the same organization but due to unfortunate unsafe circumstances at Las Tangaras we relocated to a nearby reserve called Bellavista. It was about 500m higher in elevation so we had quite a few new birds, and with warmer average temperatures and increased human development in the lowlands we were seeing some new lowland birds, as well. All around a fascinating and extremely fun trip.

Here's the research cabin we spent 2 weeks in:

Bellavista Research Station by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And an overlook over the reserve and the Tandayapa valley below:

Bellavista Overlook by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

On our first day we stopped at a new hummingbird attraction called Quinde Luna. The owner had started turning his land into more of a preserve to attract hummingbirds and tourists, which he and many others have found is paying just as well if not better than having the land as pasture for primarily dairy.

And he had some amazing hummingbirds out there!

Purple-bibbed Whitetip by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

This guy was extremely photogenic

Velvet-purple Coronet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Velvet-purple Coronet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

I don't have photos of them but we caught a couple of these Violet-tailed Sylphs in the mist nets over the project, which was phenomenal:

Violet-tailed Sylph by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Had some great finds just looking around the research cabin and some of the nearby trails before getting into the banding work.

Turquoise Jay by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Scaled Fruiteater by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And tons of orchids all around if you looked for them. Most of them were much smaller and surprisingly difficult to find for such an ornate flower.

Untitled by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

We even found a snake one day! I only had my 400mm on me so enjoy this stitched wildlife photography...

Bellavista snake by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

And then we jumped right into the banding! We set up mist nets which are basically walls of really thin, loose net panels separated by taught lines to form pockets. The birds fly into the panels, fall into the pockets, and tangle themselves until we come to free them. The challenge is freeing them quickly with as little stress as possible to the birds and without having to cut the expensive net to get them out. It may be less stressful for the birds but holy crap can it get stressful for us!
Then we carry them in bags back to a banding station and band them with little aluminum bands that have numbers on them to identify individuals. In doing so we can keep track of the exact number of individuals that we recapture and we can use some population estimation formulas to get a sense of the total population size and biodiversity in the area. This all factors into advising areas of particular concern where the reserve owners should focus their conservation efforts as well as determining what conservation methods work well and which don't. Pretty awesome stuff, if you ask me!

Some of the birds can be quite tricky to identify, though, which is a key part in determining the biodiversity of an area...

These two birds are both the same species. One's just younger than the other even though they're both full-sized.

Western Hemispingus by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

We were also collecting morphology data on these birds, particularly leg, beak, wing, and tail sizes as well as weights. Makes it difficult when the entire tail is missing!

White-sided Flowerpiercer by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And of course they don't like to make it easy on you...

Strong-billed Woodcreeper by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

But sometimes they sit pretty

Strong-billed Woodcreeper by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

These birds were horrible biters, even though they look so cool

Plushcap by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

But so mean at the same time

Plushcap by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

We also collected information on any parasites. This poor flowerpiercer had lice all around its eyes! It looked like they would go up to the eye and take drinks before hiding back in the feathers.

Masked Flowerpiercer by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Our day off was basically just more birding on our own... it was tough to get out when we would have to call a taxi, pay $30, and the destination town wasn't even that interesting. But the birds were always beautiful so it wasn't such a hardship.

"I'm hiding behind this stick, you can't see me!"

Grass-green Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Nicely-posed Streaked Tuftedcheek

Streaked Tuftedcheek by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

The definition of cloud forest: Mountain-Toucans in the clouds

Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And some crazy difficult spots!

Green-and-black Fruiteater by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

There are some crazy adaptations down there, like these with the tail feathers specifically designed to prop themselves up on the trees while they forage through the leaves and mosses for insects.

Montane Woodcreeper by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And the Trogons with their super slow-moving perch hunting, looking around for insects without spooking them

Masked Trogon by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Quite a few birds were nesting out there, too

Golden-crowned Flycatcher by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Golden-crowned Flycatcher by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And then there's just the crazy amount of color in birds like the tanagers...

Beryl-spangled Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Colors that are even crazier up-close! Back to our second round of banding

Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Grass-green Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

A bird that most of us had never seen before

Barred Becard by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And after enduring the bracelet ceremony she went right up above the banding station and grabbed herself a nice mid-morning stick-insect snack.

Barred Becard by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

So many different flycatchers they started naming them all sorts of weird things, like this Pygmy-Tyrant

Rufous-headed Pygmy-Tyrant by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

The view into the trees from the banding station

Untitled by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

This was one of the lowland birds that we caught way out of it's normal range. The theory, however, is that these birds migrate between populations in the Amazon basin and on the coast, traveling from 500m elevation, up over the Andes at almost 3000m elevation, and back down the other side. Perhaps we caught one during it's journey?

American Pygmy Kingfisher by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

American Pygmy Kingfisher by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

This area had quite a few charismatic species

Crimson-mantled Woodpecker by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And some that bite hard! Only caught two toucans, but they were exciting!

Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

On other days we did hiking, meandering transect surveys where we recorded species and numbers of each species and the distance traveled during a four-hour survey.
This both captured birds that were higher up in the trees, too high to be caught in mist nets, and allowed us to compare our biodiversity estimates between methods to see if they arrive at similar conclusions.

Some of the different birds:

White-throated Quail-Dove by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

This Quail-Dove was doing some weird courtship act or something on that branch. It would repeatedly wave its tail up and down while fully fanned out. Really weird!

White-throated Quail-Dove by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

White-throated Quail-Dove by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Your typical Rufous-collared Sparrow...confused by it's own feet

Rufous-collared Sparrow by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And we got down to the hummingbird feeders at the Bellavista Lodge. Always some interesting stuff there! They go through something like 10 liters of water per day feeding hummingbirds.

Fawn-breasted Brilliant by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

They can get quite territorial

Buff-tailed Coronets by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Lots of other species in that area, too

Cinnamon Flycatcher by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Masked Trogon by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Masked Trogon by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Golden Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And some butterflies!

Untitled by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Back at our next banding location we got some even crazier birds! This one was quite the biter...

Toucan Barbet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Toucan Barbet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And an endangered hummingbird!

Hoary Puffleg by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

My friend's hand got progressively more bandaged as the trip went on...

Streaked Tuftedcheek by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

The tufted cheek that this species is named for

Streaked Tuftedcheek by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Always so special to get one of these in the hand

Beryl-spangled Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

After banding, we spent a day exploring a neighboring reserve and a hummingbird yard in Mindo. Quite the treats!

Quetzal!

Golden-headed Quetzal by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

The ever-crazy Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

The owner of the neighboring reserve feeds the birds and works with them so much that he calls them by name when he feeds them and they come running out of the bushes to see him. Of course, some of them get quite fat from eating a banana a day...

Dark-backed Wood-Quail by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Andean Emerald by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

One of my favorite hummingbirds

Booted Racket-tail and Andean Emerald by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Brown Inca by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

The forest at the reserve

Refugio Angel Paz by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Banana feeders!

Golden-naped Tanager by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

He's known for his antpittas that he calls by name

Moustached Antpitta by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

She came running out, ate a few worms, then snatched up a bunch and took them back into the bushes, possibly to feed her young!

Moustached Antpitta by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Crimson-rumped Toucanet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Down in Mindo

Masked Flowerpiercer by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Bananaquit by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Green Thorntail by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Andean Emerald by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Red-faced Spinetail by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

White-necked Jacobin by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Hiding up above the hummingbird action

Pale-mandibled Aracari by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Freaking cowbirds are horrible... they're nest parasites, so they lay eggs in other species' nests, the cowbird chick pushes the other chicks or eggs out, and the other species parent is forced by it's own instinct to raise this monstrous creature. It's not quite so bad for species that can handle it or are well established, but locally it's an issue for endangered songbirds like the California Gnatcatcher, Least Bell's Vireo, and Southwestern Willow Flycatcher.

Lemon-rumped Tanager with Shiny Cowbird juvenile by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Back to pretty birds...

Brown Violetear by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And Jesus lizards!

IMG_9017_edit_small by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And that wrapped up our team banding trip! We banded over 420 new birds and processed somewhere around 515 individuals, including birds that had been recaptured, for a total of around 120 species. All in 7 five-hour mornings of netting!


After the banding trip, a few of us did a day trip up to the hot springs outside of Papallacta. Wonderfully relaxing after the insanity of the previous two weeks and hiking and carrying gear every day.

We had to sneak in a brief walk up along the river above the springs, though, where we found some more very different birds!

Superciliaried Hemispingus by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Buff-winged Starfrontlet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

These birds were going insane fighting each other over territory. We almost got hit a couple of times!

Buff-winged Starfrontlet by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Spectacled Whitestart by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

After that, my fiancee and I traveled back to the cities in which she served with Peace Corps, which was really nice. All of her teachers and host families were so incredibly nice and friendly and all of the food was so amazing!

The volcano that forced her to move sites with six months to go in her two year service... calm as can be.

Cotopaxi by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

And the volcanoes in her second site

Riobamba and Chimborazo by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Riobamba by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Riobamba and Chimborazo by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

That's all folks!

Phew, I'm all caught up!

 

Amazing!

 

Thanks! Now to eventually get through the 250 photos from my friend's wedding and the 150 from this last weekend's Sierra trip...