Yanacocha

My last civilized wake-up time for quite a while: breakfast and on the bus with The Flowerpiercers at 5:00 am for the ride to Yanacocha.

The Jocotoco Foundation’s cool forest preserve on the slopes of Pichincha volcano was just about the perfect birding spot. Access is by a wide, level road, with a steep but short climb at the end to the mirador. And there are birds. Everywhere. Barely were we off the bus when Tyrian Metaltails, Great Sapphirewings, and Buff-winged Starfrontlets surrounded us, some drawn to feeders, most simply buzzing around in “the wild.”

Beautiful, if oddly named, Shining Sunbeams were also abundant along the trails, their iridescent rumps aglow in the shade.

It wasn’t all hummingbirds. Our first fast-moving passerine flock included such gems as Scarlet-bellied and Black-chested Mountain-Tanagers, as well as one of my favorite birds of the day: the puffy-headed White-throated Tyrannulet. With their bright throats and rigidly upright posture, these little flycatchers reminded me a lot of some Old World chats, and in fact, I ran around most of the day calling them, incorrectly, “chat-tyrants.”

Our lunch spot was a feeder-lined overlook high on the trail, where starfrontlets and sapphirewings buzzed our heads. The prize here was the mascot species of the conference, Sword-billed Hummingbird. Birds were visiting feeders and perching unconcerned in the trees around us, their bills as outlandish as the tails of the trainbearers we’d been enjoying in Quito.

Ensifera indeed!