Birding in Southern Ecuador
Copalinga
early March, 2015
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Copalinga
was our last stop, and it was a treat.
It's located a few km from the Bombuscara River entrance to
Podocarpus National Park.
The lodge grounds themselves are a birder's paradise,
and the park adds a huge amount of additional terrain.
Our host and hostess were full of information
and they are doing a wonderful job of being self-sustaining and light on the landscape.
But first we had to get there.
As usual, it didn't look that far on the map,
but we again went up and over and around
and down and around
and up and over and around
and down and around
and...
We went back around Loja and out the other side,
and up and over and around...
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| Village on way to Copalinga |
Rural Scenery |
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| Loja |
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| Skyline on way to Copalinga |
We passed creeks that were small rivers,
pounding down the mountainsides and pummeling everything in their paths.
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| Creek |
Waterfall |
And, surprise, ... road work.
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| Road Work |
Our bungalow was pleasant and we had a nice hot shower.
We only regretted we didn't have a bath, but that's pretty much the case everywhere.
There were hummingbirds, tanagers and others flitting around in the shrubs off the porch.
Power is supplied by an on-site micro hydro setup;
our host,
Boudewijn,
gave us a tour of the hydro plant while we were there.
It is an impressive project,
particularly when you consider the conditions under which it was built.
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| Copalinga Cabin |
Copalinga was named for two trees -- "Copal" and "Inga".
The "copal" tree is a big impressive tree,
and looks to me to be ideal for tree houses!
It's not clear to me what the exact species is,
since "Copal" is actually a word used to describe tree resins of different species.
Copal being the amber resin in which various seeds and insects may be preserved,
and something used for incense in Mayan culture, not in Ecuador.
The "inga" is a flowering tree which was not in bloom while we were there.
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"Copal" Tree
Photo by Dona |
The first day we were there we got a taxi up to Podocarpus National Park
and walked the 3 km home;
thereafter we walked both up and back.
The birding can be good on the road and it is a pleasant hike,
although it can be pretty hot.
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| Waterfall by Road to Podocarpus Park |
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| Podocarpus Park Sign showing Trails |
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| Bombuscaro River |
Waterfall |
When we arrived at Copalinga, we started birdwatching before we even deposited our stuff in our rooms.
A flock of tanagers was coming through just off the dining area,
along with humingbirds at the feeders.
We plopped down and were amazed.
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Bird Xxx Hummingbird
Photo by Dona |
Bird Xxx Hummingbird
Photo by Dona |
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| Photo by Dona |
Photo by Dona |
Photo by Dona |
| Violet Fronted Brilliant (F) |
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| Photo by Dona |
| Black Eared Fairy |
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| Fork Tailed Woodnymph |
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| Xxx Green Crowned Brilliant (F) |
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Magpie Tanager
Photos by Dona |
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Blue Necked Tanager
Photo by Dona |
Of all the crazy colored birds I saw on this trip,
I think the Paradise Tanager wins the prize for the most outlandish colors.
It looks like you gave a child a coloring book and a box of crayons and s/he just colored the bird
whatever seemed right.
If the child gave you the result you would say something like
"That's nice,"
and think something like
"No way mother nature would ever create something that outlandish."
Well, you'd be wrong...
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| Paradise Tanager |
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| Photo by Dona |
| Silver Beaked Tanager |
(F) |
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Palm Tanager
Photo by Dona |
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| Bird Xxx Red Hooded Tanager |
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| Blue Grey Tanager |
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Summer Tanager
Photo by Dona |
Bay Headed Tanager
Photo by Dona |
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Photo by Dona |
| Thick Billed Euphonia |
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Green And Gold Tanager
Photo by Dona |
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Golden Collared Honeycreeper
Photos by Dona |
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| Golden Tanager |
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| Red Headed Barbet (F) |
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| Squirrel Cuckoo |
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Waterfall,
Podocarpus Park |
Tree with Roots,
Podocarpus Park |
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| Ornate Flycatcher, Podocarpus Park |
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Inca Jay
Photo by Dona |
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Bird Xxx Black
Photo by Dona |
Black Phoebe |
Xxx Eastern Wood Peewee |
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Andean Cock Of The Rock
Photos by Dona |
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| White Breasted Parakeet |
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| Lineated Woodpecker |
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| Photo by Dona |
| Crested Oropendola |
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Oropendola Nests
Photos by Dona |
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Speckled Chachalaca
Photo by Dona |
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| Tropical Parula |
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Xxx Plumbeous Pigeon
Photo by Dona |
Bird Xxx Dove |
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| Orange Billed Sparrow |
Our hostess,
Catherine,
told us where a Blackish Nightjar perched every evening
so on our last night we walked down the road at the appointed time and watched for it.
We were just about to give up when it appeared,
and I lost about a minute before I got a photo,
but the light had faded by then.
It (the bird) was blackish, and it (the lighting) was blackish when I took the picture.
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| Blackish Nightjar |
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Bird Xxx
Photo by Dona |
We saw a cool bunch of butterflies while at Copalinga.
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Mestra Glasswing (Hyalyris mestra)
Photo by Dona |
Manu Oressinoma (Oressinoma sorata)
Photo by Dona |
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Numata Longwing (Heliconius numata euphone)
Photos by Dona |
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| Numata Longwing (Heliconius numata euphone)
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White Banded Daggerwing (Marpesia crethon)
Photo by Dona |
Twin Spot Duke (Siseme alectryo)
Photo by Dona |
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| Paradise Phantom (Cithaerias phantoma) |
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Scarlet Leafwing (Siderone galanthis)
Photo by Dona |
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Butterfly Xxx Brown Orange
Photos by Dona |
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Red Banded Altinote (Altinote dicaeus)
Photo by Dona |
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Orange Banded Emperor (Doxocopa elis)
Photo by Dona |
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Cramer's 88 (Diaethria clymena)
Photo by Dona |
Cherubina Emperor (Doxocopa laurentia cherubina) (left) and
Cramers88 (Diaethria clymena) (right) |
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Cherubina Emperor (Doxocopa laurentia cherubina)
Photos by Dona |
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Waiter Daggerwing (Marpesia zerynthi)
Photo by Dona |
Salmon Lined White (Perrhybris loren)
Photo by Dona |
Cocala Sister (Adelpha cocal)
Photo by Dona |
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| Lycidas Swallowtail (Batis lycidas) |
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Banded White Ringlet (Pareuptychia ocirrhoe)
Photo by Dona |
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Blue Doctor (Rhetus periander)
Photo by Dona |
Pink Bodied Altinote (Altinote nelius)
Photos by Dona |
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| Mimic Phantom (Pseudohaetera mimica)
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Xxx Brown Black
Photo by Dona |
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| Melanis Xxx |
It's not clear to me if the two Tegosa photos below are actually different species;
I couldn't dig up any way to distinguish them in the photos,
and I think we just identified them coming from different references.
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Moth Saffron Playboy (Xanthiris flaveolata)
Photo by Dona |
Pastazena Crescent (Tegosa pastazena)
Photo by Dona |
Apricot Crescent (Tegosa claudina)
Photo by Dona |
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Bug Xxx Dragonfly
Photo by Dona |
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Photo by Dona |
| Speckled Forest Pitviper |
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| Bat |
On our way home from the park one day we came across a bunch of leafcutter ants.
That was not such a big deal, as they are all over;
but then we saw they were carrying things into a kind of mini-termite mound sort of structure,
which was pretty cool.
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Photo by Dona |
Photo by Dona |
| Leafcutter Ant Mound |
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| Leafcutter Ants |
As usual, there were flowers all over;
and as usual, I couldn't identify most of them.
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Flower Xxx Red Orange
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Red
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Red White
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Red
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Violet
Photo by Dona |
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| Flower Xxx Pink |
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Flower Xxx Pink
Photos by Dona |
Flower Xxx Red
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Red Yellow
Photos by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Red Yellow
Photos by Dona |
Flower Xxx Red
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Blue White
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Purple
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Red
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Orange
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx White Yellow
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx White
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Yellow
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Yellow |
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Flower Xxx White
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Green
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Green Red
Photo by Dona |
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| Flower Xxx Red |
Flower Xxx Xparent Orange |
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Flower Xxx White Purple
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx White
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Pink
Photo by Dona |
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Flower Xxx Red
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Red Green
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx Pink
Photo by Dona |
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Red Hibiscus
Photo by Dona |
The orchids were crazy.
Whenever I see them, I can't help but think of Daddy Warbucks in the Little Orphan Annie cartoon.
I think he always had dangerous things going on trying to save rare orchids.
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Orchid Xxx White Pink
Photos by Dona |
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Orchid Xxx White Yellow Orange
Photo by Dona |
Flower Xxx White
Photo by Dona |
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Orchid Xxx Yellow Red
Photo by Dona |
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Orchid White
Photo by Dona |
One of the trees had these really pretty bright blue berries on it.
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| Blue Berries |
The daughter of one of the employees at Copalinga had a daughter,
and Ram and Dawn love chickens.
We found Ram taking a time out from birdwatching to get introduced to some new baby chicks.
They were almost as cute as she was!
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Ram Xxx Chickens
Photos by Dona |
We found some pretty healthy looking fungi here and there.
One of them,
Dictyonema glabratum,
is now
being reclassified into something like 450 different species.
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Fungi Xxx
Photo by Dona |
Fungi Dictyonema glabratum |
There were a number of different foot bridges over the Bombuscaro River;
all of them looking a bit derelict,
only partly due to the way things grow and age on wood in a wet semi-tropical forest.
They were a great place from which to view the river,
and on a few occasions to check out birds along the river.
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| Photo by Dona |
| Ram, Dawn, and Gary |
Ram, Dawn, and Dona |
Dona |
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| Bombuscaro River |
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| 'nother Bridge |
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Gary
Photos by Dona |
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Gary and Ram
Photo by Dona |
All too soon it was time to go.
We piled in the truck and headed for the airport at Loja,
which is quite a ways from Loja itself.
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| Landslides |
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| Landslides |
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| Waterfall |
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Loja Airport
Photo by Dona |
View from Loja Airport
Photo by Dona |
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Loja from Air
Photos by Dona |
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River From Air
Photo by Dona |
We touched down in Quito just after sunset,
with the Pichincha volcano overlooking everything.
We had a whole day to
mess around in Quito
before our plane left the next evening.
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| Pichincha from Quito Tarmac |
