Paraiso passerines

Paraiso was also our first introduction to the high elevation passerines.  Mountain Robin started displacing some of the Clay-colored's.  We had brief views of Long-tailed and Black-and-yellow Silkies.  The first Volcano Hummingbirds, Slaty Flowerpiercers, and Yellow-thighed Finches appeared as well.  We spent some time scoping and scanning trees for a calling Chlorophonia before we picked up some sitting quietly in the treetops.  This shot is pretty heavily cropped, the birds were very tough to pick out and didn't want to really come down at all from the treetops.

A Volcano Hummingbird displayed for a female.

 

After a bit the guides latched onto a mixed flock where the first Collared Redstarts and Slaty-capped Bush-tanagers appeared.  A tapaculo and Spot-crowned Woodcreeeper put in brief appearances.  A Rufous-browed Peppershrike flashed through but couldn't escape Steven's bins.  It flew across and down the trail and landed for a couple seconds on a crossbranch.  Luckily my settings were close as there would have been no time to adjust them.

 

There were dribs and drabs of some of the common birds for the elevation, our first Black-billed Nightengale-thrush...

 

A Sooty Robin also teed up cooperatively.  It looked like it had a tick attached to its left cheek so I walked past it along the trail to shoot the more photogenic side.

 

Finally a Black-capped Flycatcher.  This distinctive empid was actually in my top 20 or so birds I really wanted to see.  Call me nuts, but how can you turn down a chance to use the words "distinctive" and "empid" in the same sentence?

 

Up next post will be a high elevation feeder set-up with undoubtedly the best tanager photos I've ever taken...