Mitu Updates? (1 Viewer)

Hi all

There are some great reports online and also a good thread on BF about this superb site. However I wonder if anyone out there has been in the last 12 months and can help with updates on trails, gen and local guides etc.

A team of four of us are hoping to visit over Christmas and all updates would be welcome.

key birds are: Green-tailed Goldenthroat, Black-bellied Thorntail, Orinocco Piculet, Bronzy Jacamar, Azure-naped Jay, Chestnut-crested Antbird, Yellow-crowned Manakin, Black Manakin, White-naped Seedeater, Brown-headed Greenlet, Gray-bellied Antbird, Cherrie's Antwren, Blackish-grey Antshrike, Bar-bellied Woodcreeper,

[well, those are the ones I need!]

cheers, alan

Hi Allan,

You may try contacting either Diego Calderon or Pablo Florez for more info?

KR,

filip

lewis20126 said:

Hi all

There are some great reports online and also a good thread on BF about this superb site. However I wonder if anyone out there has been in the last 12 months and can help with updates on trails, gen and local guides etc.

A team of four of us are hoping to visit over Christmas and all updates would be welcome.

key birds are: Green-tailed Goldenthroat, Black-bellied Thorntail, Orinocco Piculet, Bronzy Jacamar, Azure-naped Jay, Chestnut-crested Antbird, Yellow-crowned Manakin, Black Manakin, White-naped Seedeater, Brown-headed Greenlet, Gray-bellied Antbird, Cherrie's Antwren, Blackish-grey Antshrike, Bar-bellied Woodcreeper,

[well, those are the ones I need!]

cheers, alan

Click to expand...

Hi Alan,

here is a map: http://goo.gl/maps/UBkX3
And here is a report in .docx http://www.freewebs.com/lievendetemmerman/trip reports/trip report mitu 2012 kopie.docx
And here is a link to some pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150750587602942.504370.720932941&type=1&l=252c6b9ee9

And some details about my sightings:
Goldenthroat: around here: 1.260815,-70.243278 (I was bushwacking a little, and was the only one who saw it. Consider it more luck than stake-out). On the same trail (see map above) at the other side of the river, our best birds were Red-fan Parrot (see map), Pavonine Quetzal (very end of this trail) and especially Bar-bellied Woodcreeper (about halfway this trail, together with Amazonian Barred Woodcreeper).

On the pipeline trail, we had Yellow-crowned Manakin, Black-bellied Thorntail (clearing on highest point in a flowering tree), Black-faced hawk, Imeri Warbling Antbird and lots of Manakins.

On the Mitu Cachivera trail, there is excellent white sand in the beginning with very open vegetation, and a kind of small 'magic' clearing (as in Athanas) a little further. The white sand (see map) yielded Cherrie's Antwren, White-browed Purpletuft, HO Lined Forest-falcon and especially Gray-bellied Antbird. The 'magic' clearing delivered White-naped Seedeater, Brown-headed Greenlet, Paradise Jacamar and Orinoco Piculet. We had a little trouble finding the magic clearing, it is not bigger than a 5-by-20 meter more open space on the trail, or we must have been mistaken ourselves! The Mitu Cachivera and pipeline trails are connected, so most mornings we did mitu Cachivera and then took a shortcut towards pipeline as this trails goes further with better forest.

The Cerro Urania trail is not to be missed, with guaranteed Guianan Cock-of-the-rock on the Cerro, and one of the best Amazonian views one can have...
A clearing halfway (see map) was excellent birding for Pavonine Quetzal, White Hawk, Orinoco Piculet, Guianan Gnatcatcher (a first for the site), Brown Jacamar and Brown-banded Puffbird. Further on the trail, close to the walk up to a viewpoint (see map), we had a second pair of Chestnut-crested Antbirds for our trip. On our 2nd visit to the viewpoint, we even saw a Harpy Eagle sitting, and had excellent views of fly-by Orange-cheeked Parrots and Azure-naped Jay in the trees around. The biggest bridge to Urania is a good stake-out for Blackish-gray Antshrike and Black-chinned Antbird (see map).

If you need more info, let me know...

temmie said:

If you need more info, let me know...

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Temmie, thanks for all of that - very helpful. Fingers crossed that access is still available to those sites and that most of the forest is still there!

cheers, alan

lewis20126 said:

Temmie, thanks for all of that - very helpful. Fingers crossed that access is still available to those sites and that most of the forest is still there!

cheers, alan

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Temmie

Hi, the link to your trip report doesn't seem to work for me today. Could you send me a copy? I'll PM

thanks
alan

Mitu Update

Together with Xenospiza, Cntlndn and Steve Webb, I visited Mitu during 22nd - 29th December as hoped. Logistics were arranged by Nacho as recommended by others and worked well. Vocalizations were infrequent and we relied on systematic trawling of our target species and were successful with many including the difficult White-naped Seedeater. Habitat was trashed at the start of the best MCH trail but got better 2km further down - a male Tawny-tufted Toucanet was found here as hoped (trawled). Otherwise habitat was much as reported by Andrew Spencer and Nick Athanas - with the best white sand being the Mitu Cacheivera trail.

Thanks for Temmie for the updates.

More later if I can

cheers, alan

White-bellied Dacnis

This rare species proved rather common, in contrast to other reports. We saw a total of at least nine males and one (presumed) female on a total of four dates including groups of up to 3 males. At least in December, this site may prove to be the best location (anywhere) for those looking for it.

cheers, alan

lewis20126 said:

key birds are: Green-tailed Goldenthroat, Black-bellied Thorntail, Orinocco Piculet, Bronzy Jacamar, Azure-naped Jay, Chestnut-crested Antbird, Yellow-crowned Manakin, Black Manakin, White-naped Seedeater, Brown-headed Greenlet, Gray-bellied Antbird, Cherrie's Antwren, Blackish-grey Antshrike, Bar-bellied Woodcreeper,

[well, those are the ones I need!]

cheers, alan

Click to expand...

We saw all of those species except the Thorntail. We didn't spend much time searching for hummers in the canopy and didn't chance upon any good flowering trees. We looked for the tree mentioned by NA on the pipeline trail but could not find it - probably not flowerring in December?

The Seedeater was very difficult but we eventually trawled one up on the third day in the white sands along the MC trail and he came in for VERY close views.

Also worth mentioning that we had a total of three separate chance sightings of Variegated Tinamou, in various locations but no sign of other tinamous (other than heard Grey-legged), larger cracids or Wood-quails. A long walk would be required to get into less hunted habitat.

cheers, a

Mitu updates

lewis20126 said:

We saw all of those species except the Thorntail. We didn't spend much time searching for hummers in the canopy and didn't chance upon any good flowering trees. We looked for the tree mentioned by NA on the pipeline trail but could not find it - probably not flowerring in December?

The Seedeater was very difficult but we eventually trawled one up on the third day in the white sands along the MC trail and he came in for VERY close views.

Also worth mentioning that we had a total of three separate chance sightings of Variegated Tinamou, in various locations but no sign of other tinamous (other than heard Grey-legged), larger cracids or Wood-quails. A long walk would be required to get into less hunted habitat.

cheers, a

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Hi Alan- I will be in Mitu in several days. Could you let me know where you saw the Orinoco piculet, azure napped jay, chestnut crested Antbird, yellow throated Antwren, bar bellied wood creeper, white bellied dacnis? Thanks very much

rhhopf, welcome to Birdforum!

Niels

Just back from Mitu, and a few thoughts.

Nacho is a good bloke, he organized our week's travels without any major problems...no motorbike dramas as in previous reports. He is a real character once you get to know him, and has some very interesting tales of his time in the army and police...the region was a hotbed of rebel activity for a long time and he has packed a lot into his relatively short life! He is learning quite a few of the birds and was a useful extra pair of eyes on occasion.

I struggled in the forest to be honest...I was travelling with a sound recordist and a photographer, which basically meant I was having to find most stuff myself...and without much recent experience of birding in the amazon a lot of sounds went by unidentified, as well as the odd briefly seen woodcreeper / flycatcher. Besides that it was very quiet for long periods of time in the white sand forest, and even MCH road was disappointing. We had one ant swarm all week with only about 4 species in attendance, and only a few proper mixed flocks.

We lost 3 mornings due to heavy rain at dawn plus a couple of late afternoons. The rainy season was only just starting, so whether that had any bearing on bird activity I don't know, but one of the local indiginous guides suggested that the best month to visit was August...

I saw quite a few of the target species, but missed loads of stuff, so a return trip will be in order, probably after I've cleared up some of the more general amazonian birds elsewhere so I can concentrate on the specialities at Mitu.

One thing that did take a lot of the sting out of the poor birding was seeing a Jaguar just off the MCH road. That was very exciting...easily worth 20 ticks

rhhopf said:

Hi Alan- I will be in Mitu in several days. Could you let me know where you saw the Orinoco piculet, azure napped jay, chestnut crested Antbird, yellow throated Antwren, bar bellied wood creeper, white bellied dacnis? Thanks very much

Click to expand...

Apologies, I've only just seen this! I could not give you precise locations but iwe only did the standard trails, so you have visited the locations where we saw the birds. Hope you had a good trip.

cheers, alan

Robert_Scanlon said:

Besides that it was very quiet for long periods of time in the white sand forest, and even MCH road was disappointing. We had one ant swarm all week with only about 4 species in attendance, and only a few proper mixed flocks.

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It was the same in December with no birds singing at all. I would have had almost no new birds if we hadn't relentlessly trawled the relevant songs. Very tough birding! At least you had an ant swarm - we also managed just one in a week.

cheers, alan

Hello everyone,
just got back from Mitú one week ago and we had great time....

Half of the week weather was overcast and bird activity great (spent mostly at Terra Firme sites) and the other half was a bit warmer and sunny with slower activity (spent mostly at white sands).

Army ants were common as we got at least 4 swarms; Pueblo Nuevo, Ceima Cachivera and Bocatoma Trail were specially good for swarms. Chestnut-crested Antbird was seen twice in the trip, and the couple foraging with the ants at Ceima was really cooperative.

The highlight of the trip was also attending an army ants swarm: we got a couple of RED-BILLED GROUND-CUCKOOs at the Bocatoma Trail very very near town. This was a big swarm in terms of numbers and activity was great. To read the whole story on our NEOMORPHUS go to: https://www.facebook.com/COLOMBIA.Birding/posts/10152286257143517 (NO NEED of a Facebook account to read this!). This seems to be the 1st confirmed report for Colombia BUT I HAVE TO SAY THAT Miguel Portura, the great local guide from Mitu Cachivera, has seen one already near the Cerro Guacamayas base earlier in the year!

We got MOST of our target birds, including all hummers but a couple of hermits, several fruit eating birds (tanagers, barbets, toucans, etc... as Ficus figs and melastomes were fruiting and boiling with birds!); we anyways missed the White-naped Seedeater and the Tawny-tufted Toucanet this time.

More from this last trip to Mitú at:
https://www.facebook.com/COLOMBIA.Birding/posts/10152291156468517

Returning to Mitu next week with another group... more later!!
d.


SPECIAL NOTE:
WE KEEP SUPPORTING THE LOCAL INDIGENOUS GUIDES TRAINED BY THE SENA (NATIONAL LEARNING SYSTEM) AND GROUPED INTO ETNOAVESVAUPES (http://etnoavesvaupes.org/). I KNOW SOME OF YOU HAVE USED NACHO AS HE IS THE ONE MENTIONED IN THE ATHANAS ET AL. TRIP REPORT, BUT GOING WITH THE LOCAL GUIDES OF ETNOAVESVAUPES YOU LEAVE MONEY TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN A MUCH MORE FAIR WAY AS FEES ARE GIVEN TO EACH LOCAL COMMUNITY, AT DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES YOU HAVE THE BEST LOCAL GUIDES AVAILABLE (MIGUEL AT MITU CACHIVERA AND BOCATOMA, AGRIPINO AND FLORENCIO AT PUEBLO NUEVO, ETC) AND THEY RECEIVE THEIR MONEY TOO. WE PREFER TO SPREAD OUR MONEY INTO DIFFERENT PEOPLE THAT HAS GONE ON THESE TRAINING PROCESSES RATHER THAN LEAVING IT TO ONLY ONE PERSON THAT DEALS WITH THE LOGISTICS.

COLOMBIA Birding said:

The highlight of the trip was also attending an army ants swarm: we got a couple of RED-BILLED GROUND-CUCKOOs at the Bocatoma Trail very very near town. This was a big swarm in terms of numbers and activity was great. To read the whole story on our NEOMORPHUS go to: https://www.facebook.com/COLOMBIA.Birding/posts/10152286257143517 (NO NEED of a Facebook account to read this!). This seems to be the 1st confirmed report for Colombia BUT I HAVE TO SAY THAT Miguel Portura, the great local guide from Mitu Cachivera, has seen one already near the Cerro Guacamayas base earlier in the year!

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Very gripping! I've never seen a "big swarm"...or a Red-billed Ground-cuckoo!

cheers, alan

me neither. 6 more weeks... fingers crossed...

I only noticed this thread now, but FWIW the Beckers & Florez Birdwatching Guide to Colombia has a good chapter on Mitu, including info on sites we were not aware of during our 2012 visit (with temmie et al) and are not mentioned in the seminal trip report by Athanas et al (e.g. the Santa Marta trail, with reports of Gray-legged Tinamou among others).

For those interested in the white-sand specialities of eastern Colombia, note that the same book has an excellent chapter on Puerto Inirida. Based on this info, two friends and I spent a week there in February and had a great time. Logistics are very easy and many of the Mitu specialites (including White-naped Seedeater) occur here as well. Others - Chestnut-crested Antbird and Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock perhaps foremost among them - don't, but their absence is compensated by the likes of Orinoco Softtail, Yapacana Antbird, Rose-breasted Chat, and Capuchinbird.

cajanuma said:

Orinoco Softtail, Yapacana Antbird, Rose-breasted Chat

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I've got this ste pencilled in for my next Colombia trip - how easy were these three species? The first two would be the main reasons for going there.

cheers, alan

cajanuma said:

I only noticed this thread now, but FWIW the Beckers & Florez Birdwatching Guide to Colombia has a good chapter on Mitu, including info on sites we were not aware of during our 2012 visit (with temmie et al) and are not mentioned in the seminal trip report by Athanas et al (e.g. the Santa Marta trail, with reports of Gray-legged Tinamou among others).

For those interested in the white-sand specialities of eastern Colombia, note that the same book has an excellent chapter on Puerto Inirida. Based on this info, two friends and I spent a week there in February and had a great time. Logistics are very easy and many of the Mitu specialites (including White-naped Seedeater) occur here as well. Others - Chestnut-crested Antbird and Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock perhaps foremost among them - don't, but their absence is compensated by the likes of Orinoco Softtail, Yapacana Antbird, Rose-breasted Chat, and Capuchinbird.

Click to expand...

Hi there!

I'll be heading to Inirida in October. how difficult were the above 4 to get observations of?

KR,

filip

Hi Alan and Filip,

We managed to see them all so they weren't too difficult. I would think the antbird is the hardest: the only known site is on the Cano Carbon trail and we tried on a couple of occasions at what I guessed was the right spot to no avail. I called Jurgen Beckers on our last evening and he explained where the correct site was - he had only heard it there once, his only record - and on our last morning a female responded to a brief bout of playback, coming in close for good looks and calling (http://www.xeno-canto.org/166806). I suspect we were rather lucky. I'm sure it's more widespread in the very specific habitat they like (see the habitat photo in this paper: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v111n02/p0195-p0209.pdf), the problem is finding more sites with that habitat. PM for more precise directions.

The softtail and the chat were both on the Matraca trail as detailed in the birdfinding guide. They happened to be in the exact same spot about 1km down the trail. The chat was vocal on both days we spent on the trail (http://www.xeno-canto.org/166936), the softtail was more of a chance encounter. However, in Jurgen's experience the softtail is more common, and I would think that by spending enough time on the Matraca trail your chances would be very good. We did not have recordings of it as none are available on xeno-canto, but if you could get your hands on one then your chances would be even better.

Capuchinbird is fairly common along the Cano Carbon trail near Sabanitas, and is vocal until mid-morning and again in the late afternoon. A local guide is mandatory along this trail as it is indigenous land. Alvaro, the head of the Sabanitas community who guided us, does not know much about birds but he does know the Capuchinbird ('pajaro toro') so he is helpful in that regard.

Keep in mind that the above applies to February, which is in the dry season. Many of the good birding sites are apparently flooded in the wet season and inaccessible, I don't know whether water levels are low enough in October to allow access to the best sites.