Magic Birding Circuit
San Jorge Eco-Lodges & Birding Private Reserves
Hello Everyone,
My name is George Cruz. and I am the founder of San Jorge Eco-lodges and The Magic Birding Circuit of Ecuador.
As a bird photographer, each week, I will be posting the best bird photos that I get on my field trips.
For my first post I want to share a picture that I took back in 2009 at San Jorge Eco-Lodge of Milpe - Tropical Forest Reserve. I know it is kind of oudated, but I wanted to share it with you guys as it is probably one of my best achievements.
The bird you are seeing is the Banded Ground-cuckoo (Neomorphus radiolosus). This bird is not only a Chocoan Endemic but also one of the 50 rarest birds in the world.
The Story behind the picture:
It was June 2009, I was guiding a group of 4 Australians at San Jorge of Milpe Eco-lodge. We were looking for an Esmeraldas Antbird (Chocoan Endemic). We spend all the morning looking for this particular species with no luck.
After lunch, we headed down to the Manakin Trail where the Esmerladas Antbird was spotted by another group the day before.
Very close to the area where it was seen by the other group, we stopped abrubtly after seeing that the trail was infested by an army ant swarm.
The trail was now blocked by millions of passing ants, and we were very likely to see some nice birds species as there are a good number of families that follow the army ant swarms to feast on the critters that scamper away in fear from the ants that sweep the forest's floor.
This spot ended up being more productive than we could ever have imagined. We recorded 4 different species including Immaculate Antbird, Chestnut-backed Antbird, Esmeraldas Antbird and also 1 species that made our jaws drop.
We were more than satisfied after recording a fast-moving Esmeraldas Antbird and a rather conspicuous Bicolored Antibird, but little we knew that the real treat was yet to be seen.
Just about when the last group of ants were making their way to the other side of the trail, a relatively large bird jumped into the middle of the trail, 6 meters away from us!!
It took me more than a minute to understand the the bird in front of my eyes was an actual Banded Ground-cuckoo!!. It was not fast at identifying the bird mostly because I was not expecting it at my property. According to the fieldguide "Birds of Ecuador", this species occurs at lower elevations, and more importantly, the bird is supposed to be one of the skulkiest birds in Ecuador, hence, nothing like the bird we had in plain sight and who was acting ridiculously tame.
In fact, the bird was so tame and cospiciuous, that it gave us about 5 minutes for us to place our cameras properly and take great shots at it. The bird seemed not to care about our presence.
As soon as the bird disappeared into the forest, we stared at each other knowing that we had just experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event!!! What an experience!! Easily, one of the most exiting moments in my life.....
Weeks later we learned that we were one of the few photographers (-5) that owned a photo of the Banded Ground-cukoo.
In 2011, I spotted the cuckoo again but this time it behaved more like it is supposed to, I was barely able to get a descent glimpse.
-George Cruz-
My name is George Cruz. and I am the founder of San Jorge Eco-lodges and The Magic Birding Circuit of Ecuador.
As a bird photographer, each week, I will be posting the best bird photos that I get on my field trips.
For my first post I want to share a picture that I took back in 2009 at San Jorge Eco-Lodge of Milpe - Tropical Forest Reserve. I know it is kind of oudated, but I wanted to share it with you guys as it is probably one of my best achievements.
The bird you are seeing is the Banded Ground-cuckoo (Neomorphus radiolosus). This bird is not only a Chocoan Endemic but also one of the 50 rarest birds in the world.
The Story behind the picture:
It was June 2009, I was guiding a group of 4 Australians at San Jorge of Milpe Eco-lodge. We were looking for an Esmeraldas Antbird (Chocoan Endemic). We spend all the morning looking for this particular species with no luck.
After lunch, we headed down to the Manakin Trail where the Esmerladas Antbird was spotted by another group the day before.
Very close to the area where it was seen by the other group, we stopped abrubtly after seeing that the trail was infested by an army ant swarm.
The trail was now blocked by millions of passing ants, and we were very likely to see some nice birds species as there are a good number of families that follow the army ant swarms to feast on the critters that scamper away in fear from the ants that sweep the forest's floor.
This spot ended up being more productive than we could ever have imagined. We recorded 4 different species including Immaculate Antbird, Chestnut-backed Antbird, Esmeraldas Antbird and also 1 species that made our jaws drop.
We were more than satisfied after recording a fast-moving Esmeraldas Antbird and a rather conspicuous Bicolored Antibird, but little we knew that the real treat was yet to be seen.
Just about when the last group of ants were making their way to the other side of the trail, a relatively large bird jumped into the middle of the trail, 6 meters away from us!!
It took me more than a minute to understand the the bird in front of my eyes was an actual Banded Ground-cuckoo!!. It was not fast at identifying the bird mostly because I was not expecting it at my property. According to the fieldguide "Birds of Ecuador", this species occurs at lower elevations, and more importantly, the bird is supposed to be one of the skulkiest birds in Ecuador, hence, nothing like the bird we had in plain sight and who was acting ridiculously tame.
In fact, the bird was so tame and cospiciuous, that it gave us about 5 minutes for us to place our cameras properly and take great shots at it. The bird seemed not to care about our presence.
As soon as the bird disappeared into the forest, we stared at each other knowing that we had just experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event!!! What an experience!! Easily, one of the most exiting moments in my life.....
Weeks later we learned that we were one of the few photographers (-5) that owned a photo of the Banded Ground-cukoo.
In 2011, I spotted the cuckoo again but this time it behaved more like it is supposed to, I was barely able to get a descent glimpse.
-George Cruz-
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