Putre/Arica (N Chile) II (1 Viewer)

[opisska]

I searched through every Polylepsis woodland around, but found no more Thick-billed Siskin candidates. What I did found though are other confusing birds

1-3: Sanctuario de las Picaflores, Azapa valley. There was a lot of hummingbirds, but I haven't found any Chilean Woodstar males, so I had to turn into investigating females' tails, as that is the only real clue do differentiate those from Peruvian Sheartail females. I did indeed found these with weird tails, but those do not actually agree with the pictures in Jaramillo. So what are these?

4: This is a little below 3000 m a.s.l. in Socoroma. Jaramillo states that Plain-breasted Earthcreeper occurs above 3500, so by range this should be White-throated? But it was winter and snowy in the highlands, so I can feasibly imagine a puna species being pushed down. As for field marks, I can't really decide at all which one of those it is.

5: In the heights of Lauca, around 4500 m a.s.l., on the road waiting for snow to be cleared I found this, presumably a miner, but which? to be fair it looks best for Greyish to me, which would be however some 2 kilometers too high for its common range.

Thanks!

PS: I will make a report, because this was an interesting trip, but to tease, I actually found two Spot-winged pigeons (at very different locations), a species not even listed in Jaramillo!

 

[pbjosh]

On your hummers the first two look like they could well be Chilean Woodstar, with the pale panels in the tail. The third bird looks like it could be Oasis with broader rets, no pale panel, and some rufous tones on the back, but I wouldn't feel 100% about any of these. A couple comments on these hummers: The three species (Oasis, P Sheartail, C Woodstar) are each others' closest relatives, and Chilean Woodstar is not closely related to the other S American Woodstars. Keep in mind that Alvaro's book is now 15 years old! It is still one of the best books in S America, but little was known about these hummingbirds when it was written and the C Woodstar plate and description was based upon one female specimen. Obviously more is known now, though not a lot more is published, unfortunately. One thing I learned after birding N Chile is that both P Sheartail and C Woodstar pump their tales and this cannot be used to ID the birds, and this was confirmed by Alvaro and by Fabrice Schmitt in a brief conversation. I felt that voice was useful but my number of samples was small. I did have one clearly positive response and one likely response to recording by female plumaged C Woodstar.

For the Earthcreeper, White-throated is the more expected species at Socoroma (according to ebird which does not have a ton of data, to be fair), though both occur just a bit higher at Putre. Voice is really the best thing to go on for those birds - I don't remember them well enough (and have only ever seen White-throated once) to weigh in, other than to say that I don't see anything in your photo to rule out White-throated.

Your miner is Puna Miner - Grayish Miner has a notable pink wash to the sides and is found in really different habitat.

Spot-winged Pigeon is by now well known from Chile, and there are some other additions to the guide in the way of newly-documented or newly-occuring species, including Sparkling Violetear and Screaming Cowbird off the top of my head.

 

[opisska]

Thanks for the reply! The third hummingbird indeed could be Oasis, I just took it from my wife who looked through the pictures for the best candidates without really checking. It does lack the clear orange band on rump, but it still looks quite Oasis-ly.

I guess the miner being Puna makes sense, it just didn't look right to me but maybe it's the strong light. To be honest, I really saw most of the birds of that day only on pictures, because in real world they were black shapes in a blindingly white world. Sunny snowed over day at 4500 meters ...

Btw. Sparkling Violetear is already in the book, but Screaming Cowbird indeed isn't.

 

[njlarsen]

Compare: https://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=88859
and https://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=286230

Niels

 

[pbjosh]

Just to add some useful information, here's the relevant snippet of Alvaro's comments when we had a brief exchange about ID'ing these birds:

"Most of the current id details are based on our book, and we had very little to go on (one specimen of a female). It seems that people think this identification is easier than it really is, and assume there is no variation in underpart coloration or in tail movements during foraging. At least that is what I have seen, even by the people who were studying these birds. None were ID junkies that could determine what the diagnostic features actually are, so they based identifications mainly on our book rather than moved things forward. Tail pumping and underpart coloration are likely average differences."

He suggested that there is still a lot of work to be done and likely a good paper could be written on ID'ing female / female-plumaged birds in this complex.

Another key thing: if you get far enough south you get to an area where, as far as is known, Peruvian Sheartail has not expanded to. At least as of 1.5 years ago, the limit was the Chaca Valley; Sheartails are known there, and not further south. So if you go south of the Chaca Valley you can, theoretically, assume that you're seeing Woodstars.

Hope the above helps & cheers!
Josh

 

[opisska]

I would add that I found an article claiming that Chilean Woodstar is now extinct everywhere except the Camarones valley, which should in principle make the ID easy (and explain the general lack of clear Woodstars in Azapa).

 

[pbjosh]

Do you have a link to the article? I was not aware of that claim and would sort of doubt it but I don't have any way to personally refute it either.

 

[opisska]

https://abcbirds.org/bird/chilean-woodstar/

"Agriculture, with its introduced plants and water demands, has radically changed this habitat, and now only around 3 percent of its original native vegetation remains. As a result, the woodstar has disappeared from two of the valleys that formerly supported the species; its numbers have been radically reduced in the other two.

Today, the valley of Camarones in northern Chile — located south of the coastal city of Arica — is the species' last stronghold."

Upon re-reading it says "dead in 2 valley, reduced in 2", but then it names Camaranoes as "stronghold", so is it extra, or among the 2 "reduced"? The second would then be Chaca and the "abandoned" would be Azapa and Lluta? I am not sure.

Also interesting:https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5578/14842596171_297896fdeb_b.jpg - if this is reliable, then my photos can be interpreted as the bright inner feathers of Peruvian, no?

 

[pbjosh]

I agree, if that plate is accurate it would seem to your birds as being Peruvian Sheartail.

As far as distribution of the Woodstar goes, I really don't know but I also am not sure anyone knows exactly. It is a bird that certainly needs and warrants further study. In the areas I've seen it, in the Camarones valley, I have seen it in agricultural areas. It could be that the agricultural expansion isn't what is directly harming the Woodstar but rather that the ag expansion is allowing the Peruvian Sheartail to expand and that species is more aggressive and is driving the Woodstar out? This is pure speculation on my part, to be clear.

 

[njlarsen]

I think already 9 years ago, it was realized you needed to go a good deal south of Arica to find the woodstar.

Niels

 

[opisska]

In hindsight, I should have researched that better before going, for example by asking here The problem is that on e-bird, this is a hidden species, so my quick scan for locations for each of the 29 target species I had made me basically skip this one. Well, I will probably have to go to Antofagasta for work reasons at any time in the future again, so I will get a chance to give Arica another try, it's just a short 9-hour sleeper bus ride away (and the "salon cama" class is really sleepable, so it's quite convenient to go there).

 

[pbjosh]

Yeah I don't really understand why it's a sensitive species. I really support the idea of protecting parrots and other birds that are most vulnerable to cagebird trapping (Red Siskin, Indonesian songbirds, some of the Seed-Finches in S America, etc), but I kind of have a hard time believing that Chilean Woodstar is subject to direct human persecution?

In any case, good luck in the future. You can see the birds in the Camarones valley near the town of Camarones (or presumably anywhere in the valley where the road is near the riparian corridor), but also, and more conveniently, you can see them where the main highway (5) crosses the Camarones arroyo closest to the coast - more or less at -19.1502, -70.1793.

I don't know if you're aware but also, the Rio Lluta rivermouth can be (at least seasonally) good for Peruvian Martin in the morning around 7-8AM.

Suerte!

 

[opisska]

Great info, thanks! I tried to look for the Peruvian Martin, but I never was there so early in the morning.