Colombia 2023 - Day 9

8/30/2023 Wednesday

We ate a light breakfast in the main house at 5:30 (eggs, white cheese, bread) and then headed off to Laguna de Tabacal.  It was about an hour drive to this regional park.  We started in the parking area and moved down into an open camping area with scattered trees and good brushy edges. We saw quite a lot of birds, many common but also a few uncommon ones. We got great looks at one of my favorite woodpeckers, the Spot-breasted Woodpecker. 

Spot-breasted Woodpecker

We saw several different tanager species. Some very bright, like the Blue-necked Tanager, and others not so much, like the Plain-colored Tanager. We also saw the well-named Gray-headed Tanager, although this one was a bit immature and still retained a few yellow head feathers. 

Blue-necked Tanager

Plain-colored Tanager

Gray-headed Tanager

One of the most common mammals in the tropics is the Agouti, which look like big Guinea Pigs. They were prowling the campground looking for food scraps, no doubt. 

Central American Agouti

We had a few birds that really didn't want to show themselves, including a small group of Spectacled Parrotlets. We played hide and seek with them for a while, and I think the Parrotlets won! Can you see the blue "spectacles" on this one?

We had a little better luck with a Speckle-breasted Wren that was hiding in the bushes.

We heard so many Rosy Thrush Tanagers calling. Some were quite close but we never got a look which is too bad because we'd really hoped to see them. 

There were a couple of small food concessions next to the parking lot, so we took a short break for coffee/Gatorade and then went onto the forest trails across the road. 

There were a bunch of different trails, most eventually leading to the “lagoon” (lake) where we saw Green Kingfisher, Least Grebes and a nice Striated Heron. Not to mention a few turtles sunning themselves on logs. 

Least Grebe

Striated Heron

We were at our lowest elevation of the trip (1300m, about 4250 feet) and it was getting warm by the time we left around noon. We had lunch at a restaurant in a nearby resort and it was good.  

We returned to the cabins and decided to take a break until 3:45. It gave me a chance to get caught up on the trip journal and enjoy the beautiful view out of the windows of our cabin. 

We headed back to Enchanted Gardens, hoping to see the Gorgeted Woodstar that the owner had told us comes in earlier than we’d visited the previous evening. Sure enough, we got nice looks at both a male and a female, as well as the similar, more common White-bellied Woodstar. 

Gorgeted Woodstar - male

Gorgeted Woodstar - female

White-bellied Woodstar - male

We also saw our first White-necked Jacobins of the trip, Sparkling Violetears, and a large White-vented Plumeleteer. 

White-necked Jacobin

Sparkling Violtear

White-vented Plumeleteer

In addition to the many hummingbirds, we saw a few other birds using the feeders, like Saffron Finches, Ruddy Ground Doves and Bananaquits. 

Saffron Finch male

Saffron Finch female

Bananaquit

Ruddy Ground Dove

Before we left Daniel had suggested we pre-order our dinner from an Italian Food place in town, with delivery to the cabins at 6:30.  This worked out great as Teri and I enjoyed a good chicken and mushroom pizza without having to go back out. A nice relaxing way to finish a great day. 

Next - Back to Laguna de Tabacal, and wrapping up our trip