Laura and I met Mario before dawn on January 31 but were surprised when he picked us up in a tuk-tuk as opposed to his trusty van. He informed us that the van was out of commission and would be in the shop for a few days as it needed a new part which would be shipped in from Bogotá. We didn't mind riding along in the tuk-tuk, feeling the cool morning breeze and hearing a few birds as we drove across the savannahs to the community of Caño Vitina.
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| Pierella hyalinus - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
Upon arrival we met with the chief of the community - Jaime - who would be our escort for the day. The total cost was 20,000 pesos per person plus a 60,000 guiding fee for Jaime, for a total of 100,000 pesos. We really enjoyed Jaime's company and found him to be quite knowledgable of the local flora and fauna. He allowed us to return in the afternoon for a second walk at Caño Vitina without having to pay any extra, since our fee was good for the whole day.
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| Sunrise at Caño Vitina - Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
Caño Vitiña consists of a sandy track that passes through high-quality white-sand scrubby woodland interspersed with natural savannahs. It is an excellent location to search for cotingas as evidenced by our luck in the morning with 3 Spangled, 1 Purple-breasted, and 1 Pompadour Cotinga.
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| Spangled Cotinga - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
My main bird target for the morning was the White-naped Seedeater. This white-sand specialist is only known from a handful of sites in northwest Amazonia. Indeed, Inírida is one of the better places in the world to seek it out. Unfortunately, we struck out with this species but we enjoyed many other birds throughout the morning including several new ones for us: Short-billed Honeycreeper, Imeri Warbling-Antbird (heard-only), Orange-cheeked Parrot and Yellow-throated Flycatcher.
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| Yellow-throated Flycatcher - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
A small flock of Plumbeous Euphonias alighted on a distant tree. It was only the second time that we have encountered this localized species. We observed a few Epaulet Orioles and Red-shouldered Tanagers near the edge of a flooded area, while some solar-powered dragonflies rested around the perimeter of the wetland.
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| Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
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| Diastatops sp. - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
Soon, we reached the periphery of a large, natural savannah. The pleasant songs of Wedge-tailed Grass-Finches rang out all around us.
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| Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
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| Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
We crossed the savannah to reach forest patches on the far side.
Though the mid-morning sun burned, we could not help but linger to observe and photograph some of the fantastic plants that grow in this amazing place. I could only imagine the excitement that a proper botanist would experience here, but even to my untrained eye the diversity was breathtaking.
Two plant species stood out amongst the rest, and they were spectacular. These species are found in the family Rapateaceae which is related to the sedges and grasses, and both are iconic Inírida species since they are not known from anywhere else in the world.
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| Schoenocephalium teretifolium - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
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| Schoenocephalium teretifolium - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
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| Guacamaya superba - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
We crossed the sun-scorched savannah - stopping briefly to check out a seemingly out-of-place Collared Plover - and entered the relatively cool forest where we were met by a pair of White-eyed Tody-Tyrants.
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| White-eyed Tody-Tyrant - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
The birding was pretty good in the white-sand forest even though the ascending temperatures had quieted most bird-song. We quickly tallied some Golden-headed Manakins and a Rufous-tailed Flatbill.
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| Rufous-tailed Flatbill - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
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| Golden-headed Manakin - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
We entered a small clearing and stumbled across two great birds. First, we heard a very distant Brown-banded Puffbird singing its distinctive song. But before we could backtrack from the clearing to search for it, a raptor blasted into the clearing and perched in a nearby tree. It wasn't just a small hawk, but it was in fact a Tiny Hawk!
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| Tiny Hawk - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
This raptor is in the genus Accipiter, the same as the Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawk, familiar species from back home in Canada. The Tiny Hawk feeds on hummingbirds as well as other small birds, reptiles and large insects. Laura and I have been lucky with this rare species and this was our third encounter in a few months, having seen individuals in Panama last October and in San Cipriano, Colombia earlier in January.
We had our fill of the Tiny Hawk and backtracked to the place where the Brown-banded Puffbird was calling from. At the next clearing we were a little closer but the bird was still quite distant and it refused to come any closer. I had to be happy with a few poor recordings, unfortunately. Luckily, we would have more chances with this range-restricted species since it also occurs in Mitú, a site that we had plans to visit later in February.
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| Varzea altamazonica (tentative ID) - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
One of our last memorable discoveries for the morning's walk was a quartet of Opal-rumped Tanagers that obliged us by flitting around in the lower levels of a tree. Typically, these beauties reside high up in the canopy.
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| Opal-rumped Tanager - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
Feeling a little parched from our morning hike, we found a small shop to purchase refreshments. I befriended a chicken in the process.
Following a midday siesta, Mario picked us up for our return visit to Caño Vitina. Though the afternoon was far less birdy than the morning had been, we picked up a few interesting species of note.
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| Red-legged Honeycreeper - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
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| White-browed Purpletuft - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
The savannah that produced many Wedge-tailed Grass-Finches in the morning was the setting for a new bird vocalization ringing out from the grasses: a Russet-crowned Crake. Despite a solid effort we were unable to actually lay eyes on it, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about crakes and their behaviour.
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| Versicolored Emerald - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
A little while later, two Black-throated Antbirds darted across the path and skulked deep within a shrub. This was a new species for us, though we would obtain much more satisfying views a month later in Mitú.
The sun sank lower in the sky as we slowly birded our way back to the beginning of the trail. But then, I heard it: the song of a White-naped Seedeater! Seconds later we were staring at our very first one, perched up in a shrub and singing his heart out.
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| White-naped Seedeater - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
What a way to cap off an excellent day at Caño Vitina. A couple of local people walked by as we had the seedeater teed up in the scope, so we offered them a view. They were surprised at how beautiful it was and interested to hear a little bit about this species' life history.
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| White-naped Seedeater - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
The White-naped Seedeater is an enigmatic species. For a time it was placed in the monotypic genus
Dolospingus, but for now it is considered a member of
Sporophila. It inhabits low scrubby savannahs and woodland on sandy soils in a narrow band from southeast Colombia to northwest Brazil, while an isolated population has also been discovered in southern Guyana. Much of the behaviour and ecology of this scarce species remains unknown.
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| White-naped Seedeater - Caño Vitina, Inírida, Guainía, Colombia |
We enjoyed our "walk-away views" of the White-naped Seedeater and headed back to Mario's tuk-tuk for the return trip to Inírida. It had been an excellent day.
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