Thursday, July 5 - Cock-of-the-Rock Day!



Afluente, with laundry and sleeping dog

Cock-of-the-Rock!

Rufous-tailed Tyrant on next

We met at 5:30 for a breakfast of fried yuca and bacon before climbing onto the bus and heading down 3000’ to the tiny misnamed settlement of Afluente, consisting of a two-story house attached to a vulcanizadora, a tire repair shop. We walked along the road a ways and suddenly a brilliant neon orange shape shot across the road! An Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - a chicken-sized bird with a top knot that flows forward over the bill and is entirely orange except for a black tail and wings and a white back - just spectacular! It was exciting to see one, but as the morning progressed we saw a total of 13 of these amazing birds!

The traffic increased with more enormous trucks and busses making the birding somewhat less pleasant with the constant noise, honking, and exhaust, but the beautiful vegetation, butterflies, and bird sightings made up for it. Our crew set up tables across the street from Afluente and made us a good lunch of chopped chicken and veggies with avocado on top. We slowly drove back up the highway stopping in several places to find specific species. At one place Bob spotted a Red-Ruffed Fruitcrow, a 15” black bird with a orange throat speckled with yellow and mottled chestnut belly. Bob had been wanting to see this bird for quite a while and was quite pleased.

We returned to the lodge at 6:30 PM - a full 12-hour day of birding! - and had a little break until dinner at eight, although most used the tine to continue birding!!

I took the opportunity to have a warming shower and wash my hair. The lodge is unheated and usually about 60º, so this had to be carefully planned so as to not go to bed with a wet head! I began to feel poorly and lay down for a while, but managed to get up for dinner of squash soup, fried dried pork, and fruit cup. We were going to get a bottle of wine but I thought coca tea was a better choice.