Bearded Helmetcrest, Colombia Birding

welcome to this week's episode of Nikon's birding adventures this week we're in Colombia home to nearly 20% of the planets bird life I'm with my good mate rich Crosley we're going to be heading up to the central Andes to los nevados National Park and to Rio Blanco slightly lower elevation but we're going to be looking for our golden bird the bearded helmet crest well I'm being here for a couple of decades mate so I have no real expectations but I'm really looking forward to it so all I can say is let's go birding no other country on earth holds more bird species than Colombia with approximately 1,900 different birds Colombia is home to an astonishing 20% of all avian life on the planet the culture food and scenery combined with some of the best birding in the world make for a truly unforgettable experience our adventure in Colombia began with a flight from Bogota to manizales in the central Andes and then a short bus ride to one of the most productive burning sites in the country rio blanco when you can find a large variety of endemic sand speciality Birds Rio Blanco is also one of the best sites for ant mothers and our goal was to find as many as possible in just three days after Rio Blanco we headed higher towards Montezuma Hill the legendary site for two very rare and endemic tanagers and finally we trekked higher to los nevados National Park in the upper Andes to search for a bizarre hummingbird the bearded helmet wrist the one really cool thing about Columbia's you literally cannot walk 20 paces without seeing a new bird when we here it's our second day in Colombia now and behind us in this papaya tree is a black bald mountain toucan feeding on the papaya I mean it really does not get better than this Colombia is just such an amazing destination because like I say you walk 20 paces and you seeing a new bird literally every minute of the day fascinating stuff wood pickers are great birds no matter where you are in the world and Colombia is no exception we came across the stunning crimson mantle woodpecker and staked out one of the largest woodpeckers in the world the magnificent powerful woodpecker we were walking down the road and we came across this old tree trunk and that had this beautiful hole in it and then up flies a powerful woodpecker one of the most magnificent of all the woodpeckers to see it's in the genus Champa Phyllis which is actually the same genus as the ivory-billed woodpeckers in there the largest would pick is in the world that genus of woodpeckers so I'm gonna set up here with the scope we're gonna get ourselves camouflaged we're gonna try and see if these powerful woodpeckers come back they've obviously got excellent eyesight let's see if we can get them coming back to this nesting Hollyer so I'm gonna camouflage my gear a but now it's just a case of patient waiting yeah it comes me I kept some yes yes that was spectacular actually see the head of the youngster pokey out of the hole looking at the adult as the adult came in and then at outlook desired fit it went into some messed around the hole a bit and then flew off again very quickly wow that is a spectacular woodpecker one of the largest woodpeckers in the world the powerful woodpecker now out of all the members of the Kemper fellows genus and there's three members that are found here in Columbia powerfulness found at the highest altitude it's founded between seven to ten thousand feet so it's gonna be right up there in the transitional zone at about six thousand feet you may find powerful and Linney a together but this is the only large woodpecker at this altitude the powerful whip occur what a spectacular beauty the spurting adventures episode is powered by Nikon your world leader and optics since 1917 and sponsored in part by Columbia where the only risk is wanting to stay and buy Autobahn guides nature at your fingertips guiding services provided by birding tours Columbia it's morning at Rio Blanco on the western slope of the central Andes and this morning we're going in quest of the different species of ant Peter to be found here but you can't walk out of your room here at Rio Blanca without seeing the multitude of hummingbirds he had to come into the feeders we've had bath tailed coronets yeah we've had a whole host of different species of hummingbirds and in particular right now we had a long-tailed self coming over here the beautiful long green tail and my absolute favorite hummingbird of them all a sword billed hummingbird came right in here in Seafarer in Saphira which comes from the Latin incest which is a sword and frere to carry all to wield a sword and you can see just how long the bullies on this hummingbird in fact it has the longest bull in relation to its body size to any bird in the entire world this is such a special bird its bill is so long that it actually has to groom itself with its feet so when it's preening it can't use that bull so outrageously long that it's actually using its feet to preen itself and magnificent and very special hummingbird of this region the swordboat hummingbird now let's go find Samantha this this morning were having way up the mountainside looking for aunt Peters everything about this trip so far has been different and this the mode of transport certainly is to James get this baby going let's go don't hold on to me like a girl all right and bitters are some of the most sought-after birds here in the Neotropics and there's no better place to view them than right here at Rio Blanco there's a worm feeding station here where the ant pillars have become accustomed to people because worms have been laid out for them in the mornings and in the late evenings therefore worm feeding stations here and up to five different species of the skulking and pedis can be seen in full view here at rio blanco right now this morning we've just got cracker looks at the stunning chestnut crowned and para probably one of the most beautiful of all the ant bidders it's found in colombia further south down into ecuador it has quite a large range but what a stunner of a bird and then we've also seen Brown banded and Padilla a very nondescript and pillar but very important because it's an endemic ant but I've found only in Colombia I just absolutely love and Perez's because they look like tennis balls with legs these long legs how was that fusion awesome huh you describe him a mate a tennis ball with the long legs well I have a little short legs yes or not not quite but close enough and pit is here in Rio Blanco stunning stuff we're looking at one of the hardest to see and Peter's in the world right now this is a buy colored and Peter and up until five months ago people only heard this bird they very very seldom saw it and recent advances in birding in the last few years have meant that these worm feeding stations have really enabled birders to see incredibly tough species like hoe Kotoka and peter and giant and put in ecuador and now over here bicolored and peter right yet rio blanco what a spectacular bird you can see why it's called bicolored and peter very very easily that nice russet back and that grayish barely what a spectacular and put a right here at rio blanco right now I'm looking at one of the hardest of the Emperor's to find here the chestnut nape and better and it's exhibiting typical and Petter breeding behavior right now gathering as many worms as it can in that bowl and it's going to take those worms back to a nest which is probably containing two to three baby and pillars sitting these primary forests it's very reminiscent most of the Lord of the Rings off expecting Gollum to shout and steal the worms we've been really fortunate to have got four out of five different and pedis species present here at rio blanco but we have tried now for three morning's three afternoons for rally Rick Euler Nana the smallest of all the animators that occur here and the hardest it's very very tough to find this morning oh my gosh foster tiny little guy this state law nebula the fire and burn species here at Rio Blanco this place and behavin the spurting adventures episode is powered by Nikon your world leader and optics since 1917 and sponsored in part by Columbia where the only risk is wanting to stay guiding services provided by birding tours Columbia this birding from the edge segment is brought to you by Nikon manufacturers of the edge line of optics code yourselves extremely lucky if you happen to come across one of the largest mammals of Colombia in fact the second largest mammal of Colombia the spectacled bear on the other side of this valley is a spectacle bear and these are magnificent predators it's the third largest bear in the Americas after the polar bear and the brown bear this one over here looks to be a male they can get over 500 pounds females are about 1/3 smaller but this really big spectacle bear this is burning from the edge it's morning at Montezuma early morning we've got up before light we're heading up in these four by fours about an hour and a half from here to look for two highly endangered Tanager species these birds are highly localized and found nowhere else in the world let's go birding vamos Abajo I don't know every single rib has been fractured I don't know because it's so tough you're gonna watch out for your teeth so if you watch out for your teeth then your ribs supper and if you watch out for your ribs then your teeth suffer so I think I prefer my teeth so I'm just going to go with crack ribs for the rest of the trip Oh watch the live rib crusher this pause looked like something out of the Cars movie like there's a little comet cars those big eyes they're like bigger there's a lot of miles every day this is what it's all about it's not so much about the actual birds themselves but it's so often about the journey to get to those birds that's why we call this show burning adventures because there's never a dull moment we've now come up higher in quest of two particularly rare tanagers the black and gold Tanager which is listed as vulnerable and then the very very special gold ring Tanager first up was the black and gold Tanager which is generally found at lower elevations than the gold ring Tanager the black and gold has a tiny distribution and is severely threatened by habitat loss it has this contrasting yellow and black plumage with the conspicuous blue wing bar we then went higher for the gold ring Tanager and even rarer and more threatened species it's pretty much been raining all day here this very light seeping rain which is characteristic of this cloud forest but right up here we have the gold ring Tanager finally after about two to three hours of searching we've actually got one and this bird is just in a little mist belt over here and it's actually preening displaying itself quite nicely and if you look very very carefully you'll see on the face it's got that perfect perfect gold ring on the face which gives it its name and this bird is so special because it's only found in a very very narrow band at about 5,500 feet of altitude any higher than that you're unlikely to see it and any lower than that you're also unlikely to see it and the fact that it's only found in three or four localities means that the preservation of that habitat is vitally important here in Tatem our National Park this is one of the prime localities for this highly endangered species probably one of the rarest of ulla Tanager species Racha and columbia in touch AMA National Park thus birding adventures episode is powered by an icon the world leader and optics since 1917 and sponsored in part by Hobie polarized sunglasses the world's best polarizing loss and sponsored in part by Columbia where the only risk is wanting to stay guiding services provided by birding tours Columbia and sponsored in part by wing scapes manufacturers of the birdcam we're at 12,000 feet this morning in los nevados National Park in the central Andes just outside the city of manizales this park is absolutely spectacular for many reasons but for one reason in particular we are here this morning to search for a bizarre and very unique hummingbird called the bearded helmet crest let's go birding so we've just stepped out the vehicle and literally five minutes later we've come across our target species yeah the bearded helmet crest Daniel you tell me sometimes you can actually miss this bird up here right oh yes if it's rainy or misty or if the flowers are not bloomed he may not be around okay great and this is such a special and unique hummingbird for several reasons firstly unlike other hummingbirds it's got a very tiny short Bowl and that tiny short bull is used to predominantly gather insects rather than to gather pollen from trees and these yellow flowers behind me over here are the favorite feeding grounds of the bearded helmet crest and what he's doing there is actually not particularly going for the pollen but he's actually going for the insects that are coming in to the pollen into the nectar very low nectar yield from these plants the other reason that makes this hummingbird so special is the fact that it has much larger feet and legs than other hummingbirds and the reason for that is it actually spends quite a lot of time on the ground looking for insects so you can be out there looking for bearded helmet crests expecting to see it on top of trees where it is most of the time but occasionally you'll see it right on the ground hopping around looking for insects hummingbirds naturally have large lungs because they have very very high metabolisms and they have to fly and beat those wings at incredible speeds to stay aloft in flight so it's a natural transition for hummingbirds over time to come up to this altitude to have those large lungs already which are well suited to this rarefied air even still hummingbirds like bearded helmet christe's will minimize the amount of time that's actually spent in flight and you'll often see them perched on top of trees you'll see them feeding sitting just like Chimborazo or Ecuadorian Hill stars do sitting on the flowers and feeding rather than hovering like hummingbirds would do at lower altitudes I'm here with Richard Crosley it's the first time he's seen bearded helmet crest tell me how that was the year itch bloody brilliant mate I mean it's such a stunning bird the habitat here fantastic it's hard to believe with 12,000 feet and fog growing and it's like I'm back in England so just an incredible bird and incredible atmosphere really broke great me feeling right at home feeling right

Channel: A WILD Connection

Views: 17,944

Rating: 4.9069767 out of 5

Keywords: Colombia, Birdwatching, Birding (magazine), Birds, birding, adventures, nikon, james, currie, antpittas, tanagers

Id: qV7qtZmK6k0

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2012