Look at this pygmy-owl outside of Los Andes lodge! This one perched right out the front door. There was some debate as to whether this was a ferruginous pygmy-owl or mountain pygmy-owl. The debate seemed to center around the spots on his head. Ferruginous pygmy-owls should have streaks, mountain pygmy-owls should have more spots. To me, it looks streaky. Bottom line, it was a tiny owl.

Pygmy-owls were all over the place in Guatemala, this was a pygmy-owl that was spotted as our bus was passing through a small town. You know how in the US, some people will try to whistle like an eastern screech-owl, in Guatemala, birders whistle like pygmy-owls to get smaller birds to come in closer. One day our group saw a yellow-wing cacique fly over. In trying to get it to come back, someone in our group started the pygmy-owl call and I noticed something small and brown fly up to a telephone pole with a hole. At first I thought it was a wren, but it was a ferruginous pygmy-owl--we actaully called one in.

How's this for a Guatemala sunrise? This was just off of the organic tea farm at Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. The tea is bordered by cloud forest where resplendent quetzals can be found. I'm generally not a fan of early rising (I know, I know, I'm a birder, I'm supposed to enjoy getting up in the dark, but I don't). However, when I'm forced to get up, what a treat to get a fabulous sunrise.

Here's a zoom in, you can see the puffs of smoke coming off the volcano--beautiful. We took our time walking in to the forest, many birds were already singing. I mentioned early on that digiscoping was a challenge in Guatemala--digiscoping in the tropics is hard work and this was a trail where I had to make a decision: spend a few wasted seconds trying to get the camera an scope lined up, or use those precious seconds to enjoy the bird. One was an antpitta, I can't think of any way to describe it but maybe, combine an American robin and a nerf football with long legs. It was a bird I expected to only hear and not see, but as our group made it through the forest, one was walking along the path searching for food. What a treat to see this secretive brown bird.

Here's the view of the tea farm outside of the forest with the quetzal. This was a cool spot to stand in and just watch birds go by.

We searched this forest more than once for the quetzal but I only heard it, I did not see it. I heard two different versions of quetzal sounds. One was a rather pleasant, almost ticking call. The other scared the crap out of me. I found a very distant version of it on Xeno Canto, you'll hear this kindy of shrieky gobble, that's what I heard, only it was right behind me and ten time louder. I literally ducked when I heard it. Alas, did not see the quetzal, but we saw their nest boxes scattered about. We saw so many other birds including azure-rumped tanager, emerald touchanette, blue-crowned chlorophonia, and collared trogon that I could live with living to see a quetzal another day.

They did have resplendant quetzal tail feathers on display at the lodge. I stood next to one to give some perspective as to how long their tails can get. I'm five foot and that tail is over half as long as I am.

I should mention that the road to the quetzal area is quite adventurous. Our group was packed into the pack of this truck and we had to stand...I had to be careful where I stood. My head was at the top bar level and if I stood in one of the corners, I would end up hitting my head.

The ride is about about twenty minutes long on what I would call minimum maintenance roads...and the above was about as flat as they got. There were curves and hills and large rocks and we were bounced all over in the back. It was nerve racking enough to watch when it was daylight and even more so when it was dark--our drivers were great, they knew how to drive on those roads, but to me who is not used to those types of mountain road--it was exciting. But the upside of when it was dark was that we'd periodically stop for pauraques sitting in the road, I'm sure they followed our vehicle a bit as toddled down the road, going after insects kicked up.

I have to get back to Los Andes. At least to see the quetzal, but also because it's a cool place.

Why, hello there, Mr. Clay-colored thrush! I totally forgot about this photo I took of you at Los Andes in Guatemala!

While working on another project, I discovered a huge backlog of blog posts--I have parts of Guatemala that I haven't blogged about yet--one of them was my absolute favorite lodge we visited. Doing some real digging in my photos, I have entries from last year's Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival--doh! So, we're going to catch up on a few spots as well as talk about Kazakhstan over the next week.

If I ever have the chance to return to Guatemala, I want to return to Los Andes Private Nature Reserve. It's a farm that supports 80 families and grows organic tea, shade-grown coffee and quinine. Surrounding the farm are several rubber tree plantations as well. Parts of it are left untouched and you can find quetzals there. The most common bird I saw while we were there was the yellow-winged tanager (above).

The lodge itself offered a cozy, family atmosphere. Comfortable couches, tons of books, info on the rich family history--an even Internet access. I was able to use Skype here to call Non Birding Bill free over the Internet. Dinners were family style and prepared on premises. You knew when each meal was almost ready, you could hear the cooks in the kitchen patting out the homemade tortillas. Olga, the owner, was quick to offer us samples of their own coffee and tea. She even made us fresh chai--what heaven to drink those beverages while slowly meandering around outside the house...

...and watching dynomite birds like socail flycatcher and red-legged honeycreeper. I could easily spend two weeks at this place. If I ever write a birding romance novel, I would set it here.

There were some familiar sites, like tons of monarch caterpillars. I've read that there are six generations of monarchs in a year. Since it was February, I wondered if this was the first generation after the one that over-winters?

There were also quite a few great kiskadees around--a bird I see quite a bit in south Texas. They look very similar to the social flycather. Note the large heavy bill on the above kiskadee.

Note the smaller dainty bill on the social flycatcher. The also sound quite different. The kiskadee seems to shout, "kisk ka DEE!" Here's a social flycatcher singing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb91w3TDeEc[/youtube]

Almost like the kid brother of the kiskadee trying really hard, but comes off a tad whiny. Cute birds and a treat to watch while sipping organic tea.

This is a holding pond on the property and it was chock full of birds, again some familiar like indigo and painted buntings. So exciting to see where are breeding birds, party and hang out in the winter. I don't blame them for coming to Guatemala at all--beautiful and lots of seeds and insects to eat (Los Andes also have sunscreen and insect repellent ready to grab at a moment's notice). There was even a great-tailed grackle hunting and eating small lizards around the water.

This is a white-collard seedeater lurking in some of the grasses.

Check out this crazy looking bird! It's called a masked tityra. Follow this link for a better photo of one, so you can really see how striking this bird looks. I think there are some issues as to where this bird belongs in field guides. It used to be considered a tyrant flycatcher (those are the classy, somewhat easy to id flycatchers like kiskadees and scissor-tailed flycatchers, not the mind-numbingly hard to id empidonax flycatchers--incidentally, those are not all the same bird in that linked photo). However, there still seems to be some debate as to where it belongs, how to call that category and what other birds would fit in there. Bottom line, it's a crazy looking bird.

I saw many types of trogons while in Guatemala, but getting photos of them proved more challenging that i realized. Above is the beautiful backside of a violaceous trogon, perched in a tree right outside the lodge. We did explore other parts of the reserve and that is in a coming post. However, if you are looking for a place to do some relaxing birding, eat great local food, drink tea and coffee that is good for birds, and just visit with good people--Los Andes is it. Don't get me wrong, you can do hardcore birding and there are some strenuous trails here, but it was just such a joy to slowly work around the lodge itself and soak in so many colorful birds.

Even when it rained, you could stand at the window and enjoy the view.