The Cuchumatanes plateau

After breakfast at Comedor Amparito we set out to find possibly the hardest bird on the target list. The Maroon-chested Ground Dove. After a lengthy journey across the plateau and several miles down the other side, we arrived at the spot. We started to hear a Dove call soon after arriving, but pinpointing its exact location turned out to be difficult. We set out down the road where we heard another individual, and unfortunately missed its flight across the road. Which turned out to be beneficial since it was not the beautiful male that we hoped to see. After climbing down a ravine and approximately an hours worth of work, persistence paid off and we got to see a beautiful male Maroon-chested Ground Dove fly out of its tangly hiding spot all across the valley. Even though their distribution ranges from Mexico to Peru, this species has a mythical status en is almost never seen. Esteban’s stake out being probably the best place on the planet to get a glimpse of this bird.

We spend the rest of the day trying for another look of the Quail to no avail. But did get fantastic looks at the extremely strange looking Chiapas subspecies of Pine Siskin. Another future split in taxonomy. After lunch we said good bye to the Cuchumatanes and descended to Huehue for the night.Weiterlesen