During a two week trip to the Mazar Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador in August 2002, I have recorded a number of bird sounds and made them into a little page. The Mazar Wildlife Reserve is a privately owned Bosque Protector located on the eastern side of the Andes, some four hours by car from Azogues, or five from Cuenca. It measures about 13,000 hectares of temperate montane cloud forests, paramo and at lower altitudes also cultivated lands. The altitude ranges from 2,900 to 3,700 meters. In the Birds of Ecuador the reserve is known as Hacienda La Libertad, which is the name of a little house at the bottom of the reserve. The reserve is governed by the Fundacion Cordillera Tropical which tries to achieve both conservation of the present forests and paramos, as well as provide the local communities with more sustainable use of the land by using Alpacas. It also tries to map the pre-Inca culture present in much of the reserve in the form of terraces, pottery and Inca-trails. To date, some 150 bird species have been recorded, among which the Crescent-faced Antpitta, rediscovered by Ridgely and others in 1991, Golden-plumed Parakeet, Viridian Metaltail, and Red-faced Parrots. See the bird list for a complete list (not yet including the new records). I have also compiled a bird report with details of all species sighted in these two weeks.

The Mazar valley, with La Libertad on the right.

Hacienda La Libertad

During my stay, between fourteen and sixteen species have been found that had not been recorded previously in the reserve: Black-and-chestnut Eagle (Oroaetus isidori), Maroon-chested Ground-Dove (Claravis mondetoura) (recorded, hypothetical), Rufous-banded Owl (Strix albitarsus) (recorded), Andean Potoo (Nyctibius maculosus) (recorded), Crested Quetzal, (Pharomachrus antisianus), Powerful Woodpecker (Campephilus pollens) (recorded), Tourmaline Sunangle (Heliangelus exortis), Great Sapphirewing (Pterophanus cyanopterus) (photographed), Buff-winged Starfrontlet (Coeligena lutetiae) (recorded), Strong-billed Woodcreeper (Xiphocolaptes promeropirhynchus) (recorded), Flammulated Treehunter (Thripadectes flammulatus) (recorded, hypothetical), Chestnut-crowned Antpitta (Grallaria ruficapilla) (recorded), Black-throated Tody-Tyrant (Hemitriccus granadensis) (recorded), Rufous-headed Pygmy-Tyrant (Pseudotriccus ruficeps) (recorded), Paramo Tapaculo (Scytalopus canus) (recorded), Pale-naped Brush-finch (Atlapetes pallidinucha). Band-winged Nightjar on the road Of these, the Sunangel deserves special mention, since it seems to be its most southern record. According to Birds of Ecuador it has not been sighted in Cañar province, and the reserve is on the border of Cañar and the southern Azuay province, making it a range extension of some 50 km. The Powerful Woodpecker usually ranges up to 2,600m, but in the vicinity of Mazar all forests below 2,900m have been turned into pastures. The woodpecker is apparently one of those species that has the ability to live at higher altitudes as well.

On xeno-canto I have collected the bird recordings from this trip.