September 2005
Jocotoco Antpitta

The Jocotoco Antpitta is a very furtive bird. The total known population has remained at about twelve pairs around Cerro Tapichalaca since the initial survey in 1998, despite intensive searches in apparently suitable habitat carried out by Niels Krabbe and others during the last three years. However during this year, about six new territories have been found - excellent news concerning a species with such a tiny known world population.

A new territory was found on Tapichalaca itself in March, and then later a bird was found near the entrance to Quebrada Honda. (See photograph by Fernando Sornoza) Niels Krabbe has been searching in the Christopher Parsons Forest to the west of Tapichalaca, and in September found one singing bird at 2400 metres and possibly a second one also. Several kilometres of excellent habitat at this altitude exists in the CPF. A very recent land purchase of 200 hectares there has now closed the gap between the CPF and the main Tapichalaca reserve.

This September also, two new birds were found by Niels and Francisco Sornoza to the north of the reserve on the south east slope of Cerro Toledo at an altitude of 2600 metres. Suitable habitat is present from this location for several kilometres south to the start of the reserve at Quebrada Honda.

Previous searches, for several weeks at a time, have taken place in March, October and November without success. Because this bird lives so close to the equator (4 degrees S) in wet cloud forest with no predictable seasonality, it is possible that breeding (and calling) is a fairly random event, and not necessarily annual. This could explain why it has proved so difficult to detect the birds