Plate-billed Mountain Toucan!!!
If I'd only seen this one bird, the trip would've been worth it. This is a Plate-billed Mountain Toucan. It is my favorite toucan, and one of my favorite birds PERIOD. They only live on the western slope of Ecuador and the southernmost part of Colombia at high elevation, so again we have a species endemic to the Chocó region!
First reserve we went to, other birders said it had been by at 6 AM. Now remember, we left Quito at 5 AM to get there early as possible. Still missed it. We called and waited around, but couldn't get it. Then this guy told my guide that he saw some toucans near a hole in a tree a bit farther up the mountain, a possible nest! So we went looking. On the way, we saw that Crested Quetzal which was beautiful and rare, but not the bird I was dying to see. Then the driver says the truck can't keep going up the road because the condition is too poor, the road is too steep and muddy. So Dario and I continued on foot. And I was fucking dying. Like the altitude was really killing me. Dario went to scout ahead, while I was practically crawling. I took a while to catch up, and by time I did he was coming back. Didn't find the nest. But guess who was there, where he'd set up his scope? My lifer Plate-billed Mountain Toucan, right in the open! I could've cried. It was such a triumphant moment. I was going to pass out trying to see that bird, and there it was! Flying over to meet me 3/4 of the way! Favorite bird of the day by far. I bought a mug with a picture of one on it as a souvenir.
