Giant Antpitta

Copyright: TC/monacoeye • Paz de las Aves, Ecuador, Oct 2010 • Do not copy

Bird name: Giant Antpitta
Latin: Grallaria gigantica
Other: Gralaria gigante
Family: Grallariidae • Antpittas
Range: Southwest Colombia, north Ecuador.
Similar:

Angel Paz started the whole Antpitta craze several years ago by feeding worms to Maria the Giant Antpitta and then bringing birders along to see her.

Unfortunately when I visited his ranch in March 2011, Maria had not been seen for three months, and the assumption was that she must have been eaten.

Angel seemed understandably a little preoccupied by this state affairs - especially as Maria had been bringing in busloads of tourists - but he was working hard on finding replacements: we managed to see a Yellow-breasted and a Moustached Antpitta as well as some other nice birds.

Mid-morning we sat down to a breakfast of coffee and delicious cheese empanadas - one of the culinary highlights of my trip to Ecuador - cooked by his wife.

Many thanks to Tom for these photos of Maria taken in October 2010, just two months before her mysterious disappearance.