Ocellated tapaculo - frontal, Bellavista, Ecuador

We spent the entire morning session in Bellavista on this single bird, which drove us absolutely mad. It has a distinct loud call and as such, was not difficult to locate.

We could only hear it though. It just refuses to show itself. Perhaps unsurprising, as they are related to ground-antbirds, notoriously hard to see. Four people strong we spent multiple hours staring into this section of dark bushes, trying to get a glimpse of it. Once every 15 minutes or so it would move, either invisibly, or a mere flash of one part of the bird showing.

We came to a point of no return, we had put in too much time to leave empty handed. So we committed to either see this bird, or die of starvation on the spot.

Ultimately, we did manage to see it two or three times in brief second appearances. The photos are quite poor, due to lack of light and the many obstructions. Still, consider that this species is rarely photographed. Out of the few hundred or so photos online, some 70% seem to be feeder shots, which you can recognize by a perch in the open on thick horizontal branches, sometimes with the lure (worms) in sight.