Giant hummingbird seen in Ecuador
By Warner M. Montgomery
Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

John Cely displays a photograph of the giant hummingbird to the Explorers Club.

John Cely, South Carolina's Bird Man, recently returned from a birding expedition to Equador, home to 16,000 of the world's bird species, compared to North America's measly 900. He received his BS and MS from Clemson way back when, then spent 26 years as the bird biologist at the SC Department of Natural Resources. He is remembered for having saved the swallow- tailed kite and the red- cockaded woodpecker from extinction in the Palmetto State. Now, Cely works with the Congaree Land Trust saving wildlife in the Congaree/Wateree/Upper Santee Basin (COWASEE).

In Equador, Cely's goal was to record the songs of Equador's exotic bird species, but his equipment failed. Not to be deterred, Cely plowed ahead with his camera up and down the Andes Mountains and into the rainforest seeking to add new birds to his personal list.

In what he referred to as "enduro birding," Cely and his six compatriots awoke at 4 am each morning and searched the trees and underbrush until sunset. Some of the more interesting birds he saw were the rufus- bellied sea snotty, the cock- of- the- rock cotinga, the red- billed scythebill, the white- bellied antpitta, and his favorite, the nine- -inch- long giant hummingbird. His final count was 419 birds from 47 species. This gives him a life count of 1,200 bird species, certainly a record for South Carolinians.

The Explorers Club meets monthly for lunch and a speaker. For information, contact Nena Powell Rice at nrice@sc.edu or 777-8170.