Instituto de Ciencias, Universidad Catlica del Ecuador, Apt. 2184, Quito, Ecuador The Oilbird, Steatornis caripensis, has been recorded from many lower montane localities in the periphery of the Amazonian basin of mainland South America, in the coastal mountains of northern Venezuela, eastern Panama, and Trinidad. Many records, however, involve single individuals collected in the open, and comparatively few are of birds secured within, and showing the locations of, roosting and nesting colonies. Thus the precise distribution of these colonies remains largely unknown, even though the most conspicuous and accessible ones have become famous among ornithologists; one has been studied in great detail (Snow 1961, 1962). The occurrence of stray individuals far from known colonies could indicate that smaller groups roost and nest elsewhere, a possibility substantiated by recent evidence from highland Ecuador. Several Oilbirds have been collected in the vicinity of Quito despite its high elevation (about 2,800 m) and its separation from the Amazonian basin by mountains of over 4,000 m (Salvatori and Festa 1900, LiSnnberg and Rendahl 1922, Chapman 1926); one was captured alive and later preserved as a skin at the campus of Universidad Cat61ica, Quito, on 3 July 1975. The source colony of these birds was unknown but it seemed unlikely that they came from southeastern Ecuador, some 400 km from Quito, where the only colonies in the country have been reported (Albuja and de Vries 1977). Rumors of a nearer site first reached me in February 1976, when the geographer Francisco Tertn claimed that a colony of fruit-eating "owls" lived in a gully near Pullaro, a town only 25 km north of Quito, and added that these might be Oilbirds rather than owls because peasants in the neighborhood reputedly raided the colony and obtained nestlings from which they extracted oil. I visited the Pullaro area on 7 and 9 October 1977, and with additional information from local people was able to explore the actual site. It consists of an undetermined but small number of shallow caves formed by subsidence of pieces of volcanic tuff in the nearly vertical walls of a 175 m-long section of the Quebrada Santa Marta, a mountain torrent that has carved a trench 25-30 m deep with sides only 6-8 m apart, and which flows rather precipitously into the Ro Guayllabamba. The general course of the quebrada follows an east-west slope, which is gentle with low banks in the stretch immediately above the trench and gradually becomes steeper so that below the trench the water rushes in a long series of rapids toward the Guayllabamba. The site is about 500 m downstream from the Quebrada Santa Marta bridge of the main road between the towns of Guayllabamba and Pullaro, 63 km by road from Quito, at an elevation of about 2,160 m. Despite the sheer tuff walls of the gully, native trees grow attached to cracks and raise their crowns well over the rims. Their foliage shields the gully from direct sunlight; this and the gully's steepness and depth make its lower recesses perpetually dark. The vegetation along the trench contrasts sharply with that growing in the surroundings; while native trees have persisted in the gully itself, cultivated fields of corn, tomatoes, and beans, pastures, and Agave and Eucalyptus hedges surround it. A permanently inhabited dwelling is only 100 m from the north rim, and directly above the darkest portion of the trench are the remains of an old foot bridge. Most of the Oilbirds roost under the bridge's ruins. Their vocalizations can be heard whenever the foliage above is shaken or stones are dropped, and also at dusk when they begin flying near the bottom prior to leaving for their nightly foraging. On both of my visits the roar of the stream obscured the birds' voices but it seemed that at least six individuals roosted under the old bridge and another four nearby along the trench. One was seen leaving the site at 1845 on 7 October, but because of the trench's length, its foliage cover, and the growing darkness I saw no other birds that day or on the evening of 9 October. Rafael Narvfiez and I were able to lower ourselves into the trench with ropes on the second visit, and even though close inspection was limited to a section of the gully 20 m wide at a point some 50 m upstream from the bridge's remains, we found a group of six old nests in a shallow depression on the north wall about 12 m vertically below the edge and halfway between it and the bottom. Two of these nests were in poor condition but the others were unbroken, consisting of truncated cones of organic mud- like materials; the bases were 40-45 cm across, 40-45 cm high, and had flat tops 25 cm in diameter surrounded by a thin vertical rim 2-3 cm high. A piece from the top of one nest revealed that the materials had been deposited in concentric layers. The nests had been built on the sloping floor of a cavity 2 m deep that opened to the outside by an entrance 2.4 m wide and 2.0 m high. They were placed toward the rear of this cavity with their bases touching in a crescent. While no specimens were secured, the location of these nests and their form of construction are typical of those reported for Oilbirds (Snow, op. cit.). The brief sighting of a flying bird on 7 October was enough to show that the bird's outline was like that of the bird captured alive in 1975, although no details of color could be seen. The voices heard were also similar to the sounds uttered by the captive specimen. Furthermore, I was able to locate the peasants responsible for the most recent raids at the colony, the brothers Delffn and Medardo Camparia, who described the birds fairly accurately as Oilbirds and readily recognized the preserved specimen. Mrs. Delffn Camparia smelled the latter and said its odor was exactly like that of the birds killed in their raids, which she cooked at home. These people reported that the birds fed mostly on the fruits of "Higuer6n" (Ficus sp.), and that their breeding at the gully was timed to coincide with these trees' fruiting season in February and March each year. This, however, awaits confirmation because Ficus fruits have not been reported as food for Oilbirds elsewhere. While the Camparia family visited the colony regularly in the past and claimed to have killed about 40 birds including adults and juveniles in one raid 6 yr previously, the colony has not been disturbed in the last 2 yr because these people no longer own the ladder and ropes needed to climb into the trench. The Pullaro area must have supported significant stands of Andean forests; this is suggested by old records of birds typical of these forests such as Otus albogularis (Sclater 1860, LiSnnberg and Rendahl 1922, Chapman 1926), Thalurania furcata, Trogon personatus (Sclater op. cit.), Semnornis ramphastinus (Jardine 1855), Tyranniscus nigrocapillus, Turdus serranus and Tangara vassori (Sclater op. cit.), and likewise by recollections from early childhood of Pullaro residents such as Francisco Terfin. The forests have largely been destroyed but 'gallery' strips along steep gullies and ravines still remain, and continuous stands are found in the Guayllabamba gorge and adjacent areas at from 20 to 30 km to the northwest. Presumably the Oilbirds at Quebrada Santa Marta follow the forest strips to reach the more extensive stands to forage each night, returning to their roost before dawn. These long trips might have caused a decrease in the numbers of birds there; the Pullaro peasants claim that the colony was much larger in the past. The fact that a few individuals still persist can only mean that roosting and nesting safety are at least as important as foraging logistics for the long-term survival of colonies of these unique birds. While the size of the colony at this site resembles that of the smallest colonies in Trinidad (see Table I in Snow 1962), its location is exceptional in that it is at considerable elevation (probably the highest yet found), on the western drainage of the Andes (the only one yet known), and in a region extensively disturbed by man. Furthermore it is probably the most accessible Oilbird colony that has been located, being less than a kilometer away from a major road and within short driving distance from a major city. I thank Francisco Tern, whose interest originated this report, Rafael Narvgez and Jaime Jaramillo for their assistance in the field, and the EcuadorJan Natural Area and Wildlife Department of the Direcci6n de Desarrollo Forestal for taking the initial steps toward preserving this small group of Oilbirds for future research and enjoyment. LITERATURE CITED ALBUJA, L., & TJ. DE VRIES. 1977. Aves colectadas y observadas alrededor de la Cueva de los Tayos, Morona-Santiago, Ecuador. Rev. Universidad Cat61ica, Quito, Afio 5, No. 16: 199-215. CHAPMAN, F. M. 1926. The distribution of birdlife in Ecuador. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 55. JARDINE, W. 1855. Prof. W. Jameson's collections from The Eastern Cordillera of Ecuador. Edinb. New Phil. J, N.S. 2: 113-119. LSNNBERG, E., & H. RENDAHL. 1922. A contribution to the ornithology of Ecuador. Arkiv. for Z5ol. Bd. 14, No. 25. SALVATORI, T., & E. FESTA. 1900. Viaggio del Enrico Festa nell' Ecuador. Uccelli. Part III. Trochili- Tinami. Boll. Mus. Zool. ed Anat. Comp. Univ. Torino, Vol. 15, No. 368. SCLATER, P. C. 1860. List of birds collected by Mr. Fraser in Ecuador at Nanegal, Calacali, Perucho and Pugllaro, with notes and descriptions of new species. Proc. Zool. Soc. London: 83-97. SNOW, D. W. 1961. The natural history of the Oilbird, Steatornis caripensis, in Trinidad, W. I. Part 1. General behavior and breeding habits. Zoologica 46: 27-49. 1962. The natural history of the Oilbird, Steatornis caripensis, in Trinidad, W. I. Part 2. Population, breeding ecology and food. Zoologica 47:199-221. Received 31 January 1978, accepted 10 May 1978.