Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

All things winged.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Rothdigga
Posts: 405
Joined: November 25th, 2010, 2:00 pm
Location: Long Beach, CA
Contact:

Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by Rothdigga »

I needed to finally get up a post of all the birds I shot photos of while in Peru from April 16-29. Our route was Cusco-Manu National Park-Machu Picchu. It was an awesome time and Manu is probably the most diverse place you can visit for birds in the world. In a very small area there are over 1000 species of birds. The overall numbers of birds aren't large, but almost every single bird you see is a different species than before. Flocks of tanagers are all mixed, so it's very tricky to shoot photos because you really have to single out the one you're looking for. Here's a chronological view of my trip with my wife...

First birds encountered going over the Andes at about 14,000ft were these Mountain Caracara's-
Image
Adult on the left, other 2 are juveniles
Image

Cloud Forest view, we spent one night here in the cloud forest and the very popular Manu Road. If you're just going for birding, you could easily spend a week here and log tons of species. We did an evening hike and an early morning hike and saw so much.
Image

Long-tailed Sylph
Image
Female Booted-racket Tail
Image

White-collared Jay...stunning bird
Image
Image

Mountain Cacique
Image

Blue-capped Tanager
Image

Only view and only photo I shot of this...Blue-banded Toucanet
Image

Blue-crowned Motmot on the road
Image

In Ecuador when we went in 2009, we had to wake up at 3:30am, drive an hour, hike 1.5 miles in the pitch dark to get a 10 minute view of the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Here on the Manu Road, you just pull up at 2pm and they're all over the place. It's kind of crazy. It was actually hard and weird to walk away from them, even though I shot about 150-200 photos, I still felt like "man, I can't believe we're just going to bail now".
Image
Image
Image
Image

Speckled Hummingbird
Image
Yellow-throated Flycatcher
Image

I was real excited to have a chance to see Paradise Tanagers. Like I said, the mixed flocks of birds make it real tough to find anything specific, so I only got about 1-2 minutes at dawn until this guy got away. Maybe a max of 7 photos tops taken.
Image
Image
Image

Masked Tityra
Image

Black-goggled Tanager
Image

Golden-headed Quetzal, I just couldn't get away from hanging moss, branches and all that to get a full shot. Had to sacrifice the tail to get the head.
Image

Violet-fronted Brilliant
Image
Image

Long-tailed Tyrant
Image

Russet-backed Oropendola
Image

Roadside Hawk looking like a statue
Image

Black-capped Donacobius
Image

Crested Oropendola
Image

Red-capped Cardinals
Image

The ever present Hoatzin
Image
Image

Striated Heron with fish, I wasn't aware that they stab their fish through the body, not just catch them.
Image

Juvenile Purple Gallinule
Image

We saw this Spix's Guan on the trail, it barely cared about us.
Image

A few birds were seen at night on hikes.
Black-spotted Bare Eye
Image

Fasciated Tiger Heron
Image

The first clay lick we went to was directly in front of the morning sun, with fog. It was real rough to shoot photos at. No color popping out at all.
Here's a mix of Chestnut Fronted Macaws and Blue-headed Parrots
Image

Macaw Cluster of mixed Species
Image

Emerald Toucanet
Image

Ringed Kingfisher
Image

Pouring rain and driving wind but I managed 1 shot of a Jabiru
Image

I'm not 100% on this ID, but Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo? At night, kind of tough.
Image

Capped Heron with what looked like a tadpole meal
Image

Green Ibis
Image

Crimson-crested Woodpecker
Image

Wattled Jacana
Image

White-winged Swallows
Image

The 2nd Clay Lick was much better for lighting and comfortability factor. Very cool.
Red and Green Macaws
Image
Image

Striated Heron
Image

Red and Green Macaws at the lick. They load up on clay to supplement their diet because of a lack of minerals and also to combat poisons in the seeds they eat during the dry season
Image

We did have 2 Scarlet Macaws join the Red and Green party as well, here's one of them
Image

Purus Jacamar
Image

Bad shot of an Orange-backed Troupial
Image

Black-fronted Nunbird
Image

Only shot I managed of White-throated Toucans from way far away
Image

Masked Crimson Tanager
Image

A great find overall, there's a bird in the photo...find it.
Image

A closer view reveals a Great Potoo
Image

Yellow-rumped Cacique
Image

The canopy Platform that was about 600ft high, such an amazing view and easy bird spotting from up here.
Image

That was all for Manu, but I did manage a few birds when we were in Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu

Blue-gray Tanager
Image

Thick-billed Euphonia
Image

Hepatic Tanager
Image

Dusky Green Oropendola
Image

Green Violet-ear Hummingbird
Image

Chestnut-breasted Coronets
Image
Image

I spotted these birds outside of our window in our hotel just before taking a nap, but I had to bolt up and start shooting when I saw the color, amazing.
Blue-necked Tanagers
Image
Image

It was an awesome trip. I do wish I wouldn't have had to do Manu as part of a tour, but if I ever go back I'm going to try to do 2-3 days on the Manu Road and then 4-5 more at the first lodge we went to, skipping the rest of the boat tour.
User avatar
Hunter-MX
Posts: 183
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 5:21 pm
Location: Guerrero, Mexico
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by Hunter-MX »

Thank you so much for sharing these. It is interesting to see variants of species I am familiar with here.
User avatar
Rothdigga
Posts: 405
Joined: November 25th, 2010, 2:00 pm
Location: Long Beach, CA
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by Rothdigga »

Hunter-MX wrote:Thank you so much for sharing these. It is interesting to see variants of species I am familiar with here.

No problem, thanks for checking them out.
How many of these make their way north to you?
User avatar
ksuglennj
Posts: 193
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:36 am
Location: Monticello,AR
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by ksuglennj »

Excellent post. :thumb: That looked like a trip of a lifetime.


Glenn
User avatar
chrish
Posts: 3295
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:14 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by chrish »

Holy cow...where to start??

Amazing post, amazing photos.
I started to have a mental list of things I wanted to comment on, but it just got too long. Awesome top to bottom.
Rothdigga wrote:Juvenile Purple Gallinule
Image
This is some species of Crake, not a gallinule.
A great find overall, there's a bird in the photo...find it.
Image
I see it, I see it!! :lol:
I'm guessing you meant to post a photo of the potoo?
User avatar
Hans Breuer (twoton)
Posts: 3230
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Amazing post, amazing photos. I started to have a mental list of things I wanted to comment on, but it just got too long. Awesome top to bottom.
Same here. Absolutely awesome. And the fact that most of the pix are not NatGeo quality really took me along on the trip with you. Thank you very much!
User avatar
Rothdigga
Posts: 405
Joined: November 25th, 2010, 2:00 pm
Location: Long Beach, CA
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by Rothdigga »

ChrisH,
I knew you would like the photos. I believe your old avatar was a green Jay, right? I missed Purple Jay's, Violaceous Jays and a few others while down there (heard but not seen).
This was the Potoo photo I meant to put up...I'll correct it, but good eye catching that Tanager. Hard to find that red in that sea of green! Ha.
Image

I'll lean on your expertise with the Crake. Our guide said it was a juvenile of this adult that was in the tree
Image
User avatar
chrish
Posts: 3295
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:14 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by chrish »

Actually, that PUGA in your photo looks like a juvenile to me.

Your Crake looks like either a Rufous-sided or a White-throated Crake. I can't see the underside well enough to tell. If you made me choose, I would say White-throated.
User avatar
monklet
Posts: 2648
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 4:44 pm
Location: Ventura, CA
Contact:

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by monklet »

Tremendously productive adventure! :shock: Beautiful stuff, great job :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
User avatar
Warren
Posts: 351
Joined: June 9th, 2010, 7:17 am

Re: Peru/Madre De Dios/Manu birds...lots of photos

Post by Warren »

Birds - they're good fried or roasted, right?

But this post reminds me of the magic of the tropics; the magic of a flash of colour that takes your breath away. That stops you in your tracks while your mind tries to untangle what you saw. That makes you hold your breath lest you frighten away this unbelievable creature. Thank you.
Post Reply