Rich Hoyer on his just-completed tour, Peru: The Cloud Forests of the Rio Mayo and Abra Patricia
What a wonderful tour we had to north-central Peru! With a super, convivial group and fantastic birding throughout, the only downside was that the time passed so quickly. We started our first evening with a surprise Mottled Owl (the rarer Amazonian form with a radically different song, surely to be split as a species from the northern one). As a write-in on our list, it was a harbinger of what was to come – a clean sweep of all the remaining owls on the list, making for five heard and five seen. A very cooperative Cinnamon Screech-Owl was a high-quality consolation prize for those who missed the Long-whiskered Owlet the first time. Thankfully the latter was equally cooperative on our second attempt for this tiny rarity. A Stygian Owl on a roost was a stroke of luck, thanks to a local park guard who showed it to us.
Mottled Owl of the very different sounding Amazonian population
The tiny and highly prized Long-whiskered Owlet Image: Ken Havard
Stygian Owl: Sometimes it's better to be lucky.
Highlights from highway stops on our way to and from the Owlet Lodge were the world’s easiest Oilbirds, with two birds brooding a chick in plain sight; a Green-and-rufous Kingfisher exactly where we had one two years ago, an unusual find so close to a busy highway and visible while standing on terra firma; Ornate Flycatchers in plain sight and building a nest; and the monotypic Black-capped Donacobius in a grassy clearing in hilly cloud forest. Up at the owlet lodge we enjoyed how colorful some of the tiny tyrant-flycatchers can be, especially the super confiding Johnson’s Tody-Tyrant. A Maroon-chested Ground-Dove was one of the top highlights there: this rarely seen skulker of cloud forests was a lifer for everyone, including the leader and was clearly taking advantage of the big patches of seeding bamboo in the area, with many Slaty Finches nibbling overhead.
The tiny, confiding and handsome Johnson's Tody-Tyrant
Top honors for most-voted favorite bird of the tour had to go to the Marvelous Spatuletail, and we are so grateful to Santos Montenegro and the donors who have made the Huembo Reserve and its feeders possible. This stunning hummer was one of forty-five species we saw in just nine days of birding, and two new feeding stations made for a total of seven wonderful experiences (and an eighth is in the making, with birds just starting to come to the feeders, promising an even greater list in the future). Other hummingbird highlights worth mentioning were a briefly seen but thrilling Napo Sabrewing and several utterly adorable Rufous-crested Coquettes.
Marvelous...just Marvelous Image: Ken Havard
Original punk: Rufous-crested Coquette
The natural history of the region was also spectacular – three species of monkey, including the megarare Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey; a gorgeous Three-striped Poison Frog on our first day; countless blooming orchids, including one by the trail that smelled something like chocolate liqueur mixed with Chanel No. 5. as well as a “captive” blooming Phragmipedium kovachii; and innumerable moths at the lights each night, from huge silk moths, to tiny emeralds, and some really colorful tiger moths.
The stunning Three-striped Poison Frog
A tiger moth: In the cloud forests of Peru, beauty is everywhere...