Rich Hoyer on the completion of his and Jim Brock's tour, Peru: Butterflies and Birds.

Our first butterfly and bird watching tour to the Kosñipata Valley of SE Peru, with Jim Brock co-leading as the butterfly expert, was wonderful. Here’s Jim with a Comnena Jewel, Perisama comnena, on the underside of his hat brim, emblematic of how abundant and beautiful the butterflies were this trip.

Jim with Perisama comnena

We started with a short stop at a very high pass on the dry side of the Andes, a couple hours’ drive north of Cusco. It’s often cloudy and cold here, but with a little bit of sun on this windswept ridge, Jim spotted a butterfly he had been hoping to see for years, an obscure but delightful satyr called Argyrophorus lamna, which we dubbed the Silver Puna. The upper side of the forewing shimmers silver in flight.

Argyrophorus lamna, Silver Puna

Over the next days we progressed down the wet, forested slope of the relatively low ridge starting at Acjanaco Pass, where one skirts the upper edge of Manu National Park, ending at Villa Carmen at Pilcopata. Here, at the terminus of the Kosñipata River, it joins the Tono, Piñipiñi, and Pilcopata rivers to form the Upper Madre de Dios.

Group watching butterflies

We spotted about 480 species of butterflies, among which were several that cannot be identified in the field, such as many tiny skippers and most clearwings. See how similar the latter can be even though they are in different genera: the left one is only probably Oleria victorine, while the right one is almost certainly Ithomia arduinna.

Oleria victorine? (L), Ithomia arduinna, Arduinna Clearwing (R)

Some of them were common but still stunningly beautiful, such as this Calamis Jewel.

Perisama calamis, Calamis Jewel

But this little-known False Purplewing remained unidentified until we had internet access at the end of the tour. This photo represents the first record from the valley, with a species list for these 50 miles of road now well over 2100.

Sea sophronia, False Purplewing

At Villa Carmen we experienced the mother of all puddle parties, 75 meters of gravel bar on the Piñipiñi that had over 100 species of butterflies in just about 2 hours of searching. An almost-unheard-of experience, we had excellent looks at all four species of Baeotus here, including this Fine-lined Beauty.

Baeotus japetus, Fine-lined Beauty

Normally a very rare butterfly, the stunning Scarce Bamboo Page made several appearances, next to our dining hall as well as on the gravel bar.

Philaethria dido, Scarce Bamboo Page

Perhaps the top butterfly highlight was this extremely showy and rarely seen Tuneta Sunstreak, a first record for the region.

Tuneta Sunstreak, Arcas tuneta

We saw and heard about 340 species of birds, a great number considering that after about 9:00 each day our focus was largely towards the ground. Among them were some gorgeous and high-quality birds. In the higher elevations, Golden-collared Tanager, Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan, Grass-green Tanager, and a Swallow-tailed Nightjar in the fog were highlights, but a pair of Undulated Antpittas, which we heard very well and glimpsed as one flew across the road (!) were unforgettable. Lower down, a pair of Black-and-chestnut Eagles were a great surprise and a mixed flock with a pair of the enigmatic Gray-mantled Wrens amongst several colorful tanagers were notable.

Golden-collared Tanager

Down at Villa Carmen, a family group of Hoatzins and a pair of Black-capped Donacobius were the visible counterpart to the Gray-necked Wood-Rail and Limpkin who woke us each morning with their dawn choruses of exuberance. Several bamboo specialists such as Manu, Striated, and Goeldi’s Antbirds were some of the local specialties, and a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle was a fine surprise. Just down the trail from our rooms was this stunning male Long-tailed Tyrant.

Long-tailed Tyrant

Not unexpected with a group who was into butterflies and birds, interests gravitated towards almost anything winged, especially if it was pretty. We were delighted by the sparkling nearly ultraviolet wings of this Cora damselfly at a mid-elevation stream.

Cora sp.

And this lavender-booted arctiine moth Palaeomolis purpurascens was one of hundreds of species at our lodging at Wayqecha Biological Station one night.

Palaeomolis purpurascens

As we post this report, Rich and Jim have their heads together figuring out where in the world to go next.