sábado, 16 de agosto de 2014

Manu Wildlife Center About the Birding Areas


Manu Wildlife Center About the Birding Areas Lowland rainforest—All of the lowland rainforest we'll bird lies in the remote Department of Madre de Dios, among the richest areas for birds in western Amazonia. Here we will visit a variety of habitats, from riverine sandbars and bamboo stands (of a giant species of the genus Guadua) to old oxbow lakes or cochas and well-drained terra firme forest. 

Manu Wildlife Center, on a high bank above the Rio Madre de Dios, is in a small clearing punctuated by some big, bromeliad-clad trees (where oropendulas, caciques, Chestnut-fronted Macaws, and occasionally Chestnut-eared Aracaris nest). The dawn chorus includes duetting Gray-necked Wood-Rails; the feeders, vervains, and heliconias in the gardens attract hermits and other hummingbirds; and Amazonian Pygmy-Owl calls from the clearing edge. It is a convenient two minutes from the lodge to the boat landing, our gateway to a number of alluring trails, especially to forest with big bamboo stands. This habitat supports such bamboo specialists as Pavonine Cuckoo (active after a rainy period), Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Red-billed Scythebill, Peruvian Recurvebill (rare), Bamboo Antshrike, Ornate Antwren (rare), White-lined, 

Manu, Yellow-breasted Warbling-, and Striated antbirds, Dusky-tailed and Large-headed flatbills, and Flammulated Bamboo-Tyrant (rare). The nearby Antthrush Trail is named for the very local Rufous-fronted Antthrush, endemic to southeastern Peru, for which the trail can be good, albeit increasingly scarce and more often heard than seen.

Besides the clearing at Manu Wildlife Center in manu national park, a grid network of trails passes through beautiful, tall transition forest as well as to moriche palms. Only fifteen minutes from the lodge is the canopy platform. Reached by a sturdy metal spiral staircase, the platform itself is about 100-feet up, within the spreading branches of an emergent Ceiba tree. On past tours here, we have had marvelous looks at everything from nesting Double-toothed Kites (in our tree!), a male Pavonine Quetzal that we called into view, and a long list of fruit-eating species (including both guans, both big toucans, Ivory-billed and Curl-crested aracaris, and Spangled and Purple-throated cotingas) to some incredibly-difficult-to-see-well-from-theground species that associate with mixed flocks, e.g., Sclaterʼs Antwren (in direct comparison with Pygmy Antwren!) and Chestnut-shouldered Antwren and Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak.

Along other trails, huge fruiting fig trees (ojes) attract Blue-throated Piping- and Spixʼs guans in addition to impressive numbers of monkeys and the occasional Tayra. In fact, monkeys can be encountered throughout, from large mixed troops of bold Black Spiders, Red Howlers, Common Squirrel Monkeys, and Brown Capuchins to furtive Saddleback and ornate Emperor tamarins scurrying through the canopy. Dusk could bring a singing Ocellated Poorwill, Great Potoo, and Crested Owl, the latter often right from the clearing.


Trails along hilly ridges take us from the lodge through rich terra firme forest and to the interior ccollpa called the Tapir Lick. This gorgeous forest offers our best chances for such terra firme species as Bartlettʼs and Variegated tinamous, 

Blue-backed Manakin, and such “obligate” army ant followers as Sooty, White-throated, and Hairy-crested antbirds and the rare Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo. The lick itself attracts shy forest species, from Black-capped and Red-crowned parakeets and Dusky-billed Parrotlet to curassows, guans, and the huge Brazilian Tapir in jungle.


Travel along the Madre de Dios is not only cool and relaxing, it offers good birding. Pied Lapwings, Collared Plovers, Large-billed Terns, and Sand-colored Nighthawks abound on the sandbars, punctuated occasionally by a Sunbittern or a family group of Horned Screamers or Orinoco Geese. Raptors perch on emergent dead branches, and here and there macaws are stationed in noble trees overhanging the riverbank. At any moment a Red Howler Monkey could quietly descend the red cut bank to drink from a calm backwater or a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle could sail overhead. White Caimans bask at the edge on sunny days, and with lots of luck (and constant scanning) we could encounter even a Jaguar in manu national park.


Weʼll also visit two oxbow lakes, or cochas, where weʼll search the edges from a stable, floating catamaran platform. Possibilities here include Rufescent Tiger-Heron, Green Ibis, Horned Screamer, Muscovy Duck, close Hoatzins, Graybreasted Crake, Green-and-rufous and American Pygmy kingfishers, Purus Jacamar, Black-billed Seed-Finch, and Paleeyed Blackbird, as well as a playful troop of Giant Otters.

Overlooking the end of one of the cochas is the 150-foot-high Camungo canopy platform, also reached by sturdy metal staircase and offering dramatic views over cocha edge and nearby forest treetops. The platform itself, nestled among the branches of another giant Ceiba that emerges above the canopy, is big and steady, with good views in all directions. Itʼs the perfect place to scan the distant treetops for raptors, cotingas, toucans, tanagers, parrots, and puffbirds. Weʼve pulled Amazonian Pygmy-Owls, Curl-crested Aracaris, and Lemon-throated Barbets right into “our tree” here and marveled at the constant turnover of species that use all the canopy perches, including a seemingly constant parade of colorful tanagers.

But one of the areaʼs foremost features is relative proximity to the Blanquillo Macaw Lick. From our lodge, weʼre only 40 minutes by river from one of the most thrilling of avian phenomena—an active riverside ccollpa, where hundreds of psittacids of up to a dozen species come to ingest the minerals seeping from the clay cliff face (assuming weather and predators are not keeping them away). The Madre de Dios has recently changed course and our blind is currently located on an island just across a backwater from the ccollpa. At the Blanquillo lick, shortly after dawn, parrots gathering by the scores in the trees above the bank begin to peel off to line the vegetation overhanging the cliff. Then, as their confidence seems to grow, Blue-headed Parrots and other smaller psittacids fly down to the vertical clay face. All the while large Amazon parrots and dozens of macaws (usually Red-and-green but sometimes also Scarlet and Blue-and-yellow) are


building their numbers in the trees above. Ultimately, after much circling to investigate, they too begin to venture down onto the open bank to cling and consume a beakful or two of the mineral-rich clay, a vital but mysterious part of their diet, now thought to aid in digestion of certain toxic fruits. The constant coming and going of these colorful birds, their sudden eruptions from the bank to wheel in the soft morning light, the din of their incessant vocalizations all combine to produce an unforgettable effect. Indeed, for some it constitutes the highlight of the trip.




Manu Wildlife Center Peru with Manu Jungle Trips


We include here information for those interested in the 2012 Field Guides Manu Wildlife Center, Peru tour:
! a general introduction to the tour ! a description of the birding areas  to be visited on the tour ! an  abbreviated daily itinerary with  some indication of the nature of each  dayʼs birding outings Those who register for the tour will be  sent this additional material: ! an annotated list of the birds recorded on a previous yearʼs Field Guides trip to the area, with comments by guide(s) on notable species or sightings ! a detailed information bulletin with important logistical information and answers to questions regarding  accommodations, air arrangements,


clothing, currency, customs and immigration, documents, health precautions, and personal items ! a reference list ! a Field Guides checklist for  preparing for and keeping track of the  birds we see on the tour ! after the conclusion of the tour, a  list of birds seen on the tour Southeastern Peru is generally acknowledged as the most species-rich birding region on Earth. Manu Biosphere  Reserve, incorporating Manu National Park and a couple of contiguous conservation tracts, is a vast, spellbinding  wilderness (the size of Massachusetts!) that protects the entire watershed of the Rio Manu, a 200-mile long tributary of the  Rio Madre de Dios, itself a middle-weight Amazonian tributary winding eastward through lowland rainforest in the  Department of Madre de Dios. The Reserve and its buffer zone also protect much of the Department of Cusco's east slope Andean drainage from 14,000 feet in puna grasslands well above tree line down through temperate and subtropical cloud forest right down through the foothills to lowland rainforest. There are precious few places in South America where there is legal protection for a comparably rich transect of undisturbed forest on the diverse east slope of the Andes. 

This short tour is designed to focus on the incredibly rich lowland rainforest of the Manu Biosphere Reserve, thus complementing our MOUNTAINS OF MANU tour, which covers the upper levels of the Reserve. We have selected Manu Wildlife Center as our one-site base for its comfort level, its ease of access, its marvelous network of trails, its special viewing facilities, and its strategic location. With a wonderful grid system of trails and with covered 40-foot boats for river transport, the lodge offers us access to virtually all critical microhabitats within lowland Manu and hence to virtually al species regularly occurring in this rich lowland rainforest. Not only are we close (about 40 minutes) to the famous Blanquillo ccollpa, where hundreds of parrots and large Red-and-green Macaws gather almost daily to ingest the mineralrich clay, but a trail from the lodge buildings takes us (in about an hour) to a forest-interior mineral lick (with a blind) that attracts more secretive forest birds and mammals, occasionally including Brazilian Tapirs, to the same kinds of minerals. 


Another trail takes us from our lodgings to a well-constructed canopy platform (with spiral metal staircase) that offers eyeto-eye looks at numerous canopy specialties, from various toucans and cotingas to mixed-species flocks that move right through “our tree.” And twenty minutes downriver is a trail to yet another, even higher and larger, canopy platform (also accessed by a secure metal staircase) that offers incredible vistas and a different set of birds. Weʼll bird river sandbars,

hidden cocha lakes, some enormous stands of bamboo, transitional forest, and some wonderful tall terra firme forest. The official lodge bird list now stands at a whopping 580 species, among them an incredible number of classic Amazonian species and many regional specialties, including Orinoco Goose, Razor-billed Curassow, Starred Wood-Quail, Pale-winged Trumpeter, Blue-headed Macaw (rare), Amazonian Parrotlet (the “parrot without a name”, rare), Amazonian Pygmy-Owl, Ocellated Poorwill, Purus and Bluish-fronted jacamars, Scarlet-hooded Barbet (rare), Curl-crested Aracari,


Rufous-headed Woodpecker (rare), Peruvian Recurvebill (rare), Sclaterʼs Antwren, Manu, White-lined, Goeldiʼs, Whitethroated, and Hairy-crested antbirds, Rufous-fronted Antthrush, Ash-throated Gnateater (rare), Band-tailed Manakin,  White-cheeked Tody-Tyrant (rare), Dull-capped Attila, White-winged Shrike-Tanager, and Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak. And thatʼs not to mention the long list of mammals, from Giant Otter and White-lipped Peccary to 13 species of primates and even the elusive Jaguar. Seeing many of these species takes time and patience; thatʼs why we are devoting eight days to the lowlands. Even so, we wonʼt see all of these in such a short time, but we can assure you of a trip full of wonderful views of hundreds of wonderful critters in a wilderness setting of impressive proportions.

To avoid last-minute surprises due to an unreliable air service to Boca Manu that often results in flight cancellations, we have elected to travel overland, then downriver, to reach Manu Wildlife Center. Last year our group enjoyed the diversion of habitats and the diversity of birds this detour enabled. This way, we may add Cock-of-the-rock to our list, and we have added some exciting surprises like Crimson-bellied Woodpecker, Hazel-fronted Pygmy-Tyrant, Chestnutbreasted Mountain-Finch, Creamy-crested Spinetail, Bearded Mountaineer, Rusty-fronted Canastero, and Andean Tinamou (among many others) to the list of species, none of which we see at Manu Wildlife Center. From the port at Atalaya, weʼll travel by covered motorized dugout for about 7-8 hours down the Rio Alto Madre de Dios (weʼve never seen so many Fasciated Tiger-Herons—anywhere) and the Rio Madre de Dios (“Mother of God River”) to reach our lodge, set just back from the riverbank in a nicely planted clearing with tall rainforest immediately behind it. Manu Wildlife Center  offers substantial comfort for a remote Amazonian lodge, from cold drinks (and plenty of pure drinking water) to individual bungalows with private baths with flush toilets and hot water for showering in spacious tiled showers. The rooms are screened, but there are also individual mosquito nets for each bed. A lovely dining area (with tasty, varied, healthy food) and a separate bar and lounge area (with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages always available) are connected to all the bungalows by graveled walkways. Weʼll sleep to the sounds of the Amazon rainforest.

About the Physical Requirements & Pace: On our visit to one of the richest birding areas in the world, we will want to maximize the quality of our experience. In lowland Amazonia (where itʼs warm and humid), this means early starts that allow us to be in the field shortly after dawn, when activity is at its peak. On a typical day we'll start with an early breakfast (4:30 or 5:00) and bird along trails for the morning, returning to our lodge for lunch (12:30) and a break during the heat of the day, then going back out in the afternoon. This means that while we will usually be covering only two to four miles in a morning, you may be on your feet for six hours. There will be several exceptions—for example, the boat trip to visit the macaw lick. And some trails are accessed by boat to start them. Along the trails we'll typically move at a snail's pace, walking quietly, watching the ground for tinamous, listening for the slightest growl that could betray the presence of an 
army ant swarm with its attendant followers or a shower of petals or seeds from the canopy that could alert us to the presence of a flock of parrots or a troop of monkeys. We will use song playback to call in some fabulous skulkers that might otherwise go unseen. And, in the process, we'll do considerable standing around just watching. Trails that are muddy and/or hilly in places will be covered slowly. In a few situations, for instance to reach a ccollpa or tower early, we will move steadily along level trails at a pace of around two miles an hour for a half hour. Our fastest pace will likely be on the way back to lunch! The trails around MWC are excellent, but that does not mean that we will not regularly encounter tree falls or other new impediments that will require a small amount of agility, just as does getting in and out of the boat daily or crossing the wide log bridge with hand railing to the main trail network. The canopy towers will require knees that can handle 140 to 220 steps. This is the “rainforest” and rain can happen at any time, resulting in muddy trail conditions, so rubber boots are likely to be the main footwear weʼll use on most trails.