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.
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