A Second Birding Trip to Peru

Poison Dart Frog

In September 2008, four of us from last Fall's Ecuador trip arranged our own trip to Peru, this time visiting Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo in the northeast near Iquitos, Tambopata, in the southeast near Manu, and a day to visit Machu Picchu. For Tahuayo, we used Amazonia Expeditions, and for Tambopata Mondo Verde Expeditions. The local guides at each location knew their birds and did an excellent job of showing them to us, and by the end of the trip we'd tallied nearly 350 species. Although birding was great at Tahuyo with our guides Josias and Anselmo, the focus there was more on various aspects of 'la selva' in addition to the birds. Amazonia Expeditions did a great job of lining up all our air travel and hotels, meeting us at airports, etc., for our whole trip and not just our visit to their lodges. At Tambopata, our superb guide Oscar (and his excellent mentor, Silverio) were exceptional bird guides, and also gave us a variety of fascinating jungle experiences. For this trip, most of my pictures were taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, the rest with a Canon PowerShot SD450.

Click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger view of any of the pictures in a new window.



After hastily rearranging our flights at the last minute to leave from Atlanta when the Houston airport closed for Hurricane Ike (thank you Travelguard trip insurance!), three of us (Joe, Don, and Sissy) arrived a day early and spent the day birding at nearby Pantanos de Ville and touring Lima with our excellent driver, Renato of Taxi Lima Peru. Renato hadn't seen many birders before, but patiently waited as we disappeared into the swamp for a few hours. Best bird there, the Many-colored Rush-tyrant (known locally as the 'cucarachero'). Peter met up with us the next morning for the short flight to Iquitos and the 4-hour boat ride to Tahuayo Lodge.

Night and Tiger Herons

Pied Grebe

Great Grebe

Spotted Sandpiper

Snowy Egret

Immature Black-crowned
Night Heron

Tahuayo River
village

Dock at Tahuayo Lodge
Tahuayo Lodge - Note the high water line on the tree and the boardwalks...by May at the height of the wet season, the water rises an unbelievable 7m (23 ft), and canoes, rather than walking trails, is how one gets around.

Dock at Sunset

Lodge Boardwalk

Amazing Clouds

Reflection

Black-fronted Nunbird

Yellow-crowned
Brushy Tail Rat

Canoe Paddle

Roof Thatch

Two-toed
Sloth

Pygmy
Marmoset

Skink

Black
Hawk-Eagle

Monkey

Bats

Sloth and
Plumbeous Kite

The Maze

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