After arriving in Lima late in the evening on July 7, I awoke early on the 8th and met my other 5 tour participants at the Hotel Senorial in Miraflores, a suburb on the south side of Lima (population 11 million). We were transferred to the Lima airport where we caught our flight to Taraboto on the edge of the Amazonian lowlands. July is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and from June through September there is a low layer of cloud and fog that covers the Pacific coastal lowlands (and traps a lot of smog from car emissions, much like Los Angeles). Once airborne, we got above the clouds and began flying over the western slope of the Andes.
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| Low clouds and fog over coastal lowlands of Peru. |
We flew a short distance to the north, passing by the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca, which included Peru's highest peak, Huascaran, which is 22,205 feet high.
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| Cordillera Blanca, Peru |
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| Cordillera Blanca, Peru |
After only a 1-hour flight, we landed in Taraboto in the lowlands (2600 feet elevation) on the eastern slope of the Andes where the temperature was probably 95 (F), with very high humidity (it was in the 60s in Lima). We met our local guide, Fernando, who was sweating though not as much as I was. I was thinking that I would probably need about a gallon of water every day to keep from getting dehydrated. It was a short ride to our hotel, the Rio Shilcayo Hotel, where we had lunch and got settled in.
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| Rio Shilcayo Hotel, Taraboto, Peru |
At 2 p.m., we got into the van and headed east along the Cordillera Escalera road that winds up and over the last mountain ridge (elevation 6000 feet) before it heads down into the true Amazonian lowlands. We had planned to do some birding along the way, as well as near a tunnel through the mountains, but about half way up it started raining, hard and steady. So, we kept going to what was our ultimate destination, a hummingbird feeding station that is about the only place where the Peruvian endemic Koepcke's Hermit can be seen.
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| Koepcke's Hermit feeding station entrance sign. |
The foothill forest here, at an elevation of about 2000 feet, was very tropical with lots of palms, tree ferns, heliconias, and cecropias.
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| Forest at Koepcke's Hermit feeding station |
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| Foothills on eastern side of Andes. East of here (left) are the Amazonian lowlands. |
Luckily, when we arrived here at 3:00 p.m. the rain was letting up, and the sheltered hummingbird feeders (about 1/4 mile walk in from the main road) were very active with 10 species of hummingbird. As is the case at many other low elevation hummingbird feeding stations in the tropics, one of the most common and aggressive species is the White-necked Jacobin.
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| White-necked Jacobin (male) |
Sometimes the white patch on the hind-neck of males can be difficult to see.
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| White-necked Jacobin (male) |
Males of this medium-sized hummingbird (larger than our Ruby-throated in the eastern U.S.) use their large white tail patches to assert their dominance and personal space.
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| White-necked Jacobin (male) |
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| White-necked Jacobin (male) |
Another common species here, the Golden-tailed Sapphire, is one that I had only seen a couple of times before, and never in such numbers. It was larger than I remembered, being similar in size to the Jacobins.
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
They are so photogenic and colorful, it was hard to stop taking a lot of photos of them!
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
Like many of the hummingbirds in northern Peru, the Golden-tailed Sapphires seemed as attracted to the small flowers of a species of Verbena as they were to the feeders.
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| Golden-tailed Sapphire (male) |
Among the less common species here was the very large, and not very colorful, Gray-breasted Sabrewing. They have rather uniquely-shaped outer primaries, which can easily be examined because they have a habit of briefly holding their wings open when they land.
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| Gray-breasted Sabrewing |
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| Gray-breasted Sabrewing |
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| Gray-breasted Sabrewing |
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| Gray-breasted Sabrewing |
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| Gray-breasted Sabrewing |
A common species that I've seen at a number of feeders in the tropics, which was uncommon here, was the outlandish purple and green Fork-tailed Woodnymph.
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| Fork-tailed Woodnymph |
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| Fork-tailed Woodnymph |
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| Fork-tailed Woodnymph |
A somewhat large species, the Black-throated Mango, is a species I can't recall seeing at feeders anywhere else, so it was nice getting an opportunity to see it well, and get some photos.
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| Black-throated Mango (male) |
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| Black-throated Mango (male) |
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| Black-throated Mango (male) |
It is often difficult to see the magenta-colored tail that is characteristic of some Mango species.
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| Black-throated Mango (male) |
The highlight of the afternoon had to be the appearance of two species that were "life" birds for me, the fairly widespread lowland species, Gould's Jewelfront, and the very patchily-distributed Peruvian endemic Koepcke's Hermit. Both species are captured in the photo below!
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| Gould's Jewelfront (left) and Koepcke's Hermit (right) |
The Gould's Jewelfront is mainly green, with a non-iridescent orange breast patch, and an infrequently seen blue patch on the forehead that gives it the name "jewelfront".
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| Gould's Jewelfront (male) |
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| Gould's Jewelfront (male) |
They only perched in nearby vegetation for very brief periods, so only feeder shots of this one.
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| Gould's Jewelfront (male) |
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| Gould's Jewelfront (male) |
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| Gould's Jewelfront (male) |
An odd-looking hummingbird turned out to be an immature, probably male, Gould's Jewelfront.
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| Gould's Jewelfront (imm.) |
Hermits are a subgroup of the hummingbird family that are generally not colorful, and have long central tail feathers. Many species have fairly complex courtship systems, called leks, similar to what grouse, manakins, and other birds do. Identification of hermits can be tricky. The Koepcke's Hermit is distinguished by its larger size, fairly straight bill, buffy (not white) tips on the outer tail feathers, and tawny-colored rump with narrow dark bars.
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
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| Koepcke's Hermit |
A couple interesting insects in this area included a nice butterfly, that I have not yet identified, which is in the Swallowtail family.
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| Butterfly (Papilionidae) |
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| Butterfly (Papilionidae) |
And a brightly-colored small grasshopper that had an interesting behavior.
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| Grasshopper sp. |
This grasshopper has completely white wings, so when it flies it looks like a small white butterfly, like our common Cabbage White in the eastern U.S. But it also appears to have a visual display. We saw it hopping up from the ground, a foot in the air, then floating down to the ground with its obvious white wings open. At other times, we saw them perched on leaves, flicking their white wings open and closed. Maybe this species has no auditory display, and just uses these visual displays to attract mates? I'd love to know more.
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| Grasshopper sp. |
It will likely take a few days to go through the few hundred photos taken on day 2 of the trip, so check back soon for the next entry...
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