Michigan Hummingbird Guy: Peru Birding Trip Day 9

If you want to catch up on previous posts about this trip, go to the following links:

Peru Trip Day 1            Peru Trip Day 6              Peru Trip Day 11
Peru Trip Day 2            Peru Trip Day 7              Peru Trip Day 12
Peru Trip Day 3            Peru Trip Day 8              Peru Trip Day 13
Peru Trip Day 4            Peru Trip Day 9              Peru Trip Day 14
Peru Trip Day 5            Peru Trip Day 10
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After breakfast, we headed to a couple other birding locales at lower elevations east of the Owlet Lodge. But instead of getting in to the van and driving down the "driveway" to the main road, we walked it instead looking for some of the many birds we had not seen yet. The light was not great, with a lot of birds silhouetted against a glaring hazy sky, but I did manage a few shots. A group of Common Chlorospinguses were low in the shrubs so were in good light, but like the sparrows they are related to they never fully came out in the open.

Common Chlorospingus (formerly Bush-Tanager)

The Barred Becards I've seen before have not been in the treetops, but unfortunately this one was.

Barred Becard

One species I was happy to see was the Peruvian endemic Yellow-scarfed Tanager, which also stayed in the treetops with several other tanagers.

Yellow-scarfed Tanager

Our first stop was at Llanteria, which Fernando told us was a local name for a tire repair shop, and indeed that is pretty much all that was there in the middle of the winding mountain road through the cloud forest. This site is also sometimes called Afluente, which is Spanish for tributary. There was a small stream in this area coming down the hillside. Most of the birds here were fairly distant, so my photos of some of them are severely cropped. A nice Magpie Tanager was one of the first birds we saw.

Magpie Tanager

High in a treetop was a group of Ruddy Pigeons, which I've never had an opportunity to photograph before as they are most often heard only, or seen flying over the treetops. So, this poor photo is actually an improvement for me.

Ruddy Pigeon

The close birds at this site were also common birds, Smooth-billed Anis. But although we had seen them along the roads quite a lot on the first few days of the trip, we had not had a chance to photograph them. And in fact, everyone else in the group was ignoring them so I think I may have the only photos of them by our group!

Smooth-billed Ani, with orchid

Smooth-billed Ani

Such close views allowed the prominent ridge on the top of their bills to be seen quite well.

Smooth-billed Ani

Members of the cuckoo family, the demeanor of Anis is sometimes described as "unkempt", and they do often seem to perch with their wings and tails spread, and their flight is somewhat flopping and seemingly a bit uncontrolled.

Smooth-billed Ani

While I continued to watch, and the others ignored them, they seemed to be engaged in some type of display.

Smooth-billed Ani

I noticed that one of them had something in its beak, and seemed to be focusing its attention on one individual of the group (there were 3). Maybe it was courtship?

Smooth-billed Ani

When looking more closely at my photos later, I was able to see that it was holding a dead, colorful spider in its beak, so perhaps it was an offering by a male to a potential (or established) mate?

Smooth-billed Ani with spider

This area had a few other colorful insects including, of course, butterflies, like this Cherubina Emperor.

Cherubins Emperor (Doxocopa laurentia)

This Fiery Satyr was much more colorful than most members of the Satyr family.

Fiery Satyr (Lasiophila orbifera)

But when it folded its wings, it was well camouflaged.

Fiery Satyr (Lasiophila orbifera)

Another Southern Monarch was seen here as well.

Southern Monarch (Danaus erippus)

Not as colorful was this Banded Mapwing.

Banded Mapwing (Hypanartia dione)

On the vegetation, there were some other insects like this "stink bug", which is actually a Turquoise Shield Bug.

Turquoise Shield Bug (Edessa rufomarginata)

Many, if not all of the members of the True Bug order (Hemiptera) will care for their young, which go through stages as nymphs.

Turquoise Shield Bug (Edessa rufomarginata)
feeding nymph

Another species of True Bug on the same plant was this Froghopper species (family Cercopidae), which looks a lot like the North American Two-banded Spittlebug which is in the same family.

Froghopper sp.

I have been very happy with the performance of my camera and 400 mm bird lens, which was used to take all these insect photos including the 1/2 inch long Froghopper above. All hand-held. It worked equally well with this large (1 1/2-inch) beetle in the weevil family (Curculionidae), which was actually on the edge of the paved road...the painted white line providing an un-natural backdrop.

Weevil sp.

On the way to our next birding location, we stopped in the small town of Jorge Chavez because Fernando saw a Black-capped Donacobius in the road! We were at almost 1500 meters (4900 feet) in elevation, well above the normal range of this primarily Amazonian species. We stopped to get a better view, and a pair of them put on quite a show. I took more than 100 photos in the 45 minutes we spent here.

Black-capped Donacobius

I have seen this species before mainly when sitting in a dugout canoe. But Fernando said that the nice paved road we were on, which was created in the 1970s, not only allowed for the discovery of several new birds including the Long-whiskered Owlet, but has allowed some forest to be cut down and replaced with shrubby and grassy fields. This has allowed the Donacobius to expand its range.

Black-capped Donacobius

Formerly called the Black-capped Mockingthrush, the Donacobius is now classified in its own family (Donacobiidae). It was originally thought to be in the thrush family, and for a long time after that in the mockingbird and thrasher family. More recently it was placed briefly in the wren family, but DNA studies show affinities with some European and African families! Similar in size to a mockingbird, its song is somewhat like a thrasher or wren.

Black-capped Donacobius

But they have a strange bare yellow patch on the sides of their neck that inflates a little bit when they're singing. And they duet like wrens, as well as engaging in flamboyant displays.

Black-capped Donacobius

Black-capped Donacobius. Note inflated neck sacs.

Black-capped Donacobius

My photos above give some idea of what this display is like, but to see and hear a pair displaying click here to view a nice video (not taken by me) of a more subdued version of their display than we witnessed. We continued on to Puente Sin Nombre (No-name Bridge), to look for flycatchers among other things.

Puente Sin Nombre, Peru

On one side of the road there was thick scrub, and these interesting huge yellow flowers that looked like 8-foot Golden Ragwort.

Compositae sp.

On the other side of the road, growing out of the cliffs, was what looked like a wild Fucschia. It was a bit disappointing that more spectacular hummingbird plants were not seen on this tour.

Fucschia sp. (?)

A small flycatcher, a Streak-necked Flycatcher, flew in and perched on a shrub sticking out of the cliff.

Streak-necked Flycatcher

And sitting up high in a small tree was a Cinnamon Flycatcher.

Cinnamon Flycatcher

The flycatcher we were here looking for was very small (kinglet-sized), skulky, and found in dense vegetation, the Johnson's Tody-Flycatcher, which is endemic to a small area in northern Peru.

Johnson's Tody-Flycztcher

After one responded to Fernando's tape, it was a real challenge getting photos because it was moving fast and not coming out in the open at all. With my smaller lens, and not using a tripod, I was able to reposition myself quickly so that once it did briefly perch in the open, I was ready.

Johnson's Tody-Flycatcher

Described as new to science as recently as 2001, it was originally called the Lulu's Tody-Tyrant, but that was changed to Johnson's Tody-Flycatcher a few years ago although the scientific name still bears Lulu's name (honoring geneticist Lulu May Von Hagen). It is very similar to the Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher which is fairly common in Colombia and Ecuador, but Johnson's has an almost entirely rufous head and more yellow on the underparts.

Johnson's Tody-Flycatcher

We returned to the Owlet Lodge for lunch, and spent a little time watching the hummingbird feeders.

Scenic view from Owlet Lodge

Speckled Hummingbird

In the afternoon, two of us went with Fernando to walk the Grallaria Trail. This was my big idea, as I really wanted to get out into the local habitat and see more birds than we could by watching the hummingbird feeders. The others stayed behind and watched the hummingbird feeders. There wasn't much on this trail, unfortunately, though an early morning walk might have been much better. There were a few orchids similar to what we'd seen at Waqanki Lodge.

Orchid (Epidendropsis sp.)

Every time I see these orchids in the tropics, I think they look like Mr. Bill. If you aren't familiar with the clay character Mr. Bill from the Saturday Night Live TV show, click here. Maybe call it the Mr. Bill Orchid?

Orchid (Epidendropsis sp.)

And a butterfly identified as an Enyo Satyr made a brief stop in the path.

Enyo Satyr (Corades enyo)

After dinner, we set up to try and photograph the nightjar that was frequenting a fence post just outside the dining hall just after dusk. There were lots of moths on the walls, including these interesting species.

Moth sp. (Looper?)

Moth sp.

Photography of the nightjar was difficult. It was dark, and moving around a lot, so the two guides had to keep moving the flashlights around, which caused the bird to flush even more. Here is my initial photo of it on the fence post.

Swallow-tailed Nightjar

Despite its very long tail, identification of this nightjar was not straightforward. The Lyre-tailed Nightjar is a higher elevation species, and the Swallow-tailed Nightjar is a lower elevation species. But the Owlet Lodge is at an elevation where both species could occur! Reviewing eBird checklists for this site shows that both species have been reported here. In my experience, Lyre-tailed prefers roadside cliffs, and after reviewing our photos we decided that the field marks better matched Swallow-tailed Nightjar. The bird sat still for a bit on the sidewalk in front of the "moth wall".