Rufous-booted Racket-tail
On our last day, William met me for some early morning birding around the Lodge before our long drive back to Cusco. We had success walking the road where we found a new hummingbird, the Black-eared Fairy! It's so striking with that black and white tail, green back and black mask! I also got a nice shot of the Blue-headed Parrot. During our three night stay at Guadalupe Lodge, I ended up seeing 53 species of birds on the property!
My favorite caterpillar in Peru!
After breakfast we said goodbye to Guadalupe Lodge and began our journey on Manu Road to Cusco. William had planned some great stops for us to see some birds and stretch our legs along the 7 hour drive. Our first stop was a return visit to the feeders at the Cock-of-the-Rock Cabins. Here we found another new hummingbird for me, the Wire-crested Thorntail.
Our next stop was at Mirador San Pedro. There are no signs, but this place not only has an excellent view of the canyon, but fantastic birds coming to the feeders. This is the view of Manu Road from their location. Once you enter the property and climb the hill, there are stumps to sit on to watch birds coming to the plantain feeders on the horizontal sticks. We also spotted a Solitary Eagle fly over the canyon!
Above: Spotted Tanager and Violet-fronted Brilliant
Below: Golden-naped Tanager, White-bellied Woodstar, Saffron-crowned Tanager
It's very difficult to know which season Peru is in. The birds are the indicators. When certain birds arrive, you know summer is coming. I'm used to long range migration (North America to South America), but here they experience an altitude/vertical migration, hummingbirds go to higher elevation in winter and lower elevation in summer for breeding.
Above: Speckled Hummingbird
Below: Orange-bellied Euphonia, Golden Tanager
Both hummingbirds above are Violet-fronted Brilliants, and below is an Azara's Spinetail, a quick bird, hard to photograph!
We ate lunch at the waterfall again. Here you can see our van in the background.
As we climbed in elevation, we entered the aptly-named Cloud Forest.
A short stop at the entrance to Manu National Park gave us a chance to pick up a few more birds, while everyone used the restroom. I marked our path in purple (bottom of the map). The purple spot is around where the research station is. See how we barely touched the place?
Now we were clearly out of the jungle, beyond the cloud forest, into a high elevation zone.
As we got closer to Cusco, we drove past a street market. Check out the woman in the last photo carrying a load on her back wrapped in a brightly colored cloth. These are strong women!
And just like that, our adventure in the Peruvian Amazon is over.
I ended up seeing 179 birds, including 25 species of hummingbirds, and 54 were lifers! This was not even a birding-focused tour! Imagine how many one could see on a birding tour, spending all your time birding along Manu Road!
Non-bird sightings:
Capuchin monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Wooly monkeys, Titi monkeys, a Capybara family, Rainbow Boa, Agouti, bat, Bamboo rat, whip scorpions, butterflies, spiders, caterpillars.
William is such an amazing guide! He's very kind and knowledgeable and he's an excellent birder! I initially considered trying to organize a visit to Manu on my own, but after being there I realized how remote it is and how extremely difficult it would have been to arrange lodging, transportation, food and tours on my own. So happy with our decision to hire Eco Peru Tours to handle everything, plus Jesus did an amazing job tailoring the trip for our interests.
Back for one last night in Cusco.
The next day we enjoyed one final meal at Avocado and Toast before our evening flight to Brazil!
