Peru Manu: Part I Aug 11—23, 2007
Posted by Steve Hilty
Steve Hilty
Steve Hilty is the senior author of A Guide to the Birds of Colombia, and the recently published Birds of Venezuela, both by Princeton University Press. Other credits inclu...Related Trips
Some trips defy the odds, go beyond the expected, beyond imagination. I have led over twenty trips into the Manu region of Peru, and David Wolf, my co-leader, has been on almost a third of these with me, so you might think that the trip would be routine. It wasn't. It never was after Karen yelled, "There's a bear up there," as our bus rumbled around yet another curve in the narrow, rough, single lane mountain road that winds interminably down the steep verdant face of the Andes toward the steamy lowlands far below. Was she kidding? A bear? For a moment time scarcely moved. Then the driver was stopping. The bus emptied with dizzying speed and we stood behind the bus, looking at a spectacled bear less than thirty yards up a steep rocky slope above us. The bear peered at our assembling group, but showed little fear or inclination to retreat. A dozen or more binoculars stared straight at the bear and cameras played absurd little musical tunes, whirring and clicking. After a few giddy moments I began to wonder. Do these bears ever attack? Someone else muttered a similar misgiving. Perched above us the bear calmly pulled up one terrestrial bromeliad after another and munched on the pithy heart of the plants. I kept thinking, this thing could be in our midst in seconds. But the bear showed little interest in our group and, over the next ten minutes or so, it gradually worked higher up the rocky slope, occasionally glancing down at us.
The trip had been remarkable even before the bear, with mountain-toucans, colorful tanager flocks swirling up and down mountain slopes, a stunning array of tanagers and hummingbirds at feeders at the Cock-of-the-rock Lodge, and Cocks-of-the-rock displaying so close you could almost touch them, or so it seemed. Golden-eared Tanagers, an elevation-restricted and fast-moving species of Tangara tanager that we sometimes struggled to see well, was now a frequent visitor at a feeder at the lodge. So was Yungas Manakin, another cloud forest sleuth noted for stealth and a perverse inclination to avoid being seen by humans. The first morning a pair of White-backed Fire-eyes, a reclusive antbird, trooped through the lodge's small clearing. The place was abuzz with hummingbirds and colorful tanagers. Capuchin monkeys, with wrinkling brows and intense brown eyes, stared at the lodge, at us, and at our food. One could almost fathom the thought processes spinning through these inquisitive animals' brains. After four glorious nights we packed for a move downslope, to the base of the foothills.
"Oh my God, get over here quick!" I yelled, loud enough for the group (some ten to twenty yards away) to hear, but hopefully not enough to frighten the bird. I stared, disbelieving. Bushy, golden-yellow crown feathers raised in an expanded crest, black mask, olive back, bright yellow underparts. But it was the bill that held my gaze: stout, bright orange-yellow. I was looking at the latest of Peru's seemingly inexhaustible supply of species described new to science in the last half century. Only this one hadn't even been named yet. It was discovered a few years ago, but has been shy and difficult to find since then. Only a few persons or parties had seen it. Furthermore, the bird still awaited an official description and name because scientists weren't sure even to what family it belonged. A tanager, perhaps? But tanager taxonomy has been a moving target in the last decade. A cardinalid, perhaps? How often does a birding group see a species so new to science that it lacks a name? The bird moved quickly. We worked fast too, to make sure everyone saw the bird. Then it flew across the road and worked upslope above a large road cut and was out of sight. This is the kind of experience we dream about.
Look at our list and dream again. We've never had a trip quite like this one, but then, wait until next year.