Peru - the sum up

Red-and-green Macaw

What is a jungle? Jungles are steamy hot places filled with impenetrable vegetation, danger and invisible but very vocal animals that tease you with their apparent closeness. Now I've been in jungles before. For instance, there was the feral scrubby wilderness near my home in Wembley, north London that I explored as a kid. I crossed the raging torrent that was the concrete bedded River Brent to wend my way across the unexplored wasteland that lay on the other side. I hacked my way with a blunt penknife through the thick virgin fields of brambles in search of new areas to make camps and of course, to find birds. All this before getting back home for tea.

Since then I have dipped my toes into the fringes of jungles in Thailand and Mexico - but always within earshot of a road or within sight of a visitor centre. In those instances, I was on my own and besides there was a wealth of bird life just within the entrance gates to keep me occupied for hours. Last year, I accepted an invitation from an NGO called the Crees Foundation to visit Peru some research centres within the Amazon dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and the promotion of sustainable living amongst the local people. Crees Foundation are an NGO dedicted to the conservation of the Amazon rainforests and its wildlife, plus promoting sustainability and coexistence with nature amongst the peoples of the region. They manage some 1,500 acres of rainforest within the Manu Reserve - an area roughly the size of Wales.

The plan was for me to go on a whistletop tour of the highland cloud forests eventually dropping elevations ending up within the lowland jungle visiting several of the Crees Foundation's lodges. So after landing in Lima for a spot of very productive urban birding, I took a short flight to Cusco where my journey into the Amazon would truly begin. I'm preparing a piece for Bird Watching Magazine so I won't repeat my adventures here. All I will say is that Peru was everything I expected and everything I didn't expect. Peru has jumped straight into my top five favourite countries in the world. 

My bird list

Peru 23 August – 5 September 2013

White-tufted Grebe

Least Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

Great Grebe

Puna Teal

Chilean Pelican

Peruvian Booby

Neotropic Cormorant

Guanay Cormorant

Anhinga

Cocoi Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Cattle Egret

Little Blue Heron

Striated Heron

Capped Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

Fasciated Tiger-heron

Rufescent Tiger-heron

Horned Screamer

Wood Stork

Puna Ibis

Green Ibis

Orinoco Goose

Yellow-billed Pintail

White-cheeked Pintail

Andean Teal

Cinnamon Teal

Ruddy Duck

Torrent Duck

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Greater Yellow-headed Vulture

King Vulture

Osprey

American Swallow-tailed Kite

Plumbeous Kite

Cinereous Harrier

Guiana Crested Eagle

Black-chested Buzzard-eagle

Black-and-chestnut Eagle

Great Black Hawk

Zone-tailed Hawk

White-rumped Hawk

Roadside Hawk

Variable Hawk

Harris’ Hawk

Red-throated Caracara

Black Caracara

Mountain Caracara

Southern Caracara

Barred Forest Falcon

American Kestrel

Bat Falcon

Speckled Chachalaca

Andean Guan

Spix’s Guan

Blue-throated Piping Guan

Razor-billed Curassow

Sunbittern

Plumbeous Rail

Purple Gallinule

Common Gallinule

Andean Coot

American Oystercatcher

Black-necked Stilt

Andean Lapwing

Pied Lapwing

Collared Plover

Killdeer

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Lesser Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs

Stilt Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Sanderling

Ruddy Turnstone

Wilson’s Phalarope

Kelp Gull

Belcher’s Gull

Grey Gull

Franklin’s Gull

Grey-headed Gull

Andean Gull

Inca Tern

Large-billed Tern

Yellow-billed Tern

Black Skimmer

Feral Pigeon

Ruddy Pigeon

Plumbeous Pigeon

Spot-winged Pigeon

Eared Dove

West Peruvian (Pacific) Dove

Bare-faced Ground Pigeon

White-tipped Dove

Blue-and-yellow Macaw

Scarlet Macaw

Chestnut-fronted Macaw

Red-and-green Macaw

Mitred Parakeet

Tui Parakeet

Orange-cheeked Parrot

Blue-headed Parrot

Speckle-faced Parrot

Mealy (Amazon)Parrot

Squirrel Cuckoo

Smooth-billed Ani

Hoatzin

Barn Owl

Burrowing Owl

Great Potoo

Sand-coloured Nighthawk

Common Nighthawk

White-collared Swift

Andean Swift

White-tipped Swift

Chestnut-collared Swift

New World Palm Swift

Giant Hummingbird

White-browed Hermit

Long-tailed Hermit

Fork-tailed Woodnymph

Blue-tailed Emerald

Sparkling (Gould’s) Violetear

Rufous-crested Coquette

Golden-tailed Sapphire

Green-and-white Hummingbird

Peruvian Piedtail

Many-spotted Hummingbird

Violet-fronted Brilliant

Chestnut-breasted Coronet

Collared Inca

Long-tailed Sylph

Booted Racket-tail

Bearded Mountaineer

Black-tailed Trainbearer

Blue-tailed Emerald

Black-tailed Trogon

Blue-crowned Trogon

Crested Quetzel

Highland Motmot

Amazon Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher

Bluish-fronted Jacamar

Lanceolated Monklet

Black-fronted Nunbird

Swallow-wing

Versicoloured Barbet

Curly-crested Aracari

White-throated Toucan

Channel-billed Toucan

Andean Flicker

Golden Olive Woodpecker

Red-necked Woodpecker

Lineated Woodpecker

Blue-and-white Swallow

White-winged Swallow

White-banded Swallow

Grey-breasted Wood Wren

Southern House Wren

White-capped Dipper

Long-tailed Mockingbird

Black-capped Donacobius

Wren-like Rushbird

Bar-winged Cinclodes

Ash-browed Spinetail

Rusty-fronted Canastero

White-browed Antbird

Ash-throated Gnateater

Plumbeous-crowned Tyrannulet

Marble-faced Bristle-tyrant

Slaty-capped Flycatcher

Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet

Torrent Tyrannulet

Southern Beardless Tyrannulet

Many-coloured Rush Tyrant

Olive-striped Flycatcher

Streak-necked Flycatcher

Common Tody-flycatcher

Cinnamon Flycatcher

Vermilion Flycatcher

Smoke-coloured Pewee

Black Phoebe

Drab Water Tyrant

Andean Negrito

Rufous-naped Ground Tyrant

Great Kiskadee

Social Flycatcher

Tropical Kingbird

Chiguanco Thrush

Glossy-black Thrush

Black-billed Thrush

Black-faced Cotinga

((Screaming Piha))

Masked Fruiteater

Bare-necked Fruitcrow

Andean Cock-of-the-rock

Yungas Manakin

Red-eyed Vireo

Violaceous Jay

Purplish Jay

Green Jay

Silver-beaked Tanager

Blue–and-yellow Tanager

Blue-grey Tanager

Silver-backed Tanager

Golden Tanager

Yellow-throated Bush Tanager

Beryl-spangled Tanager

Golden-naped Tanager

Saffron-crowned Tanager

Golden-eared Tanager

Blue-necked Tanager

Paradise Tanager

Swallow Tanager

Orange-eared Tanager

Blue Dacnis

Purple Honeycreeper

Black-throated Flowerpiercer

Yellow-browed Sparrow

Peruvian Sierra-finch

Hooded Siskin

Orange-bellied Euphonia

Thick-billed Euphonia

Band-tailed Seedeater

Blue-black Grassquit

Black-and-white Seedeater

Chestnut-bellied Seedeater

Red-capped Cardinal

Chestnut-capped Brush-finch

Golden-bellied Grosbeak

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Buff-throated Saltator

Golden-billed Saltator

Slate-throated Redstart

Spectacled Redstart

Golden-bellied Warbler

Three-striped Warbler

Russet-crowned Warbler

Crested Oropendola

Olive Oropendola

Yellow-rumped Cacique

Giant Cowbird

Scrub Blackbird

Orange-backed Troupial

Yellow-winged Blackbird

254 species

192 lifers