Birding Peru

Quarter Finals in World Birding Destination Cup 2013

Thumbnail image for Quarter Finals in World Birding Destination Cup 2013 by Gunnar 13 February 2013

There are only 8 birding destinations left, as the game is getting tighter and the choices more difficult. Which destinations do you hold as the best in these four pairs. Vote now! Voting closes on Feb 19 at 8 PM EST. Please vote in all games.

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World Birding Destination Cup 2013 2nd round.

Thumbnail image for World Birding Destination Cup 2013 2nd round. by Gunnar 21 January 2013

More excitement as 16 destinations are left in the World Birding Destination Cup 2013. You may vote for your favorites. What will it be. Peru or Borneo? Ecuador or Antarctica? New Guinea or SE Brazil? Australia or Pantanal? Costa Rica or Galapagos? North Peru or Alaska? Madagascar or Colombia?
Many difficult choices, but how about the all African derby? Kenya or South Africa? Have fun!

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World Bird Cup 2013

Thumbnail image for World Bird Cup 2013 by Gunnar 1 January 2013

Facebook fun Do you remember World Bird Cup from last year? We had different birds around the world put up against each other for popularity. In the final Marvelous Spatuletail against Philippine Eagle, the eagle won a narrow win at the deadline. But votes kept on coming in after the deadline resulting in more votes for the Hummingbird. [...]

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Journal Club: New species of barbet discovered in Peru

Thumbnail image for Journal Club: New species of barbet discovered in Peru by Grrlscientist 20 August 2012

Sira barbet, Capito fitzpatricki, Seeholzer, Winger, Harvey, Cáceres & Weckstein, 2012, photographed at the Río Shinipo locality in Cerros del Sira in the Ucayali Region, Peru (South America). Image: Michael G. Harvey/Cornell University, 4 November 2008 [velociraptorise]. Canon EOS 20D, 1/250 sec, f/8.0, 400 mm, iso:400 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. [...]

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The Bird World Cup Winner

Thumbnail image for The Bird World Cup Winner by Gunnar 29 January 2012

The winner is…. It is usually straight forward to pick a winner in a voting game. The participant that gets most votes wins. This is a little more complex. Presenting the results from the final of this contest which has been running since the beginning of December 2011 is long overdue. Things got a bit [...]

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Semifinals Bird World Cup

Thumbnail image for Semifinals Bird World Cup by Gunnar 25 December 2011

Semifinals in the Bird World Cup. Wilson’s bird of Paradise did not make it. It was a very close game. Instead it is Spoon-billed Sandpiper against Philippine Eagle and Marvelous Spatuletail verses Harpy Eagle. Can small and peculiar win against giants? What do you think?

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Stunning Peru bird photography

Thumbnail image for Stunning Peru bird photography by Gunnar 30 November 2011

Photographing birds in Peru. Once in a while you come across bird photography that is so jaw-dropping that you simply want to throw your camera to the floor in dispair and scream “I need a new camera with a longer lens, more megapixels and a flash as strong as sunlight”.  Then  you buy a new [...]

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Inca Tern – eyegasm

Thumbnail image for Inca Tern – eyegasm by Gunnar 29 October 2011

The world’s most beautiful Tern Young Peruvian bird photographer Alfredo Fernandez is keen as keen, always chatting with me about birds on Facebook.  I was not surprised that he shared yet a couple of more Flickr albums with me. I totally melted with his Inca Terns. And then he said, let me know if you [...]

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How to niche an eco-lodge into a birding-lodge

Thumbnail image for How to niche an eco-lodge into a birding-lodge by Gunnar 18 July 2011

Gunnar Engblom has visited Amazon Refuge on the Yanayacu river near Iquitos. Here Gunnar presents a manual how an eco-lodge should cater to birders with an example Amazon Refuge as an example. A birding lodge is easier to market than an eco-lodge especially if there are some good birds that birders would do a detour to see. A birding lodge targets a very specific niche and makes marketing much easier.

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Satipo Road – new name?

Thumbnail image for Satipo Road – new name? by Gunnar 30 June 2011

For fundraising purposes the birding circuit known as Satipo Road needed a new name. Rainforest Partnership has a hard time to market a road as a pristine area among non-birders, and the name Pampa Hermosa which has been used in the past is already in use at two other birding sites in Peru. A recent poll singled out Colibri Trail as the favorite, which makes much sense since there are 45 species of Hummingbirds recorded from this area. Colibri means Hummingbird in virtually every language except English.

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Want to see the Marvellous Spatuletail displaying?

Thumbnail image for Want to see the Marvellous Spatuletail displaying? by Gunnar 19 January 2011

Marvelous Spatuletail Loddigesia mirabilis. The Marvelous Spatuletail is an endemic bird to Peru. One of the most spectacular things to witness in the birding world is the display of  the males spatuletails.  Our guide (then) Roger Ahlman together with our protegé Santos Montenegro were the first to witness this remarkable lek in over a 100 [...]

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Punk-chicken

Thumbnail image for Punk-chicken by Gunnar 12 January 2011

Hoatzin  Opisthocomus hoazin – What a strange bird! Just as I thought I had it figured out and preparing for this post, I decided to check the references on the wikipedia-page. I knew it’s not a Chicken or a Pheasant and probably not a cuckoo. Sceletal studies indicated that the Hoatzin is closest related with [...]

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Long-whiskered Owlet

Thumbnail image for Long-whiskered Owlet by Gunnar 29 December 2010

Mythical Owl now easier to see than ever This rare Owl discovered only in 1977 and until recently just not wanting to show to birders. This year there has been a virtual inflation of sightings. More people than ever have laid eyes on this minute and cute Owlet. Having said that, I still have not [...]

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Jocotoco Christmas

Thumbnail image for Jocotoco Christmas by Gunnar 22 December 2010

Jocotoco Antpitta was sensationally discovered in 1997 by Bob Ridgely in SE Ecuador. Money was raised to buy land where it occured to form a private reserve. This was the base of Jocotoco Foundation. Now at the Tapichalaca reserve there is a comfortable lodge and the Jocotoco Antpitta can easily be seen at the worm feeding station.

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Undescribed and new bird species on the Satipo road, Peru

Thumbnail image for Undescribed and new bird species on the Satipo road, Peru by Gunnar 20 December 2010

10 years  exploring Satipo road As mentioned in my last blogpost about Eye-ringed Thistletail (photo above), I have been on a photographic expedition with Hadoram Shirihai and David Beadle in Central Peru. When I wrote this we had just come out from the Satipo road area, where I have long been involved in a community based [...]

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Eye-ringed Thistletail Schizoeaca palpebralis – Threatened?

Thumbnail image for Eye-ringed Thistletail Schizoeaca palpebralis – Threatened? by Gunnar 24 November 2010

Eye-ringed Thistletail of the Satipo road and which Birdlife International presently consider Least Concern, should maybe best be considered threatened, since the restricted area where it occurs, is under threat from quite immediate rural development through agriculture and livestock. Money is being poured into the rural areas through the mining compensations and compensation to the victims of terrorism of the 80s and early 90s. Check out the great pictures of Hadoram Shirihai.

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Central Peru birding videos

Thumbnail image for Central Peru birding videos by Gunnar 17 November 2010

I would have liked to write a long post about Satipo road, where I shall be heading in a couple of days, since there now is a basic lodge to stay (see top picture). The community is  running a lodge for birders (see the top photo). All this as a result of taking a few [...]

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Sira Tanager. Does it really exist?

Thumbnail image for Sira Tanager. Does it really exist? by Gunnar 4 November 2010

Sira Mountains, Peru – revisited! I have just come back from my third trip to the wilderness area of Cerros de Sira not far from Pucallpa. Sira has a familiar ring to the Neotropical birder. Yes, of course it is that Tanager with only a dot on the distribution map in any guide book  over [...]

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