In December, 2010 I’m heading to Peru for a birding tour with Kolibri Expeditions. Preparing for Peru is a series detailing the preparations that I’m making for the trip.
When a birder plans a trip to a new location, especially a foreign one, the first item they get is a field guide. But after that, there are still some more books needed. Here are some that I have gotten, or looked for, for my upcoming trip to Peru:
Bird-finding Guide
A bird-finding guide is one of the most important items on a birding trip, sometimes even more important than a field guide. After all, you need to know where to go and what to expect. The internet has lessened a traveler’s dependence on such guides, but to me, nothing can beat having a hard copy of a good bird-finding guide, such as the ABA/Lane series.
Unfortunately, it seems that Peru is without such a guide.[Update]Gunnar points out in a comment below that there is, indeed, one for Peru: Where to Watch Birds in Peru, by Thomas Valqui.[/Update] But since I’m going on a guided tour, I don’t absolutely need one. However, I would encourage anyone even on a guided tour to get a bird-finding book for your destination, if available. While preparing for your trip, they can be an invaluable resource in discovering what to expect.
Travel Guides
There are many travel guides to Peru, such as National Geographic Traveler, Frommer’s, and Fodor’s. Like bird-specific guides, these aren’t required for those going on guided tours, but can still be helpful. Even if you don’t need one to plan your itinerary, they can still help familiarize you with the history, culture, and “feel” of the place. Since I’m not going to have much (or maybe any) non-birding time in Lime and Cuzco, I haven’t gotten one of these. But if it looks like I’ll have any city-time to myself, then I will definitely be doing some reading.
Other Field Guides
Birds aren’t the only animals I’ll see in Peru, of course. I’m really hoping for some monkeys, Giant Otter, even snakes. But that means more field guides. Luckily, Travellers’ Wildlife Guides Peru covers a sampling of the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians of Peru, and probably most of the ones I’m likely to see. Well, maybe not the birds, but that’s why I have a bird-specific field guide.
Last, but certainly not least, is Birds of Tropical America: A Watcher’s Introduction to Behavior, Breeding, and Diversity. This is a fantastic overview of the ecology and behavior of the birds one will see in Peru and elsewhere in the neotropics. Ever wonder why there is such high bird diversity in the tropics or why they’re so colorful? Steve Hilty discusses it here. I read this book years ago, but should again to help understand the birds I’ll be seeing. It’s not enough for me to simply pin a name on the birds I see; I want to understand them as much as possible. I would recommend this book even to those not planning on birding the tropics.
If anyone knows of other books that would be helpful, please let me know.
I just wanted to say thanks to all bird (and other wildlife) rehabbers, along with anyone who’s ever volunteered at, or contributed to, a rehab facility. Rehabbers do an incredible job at a vital and unfortunately necessary task. Thanks.
In December, 2010 I’m heading to Peru for a birding tour with Kolibri Expeditions. Preparing for Peru is a series detailing the preparations that I’m making for the trip.
Besides binoculars, when birders travel to an unfamiliar place there is one item of paramount importance. Clothes? So what if you forgot to pack any, you can just keep wearing what you traveled in. Deodorant? The birds won’t mind the smell. No, you can forget everything else as long as you’ve got your field guide.
When it comes to a field guide for the birds of Peru, there are a couple of options, but really only one choice – Birds of Peru. This guide was updated in May, 2010 and is as up-to-date as you can expect a neotropical field guide to be. (I think there is at least one new species that has subsequently been discovered, but I don’t think it has even been officially described yet.). The artwork is very nice, and even though different plumages (gender, age, and subspecies where appropriate) are illustrated, the plates are not crowded. The maps and text accounts are on the facing page. The accounts are not extensive, but include the details needed for identification.
This is a relatively small and portable field guide (for the neotropics, at least!). You won’t be able to fit it in a back pants pocket, but you should be able to find a way to carry it into the field, such as a pack or vest.
Anyone birding in Peru should have a copy. I know I’m planning to have mine with me at all times when I go.
If you’d like a more in-depth look at this excellent field guide, I’ve written a full review at The Birder’s Library.
Least Bitterns are not rare in Georgia. They breed here, mostly along the coast, though there is some inland nesting. And apparently a few may even winter here. But, embarrassingly, I had never seen one in Georgia. I bird the coast mostly in fall and winter, so I’ve just never been where they are when they are here.
But that changed this weekend. My wife, daughter, and I joined my dad and stepmother in Savannah for a long weekend. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much birding, but I did want to set aside a little time to try to fill this empty box in my state checklist. Thus, a trip to Altamaha WMA was in order.
View of Altamaha WMA from the observation tower
Altamaha is a fantastic place. The impoundments that formerly grew rice are now managed for ducks and other wildlife. From my vantage point on an observation tower I could see that the place was teeming with birds. Boat-tailed Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds were flying and calling all over the place. Every heron and egret that you would expect, even a couple of Black-crowned Night-herons, could be seen. Glossy Ibis outnumbered their white cousins. Well, on the ground at least. There were always some White Ibis in the air above, from pairs to large skeins. A pair of Black-bellied Whistling-ducks would fly around every now and then.
You couldn’t help but smile at the family of cute, fuzzy, black Common Moorhen chicks. A single, resplendent Purple Gallinule made a short appearance. I can’t believe I left the digiscoping adapter in the car, making it tough to get any pictures.
Black-necked Stilt in a display flight
The most interesting thing, behavior-wise, was the displaying of some Black-necked Stilts. I could see two stilts feeding in the impoundment on one side. But every few minutes one of them would take off and fly around slowly in a circle, all the while calling kek kek kek incessantly. When it was done, a stilt from the other side of the dike would respond by doing the same thing. At the time, I thought that perhaps the raised dike was the boundary between two territories and that these were border disputes. More on this later.
But no Least Bittern. I scanned and rescanned the edges of the impoundments, hoping to spot one clinging to the vegetation, but to no avail. I only had a few minutes left, due to an appointment elsewhere, when I saw a small bird fly into a cluster of reeds. It was out of the corner of my eye, so all I was able to make out were large, buffy wing patches. That was enough to know it was my Least Bittern! I got my scope on the spot in time to see the bird, partially obstructed, clamber deeper into the vegetation and out of sight.
Whew. It was a great relief to finally see it, just in the nick of time. But looking back, I think I enjoyed the stilts even more. I had never expected to see such a shorebird display here. The arctic tundra, sure, but not in Georgia. That gives me hope that I haven’t become a crazed, list-obsessed birder. Not totally, anyway.
Back to the stilt display. After doing some research later, I think I was wrong about what they were doing. They may have been mobbing me. They were flying nearby or right over me, no more than twenty feet above my head. That could easily be explained, though, if the dike were the territory boundary with the tower at the corner. But both The Shorebird Guide and Pete Dunne mention that stilts will aggressively defend their territory against intruders, including humans, by giving incessant flight calls. I guess they took offense to my presence. I honestly didn’t think it was me at the time, but if it was, hopefully I didn’t disturb them too badly.
And now I’ve learned something new. Gotta love birding.
Did you know that you can use a spotting scope to view things besides birds and other wildlife? Ok, maybe that’s obvious to most people, though apparently it wasn’t to me. I had never used my scope for anything else until yesterday.
By the way, this makes me realize how thankful I am that the prime shorebird season doesn’t correspond with the prime season for people on the beach. I can just imagine:
Random Beachgoer: (with a sly grin) Whatcha lookin’ at? Me: (not noticing the grin) That flock of shorebirds over there. Random Beachgoer: Suuuuuuure
That would get tiresome very quickly.
Anyways, the bodies that I was thinking of viewing through the scope are heavenly ones. As in astronomical, in case you first thought of something else. My wife and I had talked for a while about using the scope to find some planets, but hadn’t ever gotten around to it. But last night she noted that Venus, Mars, and Saturn should all be visible, so we finally gave it a try.
We first spotted a light that we thought could be Saturn. We really didn’t know what to expect; I was hoping to be able to see the rings, but we were doubtful. It took a while to get the correct object in the scope (so much harder than during the day – the little sight-guide-thing attached to the eyepiece was useless). At 20x zoom, it was just another star-like object. But after zooming in to 60x – we have rings! Well, I should clarify that. It still looked nothing like the Saturn you see in books, all swirly yellow with a thick, multi-layered ring surrounding it. Basically, it was a white dot with a white line through it. But it was still exceedingly cool.
A crude mock-up of what Saturn looked like through the scope
We tried to find Mars next, but it turned out to be much tougher. There were two likely candidates, but neither one looked very unique in the scope. I was hoping it would be distinctly reddish, but no such luck.
And Venus was too close to the horizon, and thus blocked by trees.
To cap it off, I turned the scope toward the Moon and almost blinded myself! After letting my eye adjust, the view was amazing. You could make out some incredible detail, especially at full zoom: mountain ranges, colossal craters, NASA probes. Well, maybe not the latter.
You may be wondering how, out of all the possibilities twinkling in the sky, were we able to pick out the most likely planetary candidates. Simple – it turns out there’s an app for that. Planets is an app for the iPhone family of devices that makes it incredibly easy. It will show you what planets are visible and where they are. It’s a great little app, easy to use, and it’s free!
Clearly, spotting scopes won’t work as well for this as telescopes designed for astronomy. But if you have a scope*, you should give it a try sometime.
*Unfortunately, it does need to be a scope. Binoculars don’t work well for viewing planets since the magnification is too low and it’s impossible to hold them steady enough.
A bird-finding guide is one of the most important items on a birding trip, sometimes even more important than a field guide. After all, you need to know where to go and what to expect. The internet has lessened a traveler’s dependence on such guides, but to me, nothing can beat having a hard copy of a good bird-finding guide, such as the ABA/Lane series.
Posted in Preparing for Peru | 
2 Comments »
When it comes to a field guide for the birds of Peru, there are a couple of options, but really only one choice – 
