Spectacular Courtship Display of Rare Hummingbird Filmed For First Time

Published in Surfbirds News

Washington DC, 5 April 2007. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) today released the first ever film of the spectacular courtship display of the Marvelous Spatuletail, a highly endangered hummingbird that lives in the mountains of northern Peru. The video was shot by wildlife filmmaker Greg Homel of Natural Elements Productions. To view a segment of this extremely rare footage, please click on the graphic.

The Marvelous Spatuletail is unique among hummingbirds in that it has only four tail feathers. The tail of the adult male is more than twice as long as its body and ends in two great spoon-shaped ‘spatules’ that radiate a metallic purplish gloss. The males compete for females by whirling their long tails around their bodies in an amazing courtship display, which had previously only been witnessed by a few ornithologists, and had never been filmed. This display is considered to be one of the most bizarre in the bird world - the males repeatedly attack each other in the air, contorting their bodies and tails into strange shapes at incredible speed.

“The Marvelous Spatuletail is the ultimate hummingbird for most birdwatchers because of its rarity, spectacular tail, and vibrant plumage,” said Mike Parr, Vice President of American Bird Conservancy. “It is also the focus of conservation efforts in an area that is rapidly becoming one of the birding hotspots in South America.”

ABC is working with its Peruvian partner group Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) to protect the spatuletail, which is considered to be one of the world’s most endangered hummingbirds. The groups have set up a new protected area under a conservation easement, are developing a nature tourism program to benefit local communities, and conducting reforestation programs in the area.

“Conservation is not the role of single individuals but of our entire society. When you see communities that understand such challenges and sign such commitments as this conservation easement, you see progress and feel there is hope,” said Constantino Aucca Chutas, President of ECOAN.To support the conservation of the spatuletail, visit https://www.abcbirds.org/membership/donate_spt.cfm

The Spatuletail is also becoming a flagship species for tourism in the area. It has been declared the “Regional Bird” for Peru’s Amazonas region, and is featured in the Commission for the Promotion of Peru’s tourism brochures and the Northern Peru Birding Route (www.perubirdingroutes.com).

Birdwatchers wishing to search for the spatuletail should contact Hugo Arnal at American Bird Conservancy, abc@abcbirds.org

Long Sought After Bird Spotted in Peruvian Nature Reserve

Published in Salem-News.com

Endangered species known only from captured individuals seen in wild for first time

(ALTO NIEVA, Peru) - The extremely rare Long-whiskered Owlet (Xenoglaux loweryi), a species that wasn’t discovered until 1976, and until now was only known from a few specimens captured in nets after dark, has been seen in the wild for the first time by researchers monitoring the Area de Conservación Privada de Abra Patricia – Alto Nieva, a private conservation area in Northern Peru.

The sighting is considered a holy grail of South American ornithology and has not been accomplished in thirty years, despite the efforts of hundreds of birders.

The species is among the world’s smallest owls. It is so distinct that it has been named in its own genus: Xenoglaux meaning “strange owl” on account of the long wispy feathers or whiskers that stream out from its wild-looking reddish-orange eyes. The owl inhabits the dense undergrowth of mountain forests in a remote part of northern Peru.

“Seeing the Long-whiskered Owlet is a huge thrill,” said David Geale of Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) who was part of the research team. “Its population is estimated to be less than 1,000 birds, and possibly as few as 250. Due to the rapid destruction of its forest habitat and its tiny range, it is inferred that the species is in serious decline. Until recently, the owlet’s key habitat was completely unprotected.”

The Long-whiskered Owlet has previously been captured by researchers on at least three occasions, but until 2002 nothing was known of the bird’s natural history. At that point, calls were recorded from a captive bird, but its biology still remained virtually unknown. Last month, researchers Geale and Juvenal Ccahuana, rangers of Abra Patricia and monitors of the MNBCA program from Alto Mayo, encountered the owlet three times during daylight hours and recorded its calls frequently at night. Several photographs were also taken of a bird captured in a mist-net and later released onto a tree branch where it posed for photographs before disappearing into the night. These additional photos are available at http://www.abcbirds.org/whiskeredowlpic.htm and high resolution copies are available upon request.

“The creation of the Area de Conservación Privada de Abra Patricia – Alto Nieva, located in the Northern end of the Peruvian Yungas ecosystem, provides protection for the key site for the Long-whiskered Owlet,” said Hugo Arnal, American Bird Conservancy’s (ABC) Tropical Andes Program Director. “By establishing a reserve and protecting the owlet’s forest habitat, ABC and its partner ECOAN are giving many other species a chance to survive as well.”

The northeastern section of the Peruvian Yungas, comprises habitat for 317 resident bird species, of which 23 are considered globally threatened. The conservation area also protects much of the known habitat for the endangered Ochre-fronted Antpitta, and has been declared a priority by the Alliance for Zero Extinction. Other endemics in the area include the endangered Royal Sunangel (a hummingbird), the rare and recently-described Johnson’s Tody-Tyrant, and the endangered Ash-throated Antwren.

Several songbirds that breed in North America such as the beautiful Blackburnian Warbler also use these forests during the winter. Other migratory species include the Broad-winged Hawk, Swainson’s Hawk, Swainson's Thrush, and Alder Flycatcher. In total, 29 neotropical migrant species use this area, of which 13 are of conservation concern. Nearly 98% of the reserve consists of well-preserved stands of typical Yungas forests, and it is also considered a rich area for orchids.

ABC’s work in the region is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Conoco Phillips, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Robert Wilson. Birdwatchers wishing to search for the owl should contact Hugo Arnal at American Bird Conservancy (see: http://www.abcbirds.org/ ). Access is strictly limited to small groups and the chances of success though better than in the past are still considered very low for anything but the luckiest groups.

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is the only 501(c)(3) organization that works solely to conserve native wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. ABC is a membership organization that is consistently awarded a top, four-star rating by the independent group, Charity Navigator.

Peru: Amazon tribes demand creation of national parks

(LIP-jl) (La Republica) -- Authorities from the Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Communities from the High Comaina (ODECOAC in Spanish) and the Organization of Development for the Cenepa Border Communities (ODECOFROC in Spanish) are demanding the creation of two national parks in Peru's Amazonian region.

The representatives from both organizations expressed their intentions of maintaining the areas within the proposed national parks free from any type of contamination and industrial operations.

"Last September we publicly denounced the contamination of our rivers caused by gold mining operations conducted by the Afrodita mining company at the mouths of the Comaina and Sawientsa Rivers and by Ecuadorian citizens who cross over into Peruvian territory," commented one of the representatives.

According to representatives of the indigenous groups, they have always defended their territory, even battling alongside Peruvian soldiers in the Peru-Ecuador border conflict.

"Our people have given their lives to defend the Condor Mountain Range, a Awajun ancestral territory," sustained the organizations.

They reminded government officials that as a result of that conflict, the Peruvian government agreed to protected areas as part of the peace treaty.

According to the organizations, this is the reason they are asking authorities to protect roughly 152,000 hectares of land by giving them national park status.

The proposed names of the national parks are Ichigkat-Muja Condor Mountain Range National Park and Tunta Nain Communal Reserve.

Published On Line

The `Newest' Natural Wonder

The Locals Knew Of Peruvian Cascade; They Just Didn't Realize What They Had
March 4, 2007
By STEVE HENDRIX, Washington Post

Here I am in remotest northern Peru, hard on the trail of the world's third-largest anticlimax.

This is a story of waterfalls and expectations, and you can count me a waterfall skeptic. I know they are picturesque. I know they are soothing, in that stock greeting-card way of rainbows and unicorns. I know they figure largely in the pre-flight videos they show on planes to take the edge off your airport rage.

But actual waterfalls? They're seldom worth the walk. Somebody always insists on taking the 2-mile side trail to see the local waterfall. So you go. And there's a waterfall, dribbling (picturesquely) down the rocks. And then you hike back.

In my experience, waterfall equals anticlimax.

But the press release that crossed my desk last spring was darned near irresistible: "World's Third Highest Waterfall Discovered in Peru."

Howzat? Discovered? The Age of Discovery was ages ago. The biggest things they discover these days are new species of beetle and, every now and then, a forgotten cable network. But the major landforms were all mapped long ago. A 250-story waterfall that instantly climbs up on the podium with Venezuela's Angel Falls and South Africa's Tugela Falls? How did that avoid the eye of satellite cartographers?

Who cares? If it was that big and that remote, I just wanted to get there before they bulldozed a road, built the hotels and generally tarted up the place.

And so in September, I set off on the most harrowing waterfall side trip of all: an overnight flight from Washington to Lima, a dawn hop to the northern coastal city of Chiclayo and a 12-hour drive over dicey mountain roads to Peru's impossibly secluded upper Amazon basin. This high, dry tropical Shangri-La was the domain of the Chachapoyas, a mysterious Andean race that predated the Incas. The new waterfall, dubbed Gocta, after an ancient Chachapoyan village, is deep in one of the many blind valleys they inhabited between 800 and 1400 A.D. You can still see their carved tombs, some with intact mummies, in the surrounding cliff walls.

According to the press release, the government of Peru promised safe tourist access and basic accommodations, hopefully starting in 2007 (don't count on it). In the meantime, getting to Gocta requires bone-jarring days on terrifying roads and hours on steep and dubious valley trails. All to see a waterfall.

This had better be good.

It Was There All Along

So how do you discover a waterfall? The local people knew about it, of course. It just wasn't a big deal to them.

Luis Chuquimes is an elder in the tiny village of San Pablo, a few hours' hike from the falls. Tourists were unknown in San Pablo before word spread about Gocta last spring. Now Chuquimes' little cantina serves as an unofficial visitors center. According to the wrinkled sign-in book on his bar, more than 70 people had made the trip by the time I got there at the end of the dry season. On the other side of the valley, another village has logged just over 1,000 Gocta tourists. It's mostly Peruvians so far, eager to see the new national icon. A couple of Israelis and Germans had come . No Americans had signed in yet.

"We knew it was there," Chuquimes said as he delivered bottles of beer and Inca Kola to a group of Gocta-bound students from Chiclayo, a day's drive away. "But we didn't know it was one of the tallest in the world."

It took a German engineer named Stefan Ziemendorff, working on a nearby water project, to realize that the nameless falls might boast world-class specs. He got the Peruvian government to survey it, checked his National Geographic stats and called a press conference. Gocta came in at 2,532 feet, which put it, by Ziemendorff's reckoning, at No. 3 in the world.

Or not. It turns out that waterfall ranking is, well, rancorous. Waterfall people - who are a lot like train people and lighthouse people - are burning up the discussion boards, debating Gocta's place on the charts with fierce references to seasonal flow, degree of slope and something called "freeleap." (Partisans of certain Norwegian cascades have bordered on rude.)

All of which makes Peru's bold claim such a brilliant stroke of marketing. Whether or not Gocta deserves the bronze, "third highest" gives it instant Seven Wonders cred. That ensures tourist interest in a spectacular but little-known region that really does have a lot to offer anyone lured in.

"I don't know if it's the third-highest waterfall on Earth, but I know it's a very high waterfall," said Peter Lerche, a German anthropologist who has lived here since 1980. "It gives us a diversity of attractions. We have rivers, lakes, archaeology and now this waterfall."

The Chachapoyas area of northern Peru already attracts two kinds of tourists: birders and a trickle of hard-core archaeology buffs, those who have already seen (or been turned off by) the hugely popular Machu Picchu (so commercial in places, you might call it Inca Inc.). That was my toehold in the region. I found a guide company willing to take me to the waterfall and show me around the archaeological highlights during a six-day flying visit. They paired me with another tourist, a California antiques dealer, who was fishing around for a Gocta visit. A photographer from Lima made it a threesome.

A Museum Of Mummies .......> more information

Scientists discover new species of distinctive cloud-forest rodent

Published On Line - Physorg
Source: Field Museum

A strikingly unusual animal was recently discovered in the cloud-forests of Peru. The large rodent is about the size of a squirrel and looks a bit like one, except its closest relatives are spiny rats.

The nocturnal, climbing rodent is beautiful yet strange looking, with long dense fur, a broad blocky head, and thickly furred tail. A blackish crest of fur on the crown, nape and shoulders add to its distinctive appearance.

Isothrix barbarabrownae, as the new species has been named, is described in the current issue of Mastozoología Neotropical (Neotropical mammalogy), the principal mammalogy journal of South America. A color illustration of the bushy rodent graces the cover of the journal.

The authors of the study found the rodent in 1999 while conducting field research in Peru's Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve Mountains in Southern Peru along the eastern slope of the Andes. Extending from lowland tropical forests in the Amazon Basin to open grasslands above the Andean tree line, Manu is home to more species of mammals and birds than any equivalently sized area in the world.

"Like other tropical mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas, Ruwenzoris, Virungas and Kinabalu, the Andes support a fantastic variety of habitats," said Bruce Patterson, MacArthur Curator of Mammals at The Field Museum. "These in turn support some of the richest faunas on the planet."

The nocturnal, climbing rodent is beautiful yet strange looking, with long dense fur, a broad blocky head, and thickly furred tail. A blackish crest of fur on the crown, nape and shoulders add to its distinctive appearance.

Isothrix barbarabrownae, as the new species has been named, is described in the current issue of Mastozoología Neotropical (Neotropical mammalogy), the principal mammalogy journal of South America. A color illustration of the bushy rodent graces the cover of the journal.

The authors of the study found the rodent in 1999 while conducting field research in Peru's Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve Mountains in Southern Peru along the eastern slope of the Andes. Extending from lowland tropical forests in the Amazon Basin to open grasslands above the Andean tree line, Manu is home to more species of mammals and birds than any equivalently sized area in the world.

"Like other tropical mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas, Ruwenzoris, Virungas and Kinabalu, the Andes support a fantastic variety of habitats," said Bruce Patterson, MacArthur Curator of Mammals at The Field Museum. "These in turn support some of the richest faunas on the planet."

"The new species is not only a handsome novelty," Patterson said. "Preliminary DNA analyses suggest that its nearest relatives, all restricted to the lowlands, may have arisen from Andean ancestors. The newly discovered species casts a striking new light on the evolution of an entire group of arboreal rodents."

Article On Line

Birdwatching & Documenting a region's species

Reitz graduate finds adventure of lifetime doing research in Andes
Published On Line - CourierPress
Photography by JILL JANKOWSKI
Story by SHARON SORENSON
Sunday, January 28, 2007

Imagine nearly five months in the jungle. No television, cell phone, newspaper, e-mail, electricity or running water. With a few dedicated assistants, Jill Jankowski lives in a tent; eats rice, pasta and dried soup; treats brown river water for drinking; and stays alert for poisonous snakes, disease-transmitting mosquitoes and stinging ants. Even after a bout with a serious parasitic infection, she's going back.

Jankowski, a 1998 Reitz graduate and a graduate of Purdue University, abandoned her 4.0 grade-point average earned studying chemical engineering, as well as a starting position on Purdue's soccer team. She chose instead to study birds.

Now earning a doctorate from the University of Florida, she's studying the diversity of birds in Peru's 3.75 million-acre Manu reserve.

Supported by her research team, she trudges from the Amazon foothills (elevation 2,550 feet) to the Andes Mountains tree line (elevation: 11,000 feet) to learn why, in a day's stroll up or down the slope, one can cross the ranges of hundreds of bird species.

"You can find as many bird species on this single Andean slope as in the U.S. and Canada combined - about 1,150 species," Jankowski said.

Tropical forests, Jankowski said, are "spectacular places that we know next to nothing about."
"They have the most amazing and quirky animals on the planet. But in many cases, tropical forests are destroyed before anyone can document the life within."

Jankowski feels an urgency about her work, in part, she said, because "in later years, this project will gauge effects of climate change."

More information .....>

Links recomended:

• Birding Tours in Peru
• Bird Wathchin Regions in Peru

Peru Bird-Watching Takes Flight With 1,800 Species

John Roachfor National Geographic News
November 22, 2004

Eco-lodges are sprouting under the forest canopy, guidebooks are rolling off the presses, and Peruvians are eager to showcase their country as a bird-watcher's paradise.

That is the message trilled by John O'Neill, an ornithologist at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, who has visited the country to study birds almost every year since 1961.

"It's a country that still has major areas totally unknown biologically," he said. "There have been more than 50 species of bird discovered and described in the last 50 years. I've had the good fortune of being involved with 13."
Peru is home to more than 1,800 bird species, 120 of which are found nowhere else in the world. At least five new species have also been discovered as of this year and are still waiting official scientific description.

The diversity of bird species in Peru, O'Neill said, stems from its ecological and geographical diversity. On the coast, the Pacific Ocean laps at parched desert. Inland, dry forest and scrubland rise to the snowcapped Andes. Toward the east, cloud forests spill into the Amazon Basin.
"It really is packed with landscapes and habitats," said Thomas Valqui, a Lima-based ornithologist and graduate student at LSU. "In five hours you can go from a dry desert through snow at 5,000 meters [16,400 feet] elevation to the rain forest."

Thomas Schulenberg is a conservation ecologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and an expert on Peruvian birds. He said South America is the "bird continent," thanks to bird species that are more diverse and abundant than those in tropical Asia or Africa.

That, in turn, makes Peru a hot spot, Schulenberg said. "Peru has dazzling geographic diversity, which equates to habitat diversity, which translates to more bird species."

Birders' Delights

Barry Walker is the owner of Cuzco-based Manu Expeditions and a recognized expert on birding in Peru. He said the opportunity to discover bird species new to science is attractive to a handful of people, but most come simply to marvel at the diversity of species.
"Large numbers [of birds], plus some large spectacular attractions, are the prime reason for a visit," he said.

more information .....>