Amazonian birding part 7

The really hot, dry season is well underway and the birdlife is changing accordingly. Tinamous have become much more vocal and I got a great look at a Great Tinamou as it drank from the river. The first Neotropic Cormorants have arrived, as have the Blue-black Grassquits atop the serra, and the Teles Pires held a nice flock of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, with an ultra-rare Paint-billed Crake being found there by another guide. A Southern Tamandua, my first of the season, feeding right by the restaurant at 5am provided some excitement but my best observation of the past ten days came on the last morning of a lovely Swiss family I had the pleasure of guiding. We were up the tower enjoying the Grey-breasted Martins flying all around us when I noticed them converge on another bird that was approaching fast. It was only as the intruder flew right past us at eye level that I realised it was a Tiny Hawk, which I've only seen once before!

Amazonian birding part 6

I'm over half-way through my stay here but things just seem to get better and better. On a free morning, I walked a trail no-one had visited in several months to see if it was accessible. I had a few birds but, close to the end, I heard the distinctive growl of a jaguar right next to the trail!  I've been accompanying the annual Wings tour led by Rich Hoyer the past five days. Whilst we had multiple good species, including Fiery-tailed Awlbill, Bare-eyed Antbird, Zigzag Heron, two Great Potoos, and a heard-only Pavonine Cuckoo, my personal highlight was seeing an Ocelot during a spotlighting trip along the river. Then, just as the cats seemed to be getting the upperhand, this morning's birds blew me away. First of all, I found a hummingbird I didn't recognise in the Secret Garden and Rich identified it as a female Blue-chinned Sapphire, a lifer which is not yet on the local list although we are only just outside its normal range. After that, I went to investigate a mixed flock and found a Collared Puffbird looking down at me, only to turn around and see a Grey Tinamou walk slowly away along the trail. That wasn't all though as I then made a fourth attempt at seeing the Black Manakin, a new species for the area found by Rich two years ago and recently seen again by another group along the Manakin trail. After half an hour of watching and imitating displaying Flame-crowned Manakins, an adult male Black Manakin zipped past and sat briefly on a branch in full view, disappearing again before I could get a photo. That's two lifers in one morning!

Amazonian birding part 5

I've now been at the lodge for exactly one month and have seen or heard 301 bird species. Frustratingly, I heard Speckled Spinetail, a bird I've never managed to see, in a big mixed flock the other day. It's not all about new species or adding to this year's list, however, as the commoner species can often be just as interesting. Yesterday, for example, we saw a Bat Falcon plucking a large woodcreeper, a prey almost as large as itself and which it had presumably caught in flight as it tried to cross the river. Today, we observed a Striated Heron using a flower as bait to lure fish by repeatedly dropping it in the water and waiting for the fish to come to investigate. The Amazon never fails to amaze.