Day 13 Spinetails and burial chambers

A revision to the itinerary meant we left the hotel at 6 and drove for 90 minutes for a field breakfast before attempting to find another endemic – the very localised Great Spinetail. We knew it’d be difficult to find at this time of the year as it wouldn’t be singing and things didn’t look good as the prime area had been trashed by heavy machinery. Still, we tried the area and further up and down the road without success and were contemplating leaving when we heard an odd call. We decided to follow it up and up popped a Maranon Yellowthroat. While we watched this bird instead, a large brown bird with a long tail appeared in the background – the Great Spinetail! It later transpired that the calls we’d heard were in fact made by this bird.

Great Spinetail habitat that had recently been wrecked

We drove on to our next stop, a large lake teeming with Andean Coot and a single Pied-billed Grebe. On the surrounding fields were Rufous-webbed Bush-Tyrant, Band-tailed Seedeater and Peruvian Sierra-Finch as well as a local woman who wanted payment from us for birding the site (she went empty-handed).

Andean Coot lake

Andean Coot

Our next visit was to an ancient burial site, a local tourist attraction, which dates back to pre-Inca times.

Rufous-collared Sparrow at the burial chambers

We were serenaded by a group of little boys who sing songs for money, see video:

After a quick field lunch we visited a lovely narrow canyon with steep cliffsides where Andean Swifts flew overhead and White-winged Cincloides patrolled the fast-flowing river. 

White-winged Cincloides

Black Metaltail

Our target species were all hummers and it didn’t take too long to track them all down: Black Metaltail, Grey-bellied Comet and Giant Hummingbird – the 53^rd and last hummer of our trip. We also added Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail and saw bushes coated in a huge emergence of moths before heading back to our hotel.

moths

Local women in traditional costume walking the cows home