Day 4: Amazonia Lodge
The first full day in Amazonia started with a fairly long hike up to the lodge's Canopy tower at 6 am. The hike was made more difficult since Virgilio and I had to carry the tripod, 500 mm lens and the rest of our gear. The canopy tower allows one to get a glimpse of the the top of the rainforest canopy which one otherwise cannot see. Many species like the great Macaws often only feed at the top of the canopy. Virgilio even saw a Harpy eagle from this spot once. They are so rare that even Virgilio had only seen them 5 times in 30 years of birding. After getting setup on top of the canopy tower with the tripod and 500 mm lens we waited for the birds to arrive. Then I made a major mistake. I knocked the external flash of my camera and it fell off the canopy tower and fell 100 ft to the rainforest floor below! Flash is critical for photography in the rainforest since under the canopy it is very dark. Without the flash, I would have been in big trouble for the rest of the trip and I was very worried. Virgilio thought he saw where it landed. We looked for a full hour and could not find it. Even if we did, who knows if it would have worked. We decided to reenact the accident by dropping a twig off the top of the tower to see where it would land. This reenactment actually worked. The twig fell in a different location than where we had been searching. The flash was found and it worked! I felt I had really dodged a bullet and decided I had to be far more careful for the rest of the trip. I was and no more mishaps occurred. We returned to the tower and we were rewarded by this beautiful Golden-collared Toucanet who was calling and displaying to his mate. This fellow is often in the canopy and hidden so this was a great find.
There are also many species of monkeys in Amazonia and the canopy tower is a great place to see them. Here is a fairly rare Wooly Monkey.
After the canopy tower Virgilio took me to a lek of displaying Round-tailed Manakins. Again these would be very difficult to see if one did not know where the lek is. I was lucky to get a shot of the display in which the male spreads his wings. Here only another male is looking on and I never did see the female.
After an eventful but successful morning we made our way back to the lodge. The next goal was to find the signature bird at Amazonia Lodge, the Rufous-crested Coquette Hummingbird. The fact that he is the signature bird (his picture is even on the soap at the lodge!) says how special he is since he is competing with over 1000 other species. This fellow would be impossible to find if it wasn't for the verbena flowers which he loves. Unfortunately, he is not the only one and he is often chased away by bigger hummingbirds. The coquette is only 3" in height. We managed to find where he was perching and got some fantastic shots.
Getting a picture of him in flight proved to be much more difficult since he is often getting chased and he has so many flowers he can choose from. Eventually I managed to get him. Actually the trick was to pick a verbena bush with very few flowers and then wait. This tip came from Glenn Bartley, one of the best bird photographers in the world, who happened to also be staying at the lodge. Gowri and I would often look at Glenn's website to figure out what gear to buy, where to go, etc. It was an amazing coincidence to run into him here!
The next highlight shows how amazing this lodge is. Puffbirds are sought after by serious birders since they are rare and have very complex plumage. I had never seen one before on trips to Ecuador, Costa Rica and Belize. We were just drinking lemonade on the porch of the lodge and the Chestnut-capped Puffbird flew right into the tree in front of us!
The next visitor was also very impressive. This 12 foot long Amazon tree snake who specializes in eating hummingbirds made his way to the lodge grounds. Virgilio was given the task by his parents to relocate him. He is not poisonous but with his bright coloring he mimicked other similar poisonous snakes. He proved to be very strong and escaped many times before Virgilio could bag him and relocate him.
We ate lunch at the lodge where they provided great vegetarian food. We then made our way out in the afternoon to the lake near the lodge. This area is full of the primitive Hoatzins that are only found in the Amazon rainforest. They are very docile and apparently have stomachs similar to cows allowing them to digest plants that other animals cannot digest. They exist in large flocks like this one.
Here is a closeup shot of these unusual birds.
Next, we saw the beautiful Laughing Falcon right along the trail.
We returned to have dinner. Afterwards, we went our for a night walk to see what we could see. The lake where the Hoatzins were contained many Spectacled Caiman. It was quite a sight to see.
