by Gunnar Engblom April 24, 2009 4

Endemic Little Brown Jobs in Central Peru

LBJ:s in Peru are pretty

With a Carpish trip just finished as and a Central Peru trip, featuring Carpish and Satipo road starting on May 17, I’d thought I’d tease you with some pics of some of my favorite birds in the region. In spite of not being exactly colorful, they are great birds – just to give you an idea.

Bay-vented Cotinga

Bay-vented Cotinga can usually be seen at Bosque Unchog, where it will sit on the tree-tops.

Taczanowski’s Brush-Finch

Taczanowski’s Brush-Finch, soon to be split from Slaty Brush-Finch of Ecuador, is endemic to Central Peru.

Eye-ringed Thistletail

This is a Thistletail with personallity. A fantastically cool bird found in the bamboo in the upper part of the Satipo road. This is practically the only place where it can be seen.

Obscure Antpitta (Grallaria rufula obscura)

I call him Obcure Antpitta due to its scientific name. It is absolutely clear that this subspecies Grallaria rufula obscura should be split out from Rufous Antpittas. Just listen to these recordings! Obscure Antpitta vs Rufous Antpitta ssp rufula.

The problem is what to do with the other subspecies and define exactly where the limits are. Rufous Antpitta most likely contain up to 7 or 8 species!!

Diademed Sandpiper Plover

Not exactly an endemic (it occurs also in Chile), and a bit too particular to be called a Little Brown Job. This is one of the most wanted birds by the birders that come to Peru. Why? I think the fact that it is something in between a plover and sandpiper, and lives at 4600m above sealevel. How is that for a Shorebird (sic!).

Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager

It can’t be acccused of being a little brown job, but I include it anyway, because it is the most wanted bird on the route. It can be seen at Bosque Unchog. If you are looking for some last minute travelling, the trip starts on May 17. And is offered with a 20% discount.

All photos by Gunnar Engblom under creative commons license. You may use the photos as long as you link to this source. Recordings by Willem-Pier Velinga and Nick Athenas under creative commons license at https://Xeno-canto.org

by Gunnar Engblom January 22, 2009 2

Ted Parker finds Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager and Pardusco at Unchog

Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager. Photo: Gunnar Engblom

One of my highest personal achievements just became reality as I got a slight connection with the God of all South American birders – Ted Parker. Ted Parker was the most talented neotropical birder with a tremendous capacitiy of learning birdcalls and has become somewhat of a hero to any birder who want to aspire knowledge about South American Birds. It was a tremendous loss to, when he died in planecrash in Ecuador in 1993.
Ted Parker’s recently published account in Birding magazine from American Birding Association – ABA- about his first sighting of Golden-backed Mountain Tanager at Unchog and Quilluacocha in the vicinity of Acomayo, Huanuco is illustrated with my pictures of the same birds. Wow! It is an honor!

You may already have read about our recent speed birding trip to Unchog. I have noticed a lot of hits on my Unchog blog-post the last couple of days. It is probably due to the Birding article.

So I thought I’d share the Parker account here with it’s masterful editing and commentary of Gregg Gorton. Click on the link to download the pdf of the Birding article:

Ted Parker finds Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager and Pardusco

At this point We have had a group of different sorts at Unchog. We are were training Pervians to learn about the birds to eventually become site guides, and the same Reyes Rivera mentioned in Parker’s account is helping us. There are also three guides taking part from Cusco and Puerto Maldonado taking part in the course.

Shameless commercial plug – read no further…..

Want to see Parker’s dreambird – the Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager? Check out Kolibri Expeditions web-page for the Carpish trip. Also check our extended Carpish trip that also includes Satipo road. We offer a 20% discount on all Central Peru trips through-out 2009.