…and Susan Amis Cameron’s “One Meal a Day – Plant based” – the OMD approach explained in her book .

If more people followed these principles, it would decrease deforestation in the tropics and even revert areas used to produce pasture for cattle to again become forests.

3. Ecotourism 

• Climatecare (UK)
• Conservation International (US)
• Carbonfootprint.com (UK – but good for international use)
• Nature Conservancy (US)
• My Climate. (Switzerland).

5. Economics and Politics 

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Peru never ceases to come up with surprises.  A new Antbird species was discovered in July last year by Josh Beck near the spot for Scarlet-banded Barbet, less than a kilometer from the village of Flor de Café, aka Plataforma.  The Antbird is completely terrestrial and very similar to the Ferruginous-backed Antbird (Myrmeciza ferruginea) of Venezuela and the Guyanas.

Background.

In 1995 on a remote peak of the Cordillera Azul a new, remarkable and beautiful Barbet was found during a Lousiana State University (LSU) expedition.  The Scarlet-banded Barbet was described to science in 2000. While there certainly was a lot of interest by birders to try to mount an expedition to see the species, very few actually could endure the hardship involved. One needed to set off a full 9-10 days up the Cushabatay river to see the bird and it included a very difficult and steep two day hike up the hill known as Peak 1538 (standing 1538 meter tall) to get to the only area where the bird was known from. Other expeditions into Cordillera Azul, had not produced any sightings.

A few years ago Todd Mark explored a trail leading to a settlement called Plataforma on the outskirts of what had now become Cordillera Azul National Park finding the Barbet on the second day. Much to his surprise at the end of the trail he found there was a road. The road had been built to supply a drilling platform that was later abandoned. The road remained and land squatters had moved in.

To call it a road was an overstatement. While the road recently has been improved it is still dreadful in many parts. It is impossible for a regular car to make it, or even a standard  4WD for that matter. Specially adapted Toyota pick-up trucks are needed and such trucks can be rented in Bellavista south of Tarapoto, but are very expensive.

When Josh Beck contacted me to see if there was a cheaper way to visit the area, I let him know that he certainly could not get there in his sturdy 4WD van, but could perhaps hitch a ride with the trucks taking supplies, for much less. The problem would be getting back to Bellavista. Trucks are often not there for several days.

Josh didn’t mind. His epic Central and South America overland trip had already been three years in duration, and he was in no hurry. Besides, there were many other good birds recorded at Plataforma apart from the Scarlet-banded Barbet.

For instance, an undescribed foothill form of the Long-tailed Woodcreeper, Yellow-throated Spadebill, Vermiculated Screech-Owl and Subtropical Pygmy-Owl, Gray-tailed Piha and Jet Manakin, should keep Josh busy several days. There is also a remarkable range extension of Yungas Manakin  Here is has a different call, which may indicate that it is a cryptic species, even though it does not look much different from Yungas Manakin from further south.

One day Josh decided to explore a trail further, continuing past the traditional spot for the Scarlet-banded Barbet into the more intact foothill forests. The forest here was in much better condition, with much less deforestation than in the area where the Barbet was usually seen.

The trail goes through tall forest with relatively open but very dark understory.  It was here Josh heard a clear, very distinct, easily imitable descending whistle.  Even though Josh knew the songs of all the Antbird species in this area, this unique call was not one he had heard before.

He made a recording and after some playback of the same, a terrestrial Antbird came walking towards him. Clearly this was a new species, if not to science,at least one previously unrecorded in this area or the rest of Peru. It turns out the closest known species is the Ferruginous-backed Antbird (Myrmeciza ferruginea) some 2000 km away in the Guyanan region of Venezuela and Guyana.

Description and Conservation of the new Antbird and Scarlet-banded Barbet.

Josh knew that if this was a new species, formal documentation and a description was urgently needed. Coincidentally as he was about to leave, a team from Louisiana State University (LSU) arrived to work on other species. Together with the LSU team of Dane Lane, Jesse Fagan, Andre Moncreiff and Oscar Johnson, as well as Fernando Angulo from CORBIDI more individuals and territories could be located.

This new Antbird and the possibility to actually see the Scarlet-banded Barbet without going on a 10 day expedition, will create a lot of interest from birders around the world.  There will be a monetary incentive at Flor de Café with more birders visiting for the locals to conserve the area. Here is a video that the Fernando Angulo made about the Barbet when the team was there. Notice also the call of the undescribed Woodcreeper in the background soundtrack.

A formal description of the new antbird species has been completed and will be published shortly. This will be essential to help create the legal framework necessary for the Peruvian state to declare recognized reserves and legal actions to ensure its conservation. After all, it was partly the discovery of Scarlet-banded Barbet that ensured the creation of Cordillera Azul National Park.

Birding in Plataforma and How to see the New Antbird

Even though only a handful of groups have visited Plataforma since July it seems the new antbird already to has become quite tape shy. We visited the site in the afternoon without hearing it, and had no response to playback. The next morning it called spontaneously. We were not able to get it to come in by playback.  In contrast, when doing playback it shut up completely. There was no way of knowing if it was close or not.

We soon abandoned the attempts to call it in, and had our guide Carlos and the hostel owner Eugenio to get behind the calling bird while the group waited motionless in an area where there was a good view of the forest floor. Carlos and Eugenio walked in towards us effectively pushing the bird in our direction.  This seems to be a fairly low impact way of seeing the bird. Excellent views were had by everyone in our team. And I managed to get a head shot with my point and shoot. I regret I did not try to get a video instead.

Eugenio charged us 60 soles for the two attempts and also got some appropriate tips. It is recommended that this strategy is used rather than continue with playback.  It should also be said that until the scientific description is out, Josh urges not to make the call publicly available.

If short of time it is probably best to look for tour with a tour operator that makes a Scarlet-banded Barbet extension. Kolibri Expeditions has a four day Scarlet-banded Barbet extension tour that can be added to any program that starts or finishes in Tarapoto.

Regardless, if you choose a tour or go privately, I am pleased to share information.  Just contact me at kolibriexp@gmail.com.  But please do go for this bird ASAP. With the current rate of deforestation, increased birding tourism to Plataforma may be the best way to slow down deforestation. Nobody wants to climb that hill on the Rio Cushabatay again, to try and find new habitats for both the Barbet and possibly this Antbird, if the Plataforma site gets so deteriorated that no suitable habitat is left for either.

Birding Plataforma

Josh kindly let me publish his map how to bird Plataforma. Although a bit rough, and I do apologize for not editing the map to make it more legible (not very good at Draw type programs…..and lazy), I still think birders will have great use of this. Some good birds mentioned in the map are Yellow-throated Spadebill, Jet Manakin, Short-tailed Antthrush, Roraiman Flycatcher, Green-throated Tanager and Foothill Schiffornis.

The map has some Spanish so allow me to make some translations.
Chacra =field with crops, slash and burnt cleared area.
Potrero = field for grazing cattle.
Bosque = forest
Trocha = trail
Cuarenticinco = Cuarenta y cinco = 45. Supposedly referring to km 45 on the lower road and the name of the little hamlet at this spot.
Lodo = mud
Hacia = towards.

Photo of male Antbird sp nov kindly supplied with permission by Andrew Spencer.

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Did you hear about the guy who has set out to be the first person to see 5000 species of birds in a year – THE ULTIMATE BIG YEAR? Yes, it is acclaimed author, birder, ornithologist Noah Strycker. You really have to follow his quest on Audobon.org.

Before Noah’s imminent arrival in Peru, and our birding together for three weeks, I took the opportunity to pick his brain somewhat. I had hoped to do a videoblog, but Noah’s busy birding schedule and scarce access to wifi made this impossible.  Anyway, here are some questions answered. If you have more questions to Noah, please put those in the comment section below and I make sure we will get answers in the next coming days.

Why Big Year?

Gunnar:  You are aiming for 5000 species. Arjan Dwarshuis is doing a Big Year in 2016 on mainly public transport and without pro guides. Arjan will also, like you, just do one continuous trip. Apart from the route, you are follow a similar strategy as Ruth and Alan did, in that you will employ local guides, yet from some of your blogposts, thus far, one can tell you have not unlimited funds and sometimes even have somewhat of a shoestring budget.

It goes to show that someone who had a totally unlimited budget should be able to beat both you and whatever Arjan comes up with in 2016. So what is the point? And what do you reckon is possible had you had unlimited funds?

Noah: What is the point of setting any record, if all records are made to be broken? Finding 5,000 species of birds this year is the game. But the real adventure is in the people I meet, the places I visit, and the stories I accumulate along the way. As for what is theoretically possible, who knows? I think I can hit 5,000 this year, though it will be close; perhaps someone with a private jet, full-time guides, and perfect execution could do 6,000. Of course, the rules change every time a new round of splits comes out.

The route in the Americas

Gunnar:. You hiked for several days in Argentina. Was that smart or do you feel you missed out on several species?

Noah: I probably left a few birds on the table in northwest Argentina by not birding by car, but I gained an awesome adventure and probably saw a few good specialties I’d have otherwise missed. I mostly missed the lowlands there, which has the most overlap with other places; the Yungas cloudforest was the key, and I hit that pretty hard.

Gunnar:  As a primarily Neotropical birder myself, I am interested in a more exact description of your route. What areas of Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia are you visiting? And then what? Where are you going after the Neotropics? Countries and areas?

Noah: Brazil – Atlantic Forest (Sao Paulo); Pantanal and Cerrado (Cuiaba); Amazon (Belem); and the east coast (Itacare). Ecuador – Amazon (Shiripuno) and a weeklong transect from the Choco (NW) to the central Andes (Quito). Colombia – Santa Marta Mountains, West and Central Andes (Cali to Medellin and around Bogota). Afterward I will be in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Oaxaca, and Mazatlan before hitting the US in mid-May.

The itinerary

Gunnar: There must be a number of areas you have eyed on that are not included? Which ones – and why did you not include them?

Noah: I crossed off some islands like Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Tasmania that have a few endemics but maybe not enough to justify the extra travel. I won’t do any of the Guianas, pretty much nothing in the Caribbean, only a week and a half in all of Europe, no Morocco or Namibia, very little in the Middle East, no Japan, and no central Australia. A year is actually a pretty short timeframe to try to bird the whole world. I will have to do another year to see all the places I miss this year!

Gunnar: What are the five top birds you hope to see your trip.

Noah: #1 – Harpy Eagle – already seen!

Otherwise it’s just impossible to choose. Oilbird in South/Central America, Shoebill and Picathartes in Africa, birds of paradise in New Guinea… the list is way too long.

The Peru part of the trip

Gunnar:  I am looking forward to bird with you here in Peru. We shall be able to boost the year list considerably. I would have liked more time to also cover central Peru and a few days in the Iquitos area, and to do a pelagic, but there is not time in the 3 weeks we have. Still, we are covering an area with a combined checklist of some 1300 species during this time, so we should certainly see a lot of birds.

I am not sure people know that they can join your adventure in Peru. Anything you would like to say to birders who potentially would like to join on the Peru leg of your trip?

Noah: I can’t wait to go birding in Peru! I have seen some of northern Peru before, but southeast Peru will be all-new for me, and I expect to add a ton of birds on that leg. If anyone wants to come along, they are more than welcome to join us – the more the merrier!

Gunnar:  What are the five top birds you hope to see in Peru.

Noah: Pale-billed Antpitta; Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan; Amazonian Umbrellabird; Marvelous Spatuletail; Black-and-chestnut Eagle (one can dream)… man, it’s too hard to choose!

The writing

Gunnar: I am happy you write on Audubon Blog, because it does have a lot of readers, and the Audubon web-team is giving you fantastic support. However, as a hardcore birder, one asks why you did not choose a more birder specific location. ABA blog, Cornell Lab or 10000 birds perhaps. Or will you do some guests appearances elsewhere?

Noah: I am writing some guest posts for the ABA blog and eBird’s home page, and daily posts on the Audubon site. Audubon is a big organization so they can support this project in a comprehensive way, and I like the chance to feature some conservation stories along the way.

Gunnar:  It is nice, as you have announced, that your publisher feels this is worthwhile to become a book. Yet, are there enough people really that are world birders and interested enough to buy yet another BIGGEST YEAR book – after  The Biggest Twitch by Alan Davies and RuthMiller (Amazon US/Amazon UK) ? I am guessing you have a lot of pressure from your publisher to make it a book for a wider audience. How will you go about that? What will the secret ingredient be to sell a milion copies?

NOAH:  I see this project as a meta-story about our changing global environment, and a fun story about humans, with birds stitching the narrative together. It is not a day-by-day, here’s-what-I-did-last-summer tale; that’s been done.

Homesick?

Gunnar: What do you miss from home. Food, sweets or other items.

Noah: I’m not gonna lie; I miss my mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Otherwise, I haven’t had any real cravings or homesickness yet. Ask me again in a few months.

Some useful links.

• The birding strategy in Peru.
• Noah’s running tally.
• Background to the 5000 species Big Year quest. Noah’s own words.
• Noah is an acclaimed author. His The things with Feathers is immensely popular. His other book Among Penguins – A Bird Man in Antarctica. also has got many good reviews.
• There is a cool map showing all the spots around the world where Noah will be birding.

Don’t forget you can ask Noah questions in the comment section below. What would you like to know?

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Hambleton view Rutland Joanna Sayers.

At 7 AM on August 16 we are arranging a run on the Hambleton peninsula at Rutland Waters Nature Reserve. There is nothing strange about a run here. The local runners from Rutland Running & Triathlon Club, Leicestershire and Rutland Sports and Melton Running Club run here all the time. And for birdwatcher as one of the prime sites in the UK for Osprey and home for the British Birdfair every year in mid-August the Rutland Waters Reserve hardly needs an introduction. One would have thought the groups of birders and runners would have met already, as both groups have vested interest in conserving green areas for recreation and for conservation.  But although it is not rare for runners to participate in fund raisers for different charitable causes, only very rarely have runs promoting birdwatching or bird conservation been organized.  So as a runner and birder, I am very proud to present the Rutland Birdfair Run for Birds 2014. I will come back to the program details lower down in this post, but for now let me present the objectives.

Run for Birds at the British Birdfair

5.1 miles / 8.2076544 km

Created 08.02.14 by BirdingPeru

A perfect route to combine running and birdwatching. On Aug 16, 2014 at 7 AM birdwatchers and runners will coincide for a leisurely slow 8.3K (5.2 Miles) run around the peninsula at Rutland Waters. The birdwatchers will point out birds as we run along. A few short breaks will be made where specific species can be seen.

• 5.1 miles (8.2 km) on the Rutland peninsula.
• Guided birdwatching run. We’d run in slow pace. Running birders will help identify birds that we hear and see along the trail.
• Specific spots to take short stops to look for birds along the route.
• Birdwatching Half and Full Marathon – we aim to see or hear 21 common species of birds on the run and 42 species of birds including pre-and post run birding. Quite a different marathon compared to 21 or 42km of running.
• Free of charge.
• Participants can support bird conservation by visiting the Birdfair between August 15-17 (Children under 16 free entrance) or donate to the Operation Turtle Dove campaign.

How to spread birdwatching

Rutland Water Swans Jean Louis Vandeviere Creative Commons

Birdwatching is great hobby. We who practice it are very concerned about the welfare of the environment and the conservation of threatened species. We all know that the world would be a better place if there were more people practicing birdwatching. Although the interest in birds is increasing in general terms, yet birdwatching clubs, as well as specialized birdwatching magazines, find themselves losing members and subscribers. Why is that?

I think it to a large extent has to do with the information overflow and that people nowadays seem to have little time to fit in a new hobby. People are also getting more and more comfortable, and will rarely go out of their way to experience new things. It needs to be accessible at the fingertips. Why go to a slideshow or a talk when the most amazing bird-photos and conservation-talks can be experienced on 500px and TED on the internet?

So while interest for birdwatching increases on the internet, and certainly more people are feeding birds and looking at them from their homes, the proportion of people going out of their way to experience bird-life or getting involved in bird conservation activities is rather stagnant and may even be losing ground.

It is a big step from a backyard feeding casual birdwatcher to one who feels confident encountering the birds in nature and in protected reserves. It is also a large leap from being casually interested in nature to become an ardent conservationist. People are simply too comfortable to do what it takes.

The next big thing

This takes me to the principal idea behind this initiative. More birders and people concerned with nature are needed to make the planet a nicer, more sustainable place. Birding Festivals such as the British Birdfair at Rutland Water, are immensely important to get people, who are to some extent already converted, to step up their game to become more environmentally aware and more active visitors to protected areas both in the country they live in, as well as abroad where eco-dollars can have an immense impact on safe-guarding the last tracts of isolated cloud forests. But birding festivals are probably not so effective to reach people who are not yet initiated. Un-initiated people are unlikely to go out of their way.  That is why bridges need to be built to meet with these people where they already are anyway.

To spread birdwatching to an even larger circle of people it helps if the subjects remain in their comfort zone. Rather than having people come to birdwatching, birdwatching will come to the people!
It is a matter of combining events. So why not bring birdwatching to runners.  Runners make excellent prospective birdwatchers.

There are far more runners than birdwatchers. Runners understand the concept of conservation and the environment, because they know that their own ecosystem, that of health and body, is dependent on the work they put in and their diet. If one feeds on junk and garbage and if one does not put in the training, the results for running can be devastating. The environment responds in a similar way to garbage and lack of dedication (read conservation programs).

Runners could become good ambassadors for conservation.  A gentle introduction while the runner is in his/her comfort zone (read running), may well be a first step. At the same time, this unique first time event, could well be the start of something larger. I envision local birding clubs and running clubs all over the world engaging in similar events. ‘Run For Birds’ could become the next big thing.

What is in it for the Runner? It’s like wine tasting.

It seems evident that the birders have most to gain in what I explained so far, and pessimist birders would possibly argue that runners are unlikely to be interested. Isn’t the point of running to get between point A and point B as fast as possible?  Why do you think they would be interested to stop for birds?

But let’s look at it from another point of view. I am sure most runners enjoy the runs in the spring when it is again possible to run on country tracks rather than icy tarmac and that the birdsong chorus makes running euphoric.  It is the natural state of human beings to be curious about what is around us, and I know that I for one, love to be able to tell what kind of birds I am hearing and seeing while I run. A birder can easily pick out and name a dozen to twenty species of birds of that same morning bird chorus, just as a good wine connoisseur recognizes subtleties in the bouquet of a fine wine to tell which grape is used, in which country it is made, and even how old it is. Using the sense of smell for wines and using the sense of hearing for birdsong are dimensions of life that most people are not aware of.  Birdwatching and Winetasting have a lot in common, not least the fact that birdwatching is done to a large extent with the ears, as wine tasting is done principally with the nose. Next a bird and wine festival perhaps?!

Run for Birds movement

As mentioned above, fund raising for bird conservation at races is quite rare, but there have been individuals who have made pledges for conservation as they prepare for a marathon. I did so myself raising money for the Colibri Cloud forest project on the old Satipo road in Peru a few years ago. Last year Simon Mitchell and I formed a Facebook group called Run for Birds in order to coordinate individual bird conservation fundraising initiatives while running.

Tristan Reid surprised us all when he took on perhaps the most ambitious challenge of all. Being far from a lean and slender marathon body, and having no previous experience, he set out to run no less than 14 marathons and to run a total of 1000 miles in 2014, to raise money for Operation Turtle Dove. He writes about it on https://www.theinkednaturalist.co.uk/.  Since Tristan been such a inspiration in his plight this year I would like to suggest that those of you who take part in the run on Saturday August 16 might like to donate £5-£10 on Tristan’s Tristan Reid’s Just Giving page, where all donations will go to Operation Turtle Dove.

Run for birds Rutland 2014 FAQ.

Q. How the heck can you combine birding and running?

A. This is not so much your regular running event. In part I got the idea when I recently opened Tripadvisor and noticed a guy in Lima, Peru (where I live) who was offering city tours on the run, for visiting runners in Lima. How cool is that? I thought, why not do this for runners?

The main purpose of the run is to make birders and local runners meet. We shall be doing a 2-3 stops over the 8km course to look for birds, and after the run we make a longer session of birdwatching with telescopes to see birds at the distance.  We hope we can also activate some local birders to become members and start running with the local runner clubs.

Q. What does it cost to participate?

A. It is free of charge.  However we recommend visiting the British Birdfair while you are at it. The entrance fee goes to bird conservation. The fair is not totally directed towards extreme birdwatching, but a rather large portion is about feeding birds in the gardens, celebrities such as Simon King, Chris Packham and Bill Oddie are present.  There are many tour operators who also cater for the general public interested in combining nature and culture.

You may also want to support runner/birder Tristan Reid’s fund raising campaign for Operation Turtle Dove.

Q. When?

A.  Meeting at 7 AM on Saturday 16th August.

Q. Where?

A. Here is the route  or if you’re on a mobile device try this mobile optimized link instead.

At the start point there is a small car park to the left. If the event we are more than 20 cars, we also have permission to use the small side road to the left just before entering the forest about a mile to the west of the starting point.

Q. What should I bring? Do I need binoculars.

A. If it has been relatively dry, ordinary running shoes will suffice, but if it has rained it may be quite muddy in some places. The idea is to see or hear that the birds without additional gadgets.  But you probably want to bring a small camera on the run or perhaps smaller binoculars. Experienced running birders (myself included) will bring binoculars on the run which I will lend to anyone wanting to take a look at a bird.

Q. What is this about a marathon when we are only running 5.2 miles (8Km)? A marathon is 42km.

A.  Let’s see it as a motivator. It is not 42 km in this marathon, but 42 species of birds. With the help of local Rutland birder Steve Lister, we have chosen 21 species of birds which should be quite easy to spot. The aim is for everyone taking part to see (in some cases hearing may be enough) these 21 bird species. With the birding after the run we shall see an additional 21 species to complete the marathon.

Q. Which are the 21 Half Marathon species at Rutland?

A. Graylag Goose, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Egyptian Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Great Cormorant, Gray Heron, Little Egret, Coot, Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Common Tern, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Crow, European Goldfinch

Q. And for the full Marathon, which additional species do you consider?

Gadwall, Little Grebe, Osprey, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Moorhen, Common Sandpiper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Kestrel, Bank Swallow, House-Martin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Chiffchaff, Robin, Blackbird, Starling and Linnet.

Q. I have never birdwatched before. Can I still participate?

Yes, that is the whole point. Please join us. There will be several birder who also run who will help out identifying birds as we run.

Q. I am not a very fast runner. Will this be too tough for me?

No, we shall start out with an easy pace. And there will be runner birders for slower speeds.

Q. Will you do this again?

Hopefully, we can make a proper fundraiser race next year, but also do a guided birding run. We’ll see how this plays out.

Links mentioned in this post.

• Rutland Running & Triathlon Club Paul Rogerson supplied the nice featured picture for this blogpost. 
• Melton Running Club  Thanks Rob Beers to promoting the run. 
• Leicestershire and Rutland Sports Huge thanks to Beverly Hooper who helped me tremendously with editing my deficient English. 
• British Birdfair and Rutland Waters Reserve. Big thanks to Tim Appleton who is a visionary and has supported the idea from the start.
•  Operation Turtle Dove campaign The Inked Naturalist Tristan Reid and Tristan’s Tristan Reid’s Just Giving page, Great work Tristan. 
•  500px. Lots of nice looking birdphotos
• TED inspiring talks about conservation. 
• Colibri Cloud forest project on the old Satipo road in Peru  from my blog.
•  Run for Birds Facebook Group. Join us!
• The route map and  mobile optimized link instead.

Photo credits.  Runners at Hambleton road. Paul Rogerson. Running trails at Hambleton. Joanna Sayers of Just1MOreMile.com , Swans by Jean Louis Vandeviere Creative Commons, Wikipedia.

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This sounds simply amazing. Check these specs.

• Sony OLED Electronic View Finder – the highest resolution for a reasonable price. Not as good as your Zeiss, Leica or Swarovski of course, but perhaps good enough?
• Built in GPS
• 0.8-12x optical zoom
• 25x digital zoom
• Full HD recording in 2D and 3 D with AVCHD video files
• Exmor R CMOS image sensor which is very sensitive in low light conditions.
• 20.4 Megapixel stills
• Optical Digital Image Stabilizer
• Water resistant
• jacks for mic, headphones and for additional light source.

This product came out last year from Sony, without the birding world much reacting on it. At the announcement there was a discussion on BirdForum – that is all I have found. Did anyone try them yet? One imagines that they will not be great for proper birding, but the fact that you get to keep what you see could make them attractive for some birders.

Here is a sample video made by these binoculars. The result is quite satisfying I would say.

Price is a bit hefty at S1998 at Amazon. Be sure to get additional batteries and do read the Amazon reviews as they are quite useful.
It seems that SONY is on a good way to make the birder’s dream come true – to be able to record/photograph while watching. I would love to try them out and make a review from a birders point of view, Sony!

Have you tried them? Any comments?

Disclaimer: Link to Amazon.com is an affiliate link.

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Gunnar Engblom was born in Sweden and lives in Peru. He is BirdingBlogs.com’s webmaster. He is a birder, runner, post-punkrocker and blogger and he is especially keen on social media for birders – which is how this project started in the first place. Gunnar Engblom organizes birding tours in Peru and the Neotropics with Kolibri Expeditions. Gunnar is passionate about new Peru tours that support community based ecotourism and conservation and has initiated several projects this way. Gunnar blogs on his own blog – A birding blog from Peru.
Connect with Gunnar on Twitter and Facebook.

One New Years resolution is to blog more. Let’s see if we can kick some life into this great blog. In order not to leave any loose threads, here is the Gran Finale of the somewhat impossible challange to choose what destination (usually a country) is the best in the world  for birders. The criteria varies for different people. For some the exoticness  of the species one encounters is the main thing, for others the diversity or sheer numbers are more important. And for many travellers simply safety, accessibility, infrastructure and logistics are paramount. What is your key feature to rate a birding destination as the best in the world. You could cast your vote on a destination you have been to or one that you are dying to go to.

Results from The Semifinals

Below the results from the Semifinals between April 1- April 7. The numbers behind each destination indicates the number of votes.

• Madagascar 36 New Guinea (PNG/Irian Jaya) 61
  New Guinea continues to crush their opponents. Madagascar endemism did not have a chance against the Birds of Paradise.
• Kenya 71 Australia 43
  Kenya is perhaps the country in the world where it is easiest to SEE a lot of birds in a very short. After all the standing BIG DAY record of 342 species in 24h is from Kenya – and contrary to many species rich destinations in South America, the birds show well.

Read more about the semifinalists in the previous post.

Final New Guinea vs Kenya

This will be a hard one to vote for. OK, who would not want to see all the Birds of Paradise in courtship, but is it the best destination? Can it compete with the superb infrastructure in East Africa and where most of the birds can be seen in relative comfort without gruesome hikes in hilly country.
It is your vote.

Runner up for third place.

Madagascar or Australia. A lot of unique bird families and weird mammals in both places. Again this is a tough choice. Which one is it for you?

It is just a game.

I´ve said it before and I say it again. What you think in the end is what matters. This is just a game, and it is not certain you agree with the results. There are simply too many great birding destinations around the world.  But by all means. VOTE and PROMOTE.

If people locally become proud of their birds, and see that there are a lot of birders around the world that care about the birds in their country, that is all a good thing. I think, looking at past deliveries of this contest, that it may not be the birders who decide which is the best birding destination in the world but rather local conservationists and others who see this as an opportunity to route for their country.
By all means – go ahead! The more the better. Share and promote your favorite!

World Birding Cup 2014

 I am preparing a new World Bird Cup for 2014. It will be different and somewhat novel. Stay tuned for more.  

Don’t forget to subscribe to Birdingblogs updates not to miss any posts.

Top Photo: Victoria Crowned Pigeon from Northern New Guinea. Photo: Kerry Polizzi on Flickr. Creative Commons.

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Gunnar Engblom was born in Sweden and lives in Peru. He is BirdingBlogs.com’s webmaster. He is a birder, runner, post-punkrocker and blogger and he is especially keen on social media for birders – which is how this project started in the first place. Gunnar Engblom organizes birding tours in Peru and the Neotropics with Kolibri Expeditions. Gunnar is passionate about new Peru tours that support community based ecotourism and conservation and has initiated several project this way. Gunnar blogs on his own blog – A birding blog from Peru and Birding 101 for beginner birders
Connect with Gunnar on Twitter and Facebook.

This looks almost to good to be true to lovers of detective stories and birdwatching. A free murder mystery with birders as main characters.

Having just finished a Swedish crime novel The Nightmare by Lars Kepler (the best successor to Stig Larsson according to many), I checked my twitter account and see a tweet from JanDunlap (@BirderMurder) Free download of Falcon Finale (Birder Murder #4) today thru Sunday at https://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Finale-ebook/dp/B005KMBJAS.
First, with that @reply I felt spammed, but as there was the word FREE included – as well as the birder – I decided nevertheless to take a look. I may be the only birder who does not know about Jan Dunlap’s Birder Murder series, but a few fast Google searches came up with 3 reviews of this book.

• Birding is Fun – Robert Mortensen
• About Birding – Melissa Meyntz
• Amazon.com – Andreas D.

I immediately downloaded it to my Kindle app on the iPad. It will be a good read on the way to the Birdfair next week.
The free offer is only available until Sunday. So hurry up and download. Note that you don’t need a Kindle to read the book. You can download a Kindle app to your smartphone or even your desktop.

Don’t forget to subscribe to Birdingblogs updates not to miss any posts.

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Gunnar Engblom was born in Sweden and lives in Peru. He is BirdingBlogs.com’s webmaster. He is a birder, runner, post-punkrocker and blogger and he is especially keen on social media for birders – which is how this project started in the first place. Gunnar Engblom organizes birding tours in Peru and the Neotropics with Kolibri Expeditions. Gunnar is passionate about new Peru tours that support community based ecotourism and conservation and has initiated several project this way. Gunnar blogs on his own blog – A birding blog from Peru and Birding 101 for beginner birders
Connect with Gunnar on Twitter and Facebook.

Scarlet macaw, Ara macao, in flight.
Image: Tambopata Research Center. [NOTE: This image has been altered; it has been cropped.]

Scarlet macaws are large and showy parrots with brilliant red, yellow and blue plumage and long pointed tails. Endemic to Central and South America, this impressive neotropical parrot occupies a large range from southeastern Mexico throughout the Amazon basin region of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. Easily trained to do complex tasks and to mimic human speech, wild scarlet macaws have been persecuted by the caged bird trade. Additionally, their preferred habitat of lowland evergreen rainforests makes them vulnerable to deforestation and habitat destruction.

To do this work, Drs Seabury and Tizard and their team obtained a blood sample from an adult female scarlet macaw known as “Neblina” who resides at the Blank Park Zoo in Iowa. A wild-caught parrot from Brazil, Neblina had been seized in 1995 by the US Fish and Wildlife Service after she illegally entered the United States.

Unlike mammals, avian red blood cells are nucleated, so a small sample of whole blood from a bird is an excellent source of DNA for molecular, chromosomal and cytological studies. Some cells were grown in cultures so the intact chromosomes could be harvested and examined whilst DNA was extracted from other cells for sequencing. These gene sequences were then assembled into the complete scarlet macaw genome by Seabury and his team.

Similar to almost all vertebrates, scarlet macaws are diploid; having two copies of each chromosome type, one contributed by each parent. Like all birds except birds of prey (Falconiformes), parrot genomes contain macrochromosomes and a larger number of microchromosomes.

Macrochromosomes are what most people think of when they hear the word “chromosome” and they are the type of chromosomes that are typically found in mammals. Macrochromosomes, which include autosomes and sex chromosomes, are large — generally more than 40 megabases (Mb) in size (1 megabase is 1,000,000 nucleotide basepairs in length).

Microchromosomes, on the other hand, are very small — usually less than 20 Mb in size. Due to their small size, microchromosomes are often impossible to distinguish when creating a traditional karyotype, as you see in Figure 1 (larger view):

Figure 1. Consensus Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) Karyotype.
Scarlet macaw diploid chromosome number is 2n=62–64, as inferred from chromosome counts of multiple cells derived from three individuals, including the sequenced female macaw (Neblina). All investigated scarlet macaws had 22 macrochromosomes, which included 10 pairs of autosomes and the sex chromosomes, and approximately 40–42 microchromosomes. [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062415.s019]

To identify similar regions between scarlet macaw and chicken macrochromosomes, the team used chromosome painting. This method uses fluorescently labeled chromosome-specific DNA probes that hybridise to complementary DNA regions, thereby identifying macaw chromosome regions that are similar to chicken chromosomes (Figure 2; larger view):

Figure 2. Chicken-Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) Comparative Chromosome Painting (ZooFISH).
Using chicken flow sorted macrochromosomes (GGA1-GGA9) as well as GGAZ and GGAW, the homologous chromosome segments of the scarlet macaw were established via fluorescent in situ hybridization. [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062415.s019]

As typical for other avian genomes studied so far, scarlet macaw genomes are smaller than mammalian genomes.

“The final analysis showed that there are about one billion DNA bases in the genome, which is about one-third of that found in mammals,” Dr Tizard explained in a written press release.

“Birds have much less DNA than mammals primarily because they do not possess nearly as much repetitive DNA.”

Repetitive DNA has no currently known function. The amount of repetitive DNA varies greatly between taxa: for example, more than 50 percent of the human genome is repetitive DNA [doi:10.1038/nrg3117].

According to Dr Seabury, comparing the scarlet macaw genome to other avian genomes will provide scientists with a better understanding of avian biology.

“The Scarlet Macaw Genome Project opens a variety of doors ranging from modern forensics to determining how the macaws utilize their natural habitat and landscape, as inferred from variable genetic markers,” said Dr Seabury in a written press release.

In addition to research into evolution and population genetics, and conservation biology applications, what can we learn from the scarlet macaw’s genome? First, even though birds have higher metabolisms than mammals, they enjoy much longer life spans than do mammals with the same body mass. In the case of scarlet macaws, adults weigh somewhere between 1000 and 1200 grams (roughly 2.2 pounds), and they reach sexual maturity at 5 years of age, yet their life span rivals that of humans. By comparing avian genomes to those obtained from other animals, it may be possible to identify which genes contribute to birds’ remarkable longevity.

Other genes of interest are those involved in heart and cardiovascular fitness, and those that contribute to the risk for diabetes. But perhaps most interesting are those genes involved with cognition and brain size.

“A preliminary analysis of their genome suggests that [macaws] have a lot of genes involved in brain development”, said Dr Tizard in a video press release. “Which fits, knowing how smart they are.”

Despite differences from humans in brain development and structure, macaws are much like humans: they are very intelligent and live in highly complex social groups. Additionally, when corrected for differences in body size, macaws’ brains are twenty-one percent larger than those of zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, which are the model system for vertebrate learning and memory. Thus, comparing the scarlet macaw, zebra finch and human genomes could provide greater insight and understanding into important genetic differences in brain development, structure and volume.

NOTE: this piece is slightly edited from the original, which was published on the Guardian.

Sources:

Seabury C.M., Dowd S.E., Seabury P.M., Raudsepp T., Brightsmith D.J., Liboriussen P., Halley Y., Fisher C.A., Owens E. & Viswanathan G. & Tizard, I.R. (2013). A Multi-Platform Draft de novo Genome Assembly and Comparative Analysis for the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao), PLoS ONE, 8 (5) e62415. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062415.s019

TAMU written and video press releases.

Also cited:

Treangen T.J. & Salzberg S.L. (2012). Repetitive DNA and next-generation sequencing: computational challenges and solutions, Nature Reviews Genetics 13: 36-46. doi:10.1038/nrg3117

Ried T., Schröck E., Ning Y. & Wienberg J. (1998). Chromosome painting: a useful art, Human Molecular Genetics, 7 (10) 1619-1626. doi:10.1093/hmg/7.10.1619 [OA PDF]

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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist and freelance science writer who writes about the interface between evolution, ethology and ecology, especially in birds. As a judge who helped select the 2013 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize shortlist, she also has a deep passion for good books, especially good science books, which she reviews with some regularity. You can follow Grrlscientist’s work on her eponymous Guardian blog, and also on facebook, G+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, twitter: @GrrlScientist

Summary: A delightful book for baby birders that is crammed with poetry, information and gorgeous paintings of birds! Oh yeah, it teaches the letters of the English alphabet, too.

Do you wish to share your love of birds, art and books with (your) children? If so, then you will really enjoy the Alphabet Bird Collection, a lovely children’s book that was written and illustrated by Shelli Ogilvy [Sasquatch Books, 2009; Amazon UK; Amazon US]. This beautiful book is designed to teach children the alphabet whilst also teaching them a few things about birds.

Suitable for adults to read aloud to young children (ages 3+) or for older children to read themselves (if they haven’t already memorised the entire book from frequent re-readings!), each letter is presented on two colourful facing pages in this hardcover book. One page features a painting of a bird whose name begins with the featured letter of the alphabet (see top) and the facing page includes a rhyming couplet about the bird along with a few interesting life history details. For example:

At dusk you might see from under the eve,
Nighthawks hunting, as they bob and weave.

In the evening Common Nighthawks come out to feed. Their large mouths and flying acrobatics can be confused with those of bats. However, their soft call identifies this bird rather than other insect hunters.

Well actually, not to be nit-picky or anything, but I think common nighthawks sound rather like semi-trailer trucks (articulated lorries) that have downshifted when they roar down a steep hill.

My only complaint is the book claims to include a “song” for each bird, written out on a musical scale and presumably representing what that bird’s actual song sounds like. Well, the words may represent the bird’s song (kinda-sorta), but writing the words on a musical scale is just wrong since different bird species sing different notes — and this difference is not represented at all accurately even though the musical scale implies that it is accurate-as-written. Another (minor) issue is these birds are all New World species, which means that at least some of them or their relatives cannot be seen in the Old World — unless, of course, they become desperately lost during migration, which does happen on occasion!

However, that said, I do love this book for its adorable poems and interesting life history information. For example, I was pleased that the author does not refer to gulls as “seagulls” — a common mistake that many people make. But this book’s primary appeal to kids of all ages are its many beautiful and accurate bird paintings. My personal favourites are “L for Loon” (common loon/great northern diver) and “P for Puffin” (horned puffin).

You may be curious which birds the author used to represent those challenging letters Q, X, V and Z? Well, Ms Ogilvy does have birds representing each of those letters, but their identities are something I’ll leave for you to investigate. If you (and your relatives) don’t have any kids of your own, you might enjoy purchasing this book for your local school library, just so you can enjoy it first!

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Shelli Ogilvy is an artist and outdoor adventurer who was born and raised in rural Alaska. She has a bachelor’s degree in marine biology and has contributed to published scientific research on humpback whales and gray wolves. When not working as a sea kayak guide in Antarctica or as a camping guide in Alaska’s Glacier Bay, she paints and pursues other creative activities. Ms Ogilvy primarily works with acrylic paint on either canvas or paper and sometimes combines mediums such as chalk, ink or spray paint. She divides her time between Gustavus, Alaska and Taos, New Mexico. This is her first book.

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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist and freelance science writer who writes about the interface between evolution, ethology and ecology, especially in birds. As a judge who helped select the 2013 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize shortlist, she also has a deep passion for good books, especially good science books, which she reviews with some regularity. You can follow Grrlscientist’s work on her eponymous Guardian blog, and also on facebook, G+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, twitter: @GrrlScientist

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NOTE: This piece is slightly reformatted to fit this space from the original, which was published on the Guardian.

Do you like to watch birds and other animals (or even your neighbours)? If so, then you’ll be happy to learn about a wonderful advance in technology that is guaranteed to add thousands if not millions of new “watchers” to those who already enjoy this hobby!

So how did you spend your spring holiday? If you are like me, you might have been squidging around on mudflats with mud threatening to suck your boots off with every step you take, with a pair of 10×50 binoculars that weigh nearly two kilos strapped around your neck, a birds field guide in one of your jacket pockets and your iPhone (in a plastic baggy — just as a precaution!) in the other pocket, weighed down by a pack filled with two cameras, five lenses and a tripod (I left the ‘scope at home). Was I trying to get into the military? No. I was birding — watching wild birds.

Or maybe you (wisely) sat in your flat, sipping a martini whilst using your fancy binoculars to surreptitiously peer through your window blinds at your neighbours?

Well, whatever you did, if it involved binoculars, then you will be happy to learn about an innovative technology that practically does your watching for you!

After returning from a weekend staggering around in the field, I ran across a video advertising an innovative new binocular that, had I known about it earlier, would have saved my neck and back a lot of aching. Developed by Eagle Optics, this new binocular merges several advanced technologies into a field-friendly watching device. Named the Wild Turkey, this binocular is a welcome first step in making nature watching easier and more comfortable than ever before. Here’s the video:

Wow, that helium technology is really wonderful, don’t you agree? Now, if only they would upgrade these binoculars so they include an iPhone and a digital camera so I can snap pictures of “my” birds that I can then share with all my pals on twitter! But of course, the camera would have to be high-quality so I can leave the Nikon (and all its stupidly heavy lenses) at home. Which, I suppose, means more helium is needed, too.

Alas, there’s no known innovation that can ease mudflat-squidging in your boots, sigh.

Birders at Magee Marsh boardwalk. Birders at Magee Marsh boardwalk. Image: Gunnar Engblom, Kolibri Expeditions 2012.

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NOTE: this piece was slightly modified from the original, which was published on the Guardian.

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Follow Grrlscientist’s work on her other blog, Maniraptora, and also on facebook, G+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, twitter: @GrrlScientist

It is time to wrap up the Bird Destination World Cup for 2013.  Last round had over 100 votes in each game, which is the highest number of participants so far. I chose to have the polls open and untied to each other, because it is is more exciting to see how the score changes, even though it invites for “cheating”

Cheating?  Perhaps a bit strong, but one can easily see tendencies of local campaigning which perhaps are not relevant to the opinion world birders have.  The idea is that voters SHOULD VOTE IN EACH GAME – not only for their native country.

On the other hand, this is just a game, so if anyone feel the need to use this World Cup to promote birding and conservation in their own country, please, you are welcome to do so. In fact it is inspiring if a simple game like will have such effect.

Just tell your people to vote in both games in the semifinal, please. 

Results from the Quarter finals.

• Borneo 36 Madagascar 66
  It was a surprise that Madagascar won against Borneo.  Borneo was top seeded after SE Peru with Machu Picchu and Manu had fallen out in the previous round. 
• Ecuador 64 Kenya 88
  Again a fallen favorite. Obviously some campaigning in Kenya added votes to this game. More birders need to vote to make local campaigns less decisive. 
• Australia 52 North Peru 51.
  Congratulations to Australia to win this thriller. Fairy-wrens, colorful parrots, Cassowary and Lyrebird kicked Marvelous Spatuletail ass!. 
• New Guinea (PNG/Irian Jaya) 78 Costa Rica 32
  New Guinea continues its winning streak in grand style. Birds of Paradise rule! Seriously, what can match that?  Costa Rica did not have a chance.

Semi-finals 4 contenders.

You could just jump this section and run straight down to the voting. If you are a well traveled birder you already know how to vote. But if not, I think it is a good idea to present the assets of the four semi-finalists. As we have mentioned earlier in this series, the top world birding destination is more than just the birds. Infrastructure and additional non-birding experiences also play a role. Perhaps not for all birders, but still for most.
The challenge for me is to describe these destinations for you. I have only been to Kenya and that was as a transfer to get to Tanzania. Therefore, I probably will need some of your help to portrait these destinations. I am grateful for your comments below, which will be added to each account as they come in.

Madagascar

Rufous Vanga. Endemic to Madagascar. Paul French. Check more of Paul’s pictures from his trip report  from Madagascar, Reuniom and Mauritius.

A huge island off South East Africa with unique fauna, but few bird species – only 256 species, serious conservation issues with lots of already destroyed habitat and poor English knowledge (they speak French).  But  50%  (102 species) of the breeding birds are endemic, and another 10% (23 species) are shared with Mauritius and Reunion.
Many of the endemic species are big and colorful. Perhaps the biggest attraction on Madagascar, even for birders, are not the birds, but the 20 species of lemurs one may see on a trip.  The combination of seeing most lemur species and over 100 endemic birds, including 5 regional endemic bird families makes Madagascar a top destination.

Kenya 

Hartlaub’s Turaco en is an endemic bird  to North East Africa perhaps easiest seen in in Kenya. Photo by Kenichi Nobusue -Flickr.  Creative Commons.

What can be said about Madagascar, that the mammals is the main draw, can be said of Kenya.  The East African savanna is magic and the mammals are the main reason why you choose to go there.  There are over 1000 species but only 6 endemics. The endemics are not particularly colorful, but there are a quite a few regional near endemics that are worth a detour such as Hartlaub’s Turaco, Somali Bee-eater and Heuglin’s Bustard,

Australia

Blue-breasted Fairy-wren by Alex Vargas, Australia 2009. Originally appeared in Alex Vargas report from Western Australia.

Even if Australia’s marsupials also is a major attraction, the aviafauna in it own right is spectacular.  I have already mentioned Fairy-wrens, colorful parrots, Cassowary and Lyrebird. Add a couple of Pittas and Honeyeaters, plus excellent infrastructure, friendly people, and English qualify Australia as a top birder destination. Birding should always be this straight-forward.

Papua New Guinea/Irian Jaya.

Birds of Paradise!  Every birders dream. But travelling can be a challenge. Safety  is still concern for independent travelers on PNG and infrastructure is lacking in many places on Irian Jaya.

If you want to get more photos, videos and info from these destinations, have a look at the previous installments of this series.  

• First round – World Bird Cup 2013. How the selection was made and how the destinations were seeded.  28 videos from around the world presented. Closed vote  where each voter had to vote in each game.
• Second round World Birding Destinations Cup 2013. Individual videos presented. Closed vote  where each voter had to vote in each game. 
• Quarter Finals in World Birding Destination Cup 2013.  Votes were made open and not tied to each other.

Semi-finals

We follow the seeding from the beginning which gives that winner of game 1 plays winner of game 4. We get:

• Madagascar vs New Guinea
• Kenya vs Australia. 

It is Africa vs AustralAsia in both games.  It shall be very exciting to follow.

Vote until midnight (-5H GMT) Sunday April 7 .

Top photo: Helmeted Vanga by Paul French.

Gunnar Engblom was born in Sweden and lives in Peru. He is BirdingBlogs.com’s webmaster. He is a birder, runner, post-punkrocker and blogger and he is especially keen on social media for birders – which is how this project started in the first place. Gunnar Engblom organizes birding tours in Peru and the Neotropics with Kolibri Expeditions. Gunnar is passionate about new Peru tours that support community based ecotourism and conservation and has initiated several project this way. Gunnar blogs on his own blog – A birding blog from Peru.
Connect with Gunnar on Twitter and Facebook.

It is important for photographers and naturalists to realize that in such diverse communities the way that species behave, interact and live their lives is often very different than in those that reside in more temperate regions. In this article we present a selection of our top tips for nature photography in the tropics. We also discuss a few resources for information and ways in which you can get the most out of your photography trip.

TOP TROPICAL TIPS

Find the Fruit – Many tropical birds are frugivorous. Beautiful and exciting birds like Toucans, Tanagers and Cotingas are all primarily fruit eaters. Knowing which trees and shrubs provide the most desirable food and where these trees are located is often a great way to find and photograph birds.

Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan (Andigena hypoglauca)

Mixed Species Flocks – One very interesting aspect of bird photography in the tropics is that birds participate in what are called mixed species flocks. Essentially this is when a group of birds of a variety of different species join together to move about through the forest and feed. The idea is that there is strength in numbers and that they can all keep a lookout for predators while they travel around to feed. Often the flock is composed of birds that exploit different niches. Therefore they do not compete in the same areas of the forest or for the same food resources. Keeping a look out for flocks is an important part of rainforest bird photography and it can be a thrilling experience to encounter a big flock where dozens of species may be seen and photographed in a matter of minutes.

Ant Swarms – Another fascinating aspect of tropical bird photography is encountering an army ant swarm. The reason that this is such a find is that many species of birds are very devoted army ant followers. These birds follow the ant swarms not to eat the ants themselves. Instead, they follow the leading edge of the swarm to snatch up any creatures that are trying to flee from the swarm. Finding a good ant swarm means that you will almost inevitably encounter a variety of understory birds. Because the birds are so focused on watching for their next meal they are often very easy to approach and photograph. Just make sure you are wearing good boots and have your pant legs tucked in or taped off to avoid being bitten yourself!

Hairy-crested Antbird (Rhegmatorhina melanosticta)

Trap Lines and Consistent Perches – An excellent way to get great photographs of hummingbirds is to be aware that they exhibit some very consistent behaviour patterns. Many species of hummingbirds (especially the Hermits) are known as trap line feeders. This means that they fly between feeding sites on a regular route each and every day. If you are able to identify one of their favourite feeding sites you might just be able to wait for them to return and catch a photo or two. Just be aware that for some species this could mean waiting for several hours. An even better way to photograph hummingbirds is to recognize that they routinely perch in the exact same places. If you notice a spot where a hummingbird has landed (especially if it is near a feeding station) there is a very good chance that it will return to that same spot.

Red-tailed Comet (Sappho sparganura)

More Species…Not necessarily more individuals – Many Photographers who visit the tropics for the first time are often disappointed to arrive and not find the trees dripping with birds and the forests absent of bird sounds. While it is generally true that tropical forests hold more different types of species, there are not necessarily as many individuals. In fact birding in a tropical forest can sometimes be painfully slow for hours at a time (especially at mid day).

Calls Don’t Work – At least not nearly as well as they do in more temperate latitudes. The birds in general simply have not evolved the same kind of aggressive territorial behaviour that those in more temperate latitudes have. Highland birds and some hummingbirds are perhaps the exception to this rule.

Know Your Pygmy Owls – One great way to attract birds in tropical areas is to play the call of whatever the local Pygmy Owl is. Birds from all over the area will likely come in to investigate and will often perch out in the open. The challenge is that there are approximately 20 species of Pygmy Owls throughout the tropics and in order for this technique to work you must know which call to use.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium brasilianum)

Light Gaps – Life for plants in the tropical forest is characterized by a constant struggle for light. More light means more energy for photosynthesis which means more growth. When a large tree falls as a result of age or storms, light floods the new open area, and plants look to capitalize on the new source of light. Flowering bushes and plants such as Heliconias and gingers colonize the area and quickly attract scores of butterflies and hummingbirds.

The photographer can take advantage of these subjects and the relatively higher light levels, which of course mean higher shutter speeds. These areas also offer good places for landscape photography as the colorful flowers can provide for great foreground subjects for wide angle images. Keep an eye out too for small to medium-sized lizards in light gaps as the sun and more concentrated insect activity are both attractive to them.

Cecropia Trees – In the New World tropics, one of the main pioneer species to colonize light gaps and forest edges is the Cecropia tree. In a light gap, it’s all about getting to the light first, and Cecropias employ two interesting methods to help them. First, they grow tall very quickly. Second, they enlist the help of ants in the genus Azteca, which live in the hollow stems and feed off extrafloral nectary glands at the base of the leaf petioles. Azteca ants will defend their source of food and shelter against caterpillars and other insects and animals that could compromise the Cecropia’s growth.

Cecropias are important for the photographer for two reasons. First, the fruits attract lots of birds (toucans, tanagers, aracaris), and mammals such as sloths and howler monkeys eat the leaves. Second, the very design of the Cecropia makes it an attractive setting for wildlife photography. The open branching architecture offers clean perches, and the large palmate leaves provide a tropical sense of place for our wildlife photographs. If a local guide tells you of a photo opportunity in a Cecropia, it may be worth your while to check it out.

Crimson-rumped Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus haematopygus)

Look for Water – Accessible aquatic areas offer the tropical nature photographer a myriad of opportunities. A rushing stream in a cloud forest or a meandering backwater flow in a lowland forest provide great compositional opportunities for landscapes. During the rainy season, flowing water is a breeding ground for elusive glass frogs, whose tadpoles depend on the turgidity of the water for survival. Stagnant water, in contrast, is the breeding ground for many species of tree frogs. And larger lagoons/lakes will of course offer us chances to photograph aquatic birds as well as crocodiles and caimans.

Fallen fruit – Fruit doesn’t attract animals only when it is still on the plant. Many animals such as agoutis, pacas, wild boar, morpho butterflies, and larger ground-dwelling birds seek out ripe fruit after it has fallen to the forest floor. Poachers look for trees dropping fruit in the forest because they know that it will attract the animals they are hunting, albeit illegally. We don’t advocate poaching of course but we can use this same principal to stalk our photographic prey!

Do your Research and Have a Plan – If you want to get the most out of any photography trip to the tropics you need to do your research and formulate a plan. Simply showing up and hoping good things happen is often not a successful approach. Reading trip reports online of past birdwatching / photography trips is a great place to start and will give you an idea of what species to expect where.

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Field Guides: Excellent field guides are available for the birds of most countries these days. In addition field guides to mammals, plans and tropical ecosystems as a whole are widely available.

A Neotropical Companion: This excellent book is a wonderful source of information and is a joy to read. An excellent book to have for anyone headed to the Neotropics!

Naturalist Guides: In addition to the printed literature about tropical ecosystems, it is often a good idea to enlist the services of a local guide. Ask around as to who the best local guides are and if possible spend some time with them in the field. Local knowledge about any ecosystem is generally invaluable.

Photography Workshops: There is simply no better way to get high quality images in the tropics than to attend a photography workshop with a professional photographer who has expertise in the area. Such leaders will have established relationship with lodges and refuges that will mean great photo opportunities for you, and they will also be able to share lots of technical photographic knowledge for how to deal with the challenges of tropical nature photography. Take care choosing your leader though as there are many trip leaders who are not very knowledgeable at all about tropical ecosystems and/or tropical photography and are just trying to get you to pay for their trip.

The Guide to Tropical Nature Photography: An essential manual for any photographer heading to the tropics, this new e-book by Glenn Bartley and Greg Basco is packed with over 400 pages of techniques and tips to help photographers make the most of their visit to these challenging photographic destinations. CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT

Booted Racket-tail hummingbird (Ocreatus underwoodii)

Top photo: Banded Ground-Cuckoo (Neomorphus radiolosus). Glenn Bartley.

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Glenn Bartley is a professional nature photographer who focuses on photographing birds in their natural habitat. He resides in Victoria, British Columbia on Canada’s West Coast. Glenn leads photographic workshops throughout the New World Tropics.

To see more of Glenn’s images or find out how you can join him on a photo workshop visit: www.glennbartley.com.

Shockingly favorite seeded South Peru is out. It was a tough game against Borneo and for long time it was tied. A final push gave Borneo the victory. I guess Bornean Bristlehead, Broadbills, Hornbills and all the Pittas blew away Cock of the Rock, Hoatzin and Macaw-licks. Here are the results.

1. Borneo 54 vs Peru 41
2. Ecuador 64 Antarctica 31
3. Australia 61 Pantanal 34
4. New Guinea 78 South East Brazil 17
5. Costa Rica 58 Galapagos 37
6. North 59 Peru Alaska 36
7. Kenya 60 South Africa 35
8. Madagascar 64 Colombia 31

Quarter final.

Here are the contestants in the quarter-final by pairing winner of Game 1 with winner in Game 8.

1. Borneo vs Madagascar
2. Ecuador vs Kenya
3. Australia vs North Peru
4. New Guinea vs Costa Rica

Just mark your favorites right here on the blog. Please vote in all games.

If you want to see videos from the destinations, check the previous post in this series.  

The voting closes on Feb 19 at 8 PM EST (-5H GMT)

Here are some pics from BirdingBLogs archives and a few contributions elsewhere to help you remember which destination you like the most.

Bornean Banded Pitta by Susan Myers in 50 best birds of Asiapost. 

Helmeted Vanga by Paul French. Check more of Paul’s pictures from his trip report  from Madagascar, Reuniom and Mauritius.

Banded Ground-Cuckoo is found on the west slope of the Andes. Recently there is a stake-out for the bird at Ün Poco de Chcoó”. Photo: Roger Ahlman from the Birdingblogs post about Un Poco de Choco.

Crowned Crane by Muzina Shanghai (Flickr) (from Zoo). Common bird of the African Savanna in Kenya

Red-capped Parrot by Alex Vargas, Australia 2009. In the series of posts by Alex about Birds of West Australia. 

Marvelous Spatuletail from Pomacochas, Amazonas, Peru. Photo: Max Waugh (MaxWaugh.com). Posted in  the first post about World Birding Destination Cup 2013.

Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise wikipedia Photo: Serhanoksay (Wikipedia).   This spectacular Bird of Paradise can be found  in Irian Jaya, New Guinea. Photo previously featured in last years World Bird Cup.

The Resplendent Quetzal can be seen in hills through-out Central America to South Mexico. Yet, it is Costa Rica which has managed best to make it their bird.
Photo: Clay Taylor. Appeared on Birdingblogs in a reportage about Digiscoper Clay:

Top Photo: Black-and-Yellow Broadbill by Cede Prudente, Malaysian Borneo featured in the Birdingblog post about Cede in jan 2012.

Here are the results from the first round where 32 birding destinations were paired. The seeding had previously been set from the survey on Facebook and was accounted for in the previous post.

Final scores with the winner in bold. 77 votes in total. Yes, it was a bit too many options to vote for and it made things complicated with the videos showing in the voting procedures. This has changed for the second round.

1. SE Peru 67 The Gambia 10
2. Ecuador 65 St Lawrence Isl, Alaska 12
3. Australia 63 Scotland 14
4. New Guinea 62 Guyana 15
5. Costa Rica 64 Veracruz, Mexico 13
6. North Peru 55 Rwanda 22
7. Kenya 65 Iceland 12
8. Madagascar 51 Philippines 26
9. Colombia 51 Ethiopia 26
10. South Africa 71 Bulgaria 6
11. Alaska 56 California 21
12. Galapagos 48 Magee Marsh/Point Pelee 29
13. Arizona 18 South East Brazil 59
14. Texas 22 Pantanal 55
15. Antarctica 48 Panama 29
16. Borneo 41 Thailand 36

The clearest win was that of South Africa against Bulgaria. That is why the Bateleur photo is in the head of this article.
The tightest match was that of Borneo vs Thailand. For a long time this game was a draw, but Borneo won in the end.

This leads up to the next round of 8 very exciting games where it will be very hard to choose.  The winner of Game 1 plays the winner of game 16 and so forth.
Click this link to vote: Second round World Birding Destination Cup 2013

It only takes 1 minute to vote. If you need to know more about the destinations you could check out the videos below.

These are many cases promotional videos, some better than others. Attentive birders will hear Tawny Owls and Red-tailed Hawks where there should not be any. Birdingblogs does not endorse the products or companies mentioned, but we are grateful that these videos are available on YouTube.
Have Fun!

1. South East Peru vs Borneo

2. Ecuador vs Antarctica

3. Australia vs Pantanal, Brazil

4. New Guinea vs South East Brazil

5. Costa Rica vs Galapagos

6. North Peru vs Alaska

7. Kenya vs South Africa

8. Madagascar vs Colombia

If you want to see all the videos in a stream, visit this YouTube stream I have put together.

Vote here:
Second round World Birding Destination Cup 2013

Voting ends Sunday night Jan 27 at 7 PM Eastern time. (EST) Have fun!

Top photo: Bateleur Eagle. By John Smith. www.Wildeyeview.com

There are two subspecies of Arctic redpoll. Coues’s Arctic redpoll, C. h. exilipes, which breeds in birch forests of the northern tundras in North America and Eurasia, is smaller and slightly darker than the Greenland race, C. h. hornemanni. Although Arctic redpolls are larger and paler with smaller beaks than common redpolls, these redpolls are challenging to distinguish in the field, especially since there is some overlap between females of the two species.

This scene is from Downfall (English translation), a German film that tries to give an accurate depiction of the final days of Hitler. Soon after release of the film, hundreds of parodies of this particular scene have appeared on YouTube.

When New York magazine asked the film’s director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, about these parodies in a 2010 interview, he said that many of them were funny and they were a fitting extension of the film’s purpose: “The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it’s only fair if now it’s taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like.” [as cited here]

Top photo: Tundraurpiainen — Arctic redpoll, Carduelis hornemanni, is commonly known as the hoary redpoll in North America.
Image: Juho Holmi (Finland) (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)

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Read more about this year’s Arctic redpoll irruption in Colorado.

NOTE: this piece is slightly edited from the original, which was published on the Guardian.

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Follow Grrlscientist’s work on facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, twitter: @GrrlScientist
email: grrlscientist@gmail.com

Do you remember World Bird Cup from last year? We had different birds around the world put up against each other for popularity. In the final Marvelous Spatuletail against Philippine Eagle, the eagle won a narrow win at the deadline. But votes kept on coming in after the deadline resulting in more votes for the Hummingbird. In any case. Philippine Eagle is the undisputed champion of 2012.

I had originally thought to just do the same concept again this year. However, I sent off this Facebok Question to Birdingblogs Facebook Page about which is the best birding destinations worldwide – partly because of curiosity which destinations I should target myself in the future for my own pleasure, but also partly something like a market survey to know where my company Kolibri Expeditions should focus if/when we start offering tours outside of South America.

All of a sudden I had sort of blocked the space for starting the World Cup of bird species again. It would have been way too much to immediately do another survey on Facebook. This one had already hit most Facebook groups about birding that I belong to.  Another survey like that from me? Spare us!

World Bird Destinations Cup

Then it hit me. Why not do a world cup of birding destinations? After all, the option of choosing 10 destinations on Facebook does not say anything of rank between them. Even though SE Peru with Machu Picchu, Tambopata and Manu road got most votes, it is not given that it would be the most popular destination if there were fewer choices and you could only pick one. I dread to have to choose between Papua New Guinea/West Papua and Peru. It’d be a tough call for me. And I could think of many other scenarios.  How about you? Which destination will the birders rank as number one?

32 contestants in the Best Birding in the World  Cup

Facebook questions was ideal to get the nominees. The Facebook users simply marked 10 options and could add destinations I had not thought of. At the end (Christmas Day) I had picked the 25 destinations which had most votes and then added and additional 7 destinations that were suggested by the participants in the comment section, but could not be added for voting since Facebook only allows 100 options for the question function.

Here are the results for the top 25 birding destinations in the world according the Birdingblogs Facebook fans:

1. SE Peru – i.e. Machu Picchu and Manu  111 votes.
2. Ecuador 98 votes.
3. Australia 89 votes.
4. Papua New Guinea 88 votes.
5. Costa Rica 82 votes.
6. North Peru (Marvellous Spatuletail) 80 votes.
7. Kenya 78 votes.
8. Madagascar 70 votes.
9. Colombia 62 votes.
10. South Africa 55 votes.
11. Alaska 55 votes.
12. Galagagos 46 votes.
13. Arizona  44 votes.
14. Texas 43 votes.
15. Antarctica 41 votes.
16. Borneo 41 votes.
17. Thailand 33 votes.
18. Panama 32 votes.
19. Pantanal, Brazil (Hyacint Macaw) 31 votes.
20. SE Brazil (packed with endemics) 31 votes.
21. Point Pelee/Magee Marsh (spring migration – warblers) 30 votes.
22. California 27 votes.
23. Bulgaria 25 votes.
24. Ethiopia 24 Votes
25. Philippines 24 votes.

The 7 destinations which were mentioned in the comment section on the Facebook question are: Guyana, Rwanda, Gambia, Scotland, Iceland, Veracruz (Mexico – raptor migration), and Saint Lawrence Island (migration hotspot for ABA rarities, Alaska). Since, they did not make it for voting, I thought it could be interesting to throw them in as dark horses.  Let’s see if any of them makes it past the first round.

The game

We shall play this as if was the world cup – or more like a tennis cup. There shall be no group plays, but a cup from the start. 32 teams to start with in 16 matches. This means the game will run over 5 rounds in total.  The first round starts today.

I have chosen to use a PollDaddy survey. I had to pay $58  for the service, but I am justifying the expense of providing a link my company (hint, hint). There are differences in this year’s approach compared to last year. Last year consisted of individual polls, with the effect that not all the people who participated answered all the polls. Having everything in a survey will make it a fairer game.  Even if everyone on a local Texas birder list would vote for Texas they would still have to vote all the other matches, as would the birders on the Ecuador Facebook group which have voted for Ecuador. Thus the local favoritism that we saw last year, will have less effect. By using a pay for service I also think there should be some valuable statistics that I can share.

One VERY IMPORTANT difference is that the results will not be viewed, until I post them in the next post. I would have liked to have the data displayed, but it is not possible. I will however post updates almost daily with stats as the survey progresses on BirdingBlogs and Kolibri Expeditions Facebook pages.

The 16 first destinations  above will play the following 9 plus the 7 additional. I have introduced some seeding, so that number 16 (Borneo) shall play number 17  (Thailand), number 15 (Antarctica) plays number 18 (Panama), number 14 (Texas) plays number 19 (Pantanal) and so forth.  The top 7 will play the dark horses in an order that has been picked randomly.

Here are the 16 matches:

1. South East Peru vs The Gambia
2. Ecuador vs Saint Lawrence Island, Alaska
3. Australia vs Scotland
4. New Guinea (PNG/West Papua) vs Guyana
5. Costa Rica vs Veracruz, Mexico
6. North Peru vs Rwanda
7. Kenya vs Iceland
8. Madagascar vs Philippines
9. Colombia vs Ethiopia
10. South Africa vs Bulgaria
11. Alaska vs California
12. Galapagos vs Point Peele/Magee Marsh spring migration.
13. South East Brazil vs Arizona
14. Texas vs Pantanal
15. Antarctica vs Panama
16. Borneo vs Thailand

I have added videos or photos to the survey to give you some additional information. Some of these are better than others. Some will promote specific companies, while others will be tourist board directed to a wider audience. My posting of these videos are by no means an endorsement for the services offered by the producers of the same.

If you know of videos which better illustrates the birding destination than the ones I have selected, please let me know in  the comments below, and perhaps I shall use these in the second round

Finally, I know! 16 multiple questions are too many! I am truly sorry to take your time. But you don’t have to watch all the videos. Just tick off one alternative on each question and it should not take you more than 2 minutes to do the survey.  It is a relief that the next round will only have 8 matches.  And the following only 4.  The more people who participate in the first round the fairer the ultimate selection for the second round will be.

Different Perceptions

I think you probably pretty much have made up your mind anyway, but the videos posted in the survey, could be a help to remind you of specific highlights. In the end you are not voting for the quality of the video&photo illustrations or just one singular species mentioned, but your perception of the destination as a whole for birders.

Different people will use different parameters. Some will value endemism, some will value spectacular species. Others will value spectacular scenery or what kind of comfort one can expect while birding. Some will put bang for the buck as most important i.e. species per dollar.

There is one final parameter. Although most hard-core birders find this completely off topic and if they were to decide, it would for orthodox birders be best to leave out of consideration. Some  people value the birding destination by the amount of other activities that can be shared on the same trip, be that:

• indigenous culture
• spectacular mammals such as Gorilla or the Big Five,
• Scuba-diving
• Gourmet food
• plants
• or much feared by old school conservative birder – good prolonged opportunities for great bird photography.

So in the end, just as with the world bird cup last year, it is totally possible that your parameters are not the same as the majority. Stick to what is best for you. Hopefully, this exercise will help promote some lesser know localities. And for newbies and non-birders who are less initiated in the wonderful world of birds, let me just remind you after you watched all the videos, to check yourself in the mirror to make sure you have closed your mouth before leaving your desk or put aside the tablet or the smartphone.

There is some jaw/dropping, awe-inspiring footage of some fantastic creatures presented in these videos and photos and they are all great destinations. (Now, close your mouth).  Best maybe to plan to visit all of them over the next 36 years.

Not sure you will have 36 years?  Do it in 18 years.  Two destinations per year.

Not sure you will have 18 years? Do it in ….
…Man! You do the math..

Not enough money? Check out all the videos again, get your field guides and start a new life list. Birds seen and identified on Birdingblogs.

Totally free.. and no bugs, no heat, no cold, no rain, no snow and no….the list goes on …and you can lead a normal life again, hug your spouse and your kids and maybe take up golf – or …..
Anyone into Second Life? or Geocaching?

Bottom line: This is just a game – and a little bit of fun. But at least birdwatching in the tropics most of the time gives incentives for bird conservation and sustainable eco-tourism opportunities for the local economy.
Let’s play! Click the link!

I just noticed that after you have voted the videos are not accessible. That sucks! So I have prepared a Playlist on YouTube containing all the YouTube videos displayed  on the survey. Maybe you want to check some of these before you start the voting process.
Click on the embedded video here to see all videos.

Top Photo: Philippine Eagle by Voltaire Malazarte and Marvelous Spatuletail by Max Waugh.

Click the link to vote until 7 PM Easter Time, Jan 7:

It seems that the public and the media are wildly grasping for crazy stories to focus attention on this holiday season, but one particular “story” is a video “gone viral”. This amateur video claims to show a golden eagle snatching a toddler in a Montreal park. It is really scary and spectacular – until your morning coffee kicks in and awakens the thinking part of your brain.

The fact is this video is a fraud. A clever fraud, yes, but it’s still a fraud. In fact, I am sure the video’s creators are having a Santa-sized belly laugh over it right now.

I admit, the first time I saw it, I was initially fooled too. But even during my first viewing, I could plainly see that this bird’s wings are all wrong for a golden eagle. Since I enjoy trying to correctly identify birds, I watched this video again. And again. And again.

Sometime during my third replay, which was a frame-by-frame examination, I became convinced that this video is an elaborate fraud.

First, I’ll talk about the most obvious error: this is NOT a golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos. To start with, the wings of the raptor in the video are absolutely the wrong shape – being too narrow and with a sharp “wrist” – neither of which you will see in a golden eagle.

The video raptor’s colouring is wrong – being a steely grey instead of a warm brown colouring. But more convincing are the white markings: the video raptor has many white markings that absolutely are inconsistent with a golden eagle – most notably, golden eagles do not have a white patch across the upper surface of the wings, nor do they have a white trailing edge on their wings, nor do they have a white band at the end of their tail feathers.

For reference, compare my video “grab” of the video raptor (above) with this photograph of an adult golden eagle:

Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetos, La Cañada, Ávila, Spain.
Image: Juan lacruz/Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Second, golden eagles typically prey on terrestrial mammals such as rabbits, marmots, ground squirrels, and they may even grab a fox, a house cat or (not often enough!) the neighbor’s yappy chihuahua, but they do not prey on children. In fact, there is no way that bird could lift that kid – raptors cannot fly off with toddlers because toddlers are simply too heavy! The greatest mass that a golden eagle may possibly carry is 7kg (or 15 pounds). I am fairly certain that toddler weighs more than that, especially since the kid is thickly wrapped in what looks like 7 kilos of winter clothing.

Third, wild golden eagles don’t live anywhere in the Montreal area in the dead of winter, and they’re extremely uncommon there any time of year. Additionally, to the best of my knowledge, there aren’t any resident golden eagles in Montreal. Clearly, the bird in the video is not a golden eagle.

What species of raptor is this? I think this may be either an osprey, Pandion haliaetus – the most monstrously huge one I’ve ever seen — or it may be a steppe eagle, A. nipalensis, a conclusion shared with some of my bird artist pals. One of these bird artists thinks this could be a juvenile steppe eagle.

Those of you with either a field guide to raptors or with Google access can easily confirm that osprey are specialists, living near water and feeding only on fish and spending their winters in South America, whereas steppe eagles are Old World raptors that are never, ever ever found anywhere in North America. Further, it is incredibly unlikely that any wild eagle would even attempt to grab such outsized prey as a toddler in a public area that it is unfamiliar with, unless … this entire event was staged. So whatever it is, it must be a falconer’s bird — if it’s even a real bird at all!

Which brings me to my last point; let’s talk about that toddler. To my eyes, this toddler looks like a doll. Notice how the toddler does not react at all to suddenly being grabbed and then becoming airborne – neither kicking nor flailing nor moving its head nor otherwise moving naturally. Does your toddler just dangle like a blob when you pick him up suddenly from behind?

Ok, so I know more about birds than I know about toddlers, but that kid just looks fake to me.

All this evidence, taken together, means that this video is a golden teaching moment. It also means that the Guardian blew it by posting this video without including any analysis from a video expert as to whether it’s real or created. Further, the Guardian blew it by not including comments from either an ornithologist or a birder as to whether this video portrayal is even plausible.

This is irresponsible journalism. By posting this video, the Guardian is actively promoting and reinforcing the public’s misinformation and fear of birds of prey, and further alienating the public from nature. Publicly sharing this fraudulent video without any expert commentary serves to undermine the education and conservation efforts of many excellent organisations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology.

Shame on you, Guardian!

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NOTE: this piece was edited slightly from the original, which was published on the Guardian.

NOTE: this is a hoax. It was a class project by Normand Archambault, Loïc Mireault and Félix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design [read more, link kindly shared by RyanClarkPhotos].

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Follow Grrlscientist’s work on facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, on twitter: @GrrlScientist
email: grrlscientist@gmail.com

Bolivia is an extremely diverse country when it comes to birds. In fact, some say that if it wasn’t land-locked it would have more species than any other country. Endemism is not especially high but there are some stunners to search for such as the Red-fronted Macaw and Black-hooded Sunbeam. The country lacks a field guide and, perhaps because of this, has been under-birded compared to the other Andean nations. This can lead to some frustration when trying to get information about sites and species. The other side of the coin is that it makes it a very exciting place to visit as a photographer because there have been so few good images of the birds that live there. The goal of this trip was to find and photograph as many of the endemics and near-endemics as possible.

I will include some images with this post. To see more visit – www.glennbartley.com

DAY BY DAY SUMMARY

The trip began with an international flight in to the city of Santa Cruz. Coming in from sea level it made a lot of sense to begin here in the lowlands rather than flying in toLa Paz where the air is notoriously thin.

Birding Botanical Gardens of Santa Cruz and Lomas de Arenas

My first destination was right in the city at the local botanical gardens. There were a surprising number of good birds to be found here and I visited the site several times while I organized the rental car and prepared to head in to the field. The highlights included: Red-billed Scythebill, Pale-crested Woodpecker and Bolivian Slaty Antshrike.

Pale-crested Woodpecker (Celeus lugubris)

A second site that was worth a quick visit was Lomas de Arena. At this site I had Guira Cuckoo, Burrowing Owl, Southern Lapwing and White-eared Puffbird.

Santa Cruz Airport birding

The first “real” birding site was a few hours away along the old road to Cochabamba. Rather than waste a morning driving there I decided to visit the Santa Cruz airport and see if I could come up with anything. It turned out to be an action packed morning with Greater Rhea’s, White-bellied Nothura, Red-winged Tinamou and Wedge-tailed Grass Finch all giving great photo opps.

Greater Rhea (Rhea americana)

Birds at Refugio Los Volcanos

After an unexpectedly successful morning I hit the road for the Refugio Los Volcanes. About a 2-3 hour drive from Santa Cruz this lodge is positioned in a setting that is unlike anywhere I had ever been. Set in a clearing down in a valley the small lodge is surrounded by towering red cliffs on all sides. It truly is a spectacular destination! This site proved to be the best of the trip for nocturnal birds and on the first night there I managed to photograph Band-bellied and Rufescent Screech Owl. Fruit placed out near the kitchen provided exceptional opportunities to photograph Purplish and Plush-crested Jays (see above) and the edges of the clearing were good for a few of the other common birds including Rufous-bellied Thrush and Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot. After two nights at this wonderful lodge it was once again time to move on.

Birdwatching Samaipata

The town of Samaipata was conveniently located along the old road to make a stop for the night. Based on a recommendation I stayed at a Dutch run hotel called “La Vispera”. The grounds around the hotel were good for Black-capped Warbling Finch, White-tipped Plantcutter, Red-crested Finch and Lineated Woodpecker.

Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)

Parrots and Macaws at Red-fronted Macaw Lodge

A few hours further down the road I found myself at the Red-fronted Macaw Lodge. This excellent site has been set up to protect the breeding cliff of the endemic and endangered species for which the lodge is named.  During the time of my visit the Macaws were constantly around the cliffs as were the endemic Cliff Parakeets. The third endemic to be seen here is the drab Bolivian Blackbird.

Mitred Parakeet (Aratinga mitrata)

The habitat around the lodge is dry scrub and it is loaded with birds. Commonly seen species included Blue and Yellow Tanager, Narrow-billed Woodcreeper, Mitred Parakeet, Greater Wagtail Tyrant, Ringed Warbling Finch, Creamy-bellied Thrush, White-fronted Woodpecker, Golden-billed Saltator, Masked Gnatcatcher and Glittering-bellied Emerald. I spent three days here working on getting great images of the Macaws as well as the supporting cast of characters.

Red-fronted Macaw (Ara rubrogenys)

Birding Scrub at Comarapa and subtropical forest at Siberia

The next move took me further down the old road towards the town of Comarapa. This would be my base for visiting the higher elevation cloud forests of Siberia where I would search for the Rufous-faced Antpitta and Black-hooded Sunbeam. Lower elevations were good for the Bolivian Earthcreeper, Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant, Olive-crowned Crescentchest and Great Pampa Finch. Although I missed the Sunbeam here we did find a great site for a territorial Red-tailed Comet. What a spectacular hummingbird!!

Red-tailed Comet (Sappho sparganura)

Cochabamba bird photography

I spent several days in this area battling the sunny conditions and elusive birds before continuing on to Cochabamba. Along the way roadside stops turned up Fulvous-headed Brush-Finch, Brown-capped Tit-Spinetail, Grey-bellied Flowerpiercer, Brown-capped Redstart and Creamy-breasted Canastero.

For a bit of a rest morning I visited the Laguna Alalay which is right in town. Here I photographed Collared Plovers and spotted Rosy-billed Pochards, Red Shovellers and White-backed Stilts among other common waterbirds.

At one point while walking around the perimeter of the lake a brilliant red, white and blue bird emerged from the reeds. This was a highly unexpected colour palette to encounter here and it definitely took a few moments for the brain to comprehend that the bird I was seeing was actually a Cattle Egret that some local fool had painted with the colours of the resident soccer team. I seriously wish I could have found him and sprayed him with paint!

I was fortunate enough to have a local researcher to take me out to her study site the next morning to look for the Cochabamba Mountain Finch (another endemic). That morning I was lucky to find and get decent images of this species as well as Rock Earthcreeper. I was unlucky to back the car in to a rock. Crap!

That afternoon I visited the nearby San Miguel Polylepis forest and had an awesome encounter with Red-crested Cotingas as well as Puna Canastero, White-winged Diuca Finch and Slender-billed Miner.

Red-crested Cotinga (Ampelion rubrocristata)

Missing the Sunbeam was not sitting well. Not one bit! Reluctantly I made the decision to drive back the 200km and 5 hours or so to the “site” for the Sunbeam and try my luck again. But once again luck was not on my side. In addition to the THREE flat tires that I got on the way, a huge protest had pushed traffic from the new road to the old one and there were so many cars and so much dust that any birds that may have been there had wisely moved on. Consolation prizes along the way included a cooperative Rufous Antpitta and Light-crowned Spinetails. But at the end of two more days I had to face the fact that it was strike two on the sunbeam.

Light-crowned Spinetail (Cranioleuca albiceps)

Birding Chapare Road? Not!

The original plan was to spend the next 2-3 days along the Chapare road looking for all  the goodies there. Unfortunately the protest was raging on. Angry locals had blocked the road, flipped over police cars and set them on fire and the smell of tear gas was heavy in the air. It wasn’t that difficult of a decision to move on and skip this area even though it meant missing a few good birds.

I drove towards and past the town  of Oruro and to the Lago Uru-Uru. Here I had a messy day of shooting all three Flamingo species as well as Andean Avocet and a few migrant shorebirds. Its always fun to get down and crawl in the mud. Well…as long as you get the shot. Otherwise it is just loco!

Andean Avocet (Recurvirostra andina)

Coroico road. Birding the road of death.

Onwards I traveled in the direction  of La Paz for the final phase of the trip. The first site to be visited was just a half hour or so from the city. Here up in the puna habitat I was able to coax out Streak-throated Canastero, Plumbeous Sierra-Finch before descending to the Cotopata Trail. The rain was looming so there wasn’t much time to search for birds. In the first 200 metres of the trail I was able to find some cooperative Three-striped Hemispinguses and a Rufous-backed Chat Tyrant and heard the persistent calling of a Diademed Tapaculo. Alas, the skies opened up and I retired to the town of Coroico for the night.

The following day there was a National census taking place and I was informed that I would not be able to drive anywhere. Great! Thankfully Coroico is set in an area where you can hit the trails and wander in to some decent habitat. Not too far out of town I was able to nail Black-faced Tanagers and Variable Antshrikes. This was a great relief after assuming that the day would be a total loss. Back at the hotel I had a good look at a stunning male Swallow Tanager and some Speckled Chachalacas to finish the day.

Sometimes on photo trips you hit patches of bad luck. It felt like I was just grinding it out for the past week or so. It’s not that I wasn’t getting good images. I was just having to work really hard for them and also deal with all of the protests, censuses, flat tires, smashed bumpers, etc, etc. Perseverance always pays off though and I always try to think that if you can just hang in there you will be rewarded.

On November 22 I had one of those epic days of photography that is sure to live long in the memory. Starting out before dawn in Coroico I headed up the main road to the infamous “road of death”. As the sun began to shine the first images of the day materialized as a pair of very tame Mountain Caracaras cooperatively posed for me on a gorgeous perch. A great way to start the day! From then on the pace of the day picked up to an almost dizzying pace. A roadside flock held Scarlet-bellied and Hooded Mountain Tanagers. Not one, or two, but FOUR Hooded Mountain Toucans emerged from the cloud forests to pose for my camera. Mountain Wrens, Band-tailed Fruiteaters and Black Thistletails were all giving amazing photo opportunities. It wasn’t even lunch yet!!! Next up was a charismatic White-collared Jay who cooperated nicely and I finished the day with Superciliaried Hemispingus and, better yet, Orange-browed Hemispingus. What an insane day!!!

Hooded Mountain Toucan (Andigena cucullata)

Mountain Caracara (Phalcoboenus megalopterus)

Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager (Anisognathus igniventris)

After a day like that I simply had to return to this site again and see if the luck would continue. Of course you can never recreate a day like that and the action was indeed much slower. I was able to pick up Sickle-winged Guan, Plushcap, Barred Fruiteater and the other subspecies of Light-crowned Spinetail. Still not a bad day! In the late afternoon I stopped in at a lower elevation site and from the dense undergrowth pulled out a cute little Ochre-faced Tody-Tyrant before calling it a day.

The next morning I decided to try to finish up with the “Road of Death”. As a side note – this road earned its name because more drivers have lost their lives per km of road than any other. The dirt road is carved in to the mountain slopes and the consequences of slipping off the edge are indeed severe. Luckily the Bolivians realized this and worked hard to create a paved, and much safer, bypass around the old road. This is such a great gift for bird watching because now you can explore the Carraterra de la Muerte with virtually no traffic. It is a stunning area and is loaded with good birds. Hopefully the habitat will remain preserved here for generations to come.

My final morning produced very few new birds. The Cotopata trail was looking promising for the Diademed Tapaculo. However, as Tapaculos like to do, these birds stayed hidden and impossible to photograph.

On the way back to La Paz the weather was abnormally calm. The decision was made to stop at a highland site and hike up away from the main road to where I hoped to find some good birds. I was hoping for an Olivaceous Thornbill but there were none to be found. I did nail great shots of Puna Tapaculo (the only easy member of this Genus) and Scribble-tailed Canastero. Hiking at this altitude (4000m +) is always hard work but I had enough energy for one last stop at “La Cumbre” where I found some Andean Geese, Diuca Finches and a few more waterbirds before heading back to La Paz for the night.

Puna Tapaculo (Scytalopus simonsi)

Titicaca Flightless Grebe

My next mission was to travel to Lago Titicaca and try for the critically endangered Flightless Grebe. This was a poorly planned endeavour that miraculously worked out. After finding a hotel on the lake in the dark I somehow managed to find a canoe in the morning to paddle out in to the lake. Before long I had plenty of Grebes to look at.

Titicaca Flightless Grebe (Rollandia microptera)

 Black-hooded Sunbeam at Sorata. Finally!

The final site for the trip was near the town of Sorata where I had heard that the Black-hooded Sunbeams were reliable. This was my third and final chance for this species and the anticipation was intense. Driving down towards the town I spotted an area that was loaded with flowers and looked promising to search for hummingbirds. Sure enough I hopped out of the car, walked 10 metres and there he was – a stunning male Black-hooded Sunbeam perched at the perfect angle to show off its incredible blue back. Blasting away at 8 frames a second the moment came and went and as I looked at my LCD screen what I saw was one of the most amazing hummingbirds on earth and what I felt was euphoric relief. It was an incredible way to end the trip.

Black-hooded Sunbeam (Aglaeactis pamela)

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Top Photo: Plush-crested Jay (Cyanocorax chrysops) perched on a branch in Bolivia, South America. Glenn Bartley.

If you’ve ever lived with a parrot, then you are well aware that they come with a built-in multi-purpose tool attached to their faces. For this reason, most parrots do just fine without ever needing to create a separate tool to meet their objectives.

Well, usually. It turns out that at least one parrot, a captive cockatoo named Figaro, has found circumstances when his built-in Swiss army knife does not do the job, so he did what any self-respecting bird would do: he constructed a tool designed to get the job done.

Figaro, a captive male Tanimbar corella, uses a tool of his own making to retrieve a cashew nut.
[DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002]

Figaro lives with a group of captive Tanimbar corellas in a large aviary at the University of Vienna in Austria. One day, a student caregiver noticed Figaro pushing a stone pebble through the aviary wire mesh, where it fell on a wood structural beam. Unable to retrieve the stone with his foot, Figaro then fetched a piece of bamboo and again attempted to retrieve the stone using the bamboo stick. Although he was ultimately unsuccessful, surprised researchers recognised the potential of his actions and immediately placed him in visual isolation from the group (in the company of a submissive female named Heidi) to avoid him sharing this novel behaviour with the rest of the flock.

During the next three days, the researchers ran trials of the original scenario, which was repeated ten times but substituting a cashew nut for the pebble. All trials were captured on video and the process of tool manufacture and use was documented photographically (figure 1 or view larger):

Figure 1. Typical action sequence when manufacturing a larch splinter tool.
[DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002]

During these trials, Figaro used 10 tools, nine of which he manufactured and one of which was ready-made (figure 2 or view larger):

Figure 2. Manufacture and use of tools 1–10. (A) Tools used (T1–T10); tool length in mm; T1–T8 = splinter tools; T9 = bamboo tool; T10 = twig tool. (B) Blue: time for tool manufacture; red: time for tool use (from manufacture to retrieval) for each trial in minutes. (C) Manufacture of T10 using four sequential cuts.
[DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002]

“We know that these animals are very smart but we were still surprised he was capable of making a tool”, wrote lead author, cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg, of the University of Vienna.

“For a long time such talents have only been attributed to our closest relatives, the great apes. Since then, however, tool use has been reported in capuchin monkeys, some birds and even some invertebrates”, explained Dr Auersperg in the paper.

Certainly, birds are no strangers to tool making. Betty the captive New Caledonian crow was the first bird to surprise researchers with her ability to create a hook from a piece of wire which she then used to retrieve food out of a pipe. Even though this species does use tools in the wild, Betty’s tool manufacturing abilities are still considered to be a striking example of individual creativity and innovation.

How Figaro discovered how to make and use tools remains unclear, and it shows that scientists still have much to learn about the roles of culture and ecology in promoting and supporting the evolution of innovative behaviour and intelligence.

“It is still difficult to identify cognitive operations”, explains co-author Alex Kacelnik, a Professor of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Oxford, in a press release.

It’s also difficult to know what role intelligence plays in the manufacture and use of tools.

“Figaro, and his predecessor Betty, may help us unlock many unknowns in the evolution of intelligence.”

Here’s the researchers’ video of Figaro’s tool manufacture and use trials:

Sources:

Auersperg A.M.I., Szabo B., von Bayern A.M.P. & Kacelnik A. (2012). Spontaneous innovation in tool manufacture and use in a Goffin’s cockatoo. Current Biology, 22 (21) R903-R904. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002

University of Vienna press release

NOTE: slightly reformatted from the original, which was published on The Guardian.

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Top image: Portrait of a Tanimbar corella, Cacatua goffiniana, also known as the Goffin’s cockatoo.
[DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002]

Superb fairy-wrens, Malurus cyaneus, are common and colourful birds that live in the relatively moist and fertile southeastern corner of Australia. These songbirds are so small that an entire family could fit on the palm of your hand — if they would only sit still! Restless and active, these birds forage mainly on insects although they will take some seed as well.

Superb fairy-wrens are strongly sexually dimorphic and show a number of unusual and interesting breeding behaviours. For example, the brilliantly-coloured males (pictured, right) have a courtship ritual that includes displaying yellow flower petals they’ve plucked to impress females. Although superb fairy-wrens are socially monogamous, they are sexually promiscuous, so each member of the pair will mate with other individuals and remarkably, males often help raise their extra-pair offspring.

Superb fairy-wrens build their nest near the ground in thick vegetation. Consisting of loosely woven grasses and spider webs, this round or domed structure has a small side entrance. Because the interior of their nests is quite dark, fairy-wrens readily accept and incubate the eggs of other species. This is, of course, the perfect set-up for brood parasitism — birds of other species that sneak their own eggs into fairy-wrens nests for them to incubate and care for.

Superb fairy-wrens’ nests are parasitised by several cuckoo species; their most common brood parasite being Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo, Chrysococcyx (Chalcites) basalis (pictured, right). Although fairy-wrens incubate bronze-cuckoo eggs, they can identify whether their brood includes cuckoo chicks after the eggs have hatched. How do they do it?

“Fairy-wrens were known to discriminate against cuckoo nestlings on the basis of their foreign begging calls”, said Sonia Kleindorfer, a Professor of Animal Behaviour and Ecology at Flinders University in Adelaide and Scientific Director at the Flinders Research Centre for Climate Adaptation and Animal Behaviour, who led these studies.

“Parents and others attending the nestlings will only feed them if their begging calls contain the learned password,” explained Professor Kleindorfer. If the chicks don’t sing the correct password, the parents abandon the nest and start again.

This serendipitous discovery came when Professor Kleindorfer and her team noticed something odd when analysing audiovisual recordings of nesting superb fairy-wrens for a different study: fairy-wrens chicks’ begging calls varied from one nest to another (sonogram of begging chicks or view larger).

Superb fairy-wren chick begging calls do not sound the same from one nest to the next.

Adult female superb fairy wrens’ “incubation calls” contain unique signature elements that their chicks produce after hatching.

The researchers found that incubating females produced an average of 16 of these calls per hour late in the incubation period, 4 to 5 days prior to hatching, ceasing this call shortly before hatching (blue arrow, figure 1 or view larger):

Not only was the signature element in each female’s incubation call significantly more similar to the begging call produced by their own nestlings, but it was not similar to begging calls recorded from any other fairy-wren brood. This led the researchers to ask whether this familial similarity in calls was the result of shared genes or shared experiences? Were the nestlings born “knowing” their password begging calls or did they learn their calls from their mothers? Do the mother’s incubation calls help the chicks fine-tune their own begging calls whilst they are still embryos?

To address this question, the researchers cross-fostered eggs from one nest to another and recorded and compared the foster mother’s incubation calls to the begging calls of her fostered nestlings (figure 2 or view larger):

The researchers found that females did not recognize the begging calls made by their own genetic offspring when their chicks had been raised by a foster hen, and the genetic mothers behaved as if hearing unfamiliar nestlings (data not shown). Further, fairy-wren parents stopped feeding their nestlings when researchers placed a loudspeaker under their nest that played the wrong begging calls.

Equally important; bronze-cuckoo chicks clearly did not learn their foster mother’s calls. But why?

To answer that question, let’s review the findings so far: fairy-wren eggs hatch after 15 days of incubation; so the nestlings in a non-parasitized nest are exposed as embryos to their mother’s incubation call for 5 days (figure 3A or view larger, also see figure 1, blue arrow):

Figure 3. Hypothetical Timeline for Incubation and Begging Calls: schematic timeline for onset of the incubation call by the female wren, onset of the nestling begging call, and outcome of call similarity in nests not parasitized by cuckoos (A) and in nests parasitized by cuckoos (B).

Professor Kleindorfer and her colleagues hypothesise that perhaps the fairy-wren nestlings’ call similarity is influenced by their cumulative long-term exposure to the female’s incubation call, an experience that the bronze-cuckoo nestling cuts short. If this is the case, perhaps the next evolutionary step in this acoustical arms race will be for bronze-cuckoos to fine-tune their embryos’ development so they become capable of learning the fairy-wrens’ vocal password in a shorter time-frame? Only time will tell.

These findings demonstrate that traits that appear to be innate, such as nestling begging calls, may actually be learned. Knowing this adds to our understanding of evolution and also has many practical implications, particularly for captive breeding and conservation biology.

“We show that females that guard and teach the embryo could increase the transmission efficacy of female cultural traits,” explained Professor Kleindorfer in a press release.

“In systems with uniparental care, caretakers of embryos will have more opportunity to pass on female memes, or ‘messages,’ to the embryo.” Thus, mothers have a special ability to transmit not just genes to the next generation, but also memes.

Sources:

Colombelli-Négrel D., Hauber M., Robertson J., Sulloway F., Hoi H., Griggio M. & Kleindorfer S. (2012). Embryonic Learning of Vocal Passwords in Superb Fairy-Wrens Reveals Intruder Cuckoo Nestlings. Current Biology, 22 (22) DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.025

Sonia Kleindorfer; emails: 9 November 2012

see also:

Langmore N.E., Hunt S. & Kilner R.M. (2003). Escalation of a coevolutionary arms race through host rejection of brood parasitic young. Nature, 422 (6928) 157-160. DOI: 10.1038/nature01460

Many thanks to my twitter pals, Elspeth Kenny, L Gerrard, Thomas White, Steven Byrnes, Adam Wollman, Kriszta Vályi and Lindsay Napier for quickly retrieving these PDFs and emailing them to me.

NOTE: slightly edited from the original, which was published on The Guardian.

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Top photo: Adult female superb fairy-wren, Malurus cyaneus, with juvenile begging for food, Northern Beaches, Sydney, Australia.
Image: Nevil Lazarus (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.)