temmie
Well-known member
As I was drifting off-topic, here is my experience from 2012:
we rented a car and drove down the Manu road spending 1 night at Wayquecha, 3 nights at Manu Paradise lodge and no less than 4 nights at Amazonia lodge before going further downstream (Pantiacolla, Amazon Manu lodges).
My report is here:
Please note I mixed up Chestnut-breasted Mountain-finch (the one we saw) with Rufous-breasted Warbling-finch (the one that obviously isn't anywhere near Cuzco or the Manu road). Also note I missed some birds that were, at that moment, harder to get info about (or I simply overlooked). We had one (or two?) full days of rain on the Manu road without any birding.
While I dipped some birds, I vividly remember the highlights, e.g. Red-and-white Antpitta, Greater Scythebill (thanks to Andrew Whitehouse who found the bird), Wire-crested Thorntail, Slaty Gnateater, Scaled Antpitta, Black-backed Tody-tyrant, Black-capped Tinamou, Versicolored and Scarlet-hooded Barbet, Rusty-belted Tapaculo and best of all, a big antswarm with at least 10 Black-spotted Bare-eyes, Goeldi's Antbird and last but not least: Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoo. Most people tend to go as low as Villa Carmen and don't bother taking a (short and not too expensive, see my report) boat ride to Amazonia Lodge, but I found Amazonia a terrific place. I can't compare to Villa Carmen though, and they seem to have the same set of birds (but I guess Amazonia is slightly more pristine / more variation in habitat?).
we rented a car and drove down the Manu road spending 1 night at Wayquecha, 3 nights at Manu Paradise lodge and no less than 4 nights at Amazonia lodge before going further downstream (Pantiacolla, Amazon Manu lodges).
My report is here:
Please note I mixed up Chestnut-breasted Mountain-finch (the one we saw) with Rufous-breasted Warbling-finch (the one that obviously isn't anywhere near Cuzco or the Manu road). Also note I missed some birds that were, at that moment, harder to get info about (or I simply overlooked). We had one (or two?) full days of rain on the Manu road without any birding.
While I dipped some birds, I vividly remember the highlights, e.g. Red-and-white Antpitta, Greater Scythebill (thanks to Andrew Whitehouse who found the bird), Wire-crested Thorntail, Slaty Gnateater, Scaled Antpitta, Black-backed Tody-tyrant, Black-capped Tinamou, Versicolored and Scarlet-hooded Barbet, Rusty-belted Tapaculo and best of all, a big antswarm with at least 10 Black-spotted Bare-eyes, Goeldi's Antbird and last but not least: Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoo. Most people tend to go as low as Villa Carmen and don't bother taking a (short and not too expensive, see my report) boat ride to Amazonia Lodge, but I found Amazonia a terrific place. I can't compare to Villa Carmen though, and they seem to have the same set of birds (but I guess Amazonia is slightly more pristine / more variation in habitat?).
