Peru: Part 2 - Dry Forests

As I mentioned in “Owls of Peru – Part 2: Arid Habitats” (posted in October), western Peru, i.e. west of the Andes, experiences a formidable rain shadow that creates some of the driest place on earth (technically the driest places occur a little further south in Chile due to the same rain shadow). As I wrote, all the moisture ascending the Andes from the Amazon basin (the prevailing winds are from southeast in this region) gets sucked out on the eastern side as it condenses into rain or snow. By the time the air mass crosses the Andes and descends the western slope, there is almost no moisture left in it. The western Andean foothills and coastal areas are therefore dominated by dry desert-like conditions or tropical dry forests that are much less tall and lush than the humid forests on the eastern slope. These forests are correspondingly lower in biodiversity but they do have their share of endemism as many species evolved here in isolation (cut off from relatives by the mighty Andes). This post offers a glimpse at some of the wildlife of this region.

We start with one of the most famous inhabitants of this region – the White-winged Guan. This species was discovered in 1876 but then not seen again for nearly 100 years and long feared extinct. A tiny population was fortunately rediscovered in northern Peru and since then conservation measures have been put in place including a captive breeding and reintroduction program. Nonetheless they are still classified as critically endangered with probably fewer than 250 individuals in the wild. I took these photos of these beautiful birds at Chaparrí, where a single wild guan was found and then some of the progeny of the captive breeding birds were released, making them easier to see here than elsewhere. The first photo shows a bird foraging in the treetops along a ravine. If you look at this photo you might be surprised by the name White-winged Guan. If you look at the second photo, where the bird has a slightly different posture, you can see a hint of white in the wing – in fact there is a large white patch that is only visible when the wings are open.



Raptor diversity often seems quite high in open habitats and coastal Peru has some beautiful raptors to behold. This is the elegant Pearl Kite.


And this is Savanna Hawk. This species is well adapted to arid habitats of northwestern Peru - their long legs (unfortunately not so visible in this photo) aiding in hunting and in locomotion along the ground.


There are numerous dove species in these dry forests. Here is just one example, the Croaking Ground Dove.


The Pacific Parrotlet is a common species in these dry forests, although their small size and active movements can make them tough to see well without a little luck.


Among the woodpeckers in these habitats, the small and beautiful Scarlet-backed Woodpecker occupies some of the very dry scrub habitats and thorny forests in the coastal regions and foothills (notice how “un-green” the habitat in the background of this photo appears).

The Lineated Woodpecker, on the other hand, is a large woodpecker and hence requires large trees. They tend to prefer riparian (river edge) forest, which in these dry areas is much taller than the surrounding scrub. This species is a congenitor of the Pileated Woodpecker (genus Dryocopus).

Hummingbird diversity is not particularly high in these dry areas but there are enough seasonal flowers and nectar that a few species can make a living here. By far the most common is the Amazilia Hummingbird. This species is one of those where the genus and species names are the same (Amazilia amazilia) and they also carry this name into their common name (Amazilia is a very large genus of hummingbirds with 30 species).

Leucippus is a much smaller genus of hummingbirds (4 species), two of which occur in this area – the Tumbes Hummingbird in the dry forests of northwestern Peru and the the very similar Spot-throated Hummingbird shown here that occurs in the dry Marañon valley at slightly higher elevations.

Here a young Purple-collared Woodstar takes a bath at the now famous mini cascade at Chaparrí. In such dry habitats, water is a very attractive feature to many birds including hummers!

Almost anywhere in South America, diversity is very high in the suboscine passerines. In North America most of our passerines are the oscines (sometimes dubbed “true songbirds”) and there is essentially only one family of suboscines, the Tyrant-Flycatchers. The main difference between the oscines and the suboscines is in the complexity of the syrinx (equivalent of our larynx), which of course gives the songbirds such beautiful voices. Suboscines may not have as complex songs capability as oscines but they can still fill up your senses! Prior to the Great American exchange (when the two continents came into contact), North America was completely dominated by oscines and South America dominated by suboscines. During the Great American Exchange a lot of mixing occurred so that both groups now thrive on both continents; however, the suboscines are still in the majority (just) in most of South America. For example, approximately 55% of Peru’s ~870 passerines species are sub-oscines. So here is a glimpse of this diversity…

Since many readers will be most familiar with the tyrant-flycatchers as example of suboscines, let’s start there. North American readers will be familiar with the genus Myiarchus, to which species like Great Crested Flycatcher and Ash-throated Flycatcher belong. Well, in the driest forest and scrub of northwestern Peru there is a beautiful Myiarchus species, who, to my eye, looks unlike other Myiarchus, viz. Rufous Flycatcher (again notice how arid the scrub in the background of the photo is).

One of the highly sought after endemics of the Tumbes regions (northwesternmost Peru and southwesternmost Ecuador) is the Tumbes Tyrant. This little gem can be very inconspicuous, despite their rich colour. The first photo shows the thorny dry forest they inhabit and the second show the rich colour of this species.

This Yellow-bellied Elaenia was hanging out right in a treed town square, perhaps a little more shady than the surrounding scrub.

Some of the flycatchers in this habitat have evolved to look a little different than the flycatchers most North Americans are used to. Here is one example, the Short-tailed Field-Tyrant. Notice how this species has evolved very long legs, which accompany their predominantly terrestrial habits (foraging by hopping along the ground). Of course they do occasionally perch on shrubs, as shown here, when their short-tailed, lanky profile seems a little out of place. You can see how small this bird is by comparing them to the acacia thorns in the photo.

In Part 1 of this series, I mentioned the ovenbird family. In addition to the miners and cinclodes there are other groups within this large suboscine family. This is a Pacific Hornero, foraging amidst the dry leaf litter. The word hornero is Spanish for oven maker (horno “oven” is cognate of Italian forno, both from Latin fornus; English “furnace” coming from Latin fornax via French and the English word “warm” being derived ultimately from the same Indo-European root). These birds make large oven-shaped mud nests that give them their name and give their family (Furnariidae) its name. Some Peruvians told me that the local legend is that these birds taught the locals how to build their houses (houses are frequently made from adobe in this region).

The antbirds (Thamnophilidae) is another very large suboscine family. Some of this family are myrmecophiles (ant lovers) who follow army ant swarms to feed on any living thing that flees from the advancing ants. In dry habitats, it seem that the antshrikes are the most common representatives of this family (not myrmecophiles). Like so many groups within this family, their names are constructed with the prefix ant- and then the name of another groups of birds they resemble (examples include antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, and others). You will notice the shrike-like hooked bill of this female Collared Antshrike.

And here is her partner (I have not read anywhere that females have a more hooked upper mandible than males but on the few occasions where I observed a pair together that seemed to be the case)...

This male Shumbae Antshrike of the dry Marañon Valley may look A LOT like the male Collared Antshrike above, but recent genetic studies suggest they should perhaps be treated as separate species. Can you spot the differences in plumage?

This female Northern Slaty Antshrike was skulking in the thick shrubs and very difficult to get a good photo of… (the male is the "slaty" one)

Still within the antbird family, this Rufous-fronted Thornbird is constructing their enormous nest out of sticks rather than mud. These little brown jobs are inconspicuous most of the time, except their gigantic nests very often give their presence away (how often can you say it is easier to find a bird’s nest than the birds themselves?).

Another interesting suboscine family from this region are the Crescentchests (Melanopareiidae), formerly placed within the larger Tapaculo (Rhinocryptidae) family. There are only four species of crescentchest in the world and two of them occur in northwestern Peru. This is the Elegant Crescent of the coastal dry forests. Look closely at the wing before you scroll to the next photo.

This is the very similar Marañon Crescentchest of the dry Marañon Valley. Notice the white in the wing of this species as compared to the Elegant Crescentchest. As in the Shumbae Antshrike example, genetic studies and other evidence suggest that many taxa of the Marañon Valley are reproductively isolated from their close relatives of the coastal dry forest and more and more of them are being split as separate species.

This Peruvian Plantcutter is a representative of yet another suboscine family, the Cotingas (Cotingidae). This species is very patchily distributed in dense thorn forest. Unfortunately, in this photo you cannot see the serrations on the bill that give them their name.

Moving now to the oscines, here is an example of a group with a complex vocal repertoire even if they are not known to be beautiful songsters – the Crows and Jays (Corvidae) – yes, that is right, crows and jays are “true songbirds”. This is the stunning White-tailed Jay, which looks extremely similar to the Tufted Jay of Mexico but is much smaller. These birds can look very black and white when in shadow…

But with a little sun, such as on this bird in flight, you can see their "true blue"...

The Long-tailed Mockingbird is a birder's constant companion in dry coastal habitats.

The colourful Peruvian Meadowlark is not quite as common as the mockingbird but always a treat to watch.

There are numerous small seed-eaters in these habitats from several groups. Here are some examples, starting with the Little Inca Finch (this is a juvenile). The Inca finches are in the genus Incaspiza, which contains five species and the whole genus is endemic to Peru, i.e. all five species are found nowhere else... just amazing!!

Some of the seed in the dry forests must be hard to crack – just look at the honking bill of these Parrot-billed Seedeaters (female left, male right)!

The large Cinereous Finch is no slouch at husking seed either. This is another of the endemics of the Tumbesian region.

The Chestnut-throated Seedeater, on the other hand, doesn’t need such brute strength to earn a living.

This is the handsome Collared Warbling Finch with yet another slightly different bill structure for feeding on a different variety of seed.

And this the classy Saffron Finch

And the Red-crested Finch of the Marañon Valley and the Urubamba Valley.

The Tumbes Sparrow is yet another endemic seed-eater of the Tumbesian region. They are in the genus Aimophila along with North American sparrows such as Five-striped Sparrow, Bachman's Sparrow and others)

Naturally, there is more than birds to view in the dry forests. Here are just few examples of other wildlife. The Handsome Sechuran Fox (named after the Sechuran Desert). They are easy to see at Chaparrí as the second close up shows…

And a Collared Pecary

And a Green Iguana, which despite their name are not always green (the young ones are green but adults vary in colour)...

Peru: Part 1 - A Rich Coast

The plan for my Peru blog series is to start at sea level on the Pacific coast and travel up and over the Andes to the Amazon basin. The journey starts on the rocky coastline and then through the arid scrub and lightly wooded habitats of the western foothills of the Andes under the influence of the enormous rain shadow of the Andean cordillera, along with some of the dry inter-montane valleys, then up to the high plateaus at dizzy elevations before descending the humid eastern slope of the Andes through the moist elfin forests, rich cloud forest, tall upper tropical forest and down into the tropical rainforest of the Amazon basin…

Tropical oceans are often fairly low in productivity, in part (and this is a bit of an over-simplification) because the rich nutrient-loaded cold water remains deep and does not mix with the warm water near the surface, where photosynthesis can occur (plants need light for photosynthesis but they also need nutrients). Unless there are upwellings to mix cold and warm water, tropical waters quickly become nutrient depleted and they therefore cannot support a wide variety of life. People often asked me why the waters off the coast of some tropical destination they have visited seemed so void of life compared to the temperate waters and this is a large part of the answer. The people who ask this question often assume that because tropical terrestrial ecosystems are generally more biodiverse than temperate ones, this might also be the case in marine ecosystems (not true) or they may associate tropical oceans with the amazing diversity of coral reefs. Coral reefs are in fact a remarkable exception to the general pattern of ocean biodiversity, mainly because their nutrients remain “trapped” and recycled in the reef ecosystem rather than sinking to the light-deprived depths of the ocean floor.

Since Peru lies close to the equator, you might expect her waters to be low in productivity. However, off the coast of Peru, the remarkable Humboldt Current brings nutrient-rich cold water northward along the Pacific coast of South America (then west towards the Galapagos) to equatorial latitudes. This upwelling and mixing of cold and warm water, creates the conditions for phytoplankton to thrive, i.e. there is high primary productivity. Where you have high primary productivity, a food chain can form and Peruvian waters therefore draw an astounding array of fish, marine birds and marine mammals. In fact, Peruvian waters support some of the highest biodiversity of any area of the world’s oceans (outside of coral reefs). Consequently, a trip to a Peruvian beach or rocky coastline is bound to be accompanied by sightings of marine birds. This post will highlight a few of them…

One of the first birds you are likely to encounter along the Peruvian coast is the large and spectacular Peruvian Pelican. Although very similar to a Brown Pelican in plumage, the Peruvian Pelican is much larger. When seen up close, as seems so easy to do in Peru, these pelicans are surprisingly colourful and their black and white streaked plumage is particularly handsome!


Penguins (family Spheniscidae) are confined to the nutrient rich cold waters of the southern oceans. Most species are Antarctic or Sub-Antarctic in distribution; however, thanks to the Humboldt Current, there are two species that occur in the tropics close to the equator – the Galapagos Penguin and the Humboldt Penguin that occurs off the Peruvian coast (a third species, the African Penguin, breeds just barely north of the Tropic of Capricorn and hence technically in tropical waters). The Humboldt Penguin is of course named for the current that permits their existence by providing the primary productivity that supports the huge shoals of anchovies that the penguins rely on. The Humboldt Penguin is listed by Birdlife International as Vulnerable to extinction, who suggest their decline is due to incidental take (these birds are often accidentally caught in fishing nets), illegal hunting and capture (for the pet trade believe it or not!!), over-fishing, guano-mining, predation by rats and cats, and global warming, in particular in the form of El Niño, that greatly reduces the normal pattern of upwelling that all marine life in this region depends on.

The penguins are well camouflaged on the coastal rocks. See if you can spot the Humboldt Penguin in this photo alongside the Peruvian Pelicans and others… If not, look at the second photo (cropped in) then back at the first photo again…



Here is a view of these birds swimming just off the coast. They are very difficult to photograph as they don’t surface for long…

Rocky outcrops, headlands and islands are also the home of the Peruvian Booby and you may have spotted one in the first penguin photo above (the lowest bird on the rocks). As you can tell from the shape of their beak, they are superb plunge divers, feeding in the rich coastal waters. They also have a habit of flying by in steady streams of birds, revealing their distinctive sulid shape...

Surely, one of the most spectacular inhabitants of the rocky coast in the Inca Tern. The unique plumage of this bird seems to be a blend of camouflage (against grey rocks)…

... and showiness (what a face pattern - check out that 'stache!!)

If you had super sharp eyes you may also have picked out the flying Inca Terns in the first penguin photo above (look for their dark grey plumage with white trailing edge to wings).

Several shorebirds also make a living on the rocky coast. Feeding at the water’s edge, is a Blackish Oystercatcher (Haematopus ater). They use their long, powerful bill to probe and forage as shown here.

The Blackish Oystercatcher is the South American equivalent of the Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) in the Northern Hemisphere; however, it would take consummate skill to separate these species on plumage!! Here is a scan of an old slide I dug out of a Black Oystercatcher taken on Vancouver Island for comparison – bill structure (Blackish seems to have broader tip), leg colour and possibly mantle colour seem to be some of the only subtle differences…

The Blackish Oystercatchers also share their home with American Oystercatchers. Unlike Black and Blackish Oystercatcher, the American Oystercatchers found in the southern and northern hemispheres are considered conspecific. Here is a pair whipping along the coast…

Cormorants are another group that benefit from the rich coastal waters. In addition to the widespread and common Neotropic Cormorant, there are two species of coastal cormorants in Peru. This is the distinctive Guanay Cormorant.

And this is the stunning Red-legged Cormorant.

Take a closer look at their remarkable eye pattern!

And here is a series of a Red-legged Cormorant coming in to land on the water...

It is not just birds that capitalize on the abundance of plankton and fish in this area. Hauled out on the rocks are also some Southern Sealions.

The sealions offer oppotunities for scavengers like Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture to find an easy meal in the form of scraps and maybe the odd carcass. The Black Vulture in this photo may have been picking parasites off the sealions body, although I could not get close enough to be sure of this...

Gulls are more common in cold waters than in warm waters so the coast of Peru has a surprising number of Gull species for a location so close to the equator. Here is part of the roll call:

Band-tailed Gull (A.K.A Belcher’s Gull), adult then immature,

Gray Gull, accompanied by a Sanderling,

Gray-hooded Gull,

and Kelp Gull, adult perched then immature in flight.

You might not expect to find many passerines along the rocky coast and intertidal zone, but this is home to an exceptional songbird, the Surf Cinclodes. Cinclodes are a member of the very large Neotropical suboscine family Furnariidae. Cinclodes are quite terrestrial in their habits so the Surf Cinclodes has managed to adapt to foraging on coastal rocks and sand (as opposed to the rocks and sandy habitats of deserts and high elevations that some of their relatives exploit). Here are two images of this unique bird taking a break between foraging bouts amist the mussels on the pier…

The “miners” are relatives of the Cinclodes (in the same family) and are clad in the same brown tones and share similar terrestrial habits. Like the cinclodes they are also more diverse at high elevations and, also like the cinclodes group, at least one member has managed to adapt to coastal living. The Coastal Miner is well camouflaged in the open sandy habitats they prefer (not right on the beach but nearby in dune areas). This bird has found a tasty morsel by probing in woody debris.

Before leaving the coast, I want to share a nice surprise I found just a few hundred metres from the ocean – a roosting Lesser Nighthawk, a resident of the coastal strip throughout Peru, that presented a super photo opportunity.

Next, we move back from the coast proper into the surrounding arid scrub and woodlands.