Sunday, October 10, 2010

Chestnut-crested Cotinga Bonanza in the Manu Cloud Forest

The Chestnut-crested Cotinga is an enigmatic resident of upper elevation cloud forests in the Andes from Colombia to Bolivia. Its distribution is spotty though, and even in areas where it has been seen, there can be months or years with no sightings. So it was quite thrilling to encounter at least six birds over two days in late September while leading the WINGS Manu Biosphere Reserve and Machu Picchu tour. It had never been recorded in the previous nine years that WINGS has offered this tour, and it was a lifer for me, despite my having birded many times in Peru and Bolivia where it is supposed to occur.

I made a short video of one which you can view at YouTube here.

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