PERU: Andes to Amazon ~ Day 6 – Madre de Dios River

The morning of day six was wet and stormy. We made our way along the Manu Road from Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge to the town of Manuel Asenta. Along the drive we did find a very wet Blue-headed Macaw, a target endemic, as well as a few mixed feeding flocks in the trees around the stream photographed above.

At Manuel Asenta we left our great bus drivers behind and boarded our boat for the next 8 hours. The menacing skies were kind, for the most part, as we made our way down river toward the Manu Wildlife Center.

Within a couple hours, the dark skies parted allowing bright sun to warm our ride. The birds began to appear and we had soon seen several Fasciated Tiger Herons, Large-billed Terns, Yellow-billed Terns and many White-winged Swallows.

Capped Herons were more numerous than I had expected, along with many Cocoi Herons, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets.

A Capybara family, escorted by a band of roving Giant Cowbirds, roamed the shoreline. The only mammals we saw on this leg of our journey.

Several Jabiru, adults and immature, meandered the river’s edge in search of eels and other tasty morsels. The tallest flying bird in the Americas, the Jabiru can reach 5 feet with a wing span of 11 feet!

Our prize of this boat trip was a huge group of Sand-colored Nighthawks perched on downed trees in the middle of the river. The setting sun offered wonderful light and shadows as they prepared for their evening hunt.