Part 06/11 of Glenn Bartley's 3-month trip around Peru -The tour group dropped me off at their final stop – a lodge based at 300m ASL. I would spend the next week here trying to photograph some of the really difficult lowland birds. Bird photography at this elevation can be really difficult. To start with, there is almost never any light to work with. Competition for the suns rays in the rainforest is fierce and most light is intercepted before it reaches the forest floor. This makes for hopelessly slow shutter speeds and high ISO’s. Not ideal! The other challenge is that while species diversity is incredibly high – the actual number of individual birds is quite low. Birds here often have huge territories and roam around in mixed species flocks throughout the day. Sometimes you have to be lucky to run in to the flock. Otherwise you may not see much at all. Even if you do find a good flock they are often up in the canopy or moving to quick to get decent shots of. Like I said…photography in the lowlands is very difficult!
Buff-throated Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus guttatus) perched on a branch in Peru.
White-throated Antbird (Gymnopithys salvini) perched on a branch in Peru.
That week I spent hiking around the trails for between 8-12 hours a day. Sometimes with very long gaps in the action. I was focusing on trying to photograph Antbirds and did manage to get a few. Fortunately for me I found a huge Army Ant swarm for a few days and this attracted a lot of birds that were looking for an easy meal. You see, when the army ants raid they flow out into the forest in rivers of ants. There can be hundreds of thousands of them and they are all hungry! They overwhelm anything that gets in their way, tear them to bits and carry the food back to the queen. Needless to say the other insects on the forest floor want nothing to do with the ants and try to get out of the way as fast as they can. The Antbirds and Woodcreepers know this and wait patiently above the ant swarm. When a cricket or cockroach moves from its hiding place to escape the birds pounce. An easy meal!
Black-faced Antbird (Myrmoborus myotherinus) perched on a branch in Peru.
When I found the ant swarm I knew that this would be where I would be spending quite a bit of time. I think I stood in that swarm for something like 10 hours (over two days) trying to get images of Antbirds. I was rewarded with a few keepers…and quite a few ant bites too!
If you think that a bird photography adventure to Peru might interest you make sure to e-mail me to sign up for the wish list for my workshops that will begin in the fall of 2013.
Article written and images fully copyrighted by Glenn Bartley.
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Piyushkumar Bhatt