A fairly early start to drive the forty minutes to the edge of Manaus city to the Musa tower. A 40+ meter high tower that looks out north into the vast Adolpho Ducke reserve towering over the canopy while giving incredible views back south to the metropolis that is Manaus city.
Early start to beat the sunrise and day trippers to the Musa botanical gardens and canopy tower
We arrived 40 minutes before the sun would start to rise and climb the 42 meter metal structure. Every 10 meters there is a viewing platform so you can observe the wildlife at different elevations, we headed straight to the top to catch the Macaws leaving their roost sites. As the light gently broke so did the silence as streams of Scarlet Macaws flew in squadrons another 30 meters above us and the canopy, these were quickly joined by five Red bellied Macaws that landed a mile away and out of sight. Not to be outdone a few Red and Green Macaws flew noisily past.
Sunrise over the reserve from the top of the Musa tower
It still fascinates me why Macaws are always first up, maybe they are the bird worlds alarm clock to make sure no-one sleeps in....
Wakey Wakey - Scarlet Macaws always the first to leave their roosts
Early morning and with the sun still very low in the sky it was certainly time for all the big guns to be out, next were a fabulous pair of Red Fan Parrots. They perched up on a large bare snag some 300mtrs away and preened then preened each other, every now and again we would catch the raised fan, wonderful study through the scope, unfortunately they were just out of range for anything other than a few record shots.
Red fan Parrots (in full display, absolutely brilliant)
As the light started to pick up so did the bird life.
White-throated Toucans are certainly conspicuous not only by their size but with their huge white throat that stands out against any backdrop. At least two pairs kept us company for the duration of the morning.
White-throated Toucan
The Palm Tanager can be found in pretty much most habitats in South America and it should be no surprise that they found flying to and perching on the Canaopy tower structure more to their liking than actually foraging amongst the trees, every few minutes back and too they came. There was now fairly continuous activity with Green Honeycreeper, Spot-backed Antwren, Band Rumped Swifts, Piratic Flycatcher, Guianan Tyrannulet, White Lored Euphonia and a smashing Spotted Tanager which all started to move through the canopy. We found that sometimes moving down the tower to the platform below would get an eye level view of a passing birdwave. A Plumbeous Pigeon flew through the mid canopy at speed while a Versicoloured Emerald flitted amongst the foliage looking for flowering trees.
White-lored Euphonia also known as Yellow-bellied for obvious reasons
Spotted Tanager although in the right location is fairly common, was high on my trip list
Guianan Tyrannulet
As the air warmed up hundreds of vultures could be seen over a vast distance, mostly towards the city skyline. Other raptors could be seen on and off with at least three Double Toothed Kites a Short tailed Hawk and a pair of Black faced Hawks that perched up giving incredible scope views and some not to bad photo opportunities although from a great distance, however one did make a flyby that took me by surprise as it flew over the tower so I only got the back end view.
Black faced Hawks
As the morning progressed the heat built and the birding slowed, we still had good sightings but it was a little harder in the heat, the list of species that still showed were Black tailed Tityra, Flame crested Tanager, distant scope views of Guianan Puffbird, Black spotted Barbet, we only heard a Gilded Barbet .... the big miss of the morning was the Glossy Backed Becard which was also a heard only, Surprisingly we only had a few tree top sightings of Monkey species with Guianan Red Howler Monkey and more Brazilian bare faced Pied Tamarins that picked their way through a fruiting tree.a few hundred meters away. Blue headed Parrots, a Zone tailed Hawk quickly passed through, Golden winged Parakeets, Green backed Trogan and Black Tailed Trogan. Probably the last bird from the tower was a stunning Guianan Toucanet, a nice way to end the morning..... or so we thought!
Black tailed Trogan
an incredibly smart Guianan Toucanet
Black tailed Tityra with the finishing touches for the nest
We left the tower and immediately heard a Variegated Tinamou, yes I know you always hear Tinamous but rarely see one. On this occasion a site guide took up the challenge to try to get us onto this one, 15 minutes of wading through the bush and tangles Pablo managed to tape it in near enough for us all to get crippling views of an absolute stunning creature..... my first seen Tinamou, what a lovely way to end the morning. The gardens were now busy with day trippers (although the tower never got busy at all albeit a few other birdwatchers), we headed to a cafe for a fresh fruit juice and where we got to see our only Snake sighting of the whole tour, a Black headed centipede Snake.
somewhere in there is a Tinamou
stunning artwork at Musa botanical gardens
Some images of a successful morning
looking down onto the team. Bart, Pablo, Jeff, David, Chris..... Ian out of shot
Musa canopy tower rising above the Amazon canopy
We headed back to the hotel for lunch and to pack as we would spend a large portion of the afternoon travelling across to the south of the Rio Negro to Novo Airao where we would be based for three nights at the very pleasant Amazonia Park Suites. However we were now joined by Nick who had been delayed on his return from his trip to Uganda and ended up missing a flight, he woke up after a few hours sleep to get on the tour bus to cross the Rio Negro.
hmmmm Hotel Tarantula, Amazonia Park suites...... I wonder why
my bedroom bottom left
A small siesta, a little garden birding where we picked up Silver beaked Tanagers, Ruddy Ground Dove, Bannaquit and Black billed Thrush (ssp Flood Plain Thrush).
We did manage a few hours trail birding on the Ramal do guarda chuva trail but it was getting towards dusk and our main targets we would try for a little later on as we needed some moonlight rather than fading sunlight. I tried desperately to get onto a Black-faced Antbird but failed, the rest of the team got some sort of view and I also dipped on the Cinerous Antshrike.... fading light and ropey eyes obviously dont mix well.... However I did manage to see Black banded Woodcreeper, White-throated Puffbird, Common scaled backed Antbird.
Pablo then produced some magic, of course a little tape work is needed to generate a call but in amongst the tangles and dense vegetation he went in search, three minutes later he invited us in to see a magnificent Rufous Potoo perched on a dead snag. Stunning. Stunning Stunning and for me a close call for the bird of the day with the Variegated Tinamou. Pablo wasn't quite done yet as ten minutes later he heard and found very high up and perched partially obscured a White winged Potoo. Two stunning species to finish a wonderful day, I had dipped the White winged Potoo in North East Brazil a number of years ago so this was a highly prized sighting. We headed back to the very comfortable hotel Tarantula for a beer or two and a nice late evening meal.
mobile phone capture of a Rufous Potoo..... it doesn't get much better eh, oh well
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