Animals in Peru

Extreme Bird Love, That

Here in Lima, the trees and rooftops are overrun with cuculis — plumpish grey morning doves who coo mournfully, mate in treetops, and shit absolutely everywhere.

With all this cuculi mess around, it’s easy for a Limena to forget that Peru itself is considered a birder’s paradise.

west-peruvian-doves-bathing
Cuculis (West Peruvian doves), photo by David J. Ringer

I certainly forgot. Then I read an article in last Sunday’s El Comercio about “the four types of foreign tourists” in Peru and what they like to spend their money on, and of the four prototypical turistas, one of them was The Birdlover.

Otherwise known as Wads ‘o Cash.

Birdlovers, the article claimed, spend more than other visitors to Peru — more than Archaeology/Cultural Tourists, more Adventure Tourists, and much more than Local Culture Tourists. That last category apparently is comprised of easygoing people who like to mix with the locals and stay in low-budget hostals. They fork over the least amount when in Peru.

I believe the information for the article came from those cards you fill out on the airplane detailing how much you spent on your vacation. Whoever collects those things just finished crunching the numbers and apparently expects us to take it seriously. (Ask yourself: How accurate are you when you fill out that form?)

I was interested in this not-quite “news” because it jogged a memory of something a bookstore owner said to me in Arequipa last November.

El Fotografo and I were there for a wedding and while browsing through a bookstore one morning, EF let it drop that I write guidebooks (which I do, sometimes).

The bookstore owner looked up excitedly from his crosswork puzzle: “Do you write about birds in Peru? People come in here asking for birding books all the time. I need bird books.”

For several weeks after that conversation, EF kept bringing up the idea of our writing the Ultimate Birding Guide to Peru as a sure-fire way to make Big Bucks.

I argued that this was Not a Good Plan because bird-lovers know a lot about birds and we know nothing. 

“That’s not important,” he said. “We can look this stuff up.”

“Bird people are into details,” I persisted. “They want field guides with pictures that show the minute differences between the Yellow-Boobied Arequipa Jay and the Yellow-Bobbied Ancash Jay. You really have to know your stuff to write authoritatively about that. I don’t have the time to take that on.”

“We’ll hire someone else to do it,” he said.

Who? I wanted to know.

Someone, he said.

That someone never materialized, and we forgot all about the easy $100,000 we’d make publishing this great bird guide (I always thought we’d blow our pre-production budget on photos, anyway), and then the news broke last weekend about The Bird Tourists with Deep Pockets.

Evidently someone at PromPeru is scheming about ways to lure them to Peru.

EF and I have not revived our plans to publish the guide, but I am going to do a small, good thing and post a few decent links to birding websites that really do know something about birds in Peru.

Here they are:

Birding Peru: bills itself (no pun intended) as a “birding portal” and a “centre” (must be British) about (obvously) “birding in Peru.” It’s written in English and has a Peru Bird Database, and pictures, checklists, suggested tours, forums. People post their latest sightings. For instance, a Scandinavian named Tor Egil Hogsas says he sighted a Cream-winged Cinclodes somewhere on August 29. I believe him.

National Geographic on Birding in Peru: NG News reported in 2004 that “Peruvians are eager to showcase their country as a bird-watcher’s paradise.” The country is home to more than 1,800 species, and new species are being discovered every month.  (My note: Perhaps if you sighted one, you could get to name it whatever you liked. Like, The Montesinos Crested Jay.)

Birding in Peru Outfitters: This is a commercial site published by a tour-guide company run by several British birders, some Peruvians and one Frenchman. Tour guide Barry Walker is the author of A Field Guide to Birds of Machu Picchu and other useful books. He and his group will take you deep into Manu or Tambopata or Tumbes or anyplace else you need to go to see winged things. The Americans and Brits who’ve left reponses on the site’s Comments Page seem quite pleased with how their trips turned out. 

Bill of the Birds: American birdwatcher Bill Thompson writes in his blog about several bird-watching expeditions in Peru. This link describes (with lots of pictures and witt-ish captions) what happened when he and his fellow birders set out into the Pacific in search of the fabled Inca Tern. Bill was so determined to see said tern that even when his boat sank in bad weather prior to the tour, he threw on a raincoat, rustled up another vessel, and set out that same day. 

Extreme bird love, that.

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

7 Comments

  • Alejandro

    La cuculí is mourning dove, I never knew that. Now I understand that line from Chabuca Granda’s Fina Estampa:

    “Y la cuculí se rie y la ventana se agita,
    Cuando por esa vereda tu fina estampa pasea.”

    Thanks for teaching me something today!

    😉

    I had read the Peruvian government and the private sector were promoting birding tourism. Sounds like its a growth industry.

    I don’t know if this is related, but there is a Peruvian film in Quechua from 1961 (the first ever one filmed entirely in Quechua) by the well-regarded Peruvian director Luís Figueroa. It’s based in Cuzco, and is considered one of those hidden gems of film. The reason I mention it is its name: Kukuli.

    But, I don’t know if kukuli means mourning dove in Quechua. Here is a link to a video on You Tube: Kukuli

    Saludos!

  • Barb

    Alejandro — you’re welcome. Nice lyrics from Chabuca Grande. El Fotografo read them last night and commented, “I think the cuculis are making the window tremble because they’re always out there mating.” I don’t think that’s what CB had in mind, though when she wrote the song.

  • Barb

    Just checked out the Kukuli trailer. It seems to be a powerful film. Would love to get a copy on DVD (an authentic/official copy, not a black market one). Do they exist?

    In the film it looks like some guy dressed as an ukuku stalks a woman, hits her on the head and starts carrying her to a mountaintop (a sacrifice). Is that the storyline?

    And I don’t know what the film has to do with a kukuli. Maybe the title refers to the female protagonist — she’s the innocent mourning dove?

  • juancho

    Barbara,

    I might add the website Aves de Lima http://www.avesdelima.com/ to your list.

    I’d also recommend the book by the same name published by the author of the website. I bought a copy of it at the Ibero bookstore in Miraflores on my stay in Lima, and wasn’t disappointed. It’s an easy-to use guide, even for a novice like me.

  • Barb

    Juancho —
    Just checked out the Aves de Lima website; thanks for recommending it. I never thought there was such much birdlife in Lima, but the photos on the site prove otherwise. I’m very taken with the picture of the Peruvian Owl — I wonder if there are any in Miraflores.

    I enjoyed reading through the August entries on your blog. Those video links to old films about Lima are fascinating glimpses of the city’s past. How remarkable that the one film is shot inside the house that you always wondered about.

    Readers: If you have more websites or books about birding in Peru to recommend, please follow Juancho’s lead and post them here for others to enjoy.