We have a special edition of our monthly emailing just in time for Halloween! Lots of news from recent tours as well as goings-on at Field Guides, plus of course recent triplists, fresh 2020 itineraries, some great video clips, and much more. Click here or on the image below to have a look. Enjoy!
Dan Lane, Jesse Fagan, and Fernando Angulo brought home the trophy in December, winning the World Birding Challenge with an impressive 457 species in the weeklong event staged in southern Peru and raising over $1600 for BirdLife International. In May, Field Guides will defend the title in the third World Birding Challenge in northern Peru. We will be represented by guides Rose Ann Rowlett, Richard Webster, Marcelo Padua, and (hang on to your hats!) Terry Stevenson! Of course, with Rose Ann and Richard on board—who have been guiding our Northern Peru tour for almost 20 years now—we expect to be competitive. Marcelo and Terry are new to Peru but are studying hard and will contribute that FG energy and humor for which they are well known.
The team is again birding for conservation bucks and we encourage FOFG (friends of Field Guides) to contribute either per species (they will be aiming for more than 600!) seen or a dollar amount. Especially those of you who have traveled with these guides in the past are encouraged to show your support! All donations generated will be directed to the BirdLife affiliate in Peru, Apeco. Apeco works to preserve and protect the habitat in northern Peru of the iconic hummingbird, the Marvelous Spatuletail (Loddigesia mirabilis) (see below!), a Peruvian endemic listed as endangered on the current Red List. With its wonderfully extravagant spatulate tail and male courtship dances, this superb hummingbird is a flagship species for the forests in the higher part of the micro-watersheds of the Tilacancha and Cruzhuayco rivers. The Apeco campaign supports a community reserve, the Private Conservation Area of Tilacancha, by raising its profile and encouraging the creation of reciprocal agreements for watershed conservation between users and land owners.
Call or email Peggy Watson at our office to make a pledge. Marcelo will be posting updates from the challenge on the Field Guides Facebook page and we’ll make sure you get those notifications as well as a post- challenge report.
Go team, go!
Jesse’s just posted some pics from the team in several status updates on our Facebook page (no need to be “on” FB–anyone can see our page). Looks like it’s going to be a photo finish with some great competition going to the wire! Check it out on our page here!
We love birds (of course!), but there are some iconic mammals that are welcome distractions on tour…check this one out, just sent in by guide Marcelo Padua from our ongoing Jaguar Spotting: Pantanal & Garden of the Amazon trip — wow!
Guide John Rowlett, who’s been busy in Brazil the past few weeks guiding two of our regular fall itineraries, just emailed the following from the Field Guides Brazil’s Cristalino Jungle Lodge tour he’s concluding:
“Yesterday we were treated to a Bald Parrot sitting along the Rio Cristalino paired with an Orange-cheeked Parrot! They sat atop a dead snag in beautiful early morning light vocalizing quietly to each other. As folks may know, this parrot was only named in 2002. As an adult this species has a completely unfeathered orange head, really bizarre looking (the head of the juveniles is feathered!). As I recorded a little of their voices, they left their perch and flew off down the Cristalino. Sensational!”
Visit our tour page for more information about future departures of this trip.
Guide Jesse Fagan has put together an informative overview page for our five itineraries to this great birding region (two to Guatemala and one each to El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize).
Get the scoop by visiting our overview or just click on the images below.
Here’s a post for the pure and simple aesthetic enjoyment of birds. Summer is our Galapagos season with multiple trips, and guide George Armistead returned with a set of lovely pics of everything from Sally Lightfoot crabs to sea lions to tree finches and Galapagos Rail. We thought it would be fun to focus on just a few of George‘s airborne ones from the tour and the incredible lightness of their beings.
Rose Ann Rowlett has put together a great overview page for our tours to bird-rich Ecuador. Not quite sure where to start in choosing a trip? Rose Ann’s insights can guide you through the process. Read more…
Ten itineraries from Amazonia to the Atlantic Forest to Iguazu Falls to the Pantanal? Sort through them all on our new overview page by Bret Whitney. Bret’s suggestions will help you choose among our various tours to this wonderful and richly diverse country. Perhaps Northeast Brazil in January or Rainforest & Savanna in June, Manaus in September or Southeastern Brazil in November? Yes, Brazil is an amazing and rewarding birding destination! Read on…
How do you choose among 8 itineraries to a country with more than 1800 species of birds? To give you a little help, we’ve put together a new overview page covering northern and southern Amazonian Peru as well as the Andes. Even if you’re not quite ready this year, it makes for some great virtual birding! Read on…
