Today we took the train from the Sacred Valley up to Aguas Calientes, the jumping-off point for Machu Picchu. As the train made its slow way up the valley of the Rio Urubamba we had plenty of time for birding out of the window. Sadly no sign of Andean Condor soaring overhead, but we did see Torrent Duck in the river. Once in Aguas Calientes itself, the best birding site we found was in the grounds of the extremely comfortable-looking Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. Here quite by chance we bumped into our good friend and excellent bird guide for Tropical Birding, Jose, with a group of American birders, some of whom we recognised from last year’s ABA Conference in Ecuador and who’d read our articles in the ABA members’ magazine – talk about small world!
We spent some time here watching the hummingbird feeders and added the endemic Green-and-White Hummingbird to our list. Amongst the other hummers was the Booted Racket-tail, not a new bird for our list as we had already seen this in Ecuador, but it looked very different here, with a splayed rather than straight racket-tail, and buff-coloured rather than white boots. Continuing along the trails through the humid forest, we watched a White-throated Quail-dove as it delicately picked its way amongst the tangled undergrowth. As we walked back along the river to our rather humbler accommodation, we saw White-capped Dipper of the dark-backed race, Black Phoebe and Torrent Tyrannulet.
Bird Species List 2819
Posted 26th July, Aguas Calientes, Peru