Turismo

The Peruvian Amazon supports over 2,000 species of birds, excluding the 250 or so aquatic species. This amount is almost a quarter of the world’s total (500 species in Europe, and 700 in North America). The number increases seasonally with migrants birds from Patagonia or North America. This is why in Muyuna we thought it was necessary to make a bird watching trip, because the people who wantto learn more about exotic birds will not find another paradise in the whole world like this one.

Even a non-ornithologist wants to see toucans, macaws and parrots, and this can be a reality in the environs of Muyuna Lodge. But, if you are a truly birdwatcher, we are sure you want to see other species. Our guides will help you to identify the different species of birds by their coloring andbehaviors. As part of our service, Muyuna offers bird watching excursions by day and by night. This will allow you to watch many rare species of the Peruvian Amazon.

You can see the hyacinth macaw (ara hyacinthus), that uses its powerful curved bill to break open hard nuts and seeds. It is the finest and rarest species of the parrot family. Macaws are widely distributed and still quitecommon. Our guides will help you to identify the different species by their coloring.

The main food of the toucans are fruits and their long bill is ideal to reach figs and berries at the ends of thin branches. They will prey on small animals and even eggs and nestling of other birds. The white-throated toucan’s frog-like croak is one of the free ways to avoid confusion with the nearly identicalyellow-ridged toucan, which has a polysyllabic yelp. Our guides are able to point out the difference.

Hummingbirds may move it wing up to 80 beats per second and need a meal every two hours. They can be seen close to the heliconia flower, which we have close to Muyuna Lodge.

Harpy eagle (harpia harpyja) is the world’s most powerful bird of prey. They are the major predators of monkeys andsloth. Other raptors, are eagles, hawks, kites, falcons, and owls. It is very common to see the black collared hawk.

The Hoatzin (opisthocomus hoazin) is known as the “prehistoric looking bird” because it has three claws at the middle wing joints, this fact is similar than the archoeopterix (feathered reptiles whose wings bore clows).

Their rumbustuous behaviour and loud calls of theoropendolas make them hard not to notice, also because they have chosen one tree of the lodge to put their nests.

During the nocturnal excursions, it is easy to see several owls (strigidae, otus choliba), nighthawks (caprimulgidae), the potoos (nyctibius spp), nightjars that have loud calls, pauraque (nyctidromus albicollis), sand-coloured nigththawk (chordeiles rupestris). These birds roost onriversides at night, and are easily picked out by their eye-shine reflected in torchlight.

Importance of the ALLPAHUAYO - MISHANA Reserve

The Allpahuayo – Mishana Reserve encompasses 57,667 hectares of land approximately 23 km south of Iquitos. Its rainforest is famous for their habitat heterogeneity. A combination of historical and geological events has created a mosaic of diverse soiltypes in the area, ranging from pure white quartzitic sands to red clays. Each one of these distinct edaphic formations supports a characteristic or unique community of plants and animals, wherefore Allpahuayo – Mishana contains one of the highest species diversities known in the Amazon basin. Many of the species are white-sand specialists, and are therefore very rare, due to the scarcity ofwhite-sand forests in this area and for several of them, these forests near Iquitos are their only known area of distribution in Peru. At least six new species of birds have been discovered within the last five years in Allpahuayo – Mishana. This reserve protects for the first time white-sand forets in Peru, and harbors the largest concentration known of this type of forest in the country.

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