Weeks 2 and 3: Mornings with Motmots

After submitting my last post, I realized that I failed to mention the name of the organization that I am interning under. The research projects I am assisting in are carried out by Fauna Forever. Fauna Forever collects important ecological data about the wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon to support the conservation of its resources, landscapes, and plant and animal populations. I am primarily working with their bird and herpetology teams during my stay.

Group photo of Fauna Forever's current herpetology team. 

This week I planned to detail what a day in my life looks like, but ironically enough, these past couple of weeks were much more sporadic in terms of day to day activities. On a typical day of field work, I join a crew in the early morning for bird banding and assist with a herpetology (amphibian and reptile) transect in the evening. However, our work largely depends on the state of the weather. Any rain or strong winds could disrupt our schedule due to the danger of tree falls and impacts to animal safety. The weather, coupled with several days of fun activities and excursions, has resulted in an exciting and variable past couple of weeks.

Views above the canopy.

“The early bird catches the worm” and the early biologist catches the bird. On an average day, I am up at 4:30 am, eating breakfast at 5:00, and ready to go out into the rainforest by 5:30. Birds forage and are most active in the cooler morning hours and therefore, this is the best time to study them. An unfortunate interest to have as someone who is not a morning person, but I suppose this goes to show just how much of a bird nerd I am. 

Setting up mist nets for bird banding.

The technique that Fauna Forever uses to monitor birds is referred to as bird banding or, as the Brits would call it, bird ringing. The first step to the banding process is net set up. Each morning, we open 6-10 mist nets in predetermined locations. These nets, similarish looking to volleyball nets, are strung between two poles and have fine mesh pockets to maintain a somewhat incognito appearance. They are checked every 40 minutes to ensure that no bird has been left in the net for too long. Birds that fly into these nets are carefully extracted and taken back to our station to collect data about them. Our station consists of a deconstructable plastic table, a banding kit that is carried to the station each day, and 5 plastic chairs (3 of which are fully functional). The birds that are brought back to the station are identified to the species level and given a unique tracking number (similar to a license plate number) through the application of a small, aluminum band. This band is put on the tarsus (lower leg) of the bird. The bird is aged, sexed, weighed, and measured in a timely manner. It is then safely released with a little bit of ankle bling. In a later post, I will go more into depth on the bird banding process and give the reasons for this research method.

Processing my first bird in the tropics!

Amazonian motmot that we banded this past week.

Nets are closed at 10 and we usually return to camp just before 11 am. By this time, I am covered in the sweat and mud of the forest and am usually in desperate need of a shower. I try to squeeze this in before lunch but I will admit, finding the motivation can be hard at times knowing the heat and humidity will catch up to me and my shower will be quickly undone. At 12, lunch is served and the interns gather to eat and chat. The rest of the afternoon is left open for free time, laundry, and naps (which are a necessity). Recently I’ve been picking up some jiu jitsu with the help of two of the assistant coordinators. Never thought I’d be arm barring biologists in the middle of the Amazon but here we are. It has been a fun evening activity that we often follow by playing FUTBOL (not soccer, the Dutch will be upset) and volleyball.

Volleyball shenanigans.

At 6, we all reconvene for dinner before heading out for night walks. There are two groups that conduct transects at night: the herpetology team and the mammal team. I tend to go with the herp team as we get to handle snakes and frogs and will sometimes run into mammals on our walks. It's kind of a running joke with the team that the herpers tend to see more mammals than the actual mammal team itself. The walks typically follow a transect and any herp species that is seen along the transect is recorded and data is collected about their weight, length, and sex. It has been fun to learn a lot about the frogs and snakes in the region. I’ve gotten much more into the herp world than I expected to. We usually arrive back at the station around 11 for a post herp “flaking.” Flaking refers to the process of consuming massive bowls of cornflakes and cereal to refuel after night transects. Sometimes if we’re not too tired, we’ll watch a movie while we flake. Then it’s off to bed and all to be repeated the next day. We usually have a day off each week in which we will go on various excursions. 

Conducting a herp transect in a stream.

Ameerega trivittata (three-striped poison frog) observed on a transect.

One of the highlights of my stay so far has been visiting the Chuncho Lodge bird tower. At roughly 130 feet tall, this tower involved a LOT of stairs. Walking up each flight revealed a new level of the canopy. Starting from the shaded forest floor and emerging above the canopy was quite a breathtaking experience. Living in a very forested area and hiking amongst trails with large amounts of tree cover makes it hard to view canopy wildlife or to even get direct sunlight at times. Seeing the rainforest from such a different perspective was really amazing and the birding was phenomenal. A few highlight species of the trip included: A flock of Paradise Tanagers, a Plum-throated Cotinga, a Chestnut-eared Aracari, and a couple of Red-and-green Macaws.

View of the base of the tower.

Another exciting trip involved spending a morning hiking to a pond to find Hoatzins. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the species, these prehistoric looking creatures are often referred to as “stinkbirds.” This name can be attributed to their diet. Hoatzins forage in swampy areas, eating plant material and fermenting it with their large crops. Unfortunately, we did not have the privilege of getting a whiff of their manure-like aroma. However, we were lucky enough to see two of these birds out of stink range.

Hoatzin! Photo was taken by Ada Alden. Her photography account is a_and_e_photos_ if you're interested in seeing more amazing wildlife pictures!

Up next week: birds! I will be going over some of the species in the area and taking a deeper dive into Fauna Forever’s data collection processes. Thanks for reading!