Parrot News

18 May 2009

Discovering Claylicks

Alan Lee

When I first arrived in South America seven years ago, I had not heard of parrot claylicks. The first articles on macaws eating dirt on riverbanks had passed me by, so I had no idea that the forests of the Amazon concealed the remarkable phenomenon of parrots heading to patches of riverbank on a daily basis to eat clay. Although many species of parrot have been recorded eating dirt in various parts of the world, nowhere is it as regular and spectacular as on the ‘colpas’ of Peru. Here the birds go to consume soil that high in sodium and that binds natural toxins in their diets.

I had not been long in southeastern Peru as a Resident Naturalist at the Tambopata River’s first ecotourism lodge – Explorer’s Inn – when I got my first chance to visit one of these sites. My first experience, at what is a fairly minor claylick by the region’s standards, had me awestruck. The ‘colpita’ where the lodge takes their tourists, is a clay bank approximately 6m high and 15m wide. On this fairly small area of clay hundreds of Dusky-headed conures (Aratinga weddellii) vied for space with Blue-headed parrots (Pionus menstruus). These two smaller species were easily displaced by the larger birds: Mealy amazons (Amazona farinosa), Yellow-crowned amazons (Amazona ochrocephala) and Severe macaws (Ara severa).

Somewhere in the hum of wings and bitter squawk of a parrot jousted off its position, I’d catch a glimpse of bright red, which would come and go like trying to catch a glimpse of the region’s dazzling blue Morpho butterflies. What I was seeing was the underside of the wings of the Orange-cheeked parrot (Pyrilia barrabandi), a lot shier and less common at the claylick. When I finally fixed my binoculars on one perched precariously next to a Mealy amazon more than twice his size, my heart was stolen. The beautiful white-rimmed eyes, black head, with blushing cheeks contrasting with the emerald green body made this parrot my favourite of the region’s twenty species, and has been so ever since.

Unfortunately I could not enjoy the view forever; one of the many flushes soon had all the parrots flying up over the river in a multi-coloured blur of wings and great cacophony of calls. Sometimes these flushes are due to disturbances we can identify from the blind – a passing boat, low flying vulture or an approaching Tayra (Eira barbara), but often there seems to be no cause at all; it’s just mass paranoia. Sometimes the fear of coming to the ground to feed was so great it would keep the birds away completely. There was always suspense amongst us observers: would they feed today? Would we be treated to an unrivalled visual spectacle or would our 4am early morning wake-up and hour long wait on an unpadded wooden bench be in vain?

Despite the odd disappointment from a rained out morning, watching the claylick was one of my favourite forest activities as a resident naturalist at Explorer’s Inn. With rumour of bigger and better claylicks upriver, I was itching to get a chance to head to new locations. My chance came at last to go as an assistant guide to ‘Chuncho’, a special camping trip to a big colpa. Big is a good description of this claylick. Located half an hour upriver by boat from the last park control post and human settlements, it’s up to one kilometer long, and ten meters high. And the number of birds that visited the next sunny morning was beyond my ability to count. Apart from the species I had become used to seeing, there were also lots of White-eyed conures (Aratinga leucophthalma), and the first Green-wing macaws (Ara chloropterus) appeared in the trees. If I thought waiting for the early morning feeders to come down was suspenseful, the large macaws really were in no rush and it was several hours before the first macaws started to drift to a long Shebon palm (Attalea sp) frond over the clay. I was concentrating so much on this build up I had missed the arrival of some Scarlet (Ara macao), and Blue-and-gold macaws (Ara ararauna). When they did finally all come down, the visual spectacle of swirling primary colours was addictive. I wanted more.

During my guiding time at Explorer’s Inn I had heard about the Tambopata Macaw Project, which took volunteers to help monitor various aspects of macaw ecology at the Tambopata Research Centre (TRC). It also seemed that Jaguar (Panthera onca) sightings on the long boat trip to TRC were not uncommon. Since I had not seen that iconic Amazon mammal, I decided that the volunteer experience was something I needed.

Although my application was successful, I was initially disappointed to hear that I would be posted at Posada Amazonas, a community owned lodge downriver from Explorer’s Inn. The claylick here, ‘Hermosa’ (meaning beautiful) is intermediate in size. However, Posada turned out to be special from two points of view. The viewing blind was just 30m from the face of the claylick where the Green-wing macaws would feed, allowing great close up experiences. Secondly, I was introduced to a different claylick experience: those hidden in the forest interior. The blind to the claylick away from the river at Posada is very close, allowing intimate views of Blue-headed parrots and Mealy amazons.

This claylick is special for a number of reasons: regular sightings of Rock parakeets (Pyrrhura rupicola), a species I had not seen on any other of the large claylicks; and in the afternoon flocks of two hundred or more Cobalt-winged parakeets (Brotogeris cyanoptera) descend, turning the small gulley between blind and claylick into a tornado of green and blue. These parakeets, unlike the other parrots that predictably feed in the early morning, feed in large numbers and less predictable locations and sites. This is probably their predator evasion technique. When there are no parrots at this claylick one has a chance to observe the many other animals that also eat clay, but on a quieter and more subdued scale. These include two families of birds: pigeons and guans; and almost all the herbivorous mammals: agouti, squirrel, capybara, porcupine, deer, peccary and tapir.

After a month at Posada I finally got to travel to TRC and the ‘Colpa Colorada’ (Red claylick). It was a dream come true – it was January and we were counting upwards of 400 Mealy amazons, 400 White-eyed conures and the same number again of the biggest mix of parrots I’d ever seen at a claylick. Of the twenty species recorded in the surrounding forests, everyone except Rock parakeet has been recorded on the claylick at some time or another over the history of monitoring by the Tambopata Macaw Project. Fifteen species visit regularly. One of these is the endangered Blue-headed macaw (Primolius couloni), a Peruvian near-endemic. It only appears on the lick in small numbers and one has to search the multitude of Red-bellied (Orthopsittaca manilata) and Severe macaws carefully, or listen out for their nasal call. The near threatened Amazonian parrotlet (Nannopsittaca dachilleae) can sometimes be seen, along with Dusky-billed parrotlets (Forpus modestus), at a section further up from the main claylick. But apart from the sheer diversity of parrots, one of the unforgettable experiences is the large mixed flocks of Blue-and-gold, Scarlet and Green-wing macaws. Up to 200 individuals gather from mid-morning onwards, a spectacle that is a privilege to behold.

Since that time I have visited many other claylicks. Each one is unique and distinct in the mix of birds that it attracts. ‘La cachuela’ just outside the busy town of Puerto Maldonado, attracts not only Dusky-headed conures and Blue-headed parrots, but also Blue-headed macaw. In terms of numbers of Blue-headed macaws, Pantiacolla claylick of the upper Madre-de-dios River cannot be beaten. Just upriver from that, a claylick close to the lodges Masquoitania and Erica’s has even been rumoured to be frequented by Military macaw (Ara militaris). The ‘El Gato’ claylick, unlike most other macaw claylicks that attract mostly Green-wing macaws, is visited mostly by Scarlet macaws. There are claylicks on the Amigos River visited by a member of the Painted parakeet complex – the Rose-fronted parakeet (Pyrrhura roseifrons), while on the Heath River Peach-fronted conures (Aratinga aurea) and Orange-winged amazons (Amazona amazonica) can be observed. Where there aren’t big banks of clay, for instance around Sandoval Lake, Blue-and-gold macaws, White-bellied caiques (Pionites leucogaster), Red-bellied macaws and Red-shouldered macaws (Diopsittaca nobilis) tuck into the bark of palm trees, much like other species do at claylicks. As one travels east from this parrot claylick hotspot, species diversity drops off. The eastern most claylicks we know of in Alta Floresta, central Brazil, are only visited by Crimson-bellied conure (Pyrrhura perlata).

A few years ago Biosphere Expeditions, a company that integrates ordinary people into scientific survey work, contracted me to head up the Las Piedras River to help monitor the impacts of boat traffic on colpas. The boat traffic was generated by a boom in the mahogany trade. The loggers drift their wood in rafts down the rivers and to sustain themselves during their weeks long journey they often hunt riverside wildlife, including macaws on claylicks. Despite the hunting I was impressed that this river still has a high density of parrot claylicks. Thanks to the establishment of the Las Piedras Biodiversity Stations and support from Biosphere, the associated claylick now has the highest numbers of Green-wing macaws of any claylick I have seen.

Still, conservation success stories like that are few and far between. There is great concern about increasing deforestation following the paving of a highway through the Tambopata area, bisecting the protected areas of Manu and the Tambopata National Reserve. Associated deforestation will isolate areas used by blue-and-yellow macaws, with unknown consequences on local populations. And the market for the hardwoods of macaw nesting trees continues to increase. How long we will continue to witness these awesome natural spectacles is of grave concern to conservationists and the ecotourism industry. A visit to the claylicks is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in parrots or amazing wildlife spectacles. Just be careful – they can also be addictive!