With a massive variety of birds and animals its hard to know where to begin!

The macaw clay lick is possibly the number one highlight. Its difficult not to be impressed by the sight of up to 150 brightly coloured macaws perched in trees, preening, calling and generally showing off! We watch the spectacle from the other side of the river from inside a small hide which offers us an incredible view of the whole proceedings. Parrots and macaws visit the lick daily to feed on the minerals in the clays, the exact reason for this behaviour is not yet fully understood but the most likely theory points towards the need for extra minerals in the diet especially when there are young chicks in the nest. (links to articles by Dr Brightsmith) The highest numbers of birds can be seen between November and February but there is activity all year round.

All the wildlife photos on this site have been taken around the lodge.

Red and Green macaws at the clay lick

Another highlight is the abundance and variety of wildlife that can be seen. As the lodge is quite far from town there has been less hunting and fewer human impacts on the mammal populations making it the best spot to see larger monkeys such as Spider monkeys and larger ground animals such as peccaries (wild pigs). At night we have frequent encounters with a wild cat called an Ocelot and are lucky enough to have an extemely rare species, the Giant Armadillo living near the lodge.

Jaguar

Giant Armadillo

There are in total 9 species of monkey living in the forest around the lodge and the majority of volunteers that visit the station during a 14 day trip will see all of these species, proving how easy it really is to see animals in the area.

If you are a bird watcher then here is the list of the species we've encountered so far around the station by clicking here. More unusal species that are of particular note include Long crested pygmy tyrant,Selva Cacique, Red billed Pied Tanager, Black Tinamou, Black-faced Cotinga, Purus Jacamar, White-throated Jacamar, Ash-throated Gnateater, sulphur bellied tyrant manakin, Long billed Woodcreeper, Crested Owl and Scaled Pigeon.

The canopy platform is another highlight you can visit near the lodge. Built in the crown of a strangler fig tree it gives us a fantastic view over the canopy of flood plain forest and a completely new perspective on the forest. At 28m though its not for the faint hearted! To climb it we use harnesses and ropes and then there are 2 options - either to climb up the tree (climbing experts only!) or by winch (for the rest of us!). The trip up and down is a fantastic part of the adventure. As fig tree is still alive the view is slightly obscured by branches but the branches also offer some camoflage for us and depending on your luck you may have fantastic views of parrots and macaws flying by on the way to the clay lick or monkeys swinging through the canopy on the way to their next feeding spot.

The easy way up

View from the top

We also have several mammal clay licks, one of which has a small hide from where if you are luckily its possible to see monkeys, deer, peccaries or even a tapir coming to drink and feed on the clay minerals.

Peccaries

White lipped tapir