Peru – Manu national park – Macaws

Manu Wildlife Center was another basic but comfortable bungalow in a very pretty garden setting. We got to see lots of birds, climbed up to a 36m treetop viewpoint (needing careful coaxing back down in Sabine’s case on the rickety spiral staircase) and went early morning to the macaw salt lick. We entered the blind, got a nice breakfast served and were waiting for the different parrots to start gathering before they dared to get down to the clay. The little tui parakeets were the most daring ones, while the yellow-crowned and blue-headed parrots were more reluctant. Most skittish the red-and-green macaws. They gathered in a flock of over 40 birds, slowly getting closer and closer to the lick until the close by trees were covered in macaws. After only few minutes munching some clay the suddenly all took off in full panic mode and left. Sadly for good reasons, later on the movie we saw a macaw getting grabbed by a cat and dragged into the bushes 🙁