Peru: Tambopata Reserve – Colorado Clay Lick
This clay lick is beyond world famous – it’s been featured in multiple nature documentaries on National Geographic and BBC. Thousands of macaws and parrots descend on the large open vertical clay cliff along the river bank. That is if you are lucky and if you have an insane zoom of a lense – the observation hide is on the other side of the river and quite far. But it’s still an incredible spectacle and worth waking up at insane 5am and freezing your ass in the boat on the way here. Before the sunrise – the clay lick is empty and quiet. Then with the first rays – hundreds of green parrots (multiple species) arrive, loud and screaming and perfectly blending with the green canopy (you can’t even see them in the pictures, but there are hundreds of them here). Macaws come next – all six species that live in this region were present: Scarlet, Blue and yellow, Red and green, Chestnut-fronted, Red-bellied, and Blue-headed. For some reason, they didn’t descend down to the clay lick – wether they were still full of clay from previous feedings or more likely there was a predator nearby.
