Birds of the Amazonian River Islands
By Jose Álvarez Alonso
According to Clements & Shany (“A Guide to the Birds of Peru”, 2001), Peru supports the highest number of birds of any country, with more than 1,800 species. This extraordinary diversity is largely due to the great diversity of habitats associated with the variability of soils of distinct origins, texture, age, drainage, state of oxidation, and nutrient content, derived from the erosion of the Andes.
The area around Iquitos, in the lowland tropics of north-east Peru is especially rich in plants and animals, including birds. According
Elaenia pelzelni - Brownish Elaenia
to Dr. Haven Wiley, Professor of the University of North Carolina, who has compiled a list of birds collected, seen or recorded in and around the city of Iquitos by numerous scientists who have visited the region during the last 150 years, the area is the Mecca of avian diversity: more than 800 species, more than 1 in every 12 species found on earth, can be seen in the area. It should be remembered that this refers to a single biogeographic realm, of lowland tropical forests, between 110 and 150 m above sea-level.
The existence of such different bird communities is a due to the diversity of habitats found in the area. There are groups of birds associated with distinct types of forest and other vegetative formations, which grow on different soils and under different drainage conditions. These include terre firme forest on poor soils, amongst which those of white sand are particularly noticeable, forest on non-flooding nutrient rich soils, flooded forests on white waters or varzea, flooded forests on black water or igapó, various successional habitats associated with river islands, palm swamps, marshes, shrub-dominated swamps, bambooo-dominated forest and various others.
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