Sunlight in Bamboo: Rust and Yellow Tanager

2019
10 x 12in 
acrylic on masonite

Peru has over 1800 species of birds, and over 130 of them are tanagers. This remarkable family of birds can be found from high altitude cloud forests to the lowland jungle of the Amazon Basin. As you drop down from the Andes along the circuitous Manu road that will eventually take you to the end of the road (literally) at Atalaya, one experiences the change in biodiversity with each passing mile and subsequent drop in elevation. Dropping each thousand feet is like driving south 300 miles, and each bend in the road brings new discoveries unique to that elevation. Chusquea is a family of bamboo adapted to cooler alpine climates, and can be found just outside the Wayqecha Biological Station. The tropics have a whole range of ecosystems unique to Central and South America, such as these lush stands of Bamboo. As a result, a number of birds have evolved a unique relationship with the forests, and are known collectively as bamboo specialists. They live out their lives in an impenetrable world of dense thickets, and as such, are rarely seen and little known.

As we walked along the Manu road one morning, we encountered yet another mixed species flock, passing through the trees overhead. We stood in awe as hundreds of birds of many species flitted past us, giving us the briefest of glimpses of such feathered jewels. As it happened, we were standing beside a patch of Chusquea bamboo as the flock passed and not 2 meters away from us, a bamboo specialist, the Rust and Yellow Tanager, popped out of the darkness long enough for me to take a few photos, before disappearing back into the bamboo. Our guide, a professional with years of birding experience, was so excited at seeing this elusive bird he caught his breath, and froze in disbelief. After the bird had left, he told us we might never get to see one of it’s kind again, as the dense bamboo swallowed up one of it’s secrets. I knew then I had to paint it.