For Neoptropical Birders
 

LSU recently set a "Big Day" record in northern Peru. They've posted photos on their Flickr stream, some real rarities as well as those we've all seen

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125774630@N05/page1/

What beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing.

Wow, fantastic photos indeed. Thanks for posting.

The Long-whiskered Owlet and Striped Owl are amazing looking. Gotta love tanagers.

But the Purple-Breasted Jumping Twitcher seemed pretty unusual!

LOL Nelson. I also like the Red Umbrella-Crowned one.

Really inspires me to make a visit to Tarapoto etc. I've been nearby but could not find a birding guide from Chachapoyas.

I found this package online.

http://www.habitatsperu.com/english/...d-owlet-trail/

mlgb, We are birders 101. We incorporate a bit of birding as a side-line on any trip, but are not serious enough go on a full-blown birding trip. But seeing one of those owlets in the wild would be incredible!

Our best tropical birding was years ago when we spent about a week at Wilson Gardens in Costa Rica. Really amazing. Also Asa Wright in Trinidad.

... and we are considering spending considerably more than we thought we might on new lightweight travel binocs, as our old Nikon Travelites are fading. Considering the Leica Ultravid 8x20, we saw them in Cabellas, but still mulling over that. A chunk of change.

I'm like you Nelson. I will add in time for birding as part of a larger trip. If I can find a good local guide that's my preference, not a full-on international twitcher tour.

I bought a pair of Minox binocs last year through Camera Land, great service.

I crave a pair of Swarovskis or Leicas but would freak out traveling with $2000 worth of binoculars. I would sleep with them on!

<I>"I'm like you Nelson".</I> Me three :)!

The more expensive binoculars haven't caught my fancy yet. I <b>love</b> my Nikon Travelites! My first pair is probably almost 20 years old, now slightly misaligned after I dropped them :( so I got a second pair last year.

Interesting conversation considering we're not 'real' birders, don't you think? ;)

<i>The more expensive binoculars haven't caught my fancy yet</i>
We made the mistake of looking through some at Cabellas, where they have samples for all budgets. A dangerous and foolish thing to do! We made the same mistake buying speakers many years ago. But we still have those speakers.

Our 15-20 year old Travelites (second pair) are now misaligned and/or the coating is coming off the glass. They need to be replaced.

We'll see where this goes ...

"A dangerous and foolish thing to do!"

On occasion I think I want to own a spotting scope but then slap myself (figuratively).

There is a 8x40 Zeiss Conquest on sale for half off at Camera Land
http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/z...conquest524508

A step up but not Swarovision

Thanks for that mlgb. Great price on those Zeiss.

We were looking for something smaller and lighter (with associated tradeoffs). It was one of these two that we foolishly looked at in Cabellas. Now I'm not sure which model (ultravid I think), guess we have to go back.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Binocular.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...R_Compact.html

Cabellas did have Swarovision :-) but we had to reject those ...

That would be nice to have a lightweight pair for travel. I have no idea what the tradeoff is vs a bigger pair.

Big issue is exit pupil size, binos have to be precisely adjusted to fit your eyes. We have the same issue with our old Travelites, but get used to it. However, whenever we look through a larger binoc, then the difference is noticeable.

But a worthwhile tradeoff for the size and weight in our opinion. More info:
http://www.betterviewdesired.com/com...e%20Big%20Plus