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This bronzy inca hummingbird is zeroing in on his next meal. He had already inserted his beak in the flower to the right and in this shot he is just about to feed off the second flower. If you look carefully you can see that he has dislodged some pollen from the first flower.
Bronzy incas live in humid montane forests from the northern Andes in Venezuela south to southeast Bolivia. These birds are often considered to be among the drabbest of hummingbirds but if you get them in the right light light you can see a rich range of colours.
I photographed this bronzy inca at the Cock of the Rock Lodge in Manu National Park in Peru.
Collared Inca, Ecuador, March 28, 2016
Coeligena torquata
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Another of the 41 hummingbirds we saw on our trip.
Collared Incas are extremely quick fliers but occasionally identify themselves in the forest by flashing open their white tails. These large hummers frequent humid montane forests—especially those that are dense and moss-filled, and also live around shrubby forest edges. They tend to feed low in dense, tangled shrubs and hover underneath flowers to feed. Both males and females have white outer tail feathers and large chest patches. The chest patch is either white or rufous, depending on geographic location.
Inca Tern at the Lisbon Oceanarium
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This beautiful Inca Tern (Larosterna inca) is the only species of tern to nest on rock formations such as cliffs or caves.
It inhabits the Peruvian coast as well as a section of northern Chile.
I photographed this unmistakable adult on a rocky peer not too far away from Miraflores, Lima. I find fascinating how tame and used to people this terns are.
Description
The Inca tern is roughly 39 to 42 cm (15 to 17 in) long and weighs between 180 to 210 g (6.3 to 7.4 oz). Its plumage is uniquely colorful, among terns; adults have a mostly dark, slate-gray body, with a paler throat and underwing coverts. A white stripe extends back from the base of the bill and fans-out as long, satiny feathers along the side of the neck. The trailing edge of their wing, and the edges of the four outer primaries, are white. Their tail is black and moderately forked. Their iris is brown, with legs and feet that are dark red. Their bill is dark red with bare yellow skin at the base. Chicks are, upon hatching, a purplish-brown, progressing through brownish-gray before developing mature plumage. The chicks' bills and legs are dark and horn-colored, and gradually attain the red of adults'.
Distribution and habitat
The Inca tern is an inhabitant of the Humboldt Current region. It breeds from Lobos de Tierra, in northern Perú, south to the Aconcagua River, near Valparaíso, Chile. Some disperse north into Ecuador after breeding. It is a casual visitor to Panamá and Costa Rica, and has also been recorded as a vagrant in Guatemala and Hawaii. The Hawaiian documented birds, in particular, remained from March through November on the Hawaiian archipelago.
The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society treats the Inca tern's presence in Colombia as "hypothetical", due to a number of unverified or undocumented sightings. On the biodiversity database iNaturalist, one 'research-grade' sighting (with photo) has been documented from the coast of Buenaventura, Colombia's Isla Cascajal, dated July 2023.
The Inca tern nests on sea cliffs and guano islands, as well as manmade structures (such as ledges under piers) and abandoned barges. It will gather with other sea and shorebirds on sandy beaches.
The famous Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is a particular trek in the world. Inca Trail sets out from the kilometer 82 of the Cusco - Quillabamba railway, and takes three to four days of tough hiking. The route runs through an impressive range of altitudes, where climates and eco-systems range from the high Andean plain down to the cloud forests. The Inca Trail climbs up through two highland passages, (the higher of the two, Warmiwañuska, lies at 4,200 m.a.s.l.) before reaching Machu Picchu through the Inti Punku or Gateway of the Sun. One of the attractions of the trail is that it winds carved granite Inca settlements (Wiñay Wayna, Phuyupatamarca), all of these surrounded by a breathtaking natural scenery.
The forests abound in hundreds of species of orchids, brightly-colored birds and dream-like landscapes, the ideal complement to this indispensable hikers' route. Machu Picchu was connected in the past with the city of Cusco and the rest of the Inca empire by amazing trails, specifically designed for the use of the Incas in perfect harmony with the flora and fauna of the area. It has to be said that they had an absolutely wonderful knowledge of architecture and construction. Throughout the whole trail you can locate some shelters surrounded by gorgeous country sites and great views. Some of the Inca Trail lead you to a few archeologycal remains. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is known as the most famous and tough hiking circuit all over South America, because of the conjunction of different elements that it offers to its visitors.
Inca Trail TO MACHU PICCHU ITINERARY:
First Day on Inca Trail : Cusco - Huayllabamba
An hour ride by private bus takes us to Urubamba and then to the Ollantaytambo village, where we stop for 30 or 50 minutes to organize the porters and have the optional breakfast, after which we continue to the 82 Km, the starting of the trail. During 5 or 6 hours we hike to the village. Includes: lunch, dinner and camping.(3,000 m .s .n .m.) (9 000 ft).
Second Day on Inca Trail : Huayllabamba-Pacamayu
A steeper climb takes us through the area of rain forest and up to Llulluchapampa and the valley. There are some very good views on the way to the Warmiwañusca Passage (4 200 m. s .n .m.) (13 700 ft.). That hike takes us 5 hours approximately. After the passage we steep down again into the valley of Pacaymayu.
Third Day on Inca Trail : Pacymayu-Wiñayhuayna
At 7:00a.m. we get along climbing to the second passage. Glancing from here we`ll look at the first pass and forward to the high snow capped mountain known as the cordillera Vilcabamba. By crossing to the other side of the Runcuracay passage (3,800m.s.n.m.)(12,900ft.), we quickly notice a change in the vegetation, since we have now crossed the continent divided between the highlands and the Amazon basin. The Inca Trail itself by now has become more apparent: a defined path made of flat boulders descending into the valley where we`ll get at the ruins of Sayacmarca. After having crossed the dry lake, we enter in the rain forest; the trees are adorned with orchids, paradise flowers and flock of parrots can be see on the Inca Trail , with an unforgettable fowl lodge along the valley. At one point we had been passed through an Inca tunnel, before getting at the ruins of Phuyupatamarca, the third passage (3,600m.s.n.m.)(11,600ft.). Far away we get glimpses of Pumasillo and Salkantay and, thousands of feet below, once again the Urubamba river. Soon we can see the MACHU PICCHU huge mountain around it. The long dessert begins about 2 hours downwards the lodge of Wiñaywayna.
Fourth Day on Inca Trail : Wiñayhuayna-MACHU PICCHU
Finally we walk one hour to the Sun`s Gate after having watched the impresing view of Machu Picchu (new wonder of the world), and the full grandiose of the greatest archaeological remains ever revealed. We arrive at 6.00 a .m. before the majority of the tourists arrive, so we can appreciate in all its whole magnificence this magical citadel. Later we get the afternoon train from Aguas Calientes returning to Cusco.
www.arqueologiadelperu.com/knotting-the-past-new-khipu-ar...
Dr. Alejandro Chu (left) removing khipu from storage facility floor (photo by Gary Urton).
[caption id="attachment_755417" align="alignright" width="300"] (Courtesy Gary Urton) Inca khipu[/caption]
Archaeologists excavating an Inca storehouse at the site of Inkawasi on Peru’s south coast have unearthed 34 khipus, the knotted-string devices once used by the Andean people for keeping records. Some khipus encode purely numerical data, while others contain deeper forms of information, such as records of historical events—but these remain undeciphered. Many of the Inkawasi khipus were found with or covered by the remains of produce, such as peanuts, black beans, and chili peppers, and it’s likely they were used to keep track of those crops when they were brought to storage. Analysis of the khipus shows that some subtract a fixed value from tallies at regular intervals, and could possibly represent a state tax. Harvard archaeologist Gary Urton, who has studied the Inkawaski khipus, is hopeful that understanding the archive may eventually contribute to reading more elaborate examples. “Our income tax forms and our novels use the same alphabet. If we can learn how to read a chili pepper khipu or a peanut khipu,” says Urton, “it might help us in the long run to read the khipus that record historical events.”
“Let me make this clear, that we cannot read khipus,” Dumbarton Oaks Visiting Professor Gary Urton told a crowd of assembled Fellows, staff, and Pre-Columbian scholars as he began to present his findings on a cache of khipus recently uncovered at Inkawasi, an archaeological site located on the south coast of Peru.
Urton, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard and Anthropology Department Chair, has spent much of the last two decades studyingkhipus, the knotted-string devices that the Inca used for record-keeping across the vast Andean empire. While neither Urton nor anyone else can read khipus,twentieth-century anthropologists were able to decode the numeric significance of the knots in khipus, and Urton has done much to delineate their structural elements.
Although the Spanish conquistadores were also unable to read khipus, Urton explained, when they arrived in Peru they understood the value of the khipu and thekhipukamayuq—or khipu-keeper, who both created and read khipus—in providing them with the data they would need to establish their colonial state in the lands of the Inca empire. “They systematically called in the khipu-keepers and had them read their khipus out, and they copied down the information, and that became the basis of our earliest records,” Urton said.
The Spaniards, he continued, also knew about the casas publicas, or public houses, the term used by chroniclers for the archives full of the knotted cords that were maintained by the khipukamayuqs. Working with Carrie Brezine, a PhD student, Urton was able in the past to identify twelve different archives of khipus,which helped provide provenances for about 220 of the 845 khipus that are known to archaeologists.
A new khipu archive, the subject of Urton’s lecture, has recently been discovered at the site of Inkawasi, an Inca storehouse and administrative center in the dry Cañete Valley on the south coast of Peru. “The site was apparently built when the Incas moved down from Cusco to the south coast to begin conquering the people” there, Urton said. Spanish accounts of the city, he continued, suggest that it was built exactly like Cusco, with each structure and hill named after those that existed in the Inca capital.
In Inkawasi, archaeologists uncovered a storehouse comprised of open sorting areas, large rectangular callancas (storage buildings), and smaller storage bins that surrounded the central sorting areas and callancas. In this storehouse, beginning in 2013, excavators working under the direction of archaeologist Alejandro Chu found several khipus buried under collections of produce, including chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans. “We have, for the first time ever, an archaeologically attested-to association between khipus and products that they presumably were being used to account for,” Urton noted. Among these khipuswere several pairs that displayed “linking” or “matching” tendencies. Linked khipus are two or more khipus tied together, “like stapling documents together or putting them in a file,” while matched khipus record similar or identical data, “maybe even like a double-entry bookkeeping system,” Urton suggested.
Further evidence of administrative organization came when excavators found that the floors of the storage areas in Inkawasi were covered with damp mud, into which ropes were pressed to impose a grid structure across the floor. Urton’s colleague, Alejandro Chu, hypothesized that the grid was probably used for counting small items of produce. “You don’t count peanuts, you don’t count beans,” Urton explained. “The squares produced on the grid-like floor surface . . . became the accounting units,” he said.
The question that the discovery of the khipu and these accounting units begin to answer, Urton suggested, is, “How, in one of these ancient states in the pre-electronic era, or pre-automobile era, or pre-any kind of automatic movement or sending messages, do you effect control at a distance?”
Recognizing the role that the Inca troops played in providing much of the muscle for Inca rulers as they consolidated power across the Andes, Urton underscored the key role of the khipukamayuqs in exerting control over subjects by naming, counting, recording, and maintaining information. Furthermore, Urton suggested, the findings at Inkawasi—evidence of accounting units and archaeological circumstances that directly link khipus to the physical remnants that they may have described—provide real data that will assist in creating historical accounts rooted in demographics and statistics instead of only “great-man” narrative accounts.
“Not only do we learn more about administration, but we use it as a gateway into writing history in a new way,” Urton concluded.
This 'back door' to Machu Picchu from the west traverses a steep cliff. The stone wall built up from below to allow passage includes a deep notch covered by wooden planks. This served as a drawbridge that could be pulled up by defenders to hinder access by invaders.
Flock of Inca Doves getting fat on my neighbors Rye (winter) grass seeds. This is just a very small part as there had to be a dozen Inca doves in total.
At the end of the narrowing trail, a new gate bars hikers from the rickety plank crossing. In Inca times, the trail continued for miles to barracks that housed Machu Picchu's builders. The construction workers were conscripted from several parts of the Inca empire, some for their particular skills, others for their familiarity with designs suitable to the terrain.
CLASSIC INCA TRAIL TO MACHUPICCHU 4D/3N
Inca Trail Description: Overview
Visitors come from all parts of the world to Peru, not only to see Machu Picchu but to walk the Inca Trail, the most famous hike in South America.
They come to see the ruins and the scenery which makes this trail so famous.
The Inca tern (Larosterna inca) is a seabird in the family Sternidae. It is the only member of the genus Larosterna.
This uniquely plumaged bird breeds on the coasts of Peru and Chile, and is restricted to the Humboldt current. It can be identified by its dark grey body, white moustache on both sides of its head, and red-orange beak and feet.
The Inca tern is a large tern, approximately 40 cm long. Sexes are similar; the adult is mostly slate-grey with white restricted to the facial plumes and the trailing edges of the wings. The large bill and legs are dark red. Immature birds are purple-brown, and gradually develop the facial plumes.
The Inca tern breeds on rocky cliffs. It nests in a hollow or burrow or sometimes the old nest of a Humboldt penguin, and lays one or two eggs. The eggs are incubated for about 4 weeks, and the chicks leave the nest after 7 weeks.
The Inca tern feeds primarily on small fish, such as anchovies. The species spots its prey from the air, diving into the water to grab meals with its pointed beak. Its call is a cat-like mew.
Santa Barbara Zoo. California.
DESCRIPTION
The four-day Inca Trail trek will reward you with a stunning combination of the Cusco’s Incan sites, mountainscapes and cloud forests. Because we run our own treks, we can ensure the fair treatment of our porters and the quality of food and equipment so that you’re free to enjoy the beauty of the region.
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is physically challenging but worthwhile, and the excursion is within the ability of most reasonably fit.
It is a 45-km (30 miles) hike, with 3 high passes to be crossed, one of which reaches an elevation of 4200m (13776 ft). The inca trail is often steep, and it may rain even during the dry season. The temperatures at night may fall below zero, so it is important to come prepared.
Common name: Inca Tern
Scientific name: Larosterna inca
Distribution: Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Conservation status (IUCN): Near Threatened