My spring visit to Peru gave me a fount of inspiring material to publish. And my last stop on my adventure - two days and one night in Lima, a sprawling South American capital city - was surprisingly not a disappointment in that regard either. Like in every big city, house sparrows and rock pigeons populate the urban landscape. But a visit to a local landmark, the Larco Museum, reminded me why I started writing about the natural world in the first place: there are new and fascinating wildlife discoveries in every corner we look.
The Larco Museum displays a wide range of pre-Columbian art and craft work from most of the native cultures that called Peru home. Since the power and expanse of the Inca people was a recent phenomena when Francisco Pizarro conquered their empire, many other indigenous populations left a more extensive treasure trove of artifacts to admire today. At the Larco, both elegant and commonplace pieces from all these cultures, including the Moche, Chimu and Huari, fill the halls of an 18th century vice-royal building.
While its interesting to see the birds and other wildlife represented in the collection's artwork, a visit to the museum's garden offers an equally rewarding find in the form of living bird life. It didn't take long after sitting ourselves in the site's garden restaurant to observe a number of the museum's colorful avian residents.
While not surprising to see a dove, on closer inspection it turned out to be a West Peruvian, or Pacific, dove, a close relative to a common dove in Arizona, the white-winged. The lone flycatcher I observed also turned out to be an American Southwest native, a female vermilion flycatcher. A couple hummingbirds in the courtyard were less familiar and included at least one Amazilia hummingbird. Finally a busy wren-like bird flitting in the extensive collection of bougainvillea was not a wren at all but a bananaquit, a common bird throughout the American tropics.
Nearby the Larco, in central Lima's historic Plaza Mayor, is the site of the founding of Spain's capital city in the conquered region. It's a stately square surrounded by historic government buildings and churches. The Cathedral of Lima dominates one corner of the plaza and this iteration of the building was completed some hundred years later. Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru and Governor of New Castile, is interred in the church. But more interesting to me as a wildlife lover and natural history student were the scores of black vultures that roosted on the cathedral's bell towers, circling overhead and patiently waiting their own turn to feed on Peru's carrion.
The Larco Museum displays a wide range of pre-Columbian art and craft work from most of the native cultures that called Peru home. Since the power and expanse of the Inca people was a recent phenomena when Francisco Pizarro conquered their empire, many other indigenous populations left a more extensive treasure trove of artifacts to admire today. At the Larco, both elegant and commonplace pieces from all these cultures, including the Moche, Chimu and Huari, fill the halls of an 18th century vice-royal building.
While its interesting to see the birds and other wildlife represented in the collection's artwork, a visit to the museum's garden offers an equally rewarding find in the form of living bird life. It didn't take long after sitting ourselves in the site's garden restaurant to observe a number of the museum's colorful avian residents.
While not surprising to see a dove, on closer inspection it turned out to be a West Peruvian, or Pacific, dove, a close relative to a common dove in Arizona, the white-winged. The lone flycatcher I observed also turned out to be an American Southwest native, a female vermilion flycatcher. A couple hummingbirds in the courtyard were less familiar and included at least one Amazilia hummingbird. Finally a busy wren-like bird flitting in the extensive collection of bougainvillea was not a wren at all but a bananaquit, a common bird throughout the American tropics.
Nearby the Larco, in central Lima's historic Plaza Mayor, is the site of the founding of Spain's capital city in the conquered region. It's a stately square surrounded by historic government buildings and churches. The Cathedral of Lima dominates one corner of the plaza and this iteration of the building was completed some hundred years later. Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru and Governor of New Castile, is interred in the church. But more interesting to me as a wildlife lover and natural history student were the scores of black vultures that roosted on the cathedral's bell towers, circling overhead and patiently waiting their own turn to feed on Peru's carrion.
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| Larco Museum entrance from its bird-filled garden. |
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| Pre-Columbian textile, showing feline and bird images. |
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| Gold band in Larco Museum. |
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| Ear plugs. |
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| Funerary attire showing relationship to bird? |
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| West Peruvian dove or Pacific dove at Larco Museum. |
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| Amazilia hummingbird at Larco Museum. |
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| Amazilia hummingbird at Larco Museum. |
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| Female vermilion flycatcher at Larco Museum. |
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| Bananaquit at the Larco Museum. |
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| Black vulture over the Cathedral of Lima. |
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