turned toward her, and hovered a foot 

 away from her, liis body in a vertical po- 

 sition that showed off his gHttering green 

 gorget. He then lifted his tail plumes and 

 arched them, bringing the disks in front 

 of his head, his body swaying from side 

 to side. The dance lasted about thirty 

 seconds, but tailed to impress the female. 



During my intermittent visits, which 

 together add up to about six weeks ot 

 field observations, I have seen ten or 

 twelve mature males in their territories, 

 and between eighty and a hundred oth- 

 er spatuletails (females and young 

 males) . I've also been rewarded with the 

 sight of eleven other species of hum- 

 mingbird and other sought-after spe- 

 cies, such as the chestnut-crested cotin- 

 ga, the white-capped tanager, anci the 

 rare rusty-tinged antpitta. Myjoy, how- 

 ever, has been tempered by the large 

 scale of habitat destruction, as machetes 

 clear the fragments of surviving prima- 

 ry forest to make way for cultivation. 



Although litde is known, as I noted 

 earlier, about the ecology of the mar- 

 velous spatuletail, the scarcity of the bird 

 suggests it needs a specific combination 

 of plants and environmental conditions 

 to survive. Yet ornithologists don't 

 know what that combination is. All the 

 known populations of marvelous spat- 

 uletail lie outside the network of pro- 

 tected areas set aside by the Peruvian 

 government to conserve the country's 

 biodiversity. The risk that the species is 

 losing essential habitat is therefore great. 



Yet so iconic is the spatuletail, as a 

 symbol of the wealth and uniqueness 

 of Peruvian nature, that the species was 

 adopted as the logo for the Javier Pra- 

 do Natural History Museum in Lima. 

 Hence, as a major attraction for eco- 

 tourists, the marvelous spatuletail is 

 ideally positioned to serve as a power- 

 ful engine for the local economy. My 

 fear is that it may become extinct for 

 the sake of a few bags of potatoes. 



Ai>id birder Noam Shany is the co-aiithor, with 

 James F. Clements, of A Field Ckiide to the 

 Birds of Peru (Ibis Publishing, 2001). Under 

 a^^rant from Nature and Culture International, 

 he is ii'orkin\; with Peru's regional siovernment of 

 Lorelo to create a network of protected areas. 



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