{"id":50011635,"date":"2018-09-28T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=11635"},"modified":"2023-01-26T11:29:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T11:29:32","slug":"11635-chinese-ecotourists-in-hunt-for-colombias-rare-cock-of-the-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/11635-chinese-ecotourists-in-hunt-for-colombias-rare-cock-of-the-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese ecotourists in hunt for Colombia’s rare cock-of-the-rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor ten minutes we have to stay here quietly. He will only come to us if we\u2019re very still and make no noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ornithologist C\u00e9sar Arredondo\u2019s orders, given in a low voice, are translated into English and then into Chinese. A group of Chinese photographers sit waiting obediently in the middle of a humid forest behind erected tripods and cameras which, owing to their size, look more like telescopes.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, an electric orange flash appears. A small bird with a half-moon-shaped crest, about the size of a raven, rests on a branch. A moment later it disappears. It was the Guianan cock-of-the rock (Rupicola rupicola<\/em>), an elusive species that only inhabits countries in South America\u2019s Amazon Basin.<\/p>\n

Lenses rotate quickly, desperately trying to focus through dense foliage. There is dead silence. The photographers\u2019 nervousness is palpable. \u201cPlease stay where you are. It will come back. Stand very still,\u201d Arredondo begs.<\/p>\n

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Zhuang Qiang, 55, waits for the cock-of-the-rock (image: Andr\u00e9s Berm\u00fadez Li\u00e9vano)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A few minutes later, the cock reappears on the scene and settles on a branch in front of them. A flurry of shutters is unleashed, sounding like an army of typewriters tapping furiously in concert. For more than an hour this typically evasive bird jumps from tree to tree, showing how photogenic it is, posing for the latest model Canon cameras. It is \u201cperching\u201d in bird watchers\u2019 language.<\/p>\n

Half the world for a bird<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of money and time to come here, including an 18-hour flight and many hours on the road. All this effort to get here, but it paid off the instant we saw the bird,\u201d says Liu Yi, a 54-year-old amateur photographer from Jinan, in China\u2019s eastern Shandong province. She is dressed from head to toe in blue military camouflage. Even the telephoto lens of her camera is covered with a brown leaf camouflage pattern.<\/p>\n


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