The reclusive Junin Rail, an endangered bird believed to be found in wetlands in Lake Junin, high in the Andes mountains in Peru, has been photographed by the American Bird Conservancy, a Virginia-based conservation group working with the Peruvian conservation group ECOAN and local residents to preserve its habitat.
“More people have climbed Everest and visited space than have seen this amazing creature,” said Mike Parr, vice president of the American Bird Conservancy, who photographed the bird. “For me, this event was equivalent in ornithological terms to finding the Holy Grail.”
The Junin Rail has bright red eyes and a vivid plumage pattern, and avoids predators by hiding motionless in dense reeds.
The bird is similar to the North American Black Rail, a threatened species found in western Louisiana.
The Peruvian bird was found by Cesar Donato Zevallos Bashualdo, an ECOAN conservationist. It was attracted using a tape of its call, and carefully captured by hand in a small patch of reeds, and photographed before being released unharmed into its marshland habitat.
The male’s call consists of single chirrr notes, while the female call is a low croo-croo-o.
Lake Junin, which is 13,500 feet above sea level and has been classified a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, also is home to the Junin Grebe, a flightless endangered bird.
Both species are believed threatened by human encroachment, including the cutting and burning of the lake reed areas to create cattle grazing areas, polluted runoff from nearby metal mines, and the fluctuation of lake water levels caused by the operation of a hydroelectric dam.
The lake also serves as the winter home for several migratory species that nest in North America, including Pectoral and Baird’s sandpipers, Wilson’s phalaropes, lesser yellowlegs, and American golden-plovers. The lake also provides nesting habitat for Chilean flamingos and provides foraging opportunities for thousands of waterbirds.