Shortly after arriving at Quelccaya “Moraine Camp” in July 2003 we discovered what appeared to be a bird nest, high on the near-vertical wall of the glacier margin. During subsequent walks along the margin to acclimatize (5,200 m), we found remains of what appeared to be other nests – all quite similar. Five years later our first paper on the glacier-nesting bird was published, when the co-author was only 14 years old. Our second paper provides greater detail on Diuca nesting and evidence for other bird species also using glaciers. (Hardy et al. (2018) Supplementary Material with images is here.)

The links below provide access to photos of the Glacier Bird (White-winged Diuca Finch, Idiopsar speculifera; formerly Diuca speculifera), and both active and previously-used nests. Some galleries require using Adobe Flash Player.

• Original Glacier Bird website – established in 2008 to coincide with our first paper documenting nesting on glaciers by Diuca speculifera, the White-winged Diuca Finch

• July 2012 – other bird species at Quelccaya, Diuca nests
• April 2014 – discovery of active Diuca nest #1
• April 2014 – discovery of active Diuca nest #2